The Lesser Lights

[beejay]

id just like to start a general thread about several of our lesser lights rather then one in particular. Just like to congratulate gilbo and raph on magnificent games tonight. Did anyone agree that they all played probably their best games tonight. Gilbo and raph dropping back and taking those marks and raph with his dash and no mistakes especially with him n gwilt always being so error prone in the past. I thought jonesy tried hard tonight too and did a reasonable drop on leon. We need all these guys becoming very consistent as everyoene always rates our weakness as our bottom six.

 

[Persevering Saint]

Totally right Beejay. I was really proud of our "bottom six". Blake shone out for mine. But yeah, loved Gilbo taking all those marks in the backline, and Raph's run was superb - and furthermore, it allowed players like Gram to not become locked in the backline. Mini did his job, and I found the duel between Jonesy and Leon really fascinatin.

Of course Milney and Roo and Dal were great too, but the bottom six had got absolutely panned in the week, and so this was a bit of vindication.

 

[Fehring]

Gilbo was unvelievable. 5 contested pack marks, beautiful judgement, great run out of defence.
Raph was sensational but I think that's dealt with in other threads.

 

[Armitage2Riewoldt]

I remember last year people thought we would drop due to an aging list and no new kids coming through...or something.

I was confident we'd go alright, naming quite a few guys, and being hopeful for numerous guys.

Great to see Gilbo and Raph coming along well. Shame about Dempster, cos that backline was starting to look like a strong point. And with Goose to come back in...

 

[ChrisFooty]

Great to see Gilbo and Raph coming along well. Shame about Dempster, cos that backline was starting to look like a strong point. And with Goose to come back in...

With Goose and all his injury troubles, the future may see him play football as a forward.

 

[beejay]

yeh and the good thing with gilbo is last yr he was really playin as a running half backer which i think he prefers but hes been moulded into a key back this yr and is really startin to play that role just needs to bulk up a lil bit but you certainly see the advantages of a rugby background at times with tackling and evading.

 

[goodie23]

I was absolutely rapt with Gilbo last night, I am a massive fan of the kid. Blake made Goose's job to get back into the team even harder. And while I have been among Raph's knockers he was very good last night, allowing Big Fish to play man-on-man and severely restrict Medhurst.

And who else cheered when King tackled the bejeezus out of Daisy Thomas? He's not the quickest player out there, but when he lays a tackle they certainly feel it.

 

[The Punter]

Who aren't the lesser lights? Let's exclude a few blokes for this exercise.

Gram, Hayes, Hudghton, Montagna, Riewoldt, Schneider, Goddard, Koschitzke, S Fisher, Dal Santo, Harvey & Milne. (That's a more than handy top-12.)

So the rest?

King - dominated the hit-outs, while Fraser won around the ground.
R Clarke - best game for the club by some distance
Gilbert - nearly his best game for the club, and certainly his best performance of the year
Armitage - Geez I love this bloke - earned a free by putting his head over it and his attack on the ball was first rate
Blake - Or should we say "Semi-Final Man". Another top performance
McQualter - solid performance, and a good goal
Gwilt - he's a lovely long kick, but he needs someone in his ear giving him confidence
Allen - sorry he didn't get a real crack
Jones - did a great job on Davis
Eddy - worked hard for little reward, obviously the coaching staff see his real value

 

[Squizz]

Thought Eddy was under-rated. Very low stats, but when Woody went off we were going to be in trouble at CHF. Unbelieveably Eddy ended up being the CHF on a number of occasions which wasn't very good coaching in my opinion. But he stood up, took a few hits, and brought the ball to ground. I feel for the bloke (being played out of position), but I guess it enables him to play AFL football so he'd probably be happy to play anywhere.

The key again was that no-one played a bad game (excluding Woody's injury). Good thread BJ.

 

[beejay]

i was actually disapointed in a way to see jonesy do a hard tag because although that worked reasonably well to keep davis quietISH i kinda missed him playin the more free role he has been doing. I thought that sometimes when the ball was in the vicinity jonesy just had his back to the contest just watching davis and this is fine but there were a couple of instances where he could of really just turned around and attacked it. I dont mind the role mini has been playing but i cant help but prefer birssy for the finals as more experienced and has a bigger body.

Funny how we were raggin raph not too long ago and now hes a cult hero i have to say even i was jumpin on his bandwagon sat even my sis said dont you hate him? only when hes making thousands of mistakes but if he can continue to improve like this and stay composed he will be a great asset. I really think those younger guys have really started to turn our backline around to be much more respectable then it was a few yrs ago.

 

[SaintsSeptember]

i was actually disapointed in a way to see jonesy do a hard tag because although that worked reasonably well to keep davis quietISH i kinda missed him playin the more free role he has been doing. I thought that sometimes when the ball was in the vicinity jonesy just had his back to the contest just watching davis and this is fine but there were a couple of instances where he could of really just turned around and attacked it. I dont mind the role mini has been playing but i cant help but prefer birssy for the finals as more experienced and has a bigger body.

Funny how we were raggin raph not too long ago and now hes a cult hero i have to say even i was jumpin on his bandwagon sat even my sis said dont you hate him? only when hes making thousands of mistakes but if he can continue to improve like this and stay composed he will be a great asset. I really think those younger guys have really started to turn our backline around to be much more respectable then it was a few yrs ago.

I know what you mean about Jones being less exciting to watch during his tagging role. But you are wrong about the tactics. If Jones had gone in, Davis would have grabbed it when it spilt out. That is what he does and that is why he is dangerous. Well done Jonesy!

 

[Armitage2Riewoldt]

About Raph, of course we're gonna jump on him. People may give him shit when he plays bad, but we all support the same team here and of course would rather see him do well. So when he starts putting a few good games together, people are gonna jump on his bandwagon.

Me n my mates laughed at him in the Richmond game, but now we're thinking he could be a decent player. I mean, he was taken at no.6, or was it 8? He must have shows some sort of ability to have been taken that highly.

 

[Zainta]

About Raph, of course we're gonna jump on him. People may give him shit when he plays bad, but we all support the same team here and of course would rather see him do well. So when he starts putting a few good games together, people are gonna jump on his bandwagon.

Me n my mates laughed at him in the Richmond game, but now we're thinking he could be a decent player. I mean, he was taken at no.6, or was it 8? He must have shows some sort of ability to have been taken that highly.

Raph always had ability, that was never the question. Raph just lacked confidence and brains which he showed against the Maggies! Him, Gilbo, Blake, Eddy, Jonesy and all of the other lesser lights played so well, and if they keep it up, we could go all the way!

 

[FootyEater]

i was pretty impressed with mcqualter actually. thought the writing was on the wall for him when he ended up on the rookie list. but gee he tries hard doesnt he?

 

[sammm]

i was pretty impressed with mcqualter actually. thought the writing was on the wall for him when he ended up on the rookie list. but gee he tries hard doesnt he?

pretty impressed with mcqualter this year.. i thoughtthat surely this would be his last year. now i think he should be elevasted to the main list next year!

 

[toys r us]

CLINTON JONES HAS BEEN GREAT THIS SEASON
kudos to his hardness and work ethic