Match Thread (Live telecast)

[Guzzitza]

LRT to go.
To all the LRT supports out there who say he has potential that needs to be developed, i ask you this - why must he be developed in the first grade side and not in the reserves??
Hes not up to it. The reserves is there for a reason.

Meanwhile, Dempster - cant miss a trick. Exciting seeing him play. He is very aware of where hes meant to be and his role on the field. Gives it his all, and looks more composed than some of our seniors players - eg. Mathews.. who still makes me cringe when he gets the ball and starts tunring in circles wildly lookingm for a handball target!.

[cruiser]

Another thing Mathews often does is to run with rather than at the opposition player with the ball, even if it means giving them 30, 40 metres downfield. I know he's also trying to cover his own player, but what's the point if you give the player with the ball so many metres of ground.

[NMWBloods]

Originally posted by BonBon
Like, when that player hit Goodes in the stomach and laughed - what a doofus.

Weak as p*ss effort by Goodes.

Oh yeah - Ryan played well <3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3

[NMWBloods]

Originally posted by Snowy
Many Swans last night constantly handballed to stagnant targets.

Yep - they do this all the time - it's amazing. Just a panic reflex handball to another player standing still and about to be tackled and it goes on.

When handballing to players on the run we never provide shepherds. I see other teams do this - give a handball and then follow and provide a shepherd. We give a handball and then drop off as if we've handed on the baton in a relay race. This is one reason why we are one of the worst teams in the competition for 1%ers.

[BonBon]

Originally posted by NMWBloods

Do you not understand my statement or the '<3'?

[timthefish]

Originally posted by Guzzitza
LRT to go.
To all the LRT supports out there who say he has potential that needs to be developed, i ask you this - why must he be developed in the first grade side and not in the reserves??
Hes not up to it. The reserves is there for a reason.

absolutely. he's only just going and needs to understand he's got to bring things on more to hold down a senior spot.

definitely keep him on the list as he is an athlete of rare talent, but not yet an AFL player of the necessary standard.

i reckon he'd be better off in an environment where he can afford to experiment and make mistakes.

[Tooth Fairy]

Originally posted by Snowy
I meant Spriggs is ok kicking to a short target but when forced to go long can't penetrate to the correct bloke. If there's no one short he's forced to take this option. Only things going for him are fitness and ability to get it off by hand through traffic.

So you think we would be better off having less height in our forward line?

[Tooth Fairy]

Originally posted by BonBon
Do you not understand my statement or the '<3'?

Is it an icecream?

[BonBon]

Originally posted by Tooth Fairy
Is it an icecream?

It could be..

[midaro]

Originally posted by liz
He also still needs to convert better for goal - he kicked 3 behinds yesterday and they were gettable shots.

Buchanon has 10.15 for his career, and 3.7 this year - it's a worry.

[ugg]

He wasn't very accurate in the warm ups either, he missed quite a few shots from middle to long range. Hence I wasn't very confident when he lined up from that 50m penalty.

[SimonH]

Great effort tonight, terrific to see free-flowing footy running out of the backline, the Swans very much play a confidence brand of football & so their confidence will be much higher as a result of winning even though we only beat the Dons at home, Vogels a very impressive first effort, Leo Barry a dead-set genius who on more than one occasion was the difference between victory and defeat, LRT would have to count himself lucky to ever play another game of league footy once Ball and Jolly are back, amusing that the Dons' rucks were so weak that we could throw Saddo in there with no particular danger, terrific to see Micky O and BBBH have it worked out so they're not jumping against each other, we certainly needed at least one more crumber in the forward line for most of the game, Buchanan made the very most of his last-minute recall, etc etc.

The one additional contribution I wanted to make was about the last 4 minutes, especially the centre bounce after the last Essendon goal. You drop a man back loose in defence, sure. But what we did was completely clear out our forward line so that it was Micky O against 2 Essendon defenders. We had been winning the clearances all night, and lo and behold we won this one. Despite a decent effort at ground level, Micky O didn't have a prayer and a Dons player miles from his nearest opponent belted out of defence. Now as a team defending a lead, what do you want to avoid? An opposition player unmarked, having the ball in space. 'Cos when they have that advantage, they can move the ball fast, and hit players on the lead with low, direct passes, making loose men in defence next-to-useless. The tactics we adopted created exactly that situation. Only some good defensive efforts and some Dons passes just missing their marks meant that they didn't have a shot at goal to even up the scores. It makes me wild that a team that's running rings around the opposition is suddenly so afraid of losing that they don't want to go out and win it by either scoring or at least getting and keeping the ball in our attacking 50. I really hope that our coaching/on-field leadership group prevents this kind of blunder from recurring. (I won't even mention Goodesie's terrible foot disposal meaning that he missed a crunch short pass to Kirk at halfback with seconds to go. Has he regressed since 2003, or is he the most unreliable kick to ever win a Brownlow medal?)

Despite having a chance or two, Essendon didn't deserve to snag a draw. I would have been a very disappointed Dons supporter at many of the tired/half-hearted efforts at the ball they put in during the last quarter. Luckily, I'm not a Dons supporter!

With Port seemingly turning a corner now, we will find out next week just how far we've come. I'm certainly confident that our best can beat them, even if they play like they're playing today.

[NMWBloods]

Originally posted by BonBon
Do you not understand my statement or the '<3'?

Both.

[NMWBloods]

Originally posted by SimonH
The one additional contribution I wanted to make was about the last 4 minutes, especially the centre bounce after the last Essendon goal. You drop a man back loose in defence, sure. But what we did was completely clear out our forward line so that it was Micky O against 2 Essendon defenders.

We had been winning the clearances all night, and lo and behold we won this one. Despite a decent effort at ground level, Micky O didn't have a prayer and a Dons player miles from his nearest opponent belted out of defence. Now as a team defending a lead, what do you want to avoid? An opposition player unmarked, having the ball in space. 'Cos when they have that advantage, they can move the ball fast, and hit players on the lead with low, direct passes, making loose men in defence next-to-useless. The tactics we adopted created exactly that situation. Only some good defensive efforts and some Dons passes just missing their marks meant that they didn't have a shot at goal to even up the scores. It makes me wild that a team that's running rings around the opposition is suddenly so afraid of losing that they don't want to go out and win it by either scoring or at least getting and keeping the ball in our attacking 50. I really hope that our coaching/on-field leadership group prevents this kind of blunder from recurring. (I won't even mention Goodesie's terrible foot disposal meaning that he missed a crunch short pass to Kirk at halfback with seconds to go. Has he regressed since 2003, or is he the most unreliable kick to ever win a Brownlow medal?)

Despite having a chance or two, Essendon didn't deserve to snag a draw. I would have been a very disappointed Dons supporter at many of the tired/half-hearted efforts at the ball they put in during the last quarter. Luckily, I'm not a Dons supporter!

With Port seemingly turning a corner now, we will find out next week just how far we've come. I'm certainly confident that our best can beat them, even if they play like they're playing today.

Great points.

Yep - I was very p*ssed off when we flooded in those last couple of minutes. You might as well just hand the ball to Essendon at the centre bounce. We managed to get it forward and then it was virtually an automatic turnover. They still quite easily got the ball back to their F50 as nearly all our players when inside the 50, and with a bit of skill could easily have managed a shot for goal. If you are going to lock the game up, it's best to do it a long way from goal so a bit of luck or an accident doesn't cost you the vital goal.

[BonBon]

Originally posted by NMWBloods
Both.

<3 is a heart side-on. I've said this before.