Season is OVER. Forget about finals

[liz]

Originally posted by NMWBloods

However, the problem is that the journey is just soooo long and with no real end in sight.

Yup, I'm not trying to contradict anyone's frustration or disappointment. Just saddens me to see anyone, especially fellow Swannies lose the hope that we will get there one day.

The journey itself is only truly enjoyable if it eventually reaches its destination.

Just think of it as an ultra ultra marathon. Some people seem to find them enjoyable

[dendol]

I've only been following the team since '96. Im pretty sure I dont understand the pain and frustration that you older heads feel year after year. Im with Lizz here in that we still have time to turn it around this year, where even though a premiership is an unlikely event, there is still 2/3 of the season to see where we are really at.

For mine, we really arent that far off the mark. These close losses hurt - I dont deny that we can draw parallels with 2002 - but Im not willing to give up on the season yet. Two very winnable games next will get us back on track, taking us to a huge clash with the Saints. If winning is what this Swans team needs to build up confidence, then Im willing to give it a few weeks yet.

All the doom and gloom talk after the Richmond loss last week was warranted, but we saw our team play hard and much more direct this week, and with only one ruckman. The current reigning triple premiership team also couldnt make it over the line when they played there a few weeks ago.

THE SEASON IS NOT OVER YET.

[Captain]

I can't believe all of this negative crap.

We have lost a few games and yet are still in the 8. We have a game against the Hawks next weekend. If we win that then we will be a little more comfortable.

I remember going to games in the early nineties where we were getting flogged every week. Yet I still stuck with them and hoped one day we would succeed. That made 96 more special to me than anything. We have lost 4 games in a row and people are bleating already, I would loved to have seen your attitude back in the nineties.

We still haven't one a cup, but when we do I know I will live with that memory forever. Our time will come, and when it does we need to make the most of it.

[hammo]

I think the disappointment stems from the fact that this team has so much potential but is blatently under-performing. To promise so much last year and then transform into a fumbling mess this year is hard to accept. We should be a top 4 side - I think we have every right to be disappointed with how this season is panning out.

[liz]

Originally posted by hammo
We should be a top 4 side - I think we have every right to be disappointed with how this season is panning out.

Disappointed? Certainly
Surprised? Arguable.

We lost to the Lions at the Gabba. How many teams have won their over the past three years?

We lost to Essendon in Melbourne. How many years since we beat them there?

We lost to the Eagles at Subi. How many travelling teams have won over in the west in recent years? As the Age report said, Sydney needed everything to go their way to win this match, and losing a ruckman ( and one of the team's potentially most potent weapons) in the first 5 seconds of the game, plus having our "Captain" knocked out after doing a pretty good job on their captain for two and a half quarters didn't help. (Anyone notice how influential Cousins was after Kirk got knocked out?)

Sure, getting beaten at home by struggling Richmond was not in the script but essentially we were beaten by a sensational performance from one player who has the highest average goals per game record in the AFL so far this season and who showed again yesterday that he is in awesome form.

We all knew that depth wasn't our strong point and we've been without our one experienced key position defender all year, and our forward line has been knocked around by injuries to O'Loughlin, Davis and Schneider.

None of these are excuses. A premiership contender needs to have the answers. But even if one believes we are one of a pack chasing the likes of the Lions and Saints with the potential to match them if everything goes our way, it is not entirely surprising that results haven't panned out the way we'd hoped.

[NMWBloods]

Originally posted by Captain
I remember going to games in the early nineties where we were getting flogged every week. Yet I still stuck with them and hoped one day we would succeed. That made 96 more special to me than anything. We have lost 4 games in a row and people are bleating already, I would loved to have seen your attitude back in the nineties.

Problem I have with these comments is you are directing them at people who have followed the Swans since at least the 70s, so we've seen more than our fair share of losses. And yet we're still here hoping aren't we!

We still haven't one a cup, but when we do I know I will live with that memory forever. Our time will come, and when it does we need to make the most of it.

What if it doesn't...?

Originally posted by Lizz
Just think of it as an ultra ultra marathon. Some people seem to find them enjoyable

Amazing how they do - I think it's like torture in that when it finishes the relief is a real high!!

[Bron]

Ditto Liz.

[monopoly19]

The Swans are it for me - there is no other team. 50 years from now and without another premiership cup, I'll still be there. I'm with Lizz - while the premiership is the obvious goal each year, nothing detracts from some of the other experiences of watching the team.

For me it's the little things, like watching Buchanan yesterday after being delisted at the end of last year, or seeing Jamesy return to senior football last year, or watching Schwatta crying as he did a lap of the SCG after that Geelong game, or reading Charles Edmonston's toast, or being there for round 22 of 2002 when two of our absolute greats retired (without a premiership), or watching Micky after he kicked his first goal yesterday, or watching the Brownlow last year.

Not to say I wouldn't love a premiership, but it's not everything in footy (and yeah, I know most of you disagree).

[Doctor J.]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by monopoly19
The Swans are it for me - there is no other team. [/QUOTE

Never said they aren't it for me either. Just facing reality here, rather than dreaming. This year is done and dusted. Doesn't mean I will give them up or not renew my membership, (club donation) next year.

Lived the journey for ages and experienced more than my fair share of bad times, so in reality 3 from 5 is good by the standards of the past

Originally posted by monopoly19

Not to say I wouldn't love a premiership, but it's not everything in footy.

I hate that attitude at this level. Its that attitude that breeds the lack of success within this club. Its OK they tried.

We should hurt after a defeat, but we don't, we should despise the thought of losing, but we don't. No what do we do, we look for the positives, cause winning isn't everything.

We should be filthy on the fact that every team outside Vic has a premiership to their name and we haven't (except Freo and and Port and I believe they will get there before us) yet we have been part of this competition for longer than all of them.

I say again, if winning isn't everything at this level, then what is. What is the point of being here.

[monopoly19]

Originally posted by Doctor J.
I hate that attitude at this level. Its that attitude that breeds the lack of success within this club. Its OK they tried.

We should hurt after a defeat, but we don't, we should despise the thought of losing, but we don't. No what do we do, we look for the positives, cause winning isn't everything.

We should be filthy on the fact that every team outside Vic has a premiership to their name and we haven't (except Freo and and Port and I believe they will get there before us) yet we have been part of this competition for longer than all of them.

I say again, if winning isn't everything at this level, then what is. What is the point of being here.

It's not that I like losing, or that I would prefer if we never win a premiership ever again, it's just that if winning is the only thing that matters, you're taking so much of the richness of the game away.

The fact that we haven't won a premiership in 70 years doesn't hurt me like it does for some people. I don't take any joy out of the 1933 win simply because to me it's just another stat. I wasn't watching them. I don't know their names or anything about them. I hadn't watched them grow from individual players into a team that put it all on the line for one another. It means nothing to me.
Football means nothing to me unless it's personal. Unless I can watch them every week, know their names, their strengths and weakness - that's when football starts to mean something.

This whole idea of the Swans being a club that accepts mediocrity is a joke. It's just something that people say after we lose and they want it to mean something more than it does.

Despite what you may think I do hurt after a loss. What makes it hurt less is the little things. I don't give a **** how many premierships other clubs have won. It's not about other clubs. Some people have such a tunnel vision for premiership success that it clouds everything else. It's not as though the players aren't trying and don't want to win (especially this group of players we have now).

I'm just here to enjoy the ride. Sure, a premiership would be great, but I still have some amazing memories of last year that have not, and won't ever be clouded simply because we didn't win the premiership.

If winning is everything, and we never win again, what will you have?

[swan_song]

quote from Lizz
But, for me at least, it's as much about the journey.
_________________________________________

I share your passion for the swannies, Lizz, but not necessarily your sentiments. Of course the journey is important -- what will we actually have to look forward to if we actually do manage to win a premiership -- but the journey at the moment (and for the past 80-odd years) is debilitating, boring, monotonous, predictable and is providing but an occasional driver-reviver break along the way...
The way jude and kirky still throw themselves in, risking life and limb, makes me wonder what has changed so dramatically from last season... I can only think of one thing...and it's no coincidence that the Geelong midfield over the past three weeks or so has begun to click together...I know you and some others don't share my thoughts of the value of Cressa to this side, but I firmly believe that his absence is perhaps the major contributing reason to our fall away this year. A youngish team tends to play inconsistent football, and we have no superstars to shoulder the team any more... As Roosie says, we need to have our best on the field eac week, and they all need to give their best otherwise we will be vulnerable...but, there are probably only two, possibly three, teams this year whose supporters can confidently expect their team to win...

[liz]

Originally posted by swan_song
Of course the journey is important -- what will we actually have to look forward to if we actually do manage to win a premiership -- but the journey at the moment (and for the past 80-odd years) is debilitating, boring, monotonous, predictable and is providing but an occasional driver-reviver break along the way...

Genuine question - if you really view the journey that way, why do you bother following the Swans? What is it that fuels your passion?

[The Boot]

One team only can win the premiership out of 16. To get there one must embark on a journey to get there - however long that might take.

Ref: Saint Kilda 04 , Brisbane 01/02/03. Nuff said.

And if Dr J really was a doctor ... gawd help us !!!!

Patient: "So what are my chances, doc? I hear that early treatment is good."
Dr J: "you have cancer, and you WILL die."

[Foreign Legion]

Been following them for too long to give 'em away and too long to put up with the poor or average performances.

Having said that, we can win the next 2 if we play well and reassess the season then. I would NEVER consider 'tanking' games to get draft picks - may as well give the game away if this is the goal.

One thing is for sure - with Collingwood on the bottom Eddie will NOT be calling for priority draft picks to be abolished - not this year anyway.

Keep you heads up guys and gals - we can only get better.

[Mike_B]

Originally posted by Foreign Legion
Keep you heads up guys and gals - we can only get better.

Well we really can't get worse from the last few weeks can we? Please say NO!!!