Not a Roberton fan

[HitTheBoundary]

If Robo could kick like Lee, that would be an answer.

[magnifisaint]

HtB, don't attack BigMart for having an opinion.
Stay on topic.
As for Robbo, 'underrated'? By whom?

Both coaches gave him votes against Freo. Lyon and AR rate him.
Injured knee, back into seniors without hesitation.
Unanimous tick of approval by Match Committee.

They rate him.
I don't rate Robbo, so I don't agree with them.

And you're not a coach so it doesn't matter then.

[White Winmar]

If Robo could kick like Lee, that would be an answer.

I've reconsidered. He'd probably get suspended too much.

[Con Gorozidis]

HtB, don't attack BigMart for having an opinion.
Stay on topic.
As for Robbo, 'underrated'? By whom?

Both coaches gave him votes against Freo. Lyon and AR rate him.
Injured knee, back into seniors without hesitation.
Unanimous tick of approval by Match Committee.

They rate him.
I don't rate Robbo, so I don't agree with them.

And you're not a coach so it doesn't matter then.

So shut this entire website down. Unless you are the coach you cant say anything.

Let's just have alanrichardson.com and he can give his views and we can all agree.

All other footy media should be shut down Nth Korea style.

[satchmo]

HtB, don't attack BigMart for having an opinion.
Stay on topic.
As for Robbo, 'underrated'? By whom?

Both coaches gave him votes against Freo. Lyon and AR rate him.
Injured knee, back into seniors without hesitation.
Unanimous tick of approval by Match Committee.

They rate him.
I don't rate Robbo, so I don't agree with them.

And you're not a coach so it doesn't matter then.

So shut this entire website down. Unless you are the coach you cant say anything.

Let's just have alanrichardson.com and he can give his views and we can all agree.

All other footy media should be shut down Nth Korea style.

You can certainly say it, but it certainly doesn't matter.

[cwrcyn]

Roberton is a good player, and is an automatic selection each week in my opinion. Some people's expectations are unrealistic. We know he's not a key position player. He provides run and is quite creative and uses the ball pretty well. So, he's not A grade. Not many are in our team.

[Dr Spaceman]

HtB, don't attack BigMart for having an opinion.
Stay on topic.
As for Robbo, 'underrated'? By whom?

Both coaches gave him votes against Freo. Lyon and AR rate him.
Injured knee, back into seniors without hesitation.
Unanimous tick of approval by Match Committee.

They rate him.
I don't rate Robbo, so I don't agree with them.

And you're not a coach so it doesn't matter then.

So shut this entire website down. Unless you are the coach you cant say anything.

Let's just have alanrichardson.com and he can give his views and we can all agree.

All other footy media should be shut down Nth Korea style.

You can certainly say it, but it certainly doesn't matter.

"Listen, don't mention Gilbert! I mentioned him once, but I think I got away with it all right"

[desertsaint]

Pretty ordinary player - but just about all our players are. some we hope will come on. not sure he will, but at the moment who's going to take his place?

[felix]

Pretty ordinary player - but just about all our players are. some we hope will come on. not sure he will, but at the moment who's going to take his place?

We now have Gops and Pops in our team.

[magnifisaint]

HtB, don't attack BigMart for having an opinion.
Stay on topic.
As for Robbo, 'underrated'? By whom?

Both coaches gave him votes against Freo. Lyon and AR rate him.
Injured knee, back into seniors without hesitation.
Unanimous tick of approval by Match Committee.

They rate him.
I don't rate Robbo, so I don't agree with them.

And you're not a coach so it doesn't matter then.

So shut this entire website down. Unless you are the coach you cant say anything.

Let's just have alanrichardson.com and he can give his views and we can all agree.

All other footy media should be shut down Nth Korea style.

You can certainly say it, but it certainly doesn't matter.

exactly.

[Sainternist]

I thought he was terrific value, particularly in 2013 and last year. We got him for virtually nothing. It's funny, he's the type of player who will go unnoticed performance wise, mainly because he's the supporting cast defender (thank you, Magnifisaint!) who doesn't get a hell of a lot of the ball and isn't matched up on key forwards.

Does he turn the ball over a lot? Has his intensity dropped off? How has he matched up against his opponents? He'd be a reason for concern if his opponents are beating him on a weekly basis.

Perhaps OP needed to be more specific in what part of his game is really lacking.

[st.byron]

OK great that I didn't over react and stop the thread.

There has been a fair bit of angst about trolling of late and threads that are inflammatory. I thought maybe this was heading in that direction and wanted to nip it in the bud.

Completely agree that discussion of footy, whatever your point of view, is the whole point of the forum. Last thing I want is to block discussion.

[Con Gorozidis]

I thought he was terrific value, particularly in 2013 and last year. We got him for virtually nothing. It's funny, he's the type of player who will go unnoticed performance wise, mainly because he's the rugged defender-type who doesn't get a hell of a lot of the ball.

Does he turn the ball over a lot? Has his intensity dropped off? How has he matched up against his opponents? He'd be a reason for concern if his opponents are beating him on a weekly basis.

Perhaps OP needed to be more specific in what part of his game is really lacking.

Maybe but how many defenders can you have who dont get much of the ball?

I dont think he ever matches up against quality fwds. It is usually Dempster and Fisher who still get all the big jobs. He does nothing in the air. Doesnt get much ball. His only saving grace is his tackling which is very good. But we have four blokes down back who dont get much of the ball (Gilbert, Roberton, Webster & Geary). Our backline is one of the worst in the league. Not just my opinion but statistical fact. Only the Lions, Bombers and Suns have had more scored against the ( see http://maxbarry.com/squiggle/).

So we cant keep claiming all these players are great and 'go unnoticed' and are doing some secret job that us plebs couldnt possibly understand. People need to confront the cold hard fact that we have the 4th worst defence in the league. If our defence is so statistically bad then how can all our defenders be 'under-rated' guns? It seems, if anything, they are over-rated because the stats suggest they are woeful.

Look at last week. Everyone says oh our midfield were horrible. The poor backs had no hope. But this theory doesnt stack up to the facts.

The Crows had 2.3 x more I50s but scored 2.95 x more than us.

All our defenders cant all be under rated rough diamonds when oppositions score so heavily against us so consistently.

The real questions should be:

Are we hard to score against?
Are we generating goals from our back half?

We have had 1102 points scored against us this year. We are a poor man's Port Adelaide. We can look ok when we are on a roll but we leak goals.

If we leak so many goals then all our defenders cant be 'under rated' champs doing jobs that us plebs cant possibly understand.

[Sainternist]

I thought he was terrific value, particularly in 2013 and last year. We got him for virtually nothing. It's funny, he's the type of player who will go unnoticed performance wise, mainly because he's the rugged defender-type who doesn't get a hell of a lot of the ball.

Does he turn the ball over a lot? Has his intensity dropped off? How has he matched up against his opponents? He'd be a reason for concern if his opponents are beating him on a weekly basis.

Perhaps OP needed to be more specific in what part of his game is really lacking.

Maybe but how many defenders can you have who dont get much of the ball?

I dont think he ever matches up against quality fwds. It is usually Dempster and Fisher who still get all the big jobs. He does nothing in the air. Doesnt get much ball. His only saving grace is his tackling which is very good. But we have four blokes down back who dont get much of the ball (Gilbert, Roberton, Webster & Geary). Our backline is one of the worst in the league. Not just my opinion but statistical fact. Only the Lions, Bombers and Suns have had more scored against the ( see http://maxbarry.com/squiggle/).

So we cant keep claiming all these players are great and 'go unnoticed' and are doing some secret job that us plebs couldnt possibly understand. People need to confront the cold hard fact that we have the 4th worst defence in the league. If our defence is so statistically bad then how can all our defenders be 'under-rated' guns? It seems, if anything, they are over-rated because the stats suggest they are woeful.

Look at last week. Everyone says oh our midfield were horrible. The poor backs had no hope. But this theory doesnt stack up to the facts.

The Crows had 2.3 x more I50s but scored 2.95 x more than us.

All our defenders cant all be under rated rough diamonds when oppositions score so heavily against us so consistently.

The real questions should be:

Are we hard to score against?
Are we generating goals from our back half?

We have had 1102 points scored against us this year. We are a poor man's Port Adelaide. We can look ok when we are on a roll but we leak goals.

If we leak so many goals then all our defenders cant be 'under rated' champs doing jobs that us plebs cant possibly understand.

Con, it's no secret our defense is our weakest area. It was a huge blow to have Carlisle ruled out for the year. The real concern is that there is too much responsibility on the likes of Dempster and Fisher, who both must be nearing the twilight of their careers. With those two out, we are really going to struggle for the next month or so. By the looks of it, we're going to be in for a rough June and July. Really hope we can get those four wins before the season is out. Fewer than eight is not really an improvement on last year.

Blokes like Roberton, Lee and Delaney are mediocre players who might have to show a bit more, particularly the latter two. I actually rate the likes of Geary and Gilbert. Both have been very serviceable over the years. To Roberton's credit, he has at least shown a bit of fire in the belly. A couple of good hardened defenders could be on our end of season shopping list.

[WellardSaint]

He was delisted so cost nothing apart from ongoing salary.
As with every player, he was a gamble, but as he was free, cost nothing, it's great if he works well in the team. Same with the Mav, the man with a bit of aggro and huge heart.

I wish Robbo could be a better contested mark, and I wish he wouldn't go down so easily.
I don't want the club to think he's better than he is, as has happened in the past.
Demand a bit more in terms of effort and output from these guys and not just Acres and Billings.

[BigMart]

oh,

htb

you didnt make a personal insult... ok then

[Con Gorozidis]

HtB, don't attack BigMart for having an opinion.
Stay on topic.
As for Robbo, 'underrated'? By whom?

Both coaches gave him votes against Freo. Lyon and AR rate him.
Injured knee, back into seniors without hesitation.
Unanimous tick of approval by Match Committee.

They rate him.
I don't rate Robbo, so I don't agree with them.

And you're not a coach so it doesn't matter then.

So shut this entire website down. Unless you are the coach you cant say anything.

Let's just have alanrichardson.com and he can give his views and we can all agree.

All other footy media should be shut down Nth Korea style.

You can certainly say it, but it certainly doesn't matter.

exactly.

Well nothing really matters and we are all going to die.
I just dont believe Roberton is under rated at this stage of his career. And I have been one of his biggest fans.
But he has plateaued. He is a long way from being the gun player I thought he was going to become. He may still get there but he is miles off it this season so far.

[SaintPav]

The thing is, Aussie Jones wasn't a particularly crash hot defender...
He had the strengths in his game to compensate for it... If he had a hand in 4-5-6 goals for us, or plays that led to goals... Who cared if his direct opponent kicked 2-3.

As it turned out, opposition needed to put defensive mids on him in their own forward line.

I don't see the quality that Roberton is bringing at the moment

lol...

Who do you think was supposed to be covering Schneids in the 2005 prelim?

You're such a repository of footy knowledge, guru

[stonecold]

Wellard Saint. Have been having a look at your posting history......can't find much in the way of positive posts or anything you actually like about the Saints. Lots of bagging specific players, the coach and the team in general. Lots of posts about how crap we are.
And now you've started a thread specifically to pot Roberton. It's an ugly OP. What's the point of starting a thread with a post like that?
It's the kind of OP that can only result in an ugly thread.
Am very tempted to just lock it or delete it before it has the chance to gather any momentum.

What do you hope to achieve with a post like that? Why should the thread remain open?

But, you still let the Essendope post run, Go Figure!!!!!

[saintbob]

Our two worst defeats this year are not entirely our backlines fault, our midfield were terrible in both games Steven, Armitage, Dunstan and Montagna were absolutely disgraceful and were all happy to play bruise free footy which ultimately puts enormous pressure on the backline.

I agree our backs are one of our weakest lines, but our mids aren't too far in front of them and I'd be very surprised if either Armitage or Dunstan aren't on the trade table at the end of this year.

[skeptic]

The thing is, Aussie Jones wasn't a particularly crash hot defender...
He had the strengths in his game to compensate for it... If he had a hand in 4-5-6 goals for us, or plays that led to goals... Who cared if his direct opponent kicked 2-3.

As it turned out, opposition needed to put defensive mids on him in their own forward line.

I don't see the quality that Roberton is bringing at the moment

lol...

Who do you think was supposed to be covering Schneids in the 2005 prelim?

You're such a repository of footy knowledge, guru

That's amazing that you have highlighted that one game over 3 seasons. Exactly what part of my statement do you not agree with? The fact that he was not not a great defender or the fact that he was a great offensive player...

I eagerly await your response!

[Bluthy]

My main probs with Robbo is I don't find him a damaging or creating enough to have real influence on a game in that floating tall/running back role he does. His kicking is ok but he rarely pulls off a penetrating play opening kicks.

But this is his chance to really step up. We have a dearth of players in that 24 - 27 age group/100 game plus mark who have the experience to be able to change the momentum of a game . He and Geary need to be the men organising that defence now and getting to a lot of packs to kill the ball. Lee and Delaney will be pretty AFL rusty and nervous.

And this is an extended audition for Robbo in that third tall role (well maybe second tall with Goddard possibly out for 12 months). I still don't rule him out of the role if he can stack on some more weight as he hits his late 20's. Athletic 194cm backmen don't come on trees. We really need him to show responsibility and get verbal and phystcal out there. No more floating around - needs to go to another level as he hits that 100 game mark.

Players can surprise you when weight is sometimes thrown on their shoulders. No Fish and Demps could be a strange blessing as it forces others to step up and we get to run the rule over guys like Robbo, Lee and Delaney in key roles.

[Scollop]

We'd be premiers if we played Carlton every week or a forward line similar to Carltons. I thought Robbo was very good today and if he can show more confidence against the top 8 teams it'll go a long way to helping us climb the ladder

[HitTheBoundary]

He played pretty well, but would be even better if his kicks were a bit more precise.
A few were in the general vicinity of, rather than straight to his target.

Near the end of the game he was grabbing his leg.

Does anyone know if it was a cramp, or a hammy?

[Bluthy]

17 disposals and 8 marks was impressive. Its amazing how players can step up when they are given more autonomy and responsibility. He looked like he helped organise our backline out there. I think he is worth pursuing with as a tall back option along with Lee. The more options we have the better. YOu've seen what can happen with Goddard and Carlisle has had plenty of injury concerns already. You need coverage and options.