Saddington

[Dudley]

Great to see him having an involvement yesterday. Because of his Injury and time at CHB i had forgotten what a good long kick he was. His pass to Goodes on the wing which lead to a goal was terrific.

He really is a super skilled player, one of our best (skills wise) great to see him playing in a more suitable role, getting some match fitness and confidence. It was always going to take him a while to get back after the knee reco

Very handy player When fit and healthy

 

[liz]

Made similar comments to my friends during the game.

Last match he found the ball well - including some nice pick-ups off the ground - but his disposal was very shabby, just aimless kicking. He seemed to have a lot more purpose in his disposal yesterday.

 

[Jeffers]

Talk about silky skills, how about Nicky Malceski? He's going to be a star! I was right behind his long beautiful spearing pass to O'Keefe for his goal. O'Keefe was running on the angle and Malceski speared the ball and swung in beautifully to his hands.

Malceski's boot reminds me alot of Maxfield's when on song.

 

[liz]

That was the kick of the game I reckon - at least off a Sydney boot. Perfect placement that gave O'Keefe's opponent no chance to get to the contest.

Another pretty solid performance from Dempster as well - he made a couple of mistakes but the way they were playing through him on many of the kick-outs shows their faith in his ability to find a way through the zone. That second kick after a behind is often the most difficult to find an option, particularly with the Pies manning up so well.

 

[CharlieG]

That's what warms my heart when it comes to this year's crop of debutants. Not only do they all know how to get involved in the game, they can all kick the thing! None of this waiting five years for them to learn how to pass 35m rubbish. I'd trust all of Malceski, Vogels and Dempster with a 50m after the siren kick... probably Moore as well.

As for Saddington - meh. Still a bottom-of-the-22 at this stage... he only spent 54 minutes on the ground, so 8 disposals isn't too bad... but I didn't see anything that stood out for particular praise.

 

[Dudley]

As for Saddington - meh. Still a bottom-of-the-22 at this stage... he only spent 54 minutes on the ground, so 8 disposals isn't too bad... but I didn't see anything that stood out for particular praise.

I am glad you dont select the team then ! All a matter of opinion i guess but he is highly skilled, at good marking target and one of our better kicks.

I would be very suprised if Roos considers him Bottom of the 22 when fit and confident in his knee. Progressing back to his best nicely IMHO

 

[CharlieG]

I am glad you dont select the team then ! All a matter of opinion i guess but he is highly skilled, at good marking target and one of our better kicks.

I would be very suprised if Roos considers him Bottom of the 22 when fit and confident in his knee. Progressing back to his best nicely IMHO

Think about it. Realistically, all of the following would be clearly ahead of Saddo in the pecking order:
Hall
Davis
Mathews
O'Keefe
Bolton
Williams
Jolly
Kennelly
O'Loughlin
Ablett
Barry
Bolton
Ball
Crouch
Kirk
Goodes

That puts Saddington 17th, at best. McVeigh, Buchanan and even Roberts-Thomson are probably being selected ahead of Saddo at the moment. Don't get me wrong - I'm quite pleased that he is playing and expect him to get better as he rebuilds his confidence. I also expect him to be playing for the Swans next year. I just didn't see anything last night that was particularly impressive.

 

[Dudley]

It is impossible to compare players who play completely different team roles

But, if forced to i would put Saddington (when fit and fully recovered mentally) on the same level (in your list) as Mathews, Crouch & O'Keefe and slightly ahead of Ablett.

But as i said a pecking order is a silly comparison as i dont think he is likely to play the same role as any of those players with the possible exception of O'Keefe.

And even more silly, Ball, Jolly, Hall or any in and under midfielder

I am just saying he is not a fringe 22 player, which i think you were initially suggesting ?

 

[CharlieG]

It is impossible to compare players who play completely different team roles

But, if forced to i would put Saddington (when fit and fully recovered mentally) on the same level (in your list) as Mathews, Crouch & O'Keefe and slightly ahead of Ablett.

But as i said a pecking order is a silly comparison as i dont think he is likely to play the same role as any of those players with the possible exception of O'Keefe.

And even more silly, Ball, Jolly, Hall or any in and under midfielder

I am just saying he is not a fringe 22 player, which i think you were initially suggesting ?

No, it isn't. Any player who is clearly of more value to the team, in their position, than Saddington will be in his position will be selected before him up to a point.

We will always take at least four specialist forwards/defenders, so there's Hall, Davis, O'Keefe, Bolton, Kennelly, O'Loughlin, Barry and probably Roberts-Thomson (you'd think Schauble, but who knows what the story is there). Then they'll take the ruck division - Jolly, Goodes and Ball - before Saddington as well. You then need at least half a dozen specialist midfielders - Williams, Bolton, Mathews, Crouch, Kirk and Ablett. Suddenly, Saddington is being fit in somewhere.

Just who, out of the players mentioned, do you imagine might be left out of the team for Saddington? He most certainly is a fringe player at the moment, and that's why he was dropped a couple of weeks ago.

 

[TheBloods]

I can't see any way you could describe Saddington has "highly skilled". Decent but that's about it. Made some nice short 25m passes, but you'd expect that - nothing to get overly excited about. Made a very nice long kick to Goodes. Otherwise, just okay, nothing special and still kicks too many helicopters.

 

[Dudley]

Just who, out of the players mentioned, do you imagine might be left out of the team for Saddington? He most certainly is a fringe player at the moment, and that's why he was dropped a couple of weeks ago.

None, you only mentioned 17 players ! just refer to my previous post if you want to know where i think he sits in team 'pecking order'

Thanks for the advice on how a team is constructed though ! very helpful i just thought they picked 22 players in a haphazard fashion.

 

[grayham]

Where is saddington going to play ? Loose man in defense is about the only spot left at the moment.

I agree about fringe 22 player.

 

[CharlieG]

None, you only mentioned 17 players ! just refer to my previous post if you want to know where i think he sits in team 'pecking order'

Thanks for the advice on how a team is constructed though ! very helpful i just thought they picked 22 players in a haphazard fashion.

Dude, there's no need for you to be curt.

I mentioned 17 players. The other four (along with Saddington) that would be in the 22 are Schauble (maybe that's just me and not Roosy though), McVeigh, Buchanan and any one of Dempster, Malceski, Schneider or Bevan. The thing is, Saddington is not clearly ahead of those players - there's about eight or nine players competing for five spots in the side, and he's one of them. That is, surely, the very definition of 'fringe'.

 

[Sid]

Crouch has been pretty quiet recently and it was good to see him sprint out of the defence line and get some inside 50s.

 

[liz]

Crouch has been pretty quiet recently and it was good to see him sprint out of the defence line and get some inside 50s.

That's because he's been playing in defence for the last couple of weeks. Last match he was on Farmer for the whole game (and did a pretty reasonable job, given that Farmer was in good form coming into the game and looked one of the most switched on and potentially dangerous Dockers throughout the game).

 

[Sid]

Yeah hes given a run with role all the time on some good quality small forwards like farmer and milne. I definitely enjoy it more when he gets the opportunity to run. Hes lightning fast.

 

[liz]

Yeah hes given a run with role all the time on some good quality small forwards like farmer and milne. I definitely enjoy it more when he gets the opportunity to run. Hes lightning fast.

We don't really have anyone else good enough to play on them. Fixter maybe could if he ever got himself fit. Farmer and Milne are two of the best and deserve respect from their opponents. Hopefully someone like Krakouer, this week, can be stood by a different player. He's dangerous but not (yet) anywhere close to the level of Farmer or Milne.

 

[Dudley]

Dude, there's no need for you to be curt.

Sorry, didnt mean to be curt.

I think where he stands in this imaginary 'pecking order' is just your or my opinion. Roos consistently picks him in 'his' best 22 when fit, i guess that is who counts at the end of the day.

My opinion, he is clearly in our best 22, well ahead in skill, experience and general ability than any of the 'fringe' players you mentioned. Runs on the board count for a lot at the top level and while i am am equally excited about some of the younger brigade, Saddington has those runs on the board.

 

[CharlieG]

Sorry, didnt mean to be curt.

All good.

I think where he stands in this imaginary 'pecking order' is just your or my opinion. Roos consistently picks him in 'his' best 22 when fit, i guess that is who counts at the end of the day.

Probably is. I don't know that you could he's 'consistently' picked - he's been dropped once already this year, and the season only really started for him in, what, round eight?

My opinion, he is clearly in our best 22, well ahead in skill, experience and general ability than any of the 'fringe' players you mentioned. Runs on the board count for a lot at the top level and while i am am equally excited about some of the younger brigade, Saddington has those runs on the board.

My opinion is that he can get back to being clearly in our best 22... runs on the board do count, but unfortunately most of Saddo's runs are a nasty quad tear and an even nastier knee reco ago.

 

[SimonH]

Before Saturday night I would have said that he'd struggle to be in our first 30.

I concede I was watching on TV from interstate rather than at the ground, but he seemed like a different bloke from the guy who was always on the verge of doing something stupid a fortnight ago. He usually led to the right spot, he gathered cleanly, he didn't panic, he looked up, his kicks went roughly where he intended them, and the Saddington to Goodes to Davis goal was a perfect example of how you can manufacture goals from the half back line in 10 seconds flat if you kick accurately to players running in space.

If this trend continues, I'm going to start bagging our players more in the hope that they all respond in this way!

And Saddo has been 'dropped' at the selection table at least twice this year-- a late withdrawal through injury (I think J Bolton) gave him a last minute reprieve once.

It's more likely than not that Saddo will be with us next year (barring an increasingly improbable trade), but I still reckon that with some useful mobile tall rookies coming to the squad, he's playing for his career over the next 10 weeks or so.