Don't Panic

[midaro]

Did you know they are making a movie of Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy? So in the biggest, friendliest way possible, I say:

Don't Panic

I didn't see a moment of the game, but we weren't thrashed and Melbourne are better that most seem to realise. It is no shame to lose to them, just a blip.

Last week I was being criticised for finding fault with some players (LRT, J Bolton, Maxfield) when we "had a 50 point win - what more can you ask?" Now no player can do anything right.

Honestly, some people around here need to learn moderation.
Trust me, nothing is ever as good, or as bad, as you think it is.

[hardluck_harry]

Not panicking. Just hope this game doesn't act as a similar portent of what happened to Sydney and Melbournes fortune's last year.

[Mike_B]

The thing that concerns me most based off tonight's game is that we have a Plan A, but when Plan A doesn't work because the opposition stops the run on the rebound, or we're off our game a little, there is no Plan B, be it attempting to be more direct or whatever.

Oppositions will wise up to this and look to play HB flankers across HF instead to negate some of our rebound, and if we can't change our style of play to counter this/adapt if Plan A isn't working, we will struggle.

As for the individual criticism that's come out again, yes some is warranted and yes we all know we can't have too many players have a down game if we are to win. Tonight was a night when we had too many players off their games and it cost us. However, Melbourne would have beaten the majority of teams in the comp tonight with the way they dominated the clearances and moved the ball forward, give them credit where its due.

[dendol]

Originally posted by hardluck_harry
Not panicking. Just hope this game doesn't act as a similar portent of what happened to Sydney and Melbournes fortune's last year.

bloody hope not. Like we kicked 10 goals against them last year to turn it around, they kicked 7 and 6 in the 2nd and last quarters this time.

I dont like the fact that our midfield has been so inconsistent this year. Good in three games, and poor in two.

[liz]

We were beaten today by a talented, very even side that is playing with a lot of confidence and was better than us on the night. We played ordinary football with a lot of players well down on form and still were only beaten by 2 goals. We know that we can play much much better than that. More specifically, we know that our midfielders are each capable of playing even 5% better than that - which would have been the difference.

James is a novice and while he was soundly soundly beaten by Neitz, there is no disgrace in that. He'll learn a lot. It's not why we lost the game.

Tiger played probably his worst game in a couple of years. We know he's better than that.

And the forward line - Goodes' misses apart - was superb. Davis looked like he's been thinking about this game for a couple of weeks. Good return to form from Pebbles after a couple of ordinary weeks. Schneids was a combination of hard work and a bit of brilliance. Hall was, well, Hall.

Definitely agree it's not time to panic yet. Just need to learn the lessons from today and move onto the Bombers next week.

[Swansinger]

Not panicking - especially as we have the bye in our next home game.

What DID worry me , was that Roos criticised the players.
Adam Goodes made errors but his general play was not too bad - as somebody said in another thread , three goals i/o three points and he would have been registering a few TLM votes.

Roos's criticism may have a positive effect - given that he rarely does this in public - but nobody can expect Goodesy to don the Superman cape every time we are under the pump.

[dendol]

Originally posted by Swansinger
Not panicking - especially as we have the bye in our next home game.

Its those games that have me worried because we should be beating them by 10 goals, but it will probably be a Geelong-type nailbiter. Plus, Richo will be back for that one.

[liz]

Originally posted by dendol
Its those games that have me worried because we should be beating them by 10 goals, but it will probably be a Geelong-type nailbiter. Plus, Richo will be back for that one.

The Frawley factor also looms large. Their president has already mentioned since Friday's thumping that Frawley's position is under review. If they get beaten again badly this weekend it would be just our luck that next week is the week he goes.

[swansrock4eva]

no, if he's going to go, it'll be after losing to us - so many mid-season sackings/resignations have occurred after teams lose to us... gotta continue the trend!

[chammond]

Originally posted by Swansinger
Not panicking - especially as we have the bye in our next home game.

What DID worry me , was that Roos criticised the players.
Adam Goodes made errors but his general play was not too bad - as somebody said in another thread , three goals i/o three points and he would have been registering a few TLM votes.

Roos's criticism may have a positive effect - given that he rarely does this in public - but nobody can expect Goodesy to don the Superman cape every time we are under the pump.

That's interesting.

Who did he criticise?

[dendol]

Roos:

Sydney coach Paul Roos was scathing about his team's error-rate.

"Well I went and saw Scooby Doo yesterday and I reckon that was a better comedy than the one I saw out there tonight," Roos declared.

"Some of (the errors) I hadn't seen for a while and they were quite staggering. The one I vividly remember was when we have a free forward 120-metres clear and we kick a left foot kick along the ground.

"They are the sort of things I think at the end of the game just didn't give us a chance to inw the game."

Roos paid credit to the Demons with a sarcastic dig at some of his own players.

"You don't want to take any credit away from the opposition because every game is hard to win in AFL football," he said.

"Certinaly they played well enough to win there is no question about that, but if I was picking Melbourne's best players I would probably have a couple of our blokes in there."


I wonder who that was? Sounds like Goodes' two left foot grubbers.

[Reggi]

For the first time last night in the box he looked really distressed. He's right sometimes our disposal was a comedy, and Goodes certainly was one of those, but he had mates.

Very interesting to see how the players respond to this. Suddenly the weight of expectations is putting pressure on them. So usually this is when we find out the mettle of some of them

[Red]

Originally posted by Swansinger
What DID worry me , was that Roos criticised the players.

It had to happen sooner or later -- I reckon the Swans will test even the sternest resolve to remain cool.

But they deserve it. The boys can't play like that and expect Roosey to rub their back and gently console them. He's been fantastic so far -- encouraging, positve, supportive. But the players should also know that the coach can & <i>will</i> punish them if they deviate from the plan -- there needs to be that respect.

He's no-where near phone-smashing (yet), but Roosey might've got his first grey hair.

[TheHood]

Originally posted by lizz
We were beaten today by a talented, very even side that is playing with a lot of confidence and was better than us on the night. We played ordinary football with a lot of players well down on form and still were only beaten by 2 goals. We know that we can play much much better than that. More specifically, we know that our midfielders are each capable of playing even 5% better than that - which would have been the difference.

James is a novice and while he was soundly soundly beaten by Neitz, there is no disgrace in that. He'll learn a lot. It's not why we lost the game.

Tiger played probably his worst game in a couple of years. We know he's better than that.

And the forward line - Goodes' misses apart - was superb. Davis looked like he's been thinking about this game for a couple of weeks. Good return to form from Pebbles after a couple of ordinary weeks. Schneids was a combination of hard work and a bit of brilliance. Hall was, well, Hall.

Definitely agree it's not time to panic yet. Just need to learn the lessons from today and move onto the Bombers next week.

To lose with a forward line that played so well seems like throwning a 1990 Hill Of Grace down your Aunty Judy's thoat - a big fat waste of a brilliant taste.

The guys were magnificent all night, they just stopped getting the fuel they needed. Nick was awesome, Baz was terrific, Schneides worked really hard as I have said he does all the time and Goodesy was mennacing (how did he miss those 2).

[sharpie]

When we play well, we will beat any team in the comp. Look at the Brisbane game, we didnt play that well and almost snatched victory, plus we beat them twice last year.

When we play bad, we can be aweful. I dont think last night was aweful as such, but it wasnt good, and we got done by a team that played well. So I am not too worried, especially as I would prefer to play badly in the 1st half of the year and build up to September. Look at Collingwood and Brisbane last year, their seasons really only kick-started in around June.

One thing that does worry me though, is that we always seem to play to the oppositions level, or rather the level the swans expect the opposition to play to. Hence our inability to run away with games sometimes. Against a poor team, we generally play badly, such as Geelong. Against a good team, we lift, such as Freo. At this stage Melbourne is still an unknown entity in some ways, and I reckon the Swans took them too lightly.

It comes down to consistency. I would love to see the boys go out and thump poor teams by playing consistently at the level we know they can. And then when we come up against the better teams, we will give them a run for their money. I reckon this will improve as our young group matures. Lets hope this maturity can come in months instead of years.