Past Michael "Grassy" Knoll - delisted 2020

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Michael Knoll

Player Profile
Michael Knoll stamped a stunning rise from US college basketball to Australian rules football when the Sydney Swans snapped him up at the 2019 mid-season draft. The 205-centimetre, 103-kilogram ruckman played his first game of footy with the Box Hill Hawks in the VFL in 2017, before playing with Vermont’s reserves in the Eastern Football League in 2019. He then made the switch to the Swans from the South Adelaide Panthers in the SANFL. Knoll made solid progress in the NEAFL under the expert eye of Sydney assistant coach Dean Cox in 2019, and he’s on a mission to make his AFL debut in 2020.

Michael Knoll

DOB: 27 February 1993
DRAFT: 2018
RECRUITED FROM: Box Hill Hawks (VFL)/Vermont (Vic)/South Adelaide (SANFL)

www.sydneyswans.com.au

Michael Knoll | AFL

Follow Michael Knoll's progress through AFL
www.sydneyswans.com.au www.sydneyswans.com.au
 
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legend166 said:
Six ruckmen on the list now.

Any chance we could try playing one of them other than Sinclair? Just once?
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Sinclair is far from our biggest issue right now. There's no real upside to playing Cameron who is apparently gone and didn't look too flash on debut, and Amartey isn't ready.

Wouldn't be against giving maybe Amartey or Knoll a crack though and playing Sinclair as 2nd ruck if it means giving Buddy a longer rest.
 

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Tedeski said:
Have a listen to him chat with Whateley.
https://www.sen.com.au/programs/whateley/
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Thanks for the link https://player.whooshkaa.com/player/playlist/show/1921?visual=true&sharing=true&episode=377374
Wow 4 years College Basketball in Iowa - study, weights and training 6 days a week, lots of travelling to play games.
Played basketball non-stop as played basketball on return to Australia in the college breaks.
Listed stamina and running as his strengths - just wants to improve his skill
Love that he acknowledged his first AFL ruck coaches at Box Hill (so would this have Hawthorn influence?) and in SA.
Obviously a little overwhelmed.
Safe travels to Sydney this afternoon.
:):):):)
 
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sataris said:
For those wondering about his ability to ruck

I've compiled a list of attributes required to a swans #1 ruckmen over the past 15 years.

1) Be Tall

Did I miss anything?
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Thats pretty disrespectful to some decent ruckman: Ball, Mummy, Jolly, Pyke. Id kill for one of those back at the minute.
 
SSwans2011 said:
Sinclair is far from our biggest issue right now. There's no real upside to playing Cameron who is apparently gone and didn't look too flash on debut, and Amartey isn't ready.

Wouldn't be against giving maybe Amartey or Knoll a crack though and playing Sinclair as 2nd ruck if it means giving Buddy a longer rest.
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McLean and A(S)martey are too short to ruck beyond pinch hitting.

Sinkers is 200cm on his tippy toes and can't jump at the moment. Cameron seems to have regressed.

Naismith does not exist outside of .bad vinyl Monkees LPs.

Grassy is a walk up start v the Cats.
 
Bloodied52 said:
McLean and A(S)martey are too short to ruck beyond pinch hitting.

Sinkers is 200cm on his tippy toes and can't jump at the moment. Cameron seems to have regressed.

Naismith does not exist outside of .bad vinyl Monkees LPs.

Grassy is a walk up start v the Cats.
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I'd be keen to see what he's got just for a bit of unpredictability. Granted I would understand if they didn't start him this week given the short turnaround and the fact that Sinclair belted Stanley last time around.
 
Nool Carpenna said:
Your allocation of nicknames is generally as annoying as f*** but this is very clever 👏👏👏

Good interview... great bargain for the good guys imo
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He seems both decent and smart.

Apologies on the nickname front. Try to keep it under some semblance of control. Not too successful.
 

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SSwans2011 said:
Sinclair is far from our biggest issue right now. There's no real upside to playing Cameron who is apparently gone and didn't look too flash on debut, and Amartey isn't ready.

Wouldn't be against giving maybe Amartey or Knoll a crack though and playing Sinclair as 2nd ruck if it means giving Buddy a longer rest.
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Sinclair is actually our biggest issue right now IMO.
 
caesar88 said:
Sinclair is actually our biggest issue right now IMO.
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Relative to what we can fix he isn't. It's worth giving Knoll a crack, but I doubt we have anyone on our list that wouldn't be getting spanked by the competition's better rucks.

Sinclair isn't the first, and certainty won't be the last, ruckman to get comprehensively beaten by Grundy. Plus, most other rucks on our list would not have just been smashed in the ruck, but also around the ground. Even more so than Sinclair.
 
SSwans2011 said:
Relative to what we can fix he isn't. It's worth giving Knoll a crack, but I doubt we have anyone on our list that wouldn't be getting spanked by the competition's better rucks.

Sinclair isn't the first, and certainty won't be the last, ruckman to get comprehensively beaten by Grundy.
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Who said anything about Grundy?

I'm talking about the guy who can't even have an advantage over average rucks and is an absolute klutz around the ground. Realise this will be an unpopular opinion given how hard working he is and all
 
SSwans2011 said:
Relative to what we can fix he isn't. It's worth giving Knoll a crack, but I doubt we have anyone on our list that wouldn't be getting spanked by the competition's better rucks.

Sinclair isn't the first, and certainty won't be the last, ruckman to get comprehensively beaten by Grundy. Plus, most other rucks on our list would not have just been smashed in the ruck, but also around the ground. Even more so than Sinclair.
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Really think Sinkers has struggled this year, not just against Grundy and Gawn. I reckon at the start of the year, the plan would have been to play Cameron as well. For whatever reason this has not panned out.

I really hope, once he gets his bearings, Knoll can make a solid contribution.
 
caesar88 said:
Who said anything about Grundy?

I'm talking about the guy who can't even have an advantage over average rucks and is an absolute klutz around the ground. Realise this will be an unpopular opinion given how hard working he is and all
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The point you seem to miss is that most of those rucks are still clearly comfortably better than anyone else we have. :drunk: Hopefully Knoll fixes that. The two ruckmen we've come against this season that we should realistically be expecting to beat (English and Lobbe) Sinclair has belted. The rest have simply been far better rucks than Sinclair or any of the alternatives we have.
Bloodied52 said:
Really think Sinkers has struggled this year, not just against Grundy and Gawn. I reckon at the start of the year, the plan would have been to play Cameron as well. For whatever reason this has not panned out.

I really hope, once he gets his bearings, Knoll can make a solid contribution.
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I agree he's struggled, and hopefully Knoll can help him out. But I'd need a better look at him first before I would categorically state having Knoll in the team would likely improve us.

The point I'm making with respect to Sinclair not being our biggest problem at this point is that you wouldn't expect much improvement if you replaced Jack Hiscox with Jordan Foote. Same goes for replacing Sinclair or giving him assistance with anyone we have. Once again, hopefully Knoll proves to be a good pick-up and fixes that issue.
 
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