#22 Steele Sidebottom

[think positive]

oh man! Nicks sure is entertaining to me once im over the yicky part of a loss!! Seriously, some of you never give him any credit!! Hes the new Blair!!!

[Pies4shaw]

^ He's done better than Blair in the "scapegoat stakes" - he has 6 or 7 top 3 finishes in the Copeland and yet, according to many Nicksters, he's still soft, can't handle pressure, easily tagged and without disposal skills. Since he's our third best player (and has been in our top 3 since 2010), it's no wonder we can't win anything - he's barely VFL standard, according to some.

Lucky he's averaging 25+ disposals per game or they'd be after him with their pitchforks.

Presently, he's 4th for total disposals at the Club (behind Treloar and Pendlebury, who are our starting mids, whereas Sidey mostly plays the wing - although only the coaching staff know why, and - by 6 disposals - Crisp). He's used the Sherrin 380 times, so far this season. He'll probably finish up with about 550-600 disposals again, more if we make the finals.

Time to rid ourselves of this albatross, I reckon.

FMD.

[Greeny2968]

Sidey has been a great player, but he’s down on form and is giving us nothing when we need him to stand up...
Bucks needs to be held responsible for player attitude and effort.

[Pies4shaw]

"Nothing"? The side lost by 4 points. Sidebottom had the third-most disposals on the ground (across both teams), behind only Treloar and Phillips. No Collingwood player had more kicks than Sidebottom. He had 6 clearances. Only 1 player (Treloar) had more. He's certainly down on form compared to last year - but he's far from our worst.

What do we make of some of the players who are supposed to be the "hard at it" players, like Mayne, who had 1 contested possession? Even though he has been selected to play an outside role (to which he is, quite frankly, unsuited because he is slow as a coach), Sidey had 10 contested possessions - most of the guys getting bagged along with Sidey (Treloar 16, Pendles 13, JDG 12, Phillips and Grundy 11) are the ones who actually put their body in harm's way to try to get the ball for the team.

The problem is not Sidebottom - it's that when Sidebottom, Grundy and Pendlebury do not carry the team, no-one else is good enough to do so.

[Mr Miyagi]

[What'sinaname]

Sidey does enough.

I'd put the spotlight on 18 other softcocks before I'd question Sidey's commitment or ability.

[qldmagpie67]

I was a long time critic of Sidey but last year proved what he's capable of.
I think his down turn this season is the constant changing of roles each and every week and during games
It's like Bucks needs a hole plugged he calls on Sidey and or Pendles to do so
Hard to get consistent performances when your asked to play several roles a week
I also believe most clubs are putting a bit more time into him defensively trying to make him work harder for his touches
Left unattended he will kill you under pressure he goes back to being a good footballer instead of a very good footballer
Without him we are a worse side

[mattdally]

Love Sidey, but he is our barometer.
When he's flying we win.
Look at our losses this year:
- Cats 26 disposals @ 73%
- Eagles 25 disposals @ 88% (better performance than the GF)
- Freo 20 disposals @ 70%
- North 23 disposals @ 56%
- Hawks 28 disposals @ 60%

Total goals in these games = 1
Total goals in Wins = 5

[masoncox]

We have a problem in the midfield.
It has been evident all year.
Our backs have been wonderful.
Our forwards good.
It was our midfield that lost the GF.
If Trelaor Phillips and Sidey got massive amounts
of disposals then why was the inside 50 ratio so bad?
The midfield is not breaking lines
The midfield is not linking chains of ball carrying.
How many times have players just broken free of Sidey's tackles?
When Sidey is tagged he is near useless.
By himself Sidey gets lots of the ball.
But a lot of it is on the wing, hand ball here handball there.
He Treloar , Phillips, Mayne, Sier and pendles at times are having problems impacting on the game over stretches of time.

[inxs88]

I think his kicking has always seduced the non-week to week watchers versus the rank and file rusted on fans. Given he averages 28+ possessions most weeks, you'd think he would average 110+ ranking points in all the formats. He simply doesn't though. Hence the amount of:

* rushed kicks to nobody
* dinky lateral kicks to the feet of our players
* and most critically, the junk ball he gets defensive 50 vs forward 50 (only 1 on Friday night) suggest he doesn't hurt the opposition anywhere often enough.

[hermie]

"Pies4shaw"]I agree. Pendlebury, Sidebottom and Grundy need to be dropped, now, for team balance.

Grundy?

[hermie]

been saying this for years, he doesn't have to win contested possessions to have an influence but does my head in when he sticks out one half hearted arm to pretend he is tackling only for the opponent to run into goal purely because he won't lay a hard tackle and then my fav is hand passes to blokes as they get tackled.

[BEAMER09]

[Jezza]

Played an excellent game on Friday night.

Deserves plenty of credit for the victory.

[Millane42]

He and other senior players stood up finally - good to see. Crisp had a blinder but Pendles and sidey were terrific. It’s just so strange why they can’t do this week in week out