Sweet Jesus: Should Jordan Sweet be our first ruck?

[kickit2Koly]

Im prepared to give English a mulligan for this year, his all Aus last year buys him that. How quickly we forget he barely did a pre-season. David King was having a discussion the other day about how difficult an AFL season is without a pre-season.

[Mofra]

Im prepared to give English a mulligan for this year, his all Aus last year buys him that. How quickly we forget he barely did a pre-season. David King was having a discussion the other day about how difficult an AFL season is without a pre-season.

I'm not.
Fitness shouldn't be an issue by the time the first week of the finals rolls around, and it's the occasional 'non-competitive' game that hurts us, not his overall form.

[JanLorMill]

Im prepared to give English a mulligan for this year, his all Aus last year buys him that. How quickly we forget he barely did a pre-season. David King was having a discussion the other day about how difficult an AFL season is without a pre-season.

Excuses every year he underperforms in finals. Last year was one that was out of the box. Anointed AA after a few good games early in the season yet still had his ineffective games throughout the year. Only 7th in our b&f

[Rocket Science]

Champion Data rated Sweet's game as Port's 2nd most influential FWIW ...



Then again they rated Ratugolea ahead of Rioli so ?\_(ツ)_/?

[jeemak]

And Meek ahead of Sweet, which is strange. DT points had Sweet leading the way.

I guess Champion Data are the gurus.

[bornadog]

Champion Data rated Sweet's game as Port's 2nd most influential FWIW ...

Then again they rated Ratugolea ahead of Rioli so ?\_(ツ)_/?

I am glad we never chased him, I personally don't rate him

[mjp]

Champion Data rated Sweet's game as Port's 2nd most influential FWIW ...



Then again they rated Ratugolea ahead of Rioli so ?\_(ツ)_/?

The ratings in that game should start and stop with Rioli. He was bloody amazing - what a player he is.

AFL player ratings are a useful number to assist with your post game assessments and no more than that.

[mjp]

And Meek ahead of Sweet, which is strange. DT points had Sweet leading the way.

I guess Champion Data are the gurus.

DT points are not really too useful in assessing which players contributed to a win.

Sweet competed well but in the last quarter there was a 15-minute stretch where Meek just owned him at/around the stop with his follow up work.

[Sedat]

Mate, I give up.

Like Tim does in finals

*boom tish"

[EasternWest]

The ratings in that game should start and stop with Rioli. He was bloody amazing - what a player he is.

The pudgy assassin. Kills you whilst being so unassuming.

[Rocket Science]

I still feel like English is the best centre half forward we'll never have.

[Mantis]

Like Tim does in finals

*boom tish"

Timid makes Sally Robbins look like a competitive animal!

[CarnTheScray]

He had a two year deal from us and we shoved him out the door after one year. From memory just to free up a list spot so GWS didn?t steal Honeychurch off of us. He ?retired? on the side of a street in Richmond to some press in a pretty sad way. Was a pretty shit way Jason McCartney handled it. But that?s his MO.

Of course we were scared that we'd lose Honeychurch lol.

[CarnTheScray]

Proves what?

Tell me, if a player has 15 disposals, no marks, and ten of his 52 hitouts actually gives your team an advantage is that a great ruckman? He did lay 5 tackles which was good.

There are alot of things that a ruck contributes that are not recorded on the stats sheet. Sure, many of his taps did not fit the AFL's criteria of what a hit-out to advantage is, but he still denied the opposition ruck from having a clean hit of the ball to their mids.

When the ball fell his way he was a brick wall and used his size to slow down Hawthorns mids from winning the ball easily, that is not recorded in the stats. English barely does that, if he loses the hitout, thats the end of the centre battle and a free clearance to this opposition. He is just not a physical player and has never been.

[MrMahatma]

When English gets beaten, he often gets FLOGGED.

He's a nice player. Not sure he was REALLY the best ruck in the game last year - media got on a roll early in the season and he was crowned AA ruck. However... even if he was the best ruck... we didn't make finals last year.

I like the guy. I wish we didn't sign him on a long termer though. I think he's a theoretically good ruckman, but doesn't have what it takes to be a good ruckman. You simply can't be a pushover like he is when the going gets tough.

Not every player on the list is going to be a gun. Is what it is. I do think we'll look back over his career and wonder "I wonder how many more finals we could've won if we didn't persist with English". For that, you gotta lay a fair bit of blame at the MC and Bevo. They believe in him no matter what. I think it's the biggest blind spot our off field crew have. Choosing Harmes over Jacko I think was a mistake... but choosing English every week as our No. 1 ruck is a bigger one.

I'd love to be proven wrong but he's not 21 anymore. He shouldn't be getting bullied.