The Pluses of tonight

[Go Swannies]

Yes, I'm gutted too. The woman behind me was crying as she left and I felt like it. But let's spend a minute on the positives.

LRT and O'Keefe were perpetually there tonight when others seemed to disappear. I was sorry when Ablett was chosen over Stephens. My apologies NOG - you played a great game. Barry Hall - for a while it loooked like you could carry the whole team over the line yet again.

Thanks for the effort. As a rebuilding year it's been a thrill a minute. We still love youse all.

[stellation]

Ablett was good tonight. I guess his selection over Scott is a sign they are looking at one more than the other for the future?

[liz]

Bazza was sensational. Just a shame that we couldn't get the ball anywhere close to him in the final quarter because he might just have done it on his own.

Goodsey was superb, particularly in the first half. He looked tired by the end and that was a major contributor to our fade out. Not only can he run and run and run and position himself to win the ball, but his disposal skills have improved immensely, even as the season has gone on.

Kirk too was very good early on. Some of his touches were excellent - very creative user of the ball.

Great to see NOG score his first goal in AFL footy. And I reckon he showed enough to suggest he'll be on our list next year.

Willo and Maxfield I thought were tremendous as well - working desparately hard to get to contests even when it was all but over.

I know the scoreline says we got thumped. And I know we didn't play particularly well all night. But we still matched it with one of the best outfits going around for three quarters. Another fit ruckman (sadly Doyle was just unable to exert any influence with all the footy he's missed) would have made all the difference because we got pasted from clearances in the final term and just couldn't get first use of the ball.

[sharpie]

The moment that killed me was when I realised Goodes wasn't winning the hitouts anymore. It was in the 2nd half at some stage, and I already knew that Doyle wasn't really winning them.

In the 1st half, Goodes won nearly all of them, but when I saw he was too tired to keep it up, it really was the beginning of the end

[Mike_B]

Someone mentioned it in another thread, but I think Stuey really showed that he is a true leader - the way he was going hard at it, as if we were within a goal even in the last couple of minutes - that is all class.

Bazza tried his heart out (as always), Willo was everywhere it seemed, Schaubs showed he can match it body on body with the gorillas, NOG really got involved for a short burst and showed he has what it takes, and above all, we got the experience that we will be able to take with us when we make the finals next year and the year after that!

I'm upset for the boys that they got blown away in the last quarter - they really didn't deserve to go down by 7 goals, but I'm philosophical about it all - its all part of working towards 2004/2005/2006, and we definitely have a much stronger foundation for the coming years than I expected!

[gossipcom]

My pluses are pretty much mentioned above.

Roos doesn't get the AFL's official Coach of the Year because we didn't win the flag but what he has managed to carve out of these players this year has been extraordinary.

But onto the game.

NOG kicking his first career goal well done there.

LRT and ROK were showing some great glimpses in that first half.

Bazza tried hard even when the umpires seemed to be against him the whole match.

Stuey great leadership.

Schaubs as someone said if you take away the goals Lynch scored, some via dubious decisions, he did a fantastic job.

Willo seemed to be everywhere and just loved the crowd trying to cheer him on anytime he was running towards the inside 50, it's as if his little legs couldn't just guide the ball the extra 10 metres they needed. It didn't surprise me at all to find he topped the possession count overall (for both teams) - and I'd be saying this even if he wasn't my fav that apart from the freakish Brisbane goal that came off his handball, he was my BoG overall.

[no1swan]

Just like everyone, I'm very dispointed that we lost. But also think that if we had won tonight (by some miracle), I didn't think that we would have be any sort of match up for the Magpies next week.

The team was relatively injury free during the first half of the year, but the injury toll caught but with us in the second half. I noticed that Bazza had a bandage on his thigh, Goodesy looked at one point in the 3rd quarter to be limping, and I thought that if they managed to get up, that Collingwood would probably take us to the cleaners.

I remember 1996 vividly, all those expectations for the following years. I think we missed the finals a couple of times after that. It seemed that the club expected to be at the top year after year, hence complacency had set in, and became one of the most annoying this to wittness at some of the games. Eade got the team to the GF in his first year as coach, and in the years that followed ?????

Having gotten as far as we did this year, I was hoping that history wouldn't repeat itself. Although, like I've mentioned, tonights result is disapointing, and no doubt the players and supports are shattered that the "fairytale" ending didn't eventuate, the result can only spur the guys on to bigger and better things next year. Surely the players, having played the two finals this year will be better for the experience. They know they are very capable, as they have shown us many times this year. Hopefully the injury gods will look on the team more favourably next year.

Congratulations to the boys for getting this far. They did us proud and hopefully next year they go all the way.

[Damien]

Agree with most of above.

My biggest hope is that players don't believe the "Well done" hype and simply believe that this isn't good enough. Not being harsh, but as long as the guys know that this season only means something if it is really used a stepping stone to greatness.

In saying that, I am pretty satisified with the year!!! considering at round 3/4 I was thinking about how high the first draft pick would be!

[AussieAnge]

I agree with No1Swan, full credit to the boys they kept trying and trying and the scoreline doesn't reflect their effort. As send in many of the posts they are carrying injuries and there are many first year players, they can take the off season to get fit and will be better for this year's experience.
was quite impressed with Saddo given that he was supposed to have been out for the season and he hasn't played for 4 weeks.
Goodes took a knock to the right hip in the 2nd quarter and I think that was why he was limping.


Go the swans

[Go Swannies]

Well, it's the morning after now and I'm feeling more relaxed. Agree with most of the above. They say you only win finals after you gain finals experience. The boys battled two hard finals games and no-one can accuse them of being chokers (compare our effort vs Port's folding throughout the whole game).

I agree with No1Swan - I think there was a moments in the final 1/4 when everyone realised what was at stake. Brisbane's veterans stood up and our boys got stagefright. If we'd made the GF I think we'd have been runover. Next year the Swannies will be finals veterans and have the spirit to shine through.

I wonder which commentators will pick the Swans for the wooden spoon for 2004?

[Reggi]

Agree a bit with the last post.

They are a hardened finals side - hopefully some of our guys will be better for the experience. Devestated to lose - felt at 3/4 time we would win - stagefright sounds about right.

[swans_premiers]

don't be too worried about complacency, back in 96 we had stars that could carry us through but now the players know we are a much even team and they will put the effort in to be back there next year. This is the start of an new Era, brisbane lost a prelim in 2000 if i remember correctly and we all know the rest of the story. Collingwood also lost the gf last year but they made it back again. Just cos we didnt do much after 96 doesnt mean we wont be back again next year..aslong as we make up for cressas loss and bring in a few new faces next year there's no reason why we cant do well next year.

[omnipotent]

Last quarter proved that there is such a thing as finals hardened and home and away matches cannot compensate for that.

[chammond]

I wonder which commentators will pick the Swans for the wooden spoon for 2004?

Caro, of course!

[Nico]

Still can't work out why LRT was not on the ball in the second half. If he was I must have blinked.