Review Paul Bower

[audas]

Was surprised to hear that zesty gust of insignificant flour spray unsettled the wide-eyed, ever steady, balls of mercury, rainbow fearing, quiver. Was wrong -evidently - steady, poised, tough, unflinching, skilled, is our Bower.......

 

[Shambolic]

Look he's a real weak link at the moment but Im not too upset - you cant have those play 5 minutes lose a month (3 times) periods and get into gear. He is struggling for timing and confidence.

 

[Sin City]

These knee jerk calls saying he needs to bulk up or be a rebounding flanker are way off the mark. He is not being beaten one on one, he's being burnt off by leading forwards because the quad injuries have robbed him of all his speed. He doesn't lack strength at all, he's got the best bench press at the club and has has great games on big forwards before this year on Franklin, Riewoldt and Cloke among others.

He's a poor choice for a rebounding defender because despite having a very accurate short pass he's not a good long kick. He was our best defender last year, did some brilliant jobs at CHB and people were saying things at the start of the year like he was our most important player. The quad injuries have taken away his leg speed at present and he has zero confidence but if he can get his body right he's still going to be a great CHB for us.

I remember everyone knocking Grigg for his late season form last year until they found out that the ankle that cost him a few games mid season required surgery at the and of the year and he had been playing through it. Same thing happened this year with Houlihan and his knee. I think the same thing will happen with Bower at the end of the year and he will be back in form next year.

 

[gbatman]

is not fit enough, looks to be slow and struggling and is not big enough or strong enough.

 

[Shambolic]

Go get em Sin City, I agree generally and think we should keep up with him as he's the future (imagine the pre-season he'll want to have after 2010!) but he has been beaten in 1 on 1's against key forwards just holding him out. Some of his efforts against Cloke were pretty meagre.

 

[Sin City]

He isnt 100% fit and hasnt been the whole year. He has to play out of necessity. If we werent in the 8, he would have been out for the last 4-5 weeks.

That's pretty much what I was thinking. Instead of him not being up to it, it's a ****ing massive effort to be out there and deserves a bit of credit for it.

 

[blues4flag]

These knee jerk calls saying he needs to bulk up or be a rebounding flanker are way off the mark. He is not being beaten one on one, he's being burnt off by leading forwards because the quad injuries have robbed him of all his speed. He doesn't lack strength at all, he's got the best bench press at the club and has has great games on big forwards before this year on Franklin, Riewoldt and Cloke among others.

While he has done well on the more athletic CHFs, he's also been found out on the stronger forwards - Bradshaw in particular.

 

[BlueTouchPaper]

Between he, Austin, White and Jamison, we've had a pretty terrible injury run for KPDs. Jamison, if you recall, injured his shoulder, however minorly, in R1 against the tigers early in the first quarter.

IMO, we leak like a sieve in the backline - half of that is of the backline's account (including players played out of position in Joseph and Gibbs in those educational roles), the other half is pressure from the forward line and midfield.

With that in mind, a decent preseason for all four, probably following some follow-up surgery for both Jamo and Bower (considering White has had both hips done and IIRC Austin had something looked at) real competition for KPD spots could emerge next year - and we'll start to see a more cohesive unit as a result.

 

[Molly1]

Molly1, you usually know what's going on. Do you know if there is anything in particular up with Bower?

He's the coaches pet! Ratts loves him.

 

[Blues_FC]

Have NEVER rated Bower, but I think that with another decent preseason in him, he can develop further. His suspect kicking (that some people on this board will never acknowledge) has lately been overshadowed by his lack of on field awareness. I like that he gets the ball and tries to take on the opposition, but he just doesn't seem to make great decisions. He's run straight into pretty obvious tackles and given the ball up on many occasions. He's also been comprehensively out-played and out-muscled by the forwards he has been playing on.

That being said, he has been injury prone, and I hope he'll look a lot better next year. Will be interesting to see if he features in our finals campaign this year though.

 

[BlueTongue]

These knee jerk calls saying he needs to bulk up or be a rebounding flanker are way off the mark. He is not being beaten one on one, he's being burnt off by leading forwards because the quad injuries have robbed him of all his speed. He doesn't lack strength at all, he's got the best bench press at the club and has has great games on big forwards before this year on Franklin, Riewoldt and Cloke among others.

He's a poor choice for a rebounding defender because despite having a very accurate short pass he's not a good long kick. He was our best defender last year, did some brilliant jobs at CHB and people were saying things at the start of the year like he was our most important player. The quad injuries have taken away his leg speed at present and he has zero confidence but if he can get his body right he's still going to be a great CHB for us.

I remember everyone knocking Grigg for his late season form last year until they found out that the ankle that cost him a few games mid season required surgery at the and of the year and he had been playing through it. Same thing happened this year with Houlihan and his knee. I think the same thing will happen with Bower at the end of the year and he will be back in form next year.

Seriously Sin, you are way off the Mark on this one. Bower is getting Killed by the big power forwards (all 3 for the Geelong Game + Pavlich). He is a good close checking 3rd defender, but he is not CHB material and is regularly getting tossed around like a rag-doll by the bigger boys.