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We won clearances - No Sandilands!!

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You mention Matty DeBoer (who was great). But what about Hilly? Just as many clearances and almost as many tackles. Both were sensational and bloody tough for 4 quarters.

How was Hillys tackle on Dustin, pick up and clearance. Only to get another clearance 10 seconds later on the wing courtesy of a great Griffin tap.
 
Yep, it was a giant win without the giant man. I must say I was looking forward to seeing Sandilands vs Maric, to see how Aaron fared against an in form ruckman. Instead I was treated to the Griff vs Maric show, I thought he did alright given the wet conditions and I hope he is not moved aside for our next game.
 

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martorius said:
may i suggest that the reason we won clearances was BECAUSE there was no sandilands?? here's an interesting thought - now that griffin has proven himself, why don't we drop sandilands to the WAFL so he can learn how to palm the ball to a purple player and NOT an opposition player every time?
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I honestly thought the same thing myself, less predictable when sandi is not in the centre.
 
Experiment and plant him at Full Forward for a game and see what happens in the midfield and as a marking option.
 
I created a thread but I'll just post it in here:



I am of the opinion that we, in our current form, play better without Aaron on the field of play.

It's not just today against Richmond during a wet match. I've noticed a trend of late that without Aaron on the field of play:

- Our midfield are able to win more clearances, in the middle and around the ground.
- The opposition ruckmen are less effective (not being able to run off either Griffin or Clarke like they do Sandilands)
- The opposition midfield now have to watch their own ruckman because he may actually win a tap meaning they focus less on predicting where our players are going making it harder for them to shark taps
- When forward Griffin and Clarke actually kick goals and are able to put defensive pressure on the opposition, unlike Sandi who struggles to keep up with the defenders.
- There is more space for our (and opposition) midfielders to move as I find Sandi is on his knees for atleast 60-70% of the time while at a stoppage. (Maybe that's because of his basketball shoes)


So now there are some questions which I would put to you.

Are we better off without Sandilands?

If so what do we do?? In is current form I'd say he is an ageing Goliath who is injury prone. Yet still has, what 3 years left on his contract?

Is Clarke or Griffin a better option going forward as our #1 ruck?


I'm at a crossroads because I love Sandi but with his injuries mounting, our play seemingly better without him and his ineffectiveness up forward, I honestly don't know if he is right for us moving forward.

What are your thoughts?
 
I think until Clarke gets a bit of form, Griffen and Sandilands should be the combo for freo IMO. Also got to hand it to Crowley and Ballantyne for doing an excellent tagging/touchup on the Richmond mids, only Tuck slipped through the net.
 
We're definitely a better team without Sandi as our primary tap ruckman. Too predictable to the point where any decent opposition midfield will just spend the whole day sharking him. Griff came in and did an admirable job, and guys like MDB and Hill were able to get on top in the centre. It's definitely food for thought for the coaching staff.
 

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silverscope said:
Why do you believe that we are not better without Sandilands?

Ok you can have an opinion, but at least add something to the discussion.
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I don't feel it warrants a discussion to be honest.

Sandilands hasn't been at his absolute best this year, but he is still one of the best ruckmen in the league. It's all well and good to say he should be tapping the ball down our midfielders' throats all the time, but the other team knows that too. And it is arguably easier roving that way. We showed that, by doing the same thing to Maric that teams have been doing Sandilands all season. But does that mean we just play Mundy in the ruck and go in with four midfielders to rove?

Just seems that people are always looking to give the 'underdog' a leg up on BigFooty - Griffin is better than Sandilands, Pavlich shouldn't be captain, Mundy/Barlow suck, Spurr is the greatest player ever.

Yes, Griffin was good. But Sandilands is and always will be better in my opinion.
 
With Sandilands playing, the on-ballers can watch his hands and pick the hitout most of the time.
With Griffin playing, the on-ballers have to watch both his and his opponents hands for the hitout.

That's why Griffin appears to be more effective. If Sandi and Griff are both able to put it to the advantage of our players 75% of the time, we want the guy who wins 75% of the hitouts as our number one.

I think Sandi has far more upside than Griff, but I wonder how much improvement there can be in Sandilands' taps to advantage, because it doesn't look good for him to push the ball into the space in front of opposition players.
 
silverscope said:
I created a thread but I'll just post it in here:



I am of the opinion that we, in our current form, play better without Aaron on the field of play.

It's not just today against Richmond during a wet match. I've noticed a trend of late that without Aaron on the field of play:

- Our midfield are able to win more clearances, in the middle and around the ground.
- The opposition ruckmen are less effective (not being able to run off either Griffin or Clarke like they do Sandilands)
- The opposition midfield now have to watch their own ruckman because he may actually win a tap meaning they focus less on predicting where our players are going making it harder for them to shark taps
- When forward Griffin and Clarke actually kick goals and are able to put defensive pressure on the opposition, unlike Sandi who struggles to keep up with the defenders.
- There is more space for our (and opposition) midfielders to move as I find Sandi is on his knees for atleast 60-70% of the time while at a stoppage. (Maybe that's because of his basketball shoes)


So now there are some questions which I would put to you.

Are we better off without Sandilands?

If so what do we do?? In is current form I'd say he is an ageing Goliath who is injury prone. Yet still has, what 3 years left on his contract?

Is Clarke or Griffin a better option going forward as our #1 ruck?


I'm at a crossroads because I love Sandi but with his injuries mounting, our play seemingly better without him and his ineffectiveness up forward, I honestly don't know if he is right for us moving forward.

What are your thoughts?
Click to expand...





not a bad win. Even better when we won without our best Player.

Right now Clarke is our best ruckman. Clarke as been good and covers more ground as well. Handy goal kicker dont forget.
 
people who think we are going to be a better team without sandi are delusional. U could see he had Marics measure in those first 10 mins. Maric did not touch the ball and we looked promising with Hill getting a couple of early centre clearances. People have not learnt from the past when sandilands has been injured long term.
 

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The mids expect the ball on a silver platter from 211, whereas without him there is more urgency to win the ball as the height advantage is cut down somewhat

No Sandi means the mids are on notice to do it themselves and they did very well with the help of Griff :)
 
I suspect that Griffin was also familiar with Maric from back in their Adelaide days, might have had some insider knowledge as Maric looked like the Crows version and not the Tigers version today.

I still think we are better with Sandilands. If anything the injury forced us to bring on a runner much earlier than we would have done so and Crozier actually got a bit of the footy and won some important ball.

With a new head coach and new stoppages coach, the midfield will go from strength to strength as they get the mix right and that mix will include Sandilands. Griffin did his job today and that's what he's paid to do, backup ruck.
 
Did we do better in midfield because the midfielders attack on the man and the ball was alot better?
Or was it due to griffin doing the tapwork so the opposition was setting up plays instead of just trying to read Sandis taps?

I feel alot of it is due to midfielders attack on the man an ball.
We were hungry and going in harder than opposition, how many times can you say that of our midfield this year?
So cant blame Sandi for all of it.

I do think sandis tap work is poor.
Where we miss him and where he has most influence on the game is around the ground.
He provides a great get out target.
That is why i still believe he is first choice over Griffin.
 
We are too predicable with sandilands. His contested marking for a giant is debatable.
when resting in forwardline doesn't or can't take the soul destroying(for opposition) pack marks
in the goal square.

becoming injury prone so our mids can't get continuity- he missed a lot of games in 2009, 2011 and looks like 2012 is going the same way.

2010 was his best year since his debut.
 
I can see both sides of this argument. Sandi at his best is one of the most dominant players in the game but he's played some absolute shockers lately. Wouldn't bother me a bit to see us line up with Griffin and Clarke or even Griffin and Kepler at the moment.
 
I'm not convinced that we're are better team without Sandi. We need to work him better, but he's still our No. 1 option for mine.

I suspect the reason we won the clearances today is because conditions didn't allow as much clean possession in tight situations. Because we worked harder, we got more clearances - if Sandi was there, I'm not sure it would have been much different.

I'll be convinced if we win clearances convincingly at Subi in good weather a few weeks in a row, then I'll start coming around. FWIW, we were winning clearances quite well the first few weeks, so it's not a given that we loose the clearances with Sandi.
 

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We won clearances - No Sandilands!!

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