Rd 2: Swans vs. Port

[ROK Lobster]

My two bobs worth.

Crouch has lost his pace and is no longer as effective a tagger as he has been. Is now adding very little to the side.

Kirk is still on another planet. Decided to run around trying to hurt people in the second half but did not contribute much.

Matthews gives us nothing.

LRT still loses his feet and/or his man too much but yes, he does have a go.

Chambers might win a premiership medallion in the ACTFL if one of the young ruckmen get injured (but it would have to be a serious injury).

Jude is not doing much at all.

Willo's age is catching up with him (did seem to get injured early on).

Hall seemed to be dis-interested until half way through the 3rd qtr - although they did not try to go to him much until then. If this was the game plan I think they should have changed it earlier.

Schneider needs to get rid of it more quickly - he runs himself into the congestion and gives off a handball to someone under the pump.

C Bolt was unusally quiet I thought.

I thought NOG was ok and that Fosdike was good.

Buchy and Dempster both played well.

N Davis was the best and seems to be jumping out of his skin with enthusiasm at the moment - as usual the black sheep of the flock. His handball to MO'L seemed sublime (I was in the Noble) but Mick wasn't looking.

The other half dozen or so were ordinary. Leo is struggling, but is often doing the work of 2 (he misses Tadhg). Ted was just ok, seemed a little out of his depth. Jolly is just a ruckman - a good No 2. RO'K likes to ping - today was a great chance for him to show that he can be a damaging fwd in his own right but didn't take the opportunity. MO'L was himself - always hurt, never injured - needs the other fwds to be firing in order to get the space he needs.

All over, a very ordinary, and disappointing effort. Highlight of the day was Warwick Capper's shoes (and his high fives with the kids along the fence).

[stellation]

Originally posted by ROK Lobster

All over, a very ordinary, and disappointing effort. Highlight of the day was Warwick Capper's shoes (and his high fives with the kids along the fence).

Mr Capper's shoes were noted with great amusement by the stella camp also.

[ScottH]

Originally posted by stellation
Mr Capper's shoes were noted with great amusement by the stella camp also.

The Moon walking Shoes.

[Sanecow]

Thurstans had a blinder for Port as predicted. Same return as Hall, fewer frees against.

[Mel]

Originally posted by ROK Lobster


N Davis was the best and seems to be jumping out of his skin with enthusiasm at the moment - as usual the black sheep of the flock. His handball to MO'L seemed sublime (I was in the Noble) but Mick wasn't looking.

Was that the handball in the forward pocket in the Churchill? If it was, it wasn't as good as it looked from your angle. It was right in front of us, and it was passed about a metre behind Micky O. True that Mick wasn't watching the ball though. Not bagging Nicky D though, he's one of my favourites and I thought he played alright yesterday - worked hard.

[Gary]

Stats suggest Davis did OK...but not many others. In over 50 years watching this team I have never seen so much dumb disposal, & perhaps worse, people watching the game happen from a few yards away, situations which always went in the other direction!
It was a classic case of expecting the game to go our way = ego = hangover = grave danger unless there is a mighty turn around. I think an important factor for the whole year is that our team is weaker than last year, & most others seem to have improved. There must be an alternative to Chambers.

[floppinab]

Originally posted by stellation
Just back from the game, Davis was very good today. They should have an "ignored leads" stat too so that those watching on television can get the true measure of how much effort he put in today that would have been off camera.

Thought that as well, a lot of bombing to the goalsquare when Hall, O'Keefe were on decent leads up the middle. Led to a lot of frustration from Hall, a lot of half arsed efforts to chase and pressure when Port had the footy in our F50.

[Jeffers1984]

Originally posted by Sanecow
Thurstans had a blinder for Port as predicted. Same return as Hall, fewer frees against.

Yep. Great coaching from Williams to play a tall tall forward line. And to think that Port didn't have their best player on the field is another dissapointing aspect about this loss.

[swannieserin]

Originally posted by Jeffers1984
Yep. Great coaching from Williams to play a tall tall forward line. And to think that Port didn't have their best player on the field is another dissapointing aspect about this loss.

I'd say their best two - Tredrea and Wanganeen. I was pretty glad that they both weren't playing because I suspect the result would have been worse.

[Pommie Swannie]

Yeah - I went on Sunday full of confidence after Port's Rd 1 result, and the fact Tredrea was missing ...

Ah well, there is one lesson learned at least!

[Alison]

Hi all

It seems to me that at times our defenders are scared that they are going to give away a free (which they usually do - even if they are not frees) with these new rules. Having said that though I thought Leo played okay (not to his usual standard) and is not selfish and a clown like others have commented.

I think we really need to start winning some centre clearances and taking those risks that we always take in the last quarter (which has been too late). We used to take risks last year but that seems to have stopped.

I also wonder why (as other teams do) we don't play a spare man in defence seeing we have such an undersized backline.


Barry Hall also needs to go and find the ball if it is not coming to him. Our forwards always seem to lead to the same spot - sometimes even spoiling each other.

[punter257]

Originally posted by swannieserin
I'd say their best two - Tredrea and Wanganeen. I was pretty glad that they both weren't playing because I suspect the result would have been worse.

we probably would have won as they wouldnt have been so bloody complacent

but on reflection, probably not

[ROK Lobster]

Originally posted by Mel
Was that the handball in the forward pocket in the Churchill? If it was, it wasn't as good as it looked from your angle. It was right in front of us, and it was passed about a metre behind Micky O. True that Mick wasn't watching the ball though. Not bagging Nicky D though, he's one of my favourites and I thought he played alright yesterday - worked hard.

That was the one. Apologies to MOL, we were a long way away.

[goswannie14]

Originally posted by Mel
Was that the handball in the forward pocket in the Churchill? If it was, it wasn't as good as it looked from your angle. It was right in front of us, and it was passed about a metre behind Micky O. True that Mick wasn't watching the ball though. Not bagging Nicky D though, he's one of my favourites and I thought he played alright yesterday - worked hard.

It was right in front of me, we all thought it was brilliant work by Nick, but that Micky O wasn't expecting it so missed it.

[stellation]

Originally posted by goswannie14
It was right in front of me, we all thought it was brilliant work by Nick, but that Micky O wasn't expecting it so missed it.

We had a good view of it too and thought it looked like super slick Nick and fast asleep Mick. In all fairness to Michael it was pretty darn slick... in a recent interview Nick used Michael Jordan's "give me the ball, I'm in the zone" as an example of how he was feeling in the 4th 1/4 of the SF last year; Jordan's teammates always had to be ready to receive the ball (he famously threw a punch at our own Luc Longley in training to get him to get the idea of always being ready- Luc said it worked, pissed him off, but worked) because he loved to give it off with some slick, pulled out of his arse pass- I get the feeling the Swans will have to get like that around Nick this year.