Pathetic.

[Dave]

I just can't see why Nicks is getting a game.

We were going just fine without him!

[Johnny Roberts]

The Kangaroo game was the "reality check" the swannies needed. The "talk" of top 4 finishes and winning streaks in the media (and here for that matter) was way too premature in my book.

Nothing has changed- we are still a young team playing on confidence, there is too much of a gap between our "best and "worst" performances to be making big predictions for this year.

We rely heavily on an even performance from everyone, rather than a few stars- as soon as we have a few down we struggle to find others to "pick up the slack".

To be fair injuries didn't help our cause- Cressa and Magic have been instrumental this year and Saddington hurt our already small backline- however, if we are to become a top side we need to develop the depth to cover injuries.

Hats off to North, they have to be admired for their competitive spirit, even under the toughest circumstances. They continue to beat the sides they should and push the top sides. Laidley did his "homework" well in the pressure that was exerted on our midfielders and running half backs.

The form of the rookies and the improvement of some of the swans fringe/ midrange players has been the big postive this year- but this has only gone part of the way in plugging the holes in the swans side.

Our 2 glaring weaknesses are our midfield and key defensive posts. We were always going to struggle down back with Dunks gone and we seem to have some good long term prospects in Powell, Dempster, LRT, even Stevens to a point- with our team of running defenders we have the makings of a good defence of the future.

However I am not as optimistic about our midfield options. We seem to have the "runwith" roles covered- but we need to find inside and outside midfielders to take us forward. Cressa is still our best "in and under" player and Maxfield and Williams would be our 2 best "attacking midfielders" - a big worry considering all of their relative ages. We seem to be able to "hold" sides in the midfield, but if the run from our defenders dries up, we really struggle to get any sort of quality ball to the forwards.

So after 9 rounds I would say we are slightly ahead of schedule in terms of ladder position, but we still have the same deffincencies as the start of the year. If we can extract an even performance from all players we will cover our weaknesses, if not it will be the same roller coaster ride of the last 2-3 years.

[Newbie]

Originally posted by Craig
I agree that players should be versatile, but it is obvious that he hasn't performed well in the backline and is far suited to a wing/midfield role. You can definately learn to be defensive playing in the midfield. Stick him on a good onballer and he will have to be defensive as well as learning the midfield role.

You mean playing Kennelly as a tagger? That spot is taken by Crouch already .

[Nico]

Originally posted by Sanecow
No Cressy, Micky or Saddo really showed our lack of depth. The centre bounces were a car accident and the other swans all stopped to look. A really rat-@@@@ performance by a lot of the boys.

And I think I'm about to turn on my hero, Mr Nicks.

It is very hard to cover 3 quality players as above. Essendon can't do it and I doubt Brisbane could with Voss Lynch and Aker out. These 3 are as valuable as leaders on field in their respective roles as any 3 in any other team.

25 possessions in the midield gone, a tall running option up back and a forward who can kick 5 and take a quality backman povides the reasons why we lost.

We just don't have at the moment the players to cover them . Maybe Fixter in the midfield and Doyle up forward, but they are out for some time.

With these 3 out we will struggle to kick a winning score, which was proved from Round 2-4.

[bricon]

I think that there has been far too much hand wringing over the disappointing loss to North Melbourne. Sure we played poorly; in fact I thought that the final margin flattered us.

Some supporters may have gotten a little ahead of themselves by becoming a little too excited by our form over the previous month. The Swans <b>today</b> are not a substantially better, more skillful or better-coached side than they were at the beginning of the season. We?ve had some good wins, we?ll have some bitterly disappointing losses; that?s inevitable with a playing group at the stage of development as ours.

We should not be shocked or surprised by performances like last Sunday?s; in fact Paul Roos told us to expect as much. Here?s a couple of quotes from the coach from earlier this year:

But as I've continued to reiterate along the way there won't be any miracles and it's important for everyone to understand where we are headed.

We are developing a young side, a side that will stumble and sometimes fall along the way, but all the while we?ll be looking to play an exciting brand of footy, no matter what

There may be times when we have to endure a roller-coaster ride with so many young players but all the same I'm sure we are set for an exhilarating season in 2003.

Does this mean that we shouldn?t be shattered after a loss? Of course not, but we should sometimes remind ourselves of what Roos? plan is for the club.

[Bron]

It was disappointing after such great play against a few teams that we then played such a lousy game. But hey, Roos always said it was going to be that way. I certainly wasn't gutted as I was last year. I believe there is potential. I think our real issue continues to be mental - we haven't got a team of stars, but when everyone plays well we can be a star team .... we just need us all playing well all the time and that's not easy!