Opinion Lay it on the Line: biases without reproach

[King Corey]

Cyril can tongue my sack.

Bruce McAvaney likes this

 

[see see]

Putrid statement. so stupid your lucky i replied to it. He's a star and the best Small forward in the League. Cyril can tongue my sack.

No need to justify the big calls in this thread. "Biases without reproach!"

Just sayin'

 

[Kimbo]

Started thread, haven't fully laid it on the line yet.

- Love players who put the effort in for themselves, their teammates, their club. They fall into three categories:

i) The 'spud' who gets the very most out of himself. (Shannon Watt >>>>>>> Leigh Brown).
ii) The 'star battler', ala Stevo and Arch. Those with limited ability (a bit harsh on Stevo) but gave their all.
iii) The passionate 'hearts and soul' player: LT who gives his all, cares almost too much, and can't hide his passion. JZ. Sammy.

- LT is the best example of bias at work. He can dive as many times as he likes; I'll still love the bugger. Absolutely proud of the way he turned things around.

- Players who do the 1%ers (smothers, run hard) and a lot of work off the ball, particularly shepherding (love it!).

- I don't value ruckman very much, for the most part, unless they're playing a role around the ground.

- Players whose skill set includes a clever and skilled I50 (Wellsy, Atley, Harper, Boomer, Dal and, apparently Black).

- Love the enigmatic, inconsistent (not too inconsistent) but brilliant players (Blighty, Wellsy, Harper, LT etc.)

- Hate Weagles and Dockers and the atmosphere that has emerged at Subiaco these past few seasons. Passion is one thing; disrespect is another. Mindless bogans who think there is only a choice of two (a bit like Australia's political system).

- Don't hate *, but like RobZombie, disgusted with what they did. Hate Melbourne more for the audacious transparency of their actions (didn't respect Stynes). Dislike people and institutions that fail to accept responsibility, or help others to evade it.

- A preference to 'wait and see' for those players that get ferociously debated. Not blind to limitations, but prefer to patiently hope to see their best emerge consistently (Tarrant, JMac, Jacobs, Wright etc.) If they don't, I haven't wasted needless energy. If they do, the pleasure is sweet.

- I can take or leave the vertical stripes. Royal blue and white, with a stronger emphasis on the royal blue is key for me. Hate white shorts and dislike 'hooped sox'.

- I respect Geelong for their recent on-field success and model for sustaining it, Hawthorn for their ability to keep creating premiership windows and capitalising on them, and Port as a fellow battler that has turned it around.

- Already said in the OP, I respect, trust and believe in Brad Scott. I don't think he's perfect, and do believe he needs to be more tactically astute at times, and more ruthless with team and players (from now on), but on the whole believe he is, along with JB and Eugene, responsible for creating emerging success. I prefer to see his failings as 'abherrations' that are 'easy to fix'.

- Edit: And one of Brad's strengths, I think, is his authenticity and care. He tries to be measured at times, but mostly you can see he's a good bloke and what you see is what you get. Dislike Roos and Lyon for the opposite reason. Emotionally vacate and/or disingenuine. I reckon Roos is a prick masquerading as a good bloke. Think 'Rossy' is a complete dickwad.

- PPS. 14 is my favourite number, worn by distinction by Phil Kelly. Been waiting years and years for another player to do well in it. Go Froggy!!

 

[royals1922]

The number of excuses some NM players can rely upon this year is much smaller this year.

 

[Mav]

Putrid statement. so stupid your lucky i replied to it. He's a star and the best Small forward in the League. Cyril can tongue my sack.

Considering you don't understand "without reproach", the difference between "your" and "you're", or the use of capitals I'm not going to pay any attention to what you think.

 

[verypoorboy]

-Brad Scott won't ever get this team to perform at the level they are capable of and by the time he finally gets sacked the window of opportunity would have passed.
-Taylor Garner will become a much better footballer than McKenzie but won't be playing for North in 3 years.
-Kieran Harper as much as I want him too, sadly won't make it
-Greenwood will request a trade this year.
-Goldstein single-handedly will cost us more than one game this year due to exhaustion and/or lack of competence

 

[Mav]

- Hate Weagles and Dockers and the atmosphere that has emerged at Subiaco these past few seasons. Passion is one thing; disrespect is another. Mindless bogans who think there is only a choice of two (a bit like Australia's political system).

Unreproachable!

 

[NMFC 1811]

We have too many soft players in our best 22. Sydney, Hawthorn & Freo would be lucky to have 3 soft players between them and those teams are the benchmarks. A great team needs players that scrap for every single ball.

 

[NMFC 1811]

Lindsay Thomas will go to another level this year

 

[NMFC 1811]

Aaron Black's kicking for goal has ridiculously deteriorated

 

[Pres]

For what it's worth (nothing)..
- Swallow is right now the only choice for captain
- he is also our best onfield leader.
- you can't be considered 'elite' without consistency of performance. To this end we have only 3 elite players. Boomer, Swallow and Thompson.

The best post in this thread.

 

[Pres]

I am partial to tough, skillful inside midfielders. The closer I watch the good ones, the more I appreciate them. I think Andrew Swallow is so underrated by most people as a player and a leader that it's almost disrespectful, and Cunnington's estimation seems headed in the same direction. Of course, internally, by their coaches and their peers, they are revered.

The widespread bias against this type of player is a mystery to me. Significantly inferior footballers with stylish running gaits and sweet kicking actions often get more praise and admiration. A most extreme and absurd (but typical) example can be found in the NAB Cup review thread where at least one poster was lukewarm on Cunnington's game yet complimentary of Brad McKenzie's.

The second best post in this thread.

 

[Bigeasy]

:Sticks head in takes a look around and slowly walks away

sent from my Commodore 64 using Tapatalk

 

[RobZombie]

:Sticks head in takes a look around and slowly walks away

sent from my Commodore 64 using Tapatalk

It's ok, it's a safe place ...

 

[Missing The 90s]

Not a lot of bias in this thread, but for what it's worth I think North is the best club to support in the AFL due to it's accessibility, location and culture. Look forward to continuing family tradition by bringing up my kids as Roos for life despite what the wife thinks will happen.

Also don't know why any player would not want to play at the club. Good facilities, close to CBD and just seems like a lot of good people around. Not one other Victorian team with the same feel.

 

[verypoorboy]

The best post in this thread.

Err no mine was.

 

[Wells Now Williams Fan]

Considering you don't understand "without reproach", the difference between "your" and "you're", or the use of capitals I'm not going to pay any attention to what you think.

Well that rules me out.....

I thought it was something to do with cooking eggs more than once !!!!

 

[NiceCunnington]

Also, I suppose in my bigfooty posting I have a bias for the unfairly maligned players. Over the years I have made a lot of posts supporting players like Hansen, Wells, Thomas, Rawlings, Cunnington etc. The most pessimistic and critical posters also seem to be the most unreasonable, most obnoxious, and most frequent posters (we all know who they are), so I feel compelled to balance it out. At times I've even defended players I don't particularly rate—Sierakowski, Gibson—because the criticism has been so unfounded and over-the-top. I can see the attributes that get a footballer on an AFL list or into the best 22. No players deserve the kind of idiotic attacks you see on here, and they certainly don't deserve the malicious abuse when it's at its worst.

Since the thread has been taken as a sort of "state your unpopular opinions/predictions" thread, I'll leave some of mine:

- Atley could be one of the better defenders in the league, but he's unlikely to make it as a midfielder. It's a mistake to move him there, and if it continues into the regular season I think it will hurt his development and could even be disastrous. In his training and in the practice matches, he should be switched with Luke McDonald, who I believe is a ready-made midfielder.

- Andrew Swallow, invariably described as a slow midfieler, has (had?) excellent acceleration for an inside mid and above average general speed.

- Cunnington has excellent agility. And while he is always described as an amazing dual-sided handballer, he wouldn't have done more than 5 right-handed handballs in his entire AFL career. He goes out of his way to handball on the left and his footwork usually allows him to. His handballing is overrated (still excellent), and his kicking is underrated.

- Scott Thompson was never a bad footballer who had some miraculous transformation. His first year was an adjustment year in the VFL, but as soon as he debuted he was pretty much an instant gun. In his second season on the list (games 7-29) he finished 2nd in the Syd Barker and was ranked the best tall defender in the league by Champion Data. It's mildly annoying when opposition supporters get it wrong, but infuriating when our own supporters spout this myth.

- Not completely confident on this one because I haven't seen enough, but I'll go with it anyway: Taylor Garner has some of the worst footskills on our list.

 

[Daz]

Also, I suppose in my bigfooty posting I have a bias for the unfairly maligned players. Over the years I have made a lot of posts supporting players like Hansen, Wells, Thomas, Rawlings, Cunnington etc. The most pessimistic and critical posters also seem to be the most unreasonable, most obnoxious, and most frequent posters (we all know who they are), so I feel compelled to balance it out. At times I've even defended players I don't particularly rate—Sierakowski, Gibson—because the criticism has been so unfounded and over-the-top. I can see the attributes that get a footballer on an AFL list or into the best 22. No players deserve the kind of idiotic attacks you see on here, and they certainly don't deserve the malicious abuse when it's at its worst.

Since the thread has been taken as a sort of "state your unpopular opinions/predictions" thread, I'll leave some of mine:

- Atley could be one of the better defenders in the league, but he's unlikely to make it as a midfielder. It's a mistake to move him there, and if it continues into the regular season I think it will hurt his development and could even be disastrous. In his training and in the practice matches, he should be switched with Luke McDonald, who I believe is a ready-made midfielder.

- Andrew Swallow, invariably described as a slow midfieler, has (had?) excellent acceleration for an inside mid and above average general speed.

- Cunnington has excellent agility. And while he is always described as an amazing dual-sided handballer, he wouldn't have done more than 5 right-handed handballs in his entire AFL career. He goes out of his way to handball on the left and his footwork usually allows him to. His handballing is overrated (still excellent), and his kicking is underrated.

- Scott Thompson was never a bad footballer who had some miraculous transformation. His first year was an adjustment year in the VFL, but as soon as he debuted he was pretty much an instant gun. In his second season on the list (games 7-29) he finished 2nd in the Syd Barker and was ranked the best tall defender in the league by Champion Data. It's mildly annoying when opposition supporters get it wrong, but infuriating when our own supporters spout this myth.

- Not completely confident on this one because I haven't seen enough, but I'll go with it anyway: Taylor Garner has some of the worst footskills on our list.

Hah, this is so true. Actually produces some bizarre left handed handballs to get the ball to go to the left (if that makes sense).

Agree on Garner, Atley and McDonald. Actually I agree with all of it although I'm partial to a bit of Sam Gibson negativity.

 

[TennisPlayerAndy]

Our midfield has greater balance without Swallow.

 

[Reginald0]

swallow is not elite skillwise but he is elite for guts
I think petrie is a disappointment and does not perform in big games
similarly Harvey gets stopped when it matters most and wells record cld be better
However I acknowledge that all of these flaws are possibly due to the fact that we haven't had a full strength team for over 10 years

look forward to the day that the whole team switches on from the first bounce and start playing like It Really Matters
wot are they waiting for?!!

 

[Twinkletoes]

Also, I suppose in my bigfooty posting I have a bias for the unfairly maligned players. Over the years I have made a lot of posts supporting players like Hansen, Wells, Thomas, Rawlings, Cunnington etc. The most pessimistic and critical posters also seem to be the most unreasonable, most obnoxious, and most frequent posters (we all know who they are), so I feel compelled to balance it out. At times I've even defended players I don't particularly rate—Sierakowski, Gibson—because the criticism has been so unfounded and over-the-top. I can see the attributes that get a footballer on an AFL list or into the best 22. No players deserve the kind of idiotic attacks you see on here, and they certainly don't deserve the malicious abuse when it's at its worst.

Bravo mate. I feel like I've seen a quack, stared blankly into his eyes and said "Ok Doc, if you're so smart how about you tell me why I sometimes post as I do?" and his answer was your first paragraph above verbatim.

 

[Higgins2Waite]

Swallow is not human. Nobody that size can get absolutely whacked week in and week out yet still play week after week. Sometimes I see him get crunched and I just shake my head. I am in awe of his durability!

 

[Saintly31]

Swallow is not human. Nobody that size can get absolutely whacked week in and week out yet still play week after week. Sometimes I see him get crunched and I just shake my head. I am in awe of his durability!

Agree. Think we missed him in a few games towards end of year, takes the hits and better sharing of the load with the other inside mids - plus of course more quality in midfield the better.

I just hope he can make a full recovery, achilles can be troublesome.

 

[tazaa]

Our midfield has greater balance without Swallow.

When he went down last year I thought wed struggle but surprisingly it balanced it out and we did play some of our best footy in his absence. Something to do with the u10s mentality of having too many ball hunters and not enough defensive attributes in our midfield.
Against teams like Sydney, Carlton, Freo though WE need him.