Thornton

[wdgann]

See my previous posts. Punchline is we would be better off fielding 21 players than Thornton running on to the ground

 

[RiCHii]

If Henderson cannot play in round 1 then yes to seeing him in the foward line other than that then no he has simply become a depth player for us nothing more.

 

[Claypigeon]

If Henderson cannot play in round 1 then yes to seeing him in the foward line other than that then no he has simply become a depth player for us nothing more.

This. .. however if Hammer is sore then we are vulnerable in the ruck department, so Thornton is an ideal sub, additionally:

If a mid goes down, Waite can move into the midfield and Thornton has shown he can hold down FF. ..

If a defender goes down, Hendo and Waite can always shift back or of course T-Bird can. ..

and if a forward goes down, he is an obvious replacement. ..

 

[C4[2]Yo`DooR]

If the reports of Bower being inured are true -

Then we have no choice other than to make Brett play down back. We can fill his role up forward easily with a leading type (such as Collins).

Thornton, White, Watson, Austin ..... thats the tall crop we have to choose from .... :S

 

[Matt72]

Proved again last night that he has no place inside defensive 50 in the seniors.
His efforts lay somewhere between lazy and idiotic and there is absolutely no upside in him. I am happy for the mc to try him out inside forward 50 to see what he can do against decent defence ie not the Suns, but please keep him away from our oppositions scoring zone.

 

[ESKIE]

Harsh...

 

[Stamos]

But fair

 

[Claypigeon]

He is not a KPD, this is pretty clear. .. Our back line was over stretched last night though. ..

Consider that we went into the game without Laidler and White, so Thornton had to replace a KPD and a third tall. .. There was at least a half a dozen occasions where he was guarding McVoy only for Kosi to float forward unopposed. .. At one stage Murphy had to go up with Kosi because Thornton was backing back off McVoy and still almost pushed back hard enough. ..

Consider again that Milne started sparking up and Rusty had to mind him stealing a valuable options for cutting across the packs. .. Duigan did a great job rotating on to Milne and other medium players as well as cutting across. ..

Further to this our forward line didn't hold the ball in enough early and kicked 11.18. ..

Yes it is harsh and no its not fair to vent all our anger at players like T-Bird and Joey. ..

 

[Windhover]

Proved again last night that he has no place inside defensive 50 in the seniors.
His efforts lay somewhere between lazy and idiotic and there is absolutely no upside in him. I am happy for the mc to try him out inside forward 50 to see what he can do against decent defence ie not the Suns, but please keep him away from our oppositions scoring zone.

I have been, it is fair to say, a harsh critic of Thornton for some time. I accept that he has no place in a full strength line up and that there is no "upside" in him. That said I think you must have missed what I saw in his defensive game last night. I saw him effect, not one, but three spoils on the marking player (which is the primary requirement of a tall defender) - twice decisively knocking the ball out of bounds. Having previously watched him play whole games without making one spoil this seemed to me to be a most welcome improvement in his game. When we are missing White, Laidler and Bower I am happy to have a spoiling Thornton in the backline whilst we await the return of Henderson and the development of Watson (who is, wisely enough, being introduced slowly to the adult game).

 

[Krooooze]

I must admit, I don't normally like to denigrate players of my team, but this is the one case where I reckon I can

Thornton simply is not good enough, he's too slow at reading the play, gets turned inside out too easily, and most concerning of all, he got absolutely pantsed by Kosi, Kosi for god's sake!

His attitude really pisses me off, as it has for a long time, the way he had a go at O'Hailpin at 3/4 qtr time (most likely at his snap shot at goal) was pathetic, yes Setanta should have gone back and slotted it but what gives T-Bird the right to mouth off to him

Setanta busted his guts for most of the night, whereas T-Bird was led a merry dance by Kosi and at times McEvoy

Ratts must really see something in Bret because he's shown some amazing faith in him

There's no doubt he's a weak link in our team, and it's time to move him on and give Watson some experience (if the likes of Bower and White are still injured)

 

[bobsyouruncle]

He is not a KPD, this is pretty clear. .. Our back line was over stretched last night though. ..

Consider that we went into the game without Laidler and White, so Thornton had to replace a KPD and a third tall. .. There was at least a half a dozen occasions where he was guarding McVoy only for Kosi to float forward unopposed. .. At one stage Murphy had to go up with Kosi because Thornton was backing back off McVoy and still almost pushed back hard enough. ..

Consider again that Milne started sparking up and Rusty had to mind him stealing a valuable options for cutting across the packs. .. Duigan did a great job rotating on to Milne and other medium players as well as cutting across. ..

Further to this our forward line didn't hold the ball in enough early and kicked 11.18. ..

Yes it is harsh and no its not fair to vent all our anger at players like T-Bird and Joey. ..

Pretty sure that was Warnock's job but he didn't run hard enough and Murphy had to compete against someone double his height,

 

[Claypigeon]

Pretty sure that was Warnock's job but he didn't run hard enough and Murphy had to compete against someone double his height,

Yeah it was. .. the second time that is clear in my mind McVoy pushed forward (off the bench) and Thornton had to drop off Kosi to cover him. .. Kosi ended up taking a near uncontested mark. ..

Jolly did it to us as well. .. Not sure if I've noted any other ruckman doing it to us yet though. ..

I can forgive Warnock losing track of his opponent a couple of times a match particularly off the bench but he needs to start doing it to his opponent as well. .. It happened too much in the Saints game though and was made worse by us going in short. ..