Dry Rot
26-05-2009, 11:08 PM
First up, thanks to Mantis for the invite to do this week's player profile.
I suspect he feels sorry for me - I suffer from Swanitis, the debilitating condition of having the Swans on free to air TV, radio, every newspaper etc every week living in Sydney.
Why Darren Jolly?
"Why not?" would save me some typing, but the longer answer is threefold.
The Swans don't have many real "stars" (very even team) and all the good ones (sorry about the pun) like McVeigh, O'Keefe, Goodes, Kirk etc have been rightly done before here and while I wanted to do someone weird or funky like bionic knee Malceski or bad boy Swan, neither could win the game for the Swans.
IMO, Darren Jolly could.
The mandatory pic
http://www.realfooty.com.au/ffximage/2008/05/04/GALL_SWAN_SS9_gallery__346x400,0.jpg
I went to some effort, so here is a pic of Jolly in action this Saturday
(I am a time traveller - Cooney kicks the winning goal right on the bell if you need to know now who wins on Saturday).
Believe it or not (3 odd facts about Darren Jolly)
1. He joins another handy ruckman Dean Cox in being an elevated rookie (2001)
2. He could only get 7 games with Melbourne in 2004 (I blame the evil, cheating Jeff White), got pissed off and moved to the Swans to become a premiership player the following year.
3. I have never met Darren Jolly.
More important facts
Number: 16
Height: 200 cm
Weight: 105 kg
DOB 6/11/81
Debut: 2001
Career games: 153
Career goals: 65
Early career
A country Victorian lad (played for North Ballarat). Drafted as a rookie to the Demons in 2000, elevated in 2001.
Played 16 games for the Dees in 2002 and 19 in 2003 (Gee I hope these Fan Footy stats are right)
Only played four games for them in 2001 and 7 seven in 2004 (my hours of extensive research and asking a certain kind Administrator here didn't resolve what happened in 2004).
Predicted that Jeff White would cheat in the dying seconds of the last round of 2005 playing the Dogs, and being a gentleman he left the club end 2004.*
Traded to Sydney for Pick 15 (the great Lynden Dunn).
* Wikipedia note: This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references (ideally, using inline citations). Unsourced or poorly sourced contentious material must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful.
Glory in 2005
Jolly would join Jason Ball (in his last year) to form a premiership winning ruck combo against Cox and friends.
My recollection of that season was that Jolly played some pretty good mature footy, and arguably he became a pretty good ruckman in his own right (yet another good recycled Swans player, unlike his mate Spider in 2007)
Carrying the Swans ruck
Ball retired just after Leo Barry took a screamer end 2005, and Jolly has carried the Swans ruck ever since.
He was supported by some injury riddled duds in 2006 (whose names my extensive research didn't reveal) and the was joined by the great and very slow Peter Everitt in 2007 and 2008 (when he was fit or wanted to play).
Arguably the Swans have not found a good ruck partner for Jolly since Ball retired, and are toying with Jesse White and an ex-Canadian World Cup Rugby fullback this year.
The result of all this?
IMO, Jolly has come of age with all this responsibility and is one of the better ruckmen in the AFL (and much better than ours).
Why is Jolly dangerous this weekend?
Jolly is not just a good tap ruckman, but he is dammed good around the ground.
In defence, he often falls back into the hole and gets onto the goal line to make an otherwise goal certain a point. He bobs up all over the ground when you least expect him acting as a good linkman.
IMO, all this will really trouble our less than mobile and diligent ruckmen.
How Jolly could win the game
Here's part of the answer (see the second mark).
BItbXZVKECU
Jolly has quietly developed into both a very good contested mark floating forward and a bloody good straight kick for goal.
Assuming Lake gets Hall (who is actually playing quite well, harassing defenders and doing "the team" stuff) Eade will need a strategy to counter Jolly going forward, along with countering O'Keefe (not playing too well this year) and Micky O (ominously moving better than I've seen him for a few seasons).
Thoughts?
I suspect he feels sorry for me - I suffer from Swanitis, the debilitating condition of having the Swans on free to air TV, radio, every newspaper etc every week living in Sydney.
Why Darren Jolly?
"Why not?" would save me some typing, but the longer answer is threefold.
The Swans don't have many real "stars" (very even team) and all the good ones (sorry about the pun) like McVeigh, O'Keefe, Goodes, Kirk etc have been rightly done before here and while I wanted to do someone weird or funky like bionic knee Malceski or bad boy Swan, neither could win the game for the Swans.
IMO, Darren Jolly could.
The mandatory pic
http://www.realfooty.com.au/ffximage/2008/05/04/GALL_SWAN_SS9_gallery__346x400,0.jpg
I went to some effort, so here is a pic of Jolly in action this Saturday
(I am a time traveller - Cooney kicks the winning goal right on the bell if you need to know now who wins on Saturday).
Believe it or not (3 odd facts about Darren Jolly)
1. He joins another handy ruckman Dean Cox in being an elevated rookie (2001)
2. He could only get 7 games with Melbourne in 2004 (I blame the evil, cheating Jeff White), got pissed off and moved to the Swans to become a premiership player the following year.
3. I have never met Darren Jolly.
More important facts
Number: 16
Height: 200 cm
Weight: 105 kg
DOB 6/11/81
Debut: 2001
Career games: 153
Career goals: 65
Early career
A country Victorian lad (played for North Ballarat). Drafted as a rookie to the Demons in 2000, elevated in 2001.
Played 16 games for the Dees in 2002 and 19 in 2003 (Gee I hope these Fan Footy stats are right)
Only played four games for them in 2001 and 7 seven in 2004 (my hours of extensive research and asking a certain kind Administrator here didn't resolve what happened in 2004).
Predicted that Jeff White would cheat in the dying seconds of the last round of 2005 playing the Dogs, and being a gentleman he left the club end 2004.*
Traded to Sydney for Pick 15 (the great Lynden Dunn).
* Wikipedia note: This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references (ideally, using inline citations). Unsourced or poorly sourced contentious material must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful.
Glory in 2005
Jolly would join Jason Ball (in his last year) to form a premiership winning ruck combo against Cox and friends.
My recollection of that season was that Jolly played some pretty good mature footy, and arguably he became a pretty good ruckman in his own right (yet another good recycled Swans player, unlike his mate Spider in 2007)
Carrying the Swans ruck
Ball retired just after Leo Barry took a screamer end 2005, and Jolly has carried the Swans ruck ever since.
He was supported by some injury riddled duds in 2006 (whose names my extensive research didn't reveal) and the was joined by the great and very slow Peter Everitt in 2007 and 2008 (when he was fit or wanted to play).
Arguably the Swans have not found a good ruck partner for Jolly since Ball retired, and are toying with Jesse White and an ex-Canadian World Cup Rugby fullback this year.
The result of all this?
IMO, Jolly has come of age with all this responsibility and is one of the better ruckmen in the AFL (and much better than ours).
Why is Jolly dangerous this weekend?
Jolly is not just a good tap ruckman, but he is dammed good around the ground.
In defence, he often falls back into the hole and gets onto the goal line to make an otherwise goal certain a point. He bobs up all over the ground when you least expect him acting as a good linkman.
IMO, all this will really trouble our less than mobile and diligent ruckmen.
How Jolly could win the game
Here's part of the answer (see the second mark).
BItbXZVKECU
Jolly has quietly developed into both a very good contested mark floating forward and a bloody good straight kick for goal.
Assuming Lake gets Hall (who is actually playing quite well, harassing defenders and doing "the team" stuff) Eade will need a strategy to counter Jolly going forward, along with countering O'Keefe (not playing too well this year) and Micky O (ominously moving better than I've seen him for a few seasons).
Thoughts?