Key Match Ups

[JuanTheSydSainter]

How do you see the match ups panning out on Saturday night?

Our Forward Line

Reiwoldt - C Bolton
Gehrig - Barry
Kosi - LRT
C Gardiner - T Richards / Mattner / Kennelly?
Milne - Crouch

Reiwoldt invariably towels up Bolton - Won numerous free kicks last season for getting arms chopped.

Gehrig has always been too strong for Barry.

LRT is probably underated as a defender because he looks so goofy but can't see him competing with Kosi.

Milne vs Crouch? Not sure about this one - Crouch hasn't been setting the world on fire for a while and I think he is still injured anyway. Who will take Milne in that case? One of these new Sydney young guns that all of a sudden are banging down the door for a game? I'm sceptical - playing in the Canberra AFL and winning by 200 points each week isn't the best prep for the intensity of the AFL.


Sydney's Forward Line

Hall - S Fisher
O'Loughlin - Hudghton
Davis - L Fisher?

Not sure who else they'll play up there. Maybe Grundy? As long as we hold our own in the middle and keep the pressure off our defenders I think our defence can hold up. Hall is now a bit of an uncertainty after last season although he has reportedly shown good form in the practice games.

Rucks

King/Gardiner vs Jolly/LRT/Richards

For the first time in an eternity we have the wood over Sydney here. So much of their game plan is based around stoppages so our recruitment of King & Gardiner and Spida's injury really help to put us in the box seat.

Not sure about midfield match ups. Of course without team sheets it makes things difficult. We can safely assume barring training injuries that Hayes, Dal Santo, Ball, Montagna & Harvey will play. Who do people think Roos will send to our boys in the middle? Blake will probably get the job on Goodes too (at least to start with).

What are everyones opinions?

[bendigo bob]

Have a concern about Maxy playing. I would hope he is put through a searing fitness test before being passed fit to play. Would hate to see him go down again with another leg/hammy injury. I wouldn't mind seeing Gilbo play on O'Laughlin. Think he could do the job admirably.

Also worried about L Fisher having the pace and/or smarts to go with Davis.

Maybe Raph for O'Laughlin and Gilbo for Davis.

[Solar]

good call on most...

from memory crouch might not play

LRT will ruck as sydney will only go in with one pure ruckman and goodes doesn't play in the ruck anymore

[rogerwa]

s.fisher on hall with blake to fill the hole 10yrds in front of hall..
coaches intructions...dont even think of getting a kick just block his leads

gilbert on goodes,coaches intructions..stay goalside & inside of him, force him wide & stop his run

l.fisher on davis..dont let him touch the ball

fiora on o'keefe,coaches instuctions..stay goalside & inside of him stop his run..added message,ya got one job to do today..do it or your career is over

birss on kennally..stop his run or ya looking down the barrell

any other matchup is the swines worry not ours

team instuctions....hit em fn hard

[Sobraz]

s.fisher on hall with blake to fill the hole 10yrds in front of hall..
coaches intructions...dont even think of getting a kick just block his leads

gilbert on goodes,coaches intructions..stay goalside & inside of him, force him wide & stop his run

l.fisher on davis..dont let him touch the ball

fiora on o'keefe,coaches instuctions..stay goalside & inside of him stop his run..added message,ya got one job to do today..do it or your career is over

birss on kennally..stop his run or ya looking down the barrell

any other matchup is the swines worry not ours

team instuctions....hit em fn hard

would not play Fiora on defence under any circumstances, let alone on O'Keefe... that would be murderous... career on the line or not, Fizz is not upto that job..

midfield matchups are the biggest things.. have to make sure that Kirk doesnt get on top of Dal, and the Bolton, et al are second to it.. wn this, we win the game easily..

[rogerwa]

o'keefe does most of his work between wing & 1/2 forwrd...moves up & down that patch all day,block his run & keep him wide is 1/2 the job done

same with goodes,most of his work is between 1/2 back & 1/2 forward..gotta stop em running forward & free..keep em wide

they are not major goal scorers but set up most of their attacking moves from outside 50...keep those 2 under wraps & block halls space & the games as good as ours

skill wise goodes & o'keefe will kill anyone can put on em if they are allowed to play free wheeling footy...4 or 5 players have to sacrifice their game still leaves us with plenty of options to dictate terms

[emmdee]

Blake to run with goodes all match, did it before very well, should have an edge in endurance. Raph first crack on O'laughlin, then Gilbert if needed.

[ace]

Everitt injured leaves Darren Jolly versus King and M Gardiner.
Hall will do Sydney's rucking in their forward line.
After winning the hit out in the centre King can park himself 10 metres in front of Hall.
Tattooed bullies like Hall aren't so tough when the other guy is bigger than them.
M. Gardiner and Kosi can then take turns on the ground playing ruckman forward and wear Jolly into the ground.
Oh how Robert Harvey is going to enjoy playing to a winning ruck.

[rexy]

Goddard on Goodes with Blake to start on Hall and allow Sam Fisher to play his attacking game. Gram will get O Keefe, has the pace for him and will look to expose his lack of accountability. Max on MickyO, Gilbert on Davis.

In the middle they will look to shut down our mids, dont be surprised to see Dal, Ball etc try and drag their mids out of the corridor and the likes of X and Armo and Scneider doing alot of work around the stoppages. Fiora or Birss to run with Jude Bolton.

Their back line match ups will be pretty standard I would have thought, Bolton to Roo, Barry to Gherig, LRT to Kosi. If Jones plays he may get a run with on Kennelly, X could also do this.

[JuanTheSydSainter]

If C Gardiner plays, who does Roos send to him? Maybe Mattner? Or even Kennelly? Shutting these two down will be important for us.

How does Charlie go defensively? Could he play a lead up role in combination with closing down a runner from Sydney's defence.

[Goose is king]

Even with Spida out I dont think we can pen the ruck down as a win. Jolly is bloody good. I think King could take him but thats it. I hope King is fitter.

[JuanTheSydSainter]

Even with Spida out I dont think we can pen the ruck down as a win. Jolly is bloody good. I think King could take him but thats it. I hope King is fitter.

I think that Jolly is somewhat overrated. He compiles a lot of hitouts throughout a season and is always in the top few rucks in this category. But the Swans have far more stoppages than any other team which jacks up his stats. Both Jolly and Everitt were top 10 in hotouts last year which says more about the Swans style than their ruckmen (who are good but not that good).

Jolly and King will probably be an even enough battle but I like our chances against their back up ruck. Either way we are in a damn sight better position than last year. Kosi/Rix v Jolly/Everitt compared to King/Gardiner v Jolly/LRT. I like the looks of the second one much more........

[Goose is king]

I agree and Gardner will improve quickly and he is much better than Rix ever will be.

[Saints Premiers 2008]

whoever lrt lines up on drag him to the goalsquare...

if someone tried to plug the hole as a sweeper imbetween lrt the chf/chf put charlie in there as he will only attract a rebounding defender...so chances are his defender will struggle to pull down marks or spoils...

if kosi get lrt i expect a big game from him if played in the forwardline

and oh my it looks good seeing king and my man mg lining up against jolly and blot...

[Ball_Breaker]

Has Max had a hit out since the Geelong game? I didn't notice his name mentioned in the Scorps match reports from last weekend.

[bigcarl]

i think we took the match-ups way too seriously last season.

as rogerwa says, the key is to shut down their main play-makers and dangerous forwards then make them match up on us.

imo we will have more talent on the park than them and matching up should be their concern, not ours

[terry smith rules]

roger from wa I think some of your instructions date back to the 70s

"don't let him get a touch" , "don't even think of getting a kick" .. it's not that simple anymore and the game is played differently

I believe that the saints play a game where they are happy and don't mind to see the other team take possession wide and high which is where o'keefe and hall get many possessions

hall can get as many possessions as he likes b/w wing and hf, he is not going to damage us there, o'keefe can be damaging as he can run forward from possession and keep doing that with his fitness.

I don't think we want sam fisher on hall (would think max if he is fit) , I believe gilbert will take o'keefe (who is the aerobically fittest swan).

[JuanTheSydSainter]

i think we took the match-ups way too seriously last season.

as rogerwa says, the key is to shut down their main play-makers and dangerous forwards then make them match up on us.

imo we will have more talent on the park than them and matching up should be their concern, not ours

Your right, the match up balance is in our favour in that we have more quality for Sydney to worry about. But this is a discussion of match ups for both teams.

Of Sydney's players, Kennelly, Goodes, Hall, O'Keefe & maybe Kirk are the ones we need to worry about. Goodes and O'Keefe especially - need to have someone specifically accountable for them.

They need to cover our 3 big guys up forward, Gram off halfback, and a host of our midfielders.