Just now, poita said:

An elite midfield covers all manner of shortcomings in other parts of the ground. If we think Prestia has the potential to be an elite midfielder, then we should be prepared to pay him whatever he wants. The defensive side of our backline is okay, we just need to lessen the amount of entries we concede into defensive 50. The best way to do that is to win more clearances, particularly centre clearances. I want elite midfielders before anything else.

I hear you re the elite midfield. But paying players whatever they want is a recipe for much bigger problems. It just wont let you build a list like Hawthorns or Geelongs.

I don't use the words "stars' lightly, but Brayshaw and Oliver are going to be stars.  Along with Petracca, Viney, Tyson, Salem, Stretch, Nathan Jones and potentially Hunt, we're reasonably well served for midfielders.

I'm not against any mid who makes us better, but we have more pressing concerns in the back-line.  There's no reason we can't address all needs, but Prestia may well be too expensive when we weigh up all considerations.

8 hours ago, ProDee said:

I don't use the words "stars' lightly, but Brayshaw and Oliver are going to be stars.  Along with Petracca, Viney, Tyson, Salem, Stretch, Nathan Jones and potentially Hunt, we're reasonably well served for midfielders.

I'm not against any mid who makes us better, but we have more pressing concerns in the back-line.  There's no reason we can't address all needs, but Prestia may well be too expensive when we weigh up all considerations.

The better our midfield becomes should result in hopefully putting less pressure on our back line Prodee

12 minutes ago, DemonOX said:

The better our midfield becomes should result in hopefully putting less pressure on our back line Prodee

Sure, but any premiership defence has players the quality of Taylor, Enright, Scarlett, Milburn, Lake, Birchall, Burgoyne, etc.  Whether it's Ayres, Mew, Southby, Doull, Dench, Leppitsch, Chris Johnson, etc, great teams over the journey have the Silvagni type quality players of this world shoring up defence.

If you ever want to see a flag pray for a better defence (or should that be deeeeeefence).

22 minutes ago, ProDee said:

Sure, but any premiership defence has players the quality of Taylor, Enright, Scarlett, Milburn, Lake, Birchall, Burgoyne, etc.  Whether it's Ayres, Mew, Southby, Doull, Dench, Leppitsch, Chris Johnson, etc, great teams over the journey have the Silvagni type quality players of this world shoring up defence.

If you ever want to see a flag pray for a better defence (or should that be deeeeeefence).

An excellent point.

27 minutes ago, ProDee said:

Sure, but any premiership defence has players the quality of Taylor, Enright, Scarlett, Milburn, Lake, Birchall, Burgoyne, etc.  Whether it's Ayres, Mew, Southby, Doull, Dench, Leppitsch, Chris Johnson, etc, great teams over the journey have the Silvagni type quality players of this world shoring up defence.

If you ever want to see a flag pray for a better defence (or should that be deeeeeefence).

etc would surely include my favorite defender ever, in Glenn Archer. How we would love a player like that now.

Who were the Swans elite defenders when they won their 2005 flag?

B:	28 Jared Crouch	21 Leo Barry	30 Lewis Roberts-Thomson
HB:	4 Ben Mathews	6 Craig Bolton	17 Tadhg Kennelly

Thats hardly elite. Shows the old "champion team" thingy is sometimes real hey?

We are becoming much more of a destination club. Remember seeing an article saying that us and Dogs are the new Victorian destination clubs and it's no longer Collingwood and Richmond. We don't need to overpay players to get talent 

12 minutes ago, DemonLad5 said:

We are becoming much more of a destination club. Remember seeing an article saying that us and Dogs are the new Victorian destination clubs and it's no longer Collingwood and Richmond. We don't need to overpay players to get talent 

I thought it was Hawks and Cats.  Hmmm, think it still is Hawks and Cats.

Hate to say it we haven't achieved anything, yet. 

Heaps of potential; more than most but no runs on the board.  Yep, Hawks and Cats are still the Vic destination clubs.

I'm imagining the club is throwing everything it has at landing Hurley. If we want to compete in this competition beyond 5 or 6 then we need a Hurley type holding up our defence.

1 hour ago, faultydet said:

Who were the Swans elite defenders when they won their 2005 flag?

B:	28 Jared Crouch	21 Leo Barry	30 Lewis Roberts-Thomson
HB:	4 Ben Mathews	6 Craig Bolton	17 Tadhg Kennelly

Thats hardly elite. Shows the old "champion team" thingy is sometimes real hey?

A considerably undersized defence, which makes them even more impressive as a collective.

Leo Barry was an AA full-back/defender in 04 and 05 

Craig Bolton an AA in 06.

Fair to say both of those blokes at the top of their game were elite defenders.

2 hours ago, faultydet said:

etc would surely include my favorite defender ever, in Glenn Archer. How we would love a player like that now.

Who were the Swans elite defenders when they won their 2005 flag?

B:	28 Jared Crouch	21 Leo Barry	30 Lewis Roberts-Thomson
HB:	4 Ben Mathews	6 Craig Bolton	17 Tadhg Kennelly

Thats hardly elite. Shows the old "champion team" thingy is sometimes real hey?

The 2005 premiership team was an anomaly on many levels, including having a terrible average spread of gosl-kickers.  They ranked second last.  Every other premiership team over the last fifteen years has ranked first or second. 

I wouldn't use this team or its achievements as a yardstick for anything.  Classic Roos.

17 hours ago, ProDee said:

The 2005 premiership team was an anomaly on many levels, including having a terrible average spread of gosl-kickers.  They ranked second last.  Every other premiership team over the last fifteen years has ranked first or second. 

I wouldn't use this team or its achievements as a yardstick for anything.  Classic Roos.

I don't think that's true - take out the recent Hawthorn and Geelong flags and there's not to many "Silvagnis" in there:

2012:

Sydney
B:	2 Rhyce Shaw	25 Ted Richards	29 Martin Mattner
HB:	34 Alex Johnson	39 Heath Grundy	40 Nick Smith

2010:

Collingwood B: 5 Nick Maxwell (c) 16 Nathan Brown 34 Alan Toovey HB: 8 Harry O'Brien 20 Ben Reid 39 Heath Shaw

2008:

Hawthorn[12]
B:	27 Stephen Gilham	24 Trent Croad	18 Brent Guerra
HB:	14 Grant Birchall	15 Luke Hodge	4 Rick Ladson

2006:

West Coast

Backs	Beau Waters	Darren Glass	Daniel Chick
Half-backs	Adam Selwood	Adam Hunter	Brett Jones

2005: Sydney

 

B:28 Jared Crouch21 Leo Barry30 Lewis Roberts-Thomson

HB:4 Ben Mathews6 Craig Bolton17 Tadhg Kennelly

2004:

Port Adelaide B: 21 Michael Wilson 2 Darryl Wakelin 19 Matthew Bishop HB: 11 Damien Hardwick 35 Chad Cornes 3 Brett Montgomery

2 hours ago, Fifty-5 said:

I don't think that's true - take out the recent Hawthorn and Geelong flags and there's not to many "Silvagnis" in there:

2012:

Sydney
B:	2 Rhyce Shaw	25 Ted Richards	29 Martin Mattner
HB:	34 Alex Johnson	39 Heath Grundy	40 Nick Smith

2010:

Collingwood B: 5 Nick Maxwell (c) 16 Nathan Brown 34 Alan Toovey HB: 8 Harry O'Brien 20 Ben Reid 39 Heath Shaw

2008:

Hawthorn[12]
B:	27 Stephen Gilham	24 Trent Croad	18 Brent Guerra
HB:	14 Grant Birchall	15 Luke Hodge	4 Rick Ladson

2006:

West Coast

Backs	Beau Waters	Darren Glass	Daniel Chick
Half-backs	Adam Selwood	Adam Hunter	Brett Jones

2005: Sydney

 

B:28 Jared Crouch21 Leo Barry30 Lewis Roberts-Thomson

HB:4 Ben Mathews6 Craig Bolton17 Tadhg Kennelly

2004:

Port Adelaide B: 21 Michael Wilson 2 Darryl Wakelin 19 Matthew Bishop HB: 11 Damien Hardwick 35 Chad Cornes 3 Brett Montgomery

The game is also clearly going this way. It's about team defence as much as it is one-on-one defence. Your defensive systems and team play will win you flags.

I get the feeling that one way or another we know exactly where we are with Prestia, and that it was worked out a while ago, so we just don't need to make any noise.

It may be that we've said no, or it may be that we've got him in the bag. Or more likely, we've put him an offer and he'll come back to us if he gets another offer that he's prepared to consider. He seems to be playing as if the matter's resolved, one way or another.

Whatever has been decided, we have no need to play this out in the media. So we won't hear anything from the club until the denouement.

I'd just like to say the formatting in this thread has become first rate. Well done chaps!

Quote

I'd just like to say the formatting in this thread has become first rate. Well done chaps!

haha, cut and paste from Wiki. All the formatting was done for us.......

52 pages and he hasn't even said his leaving GC yet. Can this thread beat the almighty Paddy Dangerfield thead.

20 hours ago, Fifty-5 said:

I don't think that's true - take out the recent Hawthorn and Geelong flags and there's not to many "Silvagnis" in there:

2012:

Sydney
B:	2 Rhyce Shaw	25 Ted Richards	29 Martin Mattner
HB:	34 Alex Johnson	39 Heath Grundy	40 Nick Smith

2010:

Collingwood B: 5 Nick Maxwell (c) 16 Nathan Brown 34 Alan Toovey HB: 8 Harry O'Brien 20 Ben Reid 39 Heath Shaw

2008:

Hawthorn[12]
B:	27 Stephen Gilham	24 Trent Croad	18 Brent Guerra
HB:	14 Grant Birchall	15 Luke Hodge	4 Rick Ladson

2006:

West Coast

Backs	Beau Waters	Darren Glass	Daniel Chick
Half-backs	Adam Selwood	Adam Hunter	Brett Jones

2005: Sydney

 

B:28 Jared Crouch21 Leo Barry30 Lewis Roberts-Thomson

HB:4 Ben Mathews6 Craig Bolton17 Tadhg Kennelly

2004:

Port Adelaide B: 21 Michael Wilson 2 Darryl Wakelin 19 Matthew Bishop HB: 11 Damien Hardwick 35 Chad Cornes 3 Brett Montgomery

What isn't true ?  The average spread of goal-kickers ?  

There's no doubt the game has evolved and that teams play a zone defence these days, which lessens the focus on individuals, but quality key defenders will always be in vogue. 

Running half-backs are now as important as any players in the game, which want the case years ago, so it's very difficult to look back and run a critical eye over the defences of teams from didn't eras. 

Maxwell was no star, but when he was at his best there was no better zoning defender/intercept mark in the game.  And they were and still are crucial traits. 

There aren't many gun key talls these days, but if we can get a tough rebounder like Hibberd it would be a great get. 

On 7 July 2016 at 7:50 PM, ProDee said:

Sure, but any premiership defence has players the quality of Taylor, Enright, Scarlett, Milburn, Lake, Birchall, Burgoyne, etc.  Whether it's Ayres, Mew, Southby, Doull, Dench, Leppitsch, Chris Johnson, etc, great teams over the journey have the Silvagni type quality players of this world shoring up defence.

If you ever want to see a flag pray for a better defence (or should that be deeeeeefence).

That's what isn't true.  Few of those defences have champs in them.  It's the exception.

you said that Sydney's 2005 workman defence was the exception, but it's not.

2 hours ago, Fifty-5 said:

That's what isn't true.  Few of those defences have champs in them.  It's the exception.

you said that Sydney's 2005 workman defence was the exception, but it's not.

OK, I didn't read back over the post you responded to (if you'd quoted correctly...)

Fair enough.  Not all premiership teams have champion players, just good ones. 

And better ones than we presently have. 

8 minutes ago, ProDee said:

OK, I didn't read back over the post you responded to (if you'd quoted correctly...)

Fair enough.  Not all premiership teams have champion players, just good ones. 

And better ones than we presently have. 

Cant argue with that, but at least it appears we are pulling out all stops to change it. That makes me happy. 

 

I would say the midfield is the most important part of building a premiership side.

Look at the last 10 Premiers, I think they all have at least 4 A grade mids.

Hawks: Mitchell, Lewis, Hodge & Smith (probably B+)

Swans: Kennedy, Jack, Hannebery & Parker

Cats: Selwood, Bartel, Corey, Ling, Ablett Jnr & Kelly (probably the best midfield of the last 10 years)

1 minute ago, Is Dom Is Good said:

I would say the midfield is the most important part of building a premiership side.

Look at the last 10 Premiers, I think they all have at least 4 A grade mids.

Hawks: Mitchell, Lewis, Hodge & Smith (probably B+)

Swans: Kennedy, Jack, Hannebery & Parker

Cats: Selwood, Bartel, Corey, Ling, Ablett Jnr & Kelly (probably the best midfield of the last 10 years)

I would put it down to maybe 3 A graders. Smith is probably B+, Parker was the sub when Sydney won it, and Geelongs midfield, I mean, well..

2 minutes ago, Is Dom Is Good said:

I would say the midfield is the most important part of building a premiership side.

Look at the last 10 Premiers, I think they all have at least 4 A grade mids.

Hawks: Mitchell, Lewis, Hodge & Smith (probably B+)

Swans: Kennedy, Jack, Hannebery & Parker

Cats: Selwood, Bartel, Corey, Ling, Ablett Jnr & Kelly (probably the best midfield of the last 10 years)

And ours would be Viney, Prestia, Tyson and maybe Oliver, Brayshaw and Petracca? 

Completely agree btw.

On 9 July 2016 at 8:42 AM, olisik said:

52 pages and he hasn't even said his leaving GC yet. Can this thread beat the almighty Paddy Dangerfield thead.

If we're offering half as much as we offered PD (1.5m?) then it deserves a 100 pages.