Swans V Port

[Jon]

Originally posted by motorace_182
Bolton was not very good a t all, he couldnt keep his feet in a contest and never played in front

Totally agree with you about players slipping. He wasn't the only culprit. Too many players lost their footing at crucial moments. Definitely cost us goals. The worst was Tiger's blue. He put good pressure on to bustle his man off the ball in the goal square, then slipped, was second to recover and another soft goal!

[NMWBloods]

well, one thing it showed is that our low number of inside 50's this year is a deficiency. When we're shooting straight (as we have been) you can get away with only 38-45 inside 50's, but when you're under intense pressure, and missing those chances, it can really cost you.

Which was essentially Leigh Matthews' point a few weeks ago, even though some people here didn't like his comments.

[Craig]

What about Schauble?? He is an absolute goose! He should be playing on Tradrea the whole game, not a half. Leo Barry is a flanker and is not suited to playing on the best CHF in the comp. We need a full back ASAP. I wish they would try LRT down there or Scott Stevens.

[NMWBloods]

Problem is that in all likelihood Tredrea would kill one of the younger guys, just through their inexperience if nothing else, and Roos probably doesn't want to risk their confidence just yet.

[Mike_B]

Originally posted by motorace_182
what happened to the rule where if u punch it out of the ruck and it goes out without being touched its a free?

Only if it goes out on the full...

[Nico]

Up until the last 10 minutes of the 3rd quarter and if a few breaks had gone our way the game would have been very close at the final break.

Fitness is not a problem as we have finished well in most games.

We lost in the middle clearances. I think at one stage it said on the screen that Port had won the last 10 clearances. In the second half Port always seemed to be on the correct side of the pack when the ball spilled loose.

What I noticed was that after half time we stopped getting numbers at the ball, and when a player was under pressure rarely did some one come to his aid.

I noticed Barry, Crouch and Kennelly peeling off the ball (looking over their shoulders for their man) to pick up their own man, whereas in previous games they were backing their judgement and going for the footy instead and creating run from the backline. This caused easy possessions for Port players and goals resulted. Probably the pressure of the game was the cause and hopefully lessons will be learned.

I also thought that Mathews was playing well and when he went off we lost a bit of run off the back half of the centre square.

Our endevour by most players could not be questioned and our tackling was still pretty good, although some Port players have superior body strength and were able to break some solid tackles.

Overall not as bad as the scoreboard indicates.

PS. Plugger 46 is on holidays so we will not be getting any bad mail on Mathews for the next 2 weeks.

[motorace_182]

Plugger 46 is on holidays so we will not be getting any bad mail on Mathews for the next 2 weeks

Ill chip in with a fair bit for the overrated joke

[penga]

i think that port mustve targeted hardwick and pickett purely on the fact of being "hard" off the ball... run past a contest and have a go at someone... okeefe showed some and gave it back only for softwick to throw himself on the ground like a 2 year old having a 'tanty' (only to have the commentator to be reaching climax (again) over how well softwick thru himself to the ground... how about that same commentator saying how one of wankaneen's skills was playing for a free kick)... these antics really bug me, ie play for the free kick and then run past a contest and show your 'superior' strength

i think it comes down to one factor in the end: RAIN... i have a friend who went back home over the hols and i messaged her sat morning and asked her if it was raining, when the reply was "yes " i knew we were goin to lose...

as a side note i thought maxy looked alright, there was one contest in which he accelerated towards and thru himself into very hard, reminded me heaps of kel...

regarding nicks, there is only so long u can carry a player, who cares if theyve had a 'good' career when over the past season theyve been crap??????????

[BAM_BAM]

Originally posted by Reggi
O'Keefe just goes at AFL level if we are a good side - or playing against good sides we can't afford to have him - maybe don't delist but if he was good enough he would have showed it in todays conditions.
.

a bit harsh Reggi considering nobody really played all that well after the main break. And most of his game time was when Port were running all over us. I don't recall seeing him on in the first qtr at all. The first I remembering seeing him was with his run in with Hardwick (some time into the 2nd qtr), who suckered him into giving away a free. Handling those situations come with maturity. Hardwick is a thug and got the exact result he was after.

[Troy G]

It was the loss we had to have!

[TheHood]

Troy G, how profound!

Does anyone think the game would have turned out much differently is we had been 5 goals up at Qtr Time?

I do. I think there would have been scoreboard pressure on Port and significant confidence in the midfielders who missed, Fosdike and Davis.

My theory is that these guys were starting to read their "Sharp Shooting" press over the break and they got too "inside their own heads" as they lined up the set shots!

It's academic now! I hope our legs are fresh enough to get us over the line on Sunday. Hopefully there has been enough rain in Perth to negate the friggin Adelaide disaster.

[Bear]

Originally posted by Tractor2003

Thankgod for cresswell.......the only player who stood up for 4qrs

Cressa was thereabouts but his delivery into the forward line was consistently poor - wasted a lot of possessions (causing turnovers) and scoring opportunities this way.

Overall a bad day that left me confident we can beat them anywhere when things go right for us.

[JF_Bay22_SCG]

Originally posted by Foreign Legion
Nicks I would give 2 more weeks - I think he deserves it as he does have a lot of ability.

But Nick's best footy was at HBF Paul. From memory he was an All-Australian selection there a couple of years back.

He has been used as a weird mixture of leading and roving forward of late, which I do NOT like. Neither is he physically stronng enough to contest an aerial duel, nor he is fast enough any more to rove around the packs ala Micky O. And his set-shot goalkicking is totally crap.

He has at best 1-2 seasons in him. Why not give another kid ago? Are there any of the new sprongs who can handle playing at half-back.

Agree on Bolton. What he lacks in height, he makes up for in ability to suss out what is happening next. His has plenty of "footy smarts", which has shown in him beating taller and supposedly more illustrious opponents like Brendan Fevola and Matthew Richardson. And his foot skills and option-taking are very refreshing.

The question has to be asked though. Were we to get a better full back key position player, would Bolton be better suited in a pocket, or even at CHF?

Thoughts?

JF

[penga]

personally IMO, id play bolton in the BP, either taking a small crumbing forward or a taller non-body-to-body type player... even with a decent FB, i dont think bolton is physical enough to hold CHB, look at when leppitsch moved forward, bolton coudnt contain him at CHB...

the next HBF to watch is thewlis!