Scott Welsh

[alwaysadog]

Re: Scott Welsh

Welcome Swoop, keep up the analytical posts, you'll do well here, we like you already, you’re a good fit.

Welsh is neither an outstanding player nor a traditional FF, just to state the bleeding obvious at the beginning. That said he is a quality player and he made a sizeable contribution to our season. When Johnno got injured he became more the focus of opposition defences than was good for us or him.

When I used to watch my kids playing junior basketball I used to hate the coaches and the spectators who only valued a player for the number of points he scored and did not watch the whole game and see who did the grunt work, who did the defending and setting up, making the chances that other people benefited from. Last season Welsh was often a victim of this mentality. Now for the knockers I’m not blind to his weaknesses, but a lot of what has been said negatively is more an attempt to compare him to a stereotype that fits neither his game nor what was asked of him.

Because he played a focal role one week and scored well doesn't mean he was asked to play the same role the following week. In fact to do so would be to commit one of Rocket's cardinal football sins; becoming predictable. So his supposed good and bad games are often a matter of who saw what. My view is that his bad games were those when he got a number of shots on goal but his conversion rate was low.

While I agree that Welsh is not the most versatile player we have he did things that surprised me. He was, prior to my watching him and giving careful scrutiny, a stereotypical quick lead, mark and straight kick player. I knew little about the quality of his marking under pressure… or of his persistence.

We were told by habitual Crows watchers not to expect to see him chasing back, when the reality is that he made this a feature of his game and what was more, and often went unremarked, he read the game well and made several telling interceptions around the centre of the ground as the ball was coming out of our forward line.

I think the crows had him stereotyped and we gave him more rounded roles to play, and we both benefited.

The question on all our lips at this stage is next season. Assuming he does a full preseason I can see no reason that he will not again be in the forward line rotation as Rocket shuffles the deck of cards to produce a winning hand that no one expects.

[The Coon Dog]

Re: Scott Welsh

Old Dog's desire grows



HAVING turned 30 last December Scott Welsh knows he doesn't have a lot of AFL seasons in front of him, but the realisation that he is a lot closer to the end than the start of his career has stoked the Bulldog forward's desire for success.

Welsh played all but one game for the Dogs in 2008 - contributing 43 goals in his first season at the club after crossing from Adelaide - and is determined to play a large role in the push for the 2009 flag.

"As players get older they know that their time is nearing (an end) and you want to get as much as you can out of footy. I'm a realist and I've probably only got one more year, maybe two years, left and I just want to enjoy it and get the most out of it," Welsh says.

"You've got to put so much hard work and effort into it and you do sacrifice a lot and if you don't enjoy it there's no point being in it – you're just going to be miserable.

"Your body definitely feels it more as you get older, but I'm still feeling okay and think I can make a strong contribution this season."

By his own admission, Welsh did not finish last year off as well as he would have liked, but feels his cause wasn't helped by a less than ideal preparation as he tried to train while trying to engineer a path to Whitten Oval via the pre-season draft.

Welsh, who has played 189 games, is confident the work he put in before Christmas will give him a better fitness base in ’09, but it hasn't all been clear sailing.

A back strain suffered in the days before he and his teammates were due to fly out to America ruled him out of the high-altitude training camp.

"It was disappointing not to get to go," he admits.

"We raised a lot of money during the year for it and to not go was disappointing because everyone seemed to learn a bit while they were over there. But at the stage I'm at in my career and with my back it was probably best not to make the long plane trip.

"I've had disc problems my whole career, but this other issue was unrelated.

"I'm on track at the moment. It wasn't a major injury, it was just something that I had to manage, so I'm confident that I'll have a good pre-season and get stuck into it this year."

After coming close to that elusive grand final berth last year, Welsh is confident the Dogs have the firepower to mount another strong challenge for the flag this season.

Brad Johnson led the way with 50 goals in 2008 followed by Jason Akermanis with 49 in an attack that finished the year with more points than eventual premiers Hawthorn.

Welsh maintains the Bullies don't necessarily need to uncover their own version of centurion Lance Franklin to achieve their premiership goal.

"We have a strong forward line and the players that we've got down there are all quality players with some guys who can turn a game upside down," he says.

"Every team needs a focal point around centre half-forward to help get the ball into the forward line, but if everyone does their bit you don’t need to have a forward kicking 80 goals. You can cover those goals with a few players. If you make yourself too dependant on one player then you can find yourself in trouble if he gets injured or has a quiet game.
"There are a lot of match winners in our forward line so if we can all stick together and make sure we're all on the same page we're going to make it hard for a lot of back lines in the competition in 2009."

[Bornadog]

Re: Scott Welsh

Hope he can still show something in 2009 as time is not on his side at age 30.