Timid Swans Roar Back To Life

[chammond]

Check out Liz's in-depth report on the Lions match

HERE

[Wazza]

Probably the best write up of this game Ive read...very good.

Cheers

Waz

[ScottH]

Voss ran out of steam. I wonder how bad that cut to his calf was?

And Lappin was shown up, and proved he was carrying an injury by limping off again.

[Tooth Fairy]

ALL the Lion's players ran out of steam. Seems we wore them down and ran all over them in the end.

[Mike_B]

Originally posted by ScottH
And Lappin was shown up, and proved he was carrying an injury by limping off again.

He limped off after coipping what looked like a pretty decent cork to the hip - don't think it had anything to do with the existing ankle injury.

[ScottH]

Originally posted by Mike_B
He limped off after coipping what looked like a pretty decent cork to the hip - don't think it had anything to do with the existing ankle injury.

Just shows he is soft!!

Well he didn't do much before that, anyway.

[NMWBloods]

That was an outstandingly good report - well done Liz.


One thing I find interesting about our players when they are tackled hard is that many of them struggle to give off an effective handball or kick. You notice quite a few other teams have players who can keep their arms free and dispose of the ball even when solidly tackled. However, our guys generally seem to struggle to do it and the ball often just spills loose. Goodes and Davis are two of the better ones for us doing that.

[DST]

Originally posted by NMWBloods
That was an outstandingly good report - well done Liz.


One thing I find interesting about our players when they are tackled hard is that many of them struggle to give off an effective handball or kick. You notice quite a few other teams have players who can keep their arms free and dispose of the ball even when solidly tackled. However, our guys generally seem to struggle to do it and the ball often just spills loose. Goodes and Davis are two of the better ones for us doing that.

That is an interesting view NMWBloods, but I reckon we are capable of giving it off but orders from the coach are to maybe retain possession, take the tackle and get the ball up.

It would seem that part of our game plan is to force the ball up and try and clear the stoppage with ball carries into space which works well when we are able to dictate the clearances as was the case in the last on Saturday night.

DST

[NMWBloods]

Two problems I have with that if it is indeed our game plan. Firstly, I don't think, generally speaking, we are that great at takeaways from stoppages.

Secondly, and more importantly, often those weak little handballs drop just a little away from the player disposing of the ball and the tackling side often has someone supporting the tackler ready to pounce onto the ball. This means either a turnover, or back to a 50:50 when we already had possession.

It's not a game-winning strategy in my view, and quite counter to what the leading sides do.

[Snowy]

Think we've seen the best of Voss, will only be good for cameo brilliance.

[swansrule100]

i gope we learn that suststained risk taking, long kicking, running and tackling win matches, and not to try and limit the opposition and win in a burst of footy

[liz]

Originally posted by Wazza
Probably the best write up of this game Ive read...very good.

Thanks (and to NMW too). Was quite a fun one to write this week (which makes it much much easier) and glad you enjoyed it

[liz]

Originally posted by NMWBloods

One thing I find interesting about our players when they are tackled hard is that many of them struggle to give off an effective handball or kick. You notice quite a few other teams have players who can keep their arms free and dispose of the ball even when solidly tackled. However, our guys generally seem to struggle to do it and the ball often just spills loose. Goodes and Davis are two of the better ones for us doing that.

There was a passage late in the game while the scores were level when the team was running it from defence right up the middle (I think it was the follow-on from that mark that Ablett nearly didn't take).

Bevan had the ball and was immediately tackled and I remember thinking exactly that - we're not going to be able to keep it moving forward. But he just managed to squeeze out a handball to Dempster, who was under just as much pressure, and Dempster was good enough to get a handball out too. It landed on the ground but at least went forward enough to enable another Swan (Maxfield?) to pick it up and find some space.

It was memorable just because it is something that they don't seem to do that often - even more so because two of the least experienced players in the team were involved.

[ugg]

Yes perfectly described, except I think Dempster missed with his attempted handball but it fell fortuitiously for Maxfield. I think what it shows is that when they players really want to get the ball moving they can as opposed to wrapping the ball up at every contested situation. There were some very daring handball sequences during the last quarter that almost ended up in a turnover but we just managed to keep the ball moving forward. One that comes to mind was Ablett's beautiful long handball to Williams for his 50m goal.

[Ruck'n'Roll]

Originally posted by Tooth Fairy
ALL the Lion's players ran out of steam. Seems we wore them down and ran all over them in the end.

We might have had a little help from Port Adelaide there.