Autopsy Sydney Vs Essendon Round 2. 2020

[bungee]

I am sorry but you can't use this argument as this was the same coaching group that looked at Mitchell and said "well, he isn't that good, certainly we have better midfielders than him" and then lowballed his contract before giving him away for pick 14. If they got it so wrong with Mitchell why is it hard to believe they have not gotten it wrong with Mills?

There's a bit of an urban myth about Mitchell not getting games at Sydney. In fact he played a couple of full years, including 26 games in his final year, before he left for big $$$$, a lot more than we could have paid. At 19/20 yrs old he simply wasn't in our top midfielders.

Pick 14 could have been better but Ling's injuries have been legend. Let's hope he breaks his duck this year.

 

[brad cooper]

There's a bit of an urban myth about Mitchell not getting games at Sydney. In fact he played a couple of full years, including 26 games in his final year, before he left for big $$$$, a lot more than we could have paid. At 19/20 yrs old he simply wasn't in our top midfielders.

Pick 14 could have been better but Ling's injuries have been legend. Let's hope he breaks his duck this year.

Actually Ling came the following year, the pick 14 we got for Mitchell, after further trading, ended up getting us Florent.

Would be great to see Ling play some footy, feel sorry for any player who never gets a crack at it due to injury.

 

[bungee]

Mills a poor mans N Smith atm

He isn’t really a running defender either

For a start Smith was arguably the best small defender in the comp. Mills and Smith are different sizes and not directly comparable. Mills can take on taller opponents and takes a lot of marks in defence.

Mills is still younger than Smith, Richards, Rampe & Grundy were when they first cemented a spot in defence but Mills has been a solid defender since he was 18 yrs old. Those other defenders all went on to play their best footy in their late 20s (even early 30s).

Mills played 22 games from his 18yr old debut in 2016 (at an average of 19 disposals/game), winning the Rising Star and overcoming a minor hammy to play a solid role in the GF.

Fast forward to this year and Mills was one of the best in the All-Stars team against some quality Vic forwards. He was still at only 22 yrs old. His game at the weekend included 8 marks and 17 disposals in a defence that was completely our of sorts.

We are far from the best of Mills.

 

[bungee]

Actually Ling came the following year, the pick 14 we got for Mitchell, after further trading, ended up getting us Florent.

Would be great to see Ling play some footy, feel sorry for any player who never gets a crack at it due to injury.

You're right. My bad. Florent may yet turn out to be a bloody good midfielder and I really hope Ling gets his time to shine. I suppose the bottom line with the Mitchell deal was as Mase said. We didn't really have a choice. s**t happens sometimes.

The Hawks were forced to stump up a huge slice of salary cap for Tom Mitchell but as yet he's made little difference to them (except winning a Charlie for himself - typical, there's no i in team but there is in Mitchell).

By contrast to Mitchell's big $$$$ grab, the Hawks could have hung onto Kennedy for peanuts but genuinely didn't think he was worth it.

 

[bungee]

Yes, pretty much that. I was thinking possibly Kennedy but a high portion of his development happened under Paul Roos.

ently rePapley possibly. I think he would be top 10% as a small forward.

So perhaps Papley and Rampe? It isn't a big list for 10 years of coaching.

In saying that I could be forgetting someone.

Most of our list are still too young to be top 10% of the comp. Of current players, Kennedy(AA2016) hit his straps under Horse as did Parker, Rampe(AA2016) and Papley. Others like Hanners (AA 2013,2015,2016), Macca (AA2013), Malceski (AA2014), Smith (AA2014), Grundy (defender under Horse), Jack (AA2013) Richards (AA 2012) became top 10% players or reached AA under Horse but have since retired. Mills has a rising star under Horse and was one of the best for the ALL-Stars in Feb 2020 at just 22.

Horse has had many more players awarded AA than Roos did but the rebuild is reflected in no AAs last year. The turnover of our list has been huge but don't expect too much from kids.

 

[Kummerspeck]

I am sorry but you can't use this argument as this was the same coaching group that looked at Mitchell and said "well, he isn't that good, certainly we have better midfielders than him" and then lowballed his contract before giving him away for pick 14.

Please provide any evidence in early 2016, when Mitchell had a contract in front of him (his second renewal, after his first which he got when sitting in rehab) of you saying you would have traded out Parker, Kennedy, or Hannebery for him.

 

[mikey_san]

There's a bit of an urban myth about Mitchell not getting games at Sydney. In fact he played a couple of full years, including 26 games in his final year, before he left for big $$$$, a lot more than we could have paid. At 19/20 yrs old he simply wasn't in our top midfielders.

Pick 14 could have been better but Ling's injuries have been legend. Let's hope he breaks his duck this year.

Troll Level 5000

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

The obituaries are being written for this team's short-term and long-term prospects because they lost by one goal to one of last year's finalists.

To me that's a major melt.

Well you need to harden up. No-one's "melting". There's nothing wrong with a bit of healthy self-criticism on here. No-one's being Chicken Little. We zll know premierships aren't gifted to anyone. We all know that all 18 clubs and the players and personnel are working flat out to try and find that exasperatingly elusive competitive edge, and the mighty Swans are no different. Just that a lot of people are asking if the (extremely modest) changes we've seen are going to be anywhere near enough to put us in contention any time soon.

 

[Skystyler]

Late to the autopsy again. Apologies if I am going over stuff that has been debated to death.

To my eye, our team this year is bottom 8. Maybe even bottom 4. Very young, with big holes all over the park.
In defense, we have some huge liabilities. A love the look of Brand - I think we really needed a tall, honest defender. But our small defenders are woeful.
If I'm an opposition coach game planning for this team, I tell my forwards whoever has got COR, go to the goal square. He is easily beaten in the air one on one. I dunno if he's got what it takes to make it at AFL level. He has some attributes, but he is too tentative. Not desperate enough.

Up forward, we are doing it tough obviously with our two best talls out. Sinclair tried hard and had a good game. Blakey kicked a great goal but missed a couple of chances he should have buried. Didn't get much out of McCartin and Heeney had a shocker. Lewie Taylor and Papley kept us in it. I dont think there is much that can be done about it. We are going to struggle against well organised backlines.

In the middle, depth is still a huge problem. Parker and Kennedy have to carry the load every game and its too much. Florent is coming along nicely but will never be more than a good outside mid. I look at Geelong's midfield and despair.

Still, great to have the footy back. We can use this year to get better, evaluate the entire list and gear up for 2021 with a fully fit and firing Franklin (touch wood).

 

[bungee]

Late to the autopsy again. Apologies if I am going over stuff that has been debated to death.

To my eye, our team this year is bottom 8. Maybe even bottom 4. Very young, with big holes all over the park.
In defense, we have some huge liabilities. A love the look of Brand - I think we really needed a tall, honest defender. But our small defenders are woeful.
If I'm an opposition coach game planning for this team, I tell my forwards whoever has got COR, go to the goal square. He is easily beaten in the air one on one. I dunno if he's got what it takes to make it at AFL level. He has some attributes, but he is too tentative. Not desperate enough.

Up forward, we are doing it tough obviously with our two best talls out. Sinclair tried hard and had a good game. Blakey kicked a great goal but missed a couple of chances he should have buried. Didn't get much out of McCartin and Heeney had a shocker. Lewie Taylor and Papley kept us in it. I dont think there is much that can be done about it. We are going to struggle against well organised backlines.

In the middle, depth is still a huge problem. Parker and Kennedy have to carry the load every game and its too much. Florent is coming along nicely but will never be more than a good outside mid. I look at Geelong's midfield and despair.

Still, great to have the footy back. We can use this year to get better, evaluate the entire list and gear up for 2021 with a fully fit and firing Franklin (touch wood).

We're neither as bad nor as good as many people think we are. We're just inconsistent.

Regarding our midfield, ideally we'd have kept at least one of Mitchell & Hanners to work with with Parker, Kennedy & Hewett while we brought new talent through. We were a bit unlucky to lose both but the silver lining is more opportunities for new guys to get game time in the mids. Some have shown some real talent at a very young age.

Ditto our forwards. The loss of Tippet perhaps Buddy & maybe even Reid before our new young forwards are up to speed just throws them into the deep end sooner. They're having to learn quickly. It's easy to forget just how young our forwards are.

Defence too. In just 6 years we've lost Mal, Reg, Ted, Shaw, Mattner, Laidler, Smith & Macca. A star studded list of defenders. Three of those champions just walked in the same year. Our rebuild has been massive and is heavily reliant on Rampe but we have a new group developing who can be very exciting on their day.

The young players will take time to become consistent, to gel as units and as a team, but we have a big stock of potential and they're mostly young and inexperienced. Add 30-50 games across our list and we'll have the consistency, maturity and depth we lack at present.

At the weekend the average age of our team was just 24 with most of them in the 19-25 age group. That's a young team.

 

[scaryness]

Ridley for them is a gun

 

[Millky95]

We're neither as bad nor as good as many people think we are. We're just inconsistent.

Regarding our midfield, ideally we'd have kept at least one of Mitchell & Hanners to work with with Parker, Kennedy & Hewett while we brought new talent through. We were a bit unlucky to lose both but the silver lining is more opportunities for new guys to get game time in the mids. Some have shown some real talent at a very young age.

Ditto our forwards. The loss of Tippet perhaps Buddy & maybe even Reid before our new young forwards are up to speed just throws them into the deep end sooner. They're having to learn quickly. It's easy to forget just how young our forwards are.

Defence too. In just 6 years we've lost Mal, Reg, Ted, Shaw, Mattner, Laidler, Smith & Macca. A star studded list of defenders. Three of those champions just walked in the same year. Our rebuild has been massive and is heavily reliant on Rampe but we have a new group developing who can be very exciting on their day.

The young players will take time to become consistent, to gel as units and as a team, but we have a big stock of potential and they're mostly young and inexperienced. Add 30-50 games across our list and we'll have the consistency, maturity and depth we lack at present.

At the weekend the average age of our team was just 24 with most of them in the 19-25 age group. That's a young team.

They are't Rowell or Judd so they suck

/s

 

[scaryness]

Mills hard done by in this autopsy. Had a rough 1st quarter but was very solid for the rest of the game and didn't let much get past him.

 

[The King!]

Mills hard done by in this autopsy. Had a rough 1st quarter but was very solid for the rest of the game and didn't let much get past him.

people are waiting for Mills to be Chris Judd, he is held to a standard he wont get near imo

 

[bungee]

people are waiting for Mills to be Chris Judd, he is held to a standard he wont get near imo

Being a first round pick or a rising star heaps on the expectations. Being both is the worst.

 

[Punts]

people are waiting for Mills to be Chris Judd, he is held to a standard he wont get near imo

Wait to he is released in the middle

His poor awareness and kicking will just become elite

To be honest he is good seeing the play in front of and being a loose defender

Some say he is like McVeigh, imo that is absolute bull and McVeigh was a gun in the middle, hf and hbf ( all Australia)

About as good as McDonald from north is imo who I rate him as

 

[Punts]

Only my opinion though

 

[Membling]

Wait to he is released in the middle

His poor awareness and kicking will just become elite

To be honest he is good seeing the play in front of and being a loose defender

Some say he is like McVeigh, imo that is absolute bull and McVeigh was a gun in the middle, hf and hbf ( all Australia)

About as good as McDonald from north is imo who I rate him as

Would like him to get a season minimum in the mids.
His development has been stunted

 

[The King!]

mcveighs first 70-80 games (where mills is now) were pretty ordinary to be fair if we are comparing them, he took a massive leap in year 5 IIRC

 

[bungee]

mcveighs first 70-80 games (where mills is now) were pretty ordinary to be fair if we are comparing them, he took a massive leap in year 5 IIRC

Good point. I tend to agree.

Mills has had to learn to deal with greater attention, some injuries and higher expectations. He was a first round pick and a rising star. That's a tough act to follow up. Still, he's shown he can play very well indeed and could be huge if he can consistently produce his best. He's still just a young guy.