Ben Long forward

[magnifisaint]

[B.M]

He’s got to learn how to get a kick!

[mad saint guy]

Long has that madman intensity but that's a double-edged sword which can be costly in defence.

Blokes who play on the edge with hardness and aggression are going to help you win against the top teams and eventually to help you win finals. It takes good coaches to help a young player understand the discipline required to retain that intensity and play with controlled aggression.

I would rather intensity than blokes who play with a softcock mentality and don’t put their body on the line or don’t go hard at the contest. Long is taller and has better ability to contest in the air. He’s also more agile than half the blokes in the team

Taller than Sinclair? Yes, but not by much. 3cm isn't going to make much of a difference, and I'd back Sinclair in to impact the contest without giving away a free. I've been very impressed with Sinclair's increased intensity in the contest and purposeful running this season - I think he's lifted significantly in these areas.

I noticed you gave Battle one of your minus votes. I watched the game carefully. He was far from the fifth worst on ground. I don’t count soft possessions and easy disposal stats from handball receives.

I legit have no idea what you're talking about here.

When Bontempelli was hot in that second quarter, who would you have go to him? Sinclair or Clark or Brad Hill? Wilkie and Webster seemed to share the duties when Bont lined up or started as a forward but sometimes the Bont would drift forward as a mid and that’s when he hurt us. That’s where Long is a better option

No way in hell would I trust Long on Bont. He's giving away 9cm and probably over 10kgs. If Bont is running hot I'd have Ross play a hard tag in the middle and switch over to Wilkie if he drifts forward. Steele could also play a temporary tagging role if needed.

Our defenders were hard at it and constantly under the pump in that second quarter, but they ALL gave away costly frees. Hill was trying to fend off and got caught. Wilkie gave away a dumb free against the Dogs by grabbing little Cody Weightman high and worrying about him jumping for a mark when there were talls to cover the marking contest in a pack situation. Frawley gave away frees because he couldn’t jump or because he wasn’t fast enough to get a fist on the ball.

Others gave away frees deep in defence after getting caught red handed with the footy and not being able to dispose of it... point is all defenders give away frees. It’s normal and it happens when we are getting smashed in defence.

Yes all defenders give away frees, but how many would regularly give away the dumb, undisciplined frees that Long gives away? He bumps late, coat-hangers players, shoves players after a free/mark to give away 50 and gets sucked in easily by opposition taunting.

Hill was caught trying to create run out of defence. We saw the Wilkie free very differently - Wilkie was unfortunate that the ump fell for Weightman's pathetic tactic of leaning back into Wilkie and falling over while flailing his arms around. Webster had no frees against. I can forgive an arm chop/high contact in the marking contest occasionally but gifting goals to the opposition through dumb decisions is not acceptable.

[Scollop]

Long has that madman intensity but that's a double-edged sword which can be costly in defence.

Blokes who play on the edge with hardness and aggression are going to help you win against the top teams and eventually to help you win finals. It takes good coaches to help a young player understand the discipline required to retain that intensity and play with controlled aggression.

I would rather intensity than blokes who play with a softcock mentality and don’t put their body on the line or don’t go hard at the contest. Long is taller and has better ability to contest in the air. He’s also more agile than half the blokes in the team

Taller than Sinclair? Yes, but not by much. 3cm isn't going to make much of a difference, and I'd back Sinclair in to impact the contest without giving away a free. I've been very impressed with Sinclair's increased intensity in the contest and purposeful running this season - I think he's lifted significantly in these areas.

I noticed you gave Battle one of your minus votes. I watched the game carefully. He was far from the fifth worst on ground. I don’t count soft possessions and easy disposal stats from handball receives.

I legit have no idea what you're talking about here.

When Bontempelli was hot in that second quarter, who would you have go to him? Sinclair or Clark or Brad Hill? Wilkie and Webster seemed to share the duties when Bont lined up or started as a forward but sometimes the Bont would drift forward as a mid and that’s when he hurt us. That’s where Long is a better option

No way in hell would I trust Long on Bont. He's giving away 9cm and probably over 10kgs. If Bont is running hot I'd have Ross play a hard tag in the middle and switch over to Wilkie if he drifts forward. Steele could also play a temporary tagging role if needed.

Our defenders were hard at it and constantly under the pump in that second quarter, but they ALL gave away costly frees. Hill was trying to fend off and got caught. Wilkie gave away a dumb free against the Dogs by grabbing little Cody Weightman high and worrying about him jumping for a mark when there were talls to cover the marking contest in a pack situation. Frawley gave away frees because he couldn’t jump or because he wasn’t fast enough to get a fist on the ball.

Others gave away frees deep in defence after getting caught red handed with the footy and not being able to dispose of it... point is all defenders give away frees. It’s normal and it happens when we are getting smashed in defence.

Yes all defenders give away frees, but how many would regularly give away the dumb, undisciplined frees that Long gives away? He bumps late, coat-hangers players, shoves players after a free/mark to give away 50 and gets sucked in easily by opposition taunting.

Hill was caught trying to create run out of defence. We saw the Wilkie free very differently - Wilkie was unfortunate that the ump fell for Weightman's pathetic tactic of leaning back into Wilkie and falling over while flailing his arms around. Webster had no frees against. I can forgive an arm chop/high contact in the marking contest occasionally but gifting goals to the opposition through dumb decisions is not acceptable.

That's very funny that you'd have Seb on the Bont. They lined up in the middle a few times and Seb decided that he'd be better off trying to win his own footy. All I saw was the Bont with countless centre clearances.

With regard to the votes. Sorry my bad that was another Long critic, not you

With regard to your question; "how many would regularly give away the dumb, undisciplined frees that Long gives away?"

Howard did a pretty good job against the Dogs including a dumb 50m penalty and he's made a habit of it in some games.

[mad saint guy]

That's very funny that you'd have Seb on the Bont. They lined up in the middle a few times and Seb decided that he'd be better off trying to win his own footy. All I saw was the Bont with countless centre clearances.

I can count them for you. He won 2 centre clearances for the game.

With regard to your question; "how many would regularly give away the dumb, undisciplined frees that Long gives away?"

Howard did a pretty good job against the Dogs including a dumb 50m penalty and he's made a habit of it in some games.

Howard is 1st in the comp for 1%ers and has only conceded 7 free kicks in 10 games. That's the fewest frees against for anyone in the top 5 for 1%ers this season. Only 1 free against for Howard against the Dogs as well

[Scollop]

That's very funny that you'd have Seb on the Bont. They lined up in the middle a few times and Seb decided that he'd be better off trying to win his own footy. All I saw was the Bont with countless centre clearances.

I can count them for you. He won 2 centre clearances for the game.

With regard to your question; "how many would regularly give away the dumb, undisciplined frees that Long gives away?"

Howard did a pretty good job against the Dogs including a dumb 50m penalty and he's made a habit of it in some games.

Howard is 1st in the comp for 1%ers and has only conceded 7 free kicks in 10 games. That's the fewest frees against for anyone in the top 5 for 1%ers this season. Only 1 free against for Howard against the Dogs as well

Good work on Dougs. Fair enough. I love a poster who backs up his argument with facts but I reckon the Bont had a few more assists in the centre and the clearances might have been credited to others

You mentioned Webster in another post. I'm glad you did. He has heart and courage like Ben. One thing the stats don't do is predict how Longy would have played if he lined up against Libba or McCrea or the Bont.

Another thing you mentioned is "gifting goals to the opposition through dumb decisions is not acceptable".

Brad Hill was struggling on the wing where he normally plays. Is it acceptable to keep finding positions on the ground for a high priced recruit like Hill (or others for that matter) when they play 1 good game in 3 or for some of our blokes maybe 1 in 5?

Is it acceptable to keep gifting games to guys who don't put their head over the footy?

[samoht]

"B.Long" - he should be halfway to cementing a spot in the side with an auspicious name like that.

And there's a "Belong" sponsorship beckoning too - his manager should be joining the dots and making some calls.