Relax and Take a Deep Breath

[NMWBloods]

Originally posted by Schneiderman
The difference today from other games of late was that we had no answers. No fight. It was more than just poor judgement or skills, there was very little committment. At times it came awfully close to players 'dogging it' and that has never been in the Swans' manual.

Interesting to see where the team goes from here. Today they were just abysmal.

That's right - Roos summed it up after the game - the players were playing for themselves. They've forgotten so quickly what won them a flag.

[Schneiderman]

Originally posted by dawson
The night after we announced the Team of the Century the team played Hawthorn and were as flat as could possibly be.
Some months later we defeated Port Adelaide away from home in a final which was as fine an hour that the club has had.

Don't be too quick to get sucked in, into the muck the media loves to throw.

I was at that Hawthorn game, and that was simply a bad night. Yesterday was way worse. I watched with my own eyes as time and again we'd have two or three players move too slowly towards a contest where it then became a three on one against us, and the ball would then fly back over the head of those same three Swans players into our defence to be marked.

There were too many ball watchers yesterday. A lot of times there'd be a free Port player running 10m wide of two Swans players virtually in each other pockets. It was like watching our U12 side out there. Noone knew who to pick up, few of them would go in after the ball, and many of them stood back and waited for someone else to do the hard stuff.

We mucked around with it when the defensive pressure was being applied and coughed it up, and refused to share it around when we had a numerical advantage of players.

And lastly, our skills were terrible. How many times did foot passes drop short or sail over the leading players head? Even Bazza featured in one play where he kicked it over his intended targets head, ran a great recovery to regather it, only to kick it long and wide again over Micky. And Ted Richards must have missed ROK by a good metre over his head from only 20m away. Even handpasses were flying high or wide, forcing players to stop and jump or change direction. Just poor. Almost pre-season-like.

[Lucky Knickers]

We should be worried about Carlton - irrespective of coming off Subi. They have their tails up.

We won't win unless the Bloods throw off their haemophilia!

Hopefully watching the game tape will cause a bit of a reaction, although, you would have thought that after last week. They won't like what they see.

Reminded me a lot of the St Kilda and Richmond games (minus 4th Qtr come back). Roos will shame them into an effort and hopefully send a couple of strong messages by demoting some of the slower players to the ressies to get some fitness back.

[swan_song]

I'm not pannicking, there's nothing to pannick about. After all I was actually there on the last Saturday in September when we broke a 72-year drought, and was there for the parade in Sydney, so I can die happy now.
Alas, though, when the draw came out for this year, I had pencilled us in for 21 wins...now it looks like I'll have to see about altering that to a mere 20...

[hammo]

Originally posted by swan_song
I'm not pannicking, there's nothing to pannick about. After all I was actually there on the last Saturday in September when we broke a 72-year drought, and was there for the parade in Sydney, so I can die happy now.

Believe it or not, that was 6 months ago. If you want to revel is past glories then retire from attending Swans games.
The rest of us want to see a tilt at a flag in 2006 and unfortunately it appears many players have the same complacent attitude as you.
Will you start panicking if we're 0-3, 0-4 and then 0-5??

[wheels27]

Originally posted by swan_song

Alas, though, when the draw came out for this year, I had pencilled us in for 21 wins...now it looks like I'll have to see about altering that to a mere 20...

With that positive attitude, I'm interested who we were "pencilled" to lose to.

[giant]

I couldn't think of a single aspect of yesteray's game that the Swans could have been happy about - movement, man-on-man, foot passing, adherence to gameplan, decision-making, accountability, umpiring, goal shooting, etc etc etc. Not a single aspect.

That seems worthy of a mild panic attack to me.

[mocaholic]

2 - 3 is a must, 3 - 2 would be a good comeback. The Cats game in Rd 5 will be a good indication of where we are. We HAVE to beat both Carlton and Melbourne. And get some %ge. No question.

Geelong will be flying, at worst 3 - 1 (Hawks at Skilled this week, then the Dogs at Docklands), at best 4 - 0, and either way they will be absolutely out for blood after last year.

Hopefully we get the 6' mirror out, drop a few blokes deserving of it, and promote some blokes keen.

[Sanecow]

Our worst start (after two games) in seven years. Too relaxed I'd say.

[MrRed]

Now we are seeing the true depth and skill of our side. With the new rules Paul Roos will have a hard task in formulating a game plan that plays with our strengths and weaknesses. He did that with "tempo footy" and now that has been taken away we are back at where we belong in the middle to bottom 8 tier.

We have looked awfully slow in the past 2 games. But in 2003 we played a similar running game to what most teams have played in the first 2 rounds.

Also some of the desire to win for each other has somehow been deserted. There seems to be more egos this year. I haven?t seen the boys bicker and not communicate like they were yesterday since the final days of the rocket years. That understanding of each others game they had last year has disappeared.

[msb]

I never saw the game yesterday but judging by peoples comments and the media you would think it was a 126 point loss instead of 26. I cant believe people writing us off already especially since being 2-4 after 6 games last year. IT IS ONLY ROUND 2!!!!!!!!!

[NMWBloods]

Lots of finger pointing, arm waving and arguments going on.

[timthefish]

Originally posted by MrRed
.....we are back at where we belong.....

rubbish.

[Lucky Knickers]

Originally posted by msb
I never saw the game yesterday but judging by peoples comments and the media you would think it was a 126 point loss instead of 26. I cant believe people writing us off already especially since being 2-4 after 6 games last year. IT IS ONLY ROUND 2!!!!!!!!!

Perhaps if you had watched you would understand where everyone is coming from. PA were tired in the 4th and dropped off. The final scoreline seriously flattered us.

[Sanecow]

Originally posted by NMWBloods
Lots of finger pointing, arm waving and arguments going on.

Time for the ropes course.