Swingmen won’t solve Dockers’ woes

The modern swingman is the AFL’s version of cricket’s all-rounder. A relatively recent invention, he brings versatility and unpredictability to his team. But only the very best swingmen are worth playing.

Others are either good at one end of the ground, and being forced into a second role to add value to their team, or searching for a position in the team because they’re not quite good enough to hold down one spot.

Like the majority of all-rounders, most players being thrust into the swingman role are probably better off sticking to batting or bowling, aka defending or attacking, not both.

Some perfect examples have been seen at Fremantle this year.

While injecting a huge amount of youth after a host of retirements last year, the Dockers are expected to struggle. Inexperience will count against them, as it has in the first three weeks of the season.

And the coaching staff knows it.

So they must work with what they’ve got. Improvement has to come from within the ranks of Fremantle’s middle tier of players.

The current group will not magically turn into far better players, so coach Mark Harvey is testing them out, trying to see if they are actually better off playing in different positions.

That is a sign of desperation.

Another year of mediocrity will, rightly or wrongly (more likely wrongly considering the amount of changes at the port in the off-season) put Harvey under pressure.

He needs wins now. And he needs a respectable win-loss record.

The past success of Luke McPharlin as a swingman, and those of Adam Hunter on the other side of the Swan River, may have inspired some of Harvey’s moves.

Regular defenders Antoni Grover and Michael Johnson have been tried up forward with little success. An extra strong-marking forward could release the club’s one genuine superstar, Matthew Pavlich, to play further up the ground.

But Harvey hasn’t found one yet.

While Johnson has managed to get free and kick the odd goal during his time forward, he is clearly never going to be the traditional target that the Dockers are desperately searching for. Johnson has been a floater inside 50m, not the lead-and-mark key forward that they need.

As for Grover, just leave him in defence.

He has the thought process of a defender and a set shot to match.

The third swingman of Harvey’s 2009 regime has been sent the other way because he’s no good in his current position. Chris Tarrant has been a dud in the forward line since his high-profile move west from Collingwood and Harvey has thrown him into defence at times this year in a bid to reignite the former star’s career.

So far Tarrant has been serviceable in defence, but has disappointed in attack.

Harvey gets some sort of tick for this one. But just as Tarrant showed some good signs against Brendon Fevola in the pre-season and Brad Johnson-Mitch Hahn in round one, he gets thrown forward again.

What are you doing, Harvs?

The coach was right to try something, but a plethora of swingmen is not the answer. While I don’t profess to have a solution to Fremantle’s problems (I don’t think there is one this year), it is clear just three weeks into the season, that playing key position players out of position is not it.

All that is doing is creating uncertainty and instability within the team.

Fremantle 2009? Between 13th and 16th.

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