Matt Thomas [merged]

[bojangles17]

He always handballs 2/3 of the time.  All I'm saying is at his point in time, he has a place in the side, miles should be in their too, not at Thomas expense though

[RedanTiger]

I'm not saying Thomas is the answer but we can use his hard work and toughness at the moment. Let him do some of the dirty work on the bottom of the packs instead of our more skilled players that can then work on the outside.
Footy at the moment is all about contested footy, especially against the very good sides, if you don't think Thomas is any good at that, then you are missing something. We need to get better and tougher around the footy. The good teams don't let us get on the outside like GWS did yesterday, making it easy for teams with bigger bodies that are willing to put them in at a massive advantage.
Play the hardnuts Dimma, the Houli's, Grigg's and Ellis' won't give a yelp when it gets tight!
Can only carry one of those blokes in the side at any one time the way footy is played now IMO.

It's not likely that he'll get the chance to play a game style that suits him - at the bottom of the packs.
Our coaching panel will soon give him a job as a tagger again to show up his lack of pace.
They'll give him the job on their fastest and most creative outside midfielder, likely to be Zaharakis, Heppel or Melksham.

[Chuck17]

Would be happy if he could average these stats

22 handballs 10 tackles 1 kick 1 goal

[the claw]

Thomas is great, not the best disposer but he is a real dynamo. Is he our Tucky replacement?

Not in a million years. Is a ball butcher. Yes he attacks the on test and the ball but struth he puts his teammates under pressure with his ordinary decision making and disposal

Best game for us yesterday. Showed a burst of speed in his first 2 steps he hasn't shown all year. Still prefer to give games to Miles as our clearance machine. Just much more upside.

I haven't watched the replay

But was at the game yesterday, yep he had 25 odd touches supposedly at 74% efficiency but had 5 clangers. Would love to know know they work out what clanger is

The number of times his disposal puts his teammates under pressure is staggering.

How he gets a games ahead of Miles baffles me. Miles is "miles" ahead of Thomas in so many areas it isn't funny

Play them both....
Tucky wasn't a great kick either. Won us all over with his hard work. Don't let absence get in the way of our memories.
I'm not saying Thomas is the answer but we can use his hard work and toughness at the moment. Let him do some of the dirty work on the bottom of the packs instead of our more skilled players that can then work on the outside.
Footy at the moment is all about contested footy, especially against the very good sides, if you don't think Thomas is any good at that, then you are missing something. We need to get better and tougher around the footy. The good teams don't let us get on the outside like GWS did yesterday, making it easy for teams with bigger bodies that are willing to put them in at a massive advantage.
Play the hardnuts Dimma, the Houli's, Grigg's and Ellis' won't give a yelp when it gets tight!
Can only carry one of those blokes in the side at any one time the way footy is played now IMO.

well said tone. if i was going to carry a player who has deficiencies it would be a thomas type. cracks in, wins plenty of ball, tackles hard and often, and works for his team mates.
sure the footskills leave a bit to be desired and hes a tad slow but imo atm what he brings to the team more than offsets the weaknesses. no coincidence we struggled enormously the previous 3 games  with c/p and clearances with out his type.
play miles as well i can see no reason at all why both cant play in the team.

[bojangles17]

28 possies 86% eff 13 contested, 10 tackles , 28 pressure acts, 8 score inv, fair days work that...but let's drop him 

[Gigantor]

surely dropping him after Saturday would send the wrong message...

[Hellenic Tiger]

28 possies 86% eff 13 contested, 10 tackles , 28 pressure acts, 8 score inv, fair days work that...but let's drop him 

I didn't say I wanted to drop him but as usual you make out that anything that happens at Punt Rd or on match day is so huge bigger than Ben Hur but anyway. That's just my mail. Whoa.

Who cares the guy has poor disposal and is slow as treacle. Lets see the next few weeks. Hope he does well but hey I aint counting my chickens well not like you are.

28 7 3 21 13 16 10 0 0 0.0 2 4 0 6

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-match-centre/afl-express-saturday-24-may-20140524-38v8a.html#ixzz32ipXDaWv

[Chuck17]

28 possies 86% eff 13 contested, 10 tackles , 28 pressure acts, 8 score inv, fair days work that...but let's drop him 

No don't drop him half a side need to go before him

[big tone]

28 possies 86% eff 13 contested, 10 tackles , 28 pressure acts, 8 score inv, fair days work that...but let's drop him 

If they are his stats, they are elite.
Not as bad as most make out.
10 blokes go before him.
Fantastic effort on Saturday.

[bojangles17]

28 possies 86% eff 13 contested, 10 tackles , 28 pressure acts, 8 score inv, fair days work that...but let's drop him 

If they are his stats, they are elite.
Not as bad as most make out.
10 blokes go before him.
Fantastic effort on Saturday.

Ty , I thought same , sam Lloyd would need to be peter daicos to take his spot, and that he ain't

[Hellenic Tiger]

28 possies 86% eff 13 contested, 10 tackles , 28 pressure acts, 8 score inv, fair days work that...but let's drop him 

If they are his stats, they are elite.
Not as bad as most make out.
10 blokes go before him.
Fantastic effort on Saturday.

Ty , I thought same , sam Lloyd would need to be peter daicos to take his spot, and that he ain't

Ones a midfielder and one's a forward.
Therefore Lloyd would have more chance of being Daicos than Thomas but hey.

[georgies31]

Nothing but a spare parts player and a hard nut.if we want to move forward and play finals can't carry players like this.

[bojangles17]

We re not carrying him partner, we haven't got anyone better , would be nice if we did

[MintOnLamb]

Nothing but a spare parts player and a hard nut.if we want to move forward and play finals can't carry players like this.

Well I would rather carry him than some other nancy boys (grigg esp) Fair dinkum, we ain't carrying him he brings plenty to the table

[bojangles17]

Agreed