I'm done

[barry]

This is the last straw for me. The Swans aren't the same club I used to support back in the hey-days of the the Roos era.

We are smug, but don't win anything.
We were once the custodians of AFL in Sydney, now we don't even turn up to joint press conferences with GWS. Far to "me" centric.
We once had the bloods spirit, now we just expect things to come our way.
We didn't learn anything from 2022. The lions changed their whole preparation after 2023. We did exactly the same as before for the same result.

It's bad enough that we've lost 4 GF's in a row. In 3 of them we were completely thrashed. We need cultural.change to overcome this. No, horse, it not good enough to just get there.

[mcs]

I am certainly over their 'pat ourselves on the back because we made it to the Grand Final' narrative.

I know horse is hurting. The boys are hurting.

But I want to hear Horse say, I want to hear Rampe say that the only outcome to provide remedy is to put a cup in that Cupboard...not we will try again next year.

Noone remembers the 'we made the grand final' winners....

Sadly getting it wrong on the biggest day has always been a part of our DNA. I'd love us to evolve beyond the point of accepting just wanting to be there or there abouts.

We have 2 flags from 7 grand finals in a wonderful 25 year period for our club. But 3 of those 5 losses we were road kill when it mattered.

That makes me sad - we lack at the moment the ruthlessness to take the opportunities when they come out way. And there is nothing to say being over represented in getting to the pointy end is a trend that will continue to happen.

[lwjoyner]

as i said in the gf thread get another team to support.

[KTigers]

Hurting, MCS, what does that really count for? They had their chance, but they collectively refused to step up and take it. As my nephew put it
quite well, they were listless from the start. There were 20,000 plus rusted on Swans fans that made an effort to be there, spent a bunch of
money and time to be there. We think our support will help them. Katy Perry who was probably miming put in more effort than the team did.
Brisbane just aren't that good. They are not some super team, they came fifth. Can we collectively park this "Bloods Spirit" slogan till we win
a GF. Right now, it's just BS.
We'll all be there next year of course sitting in the same seats we've had since 1994 but right now it's hard to feel good about a team that
just keeps rolling over in Grand Finals.

[mcs]

All exceptionally valid points KT - I made that comment because I think it's easy to forget that they will be hurting badly of course, and sometimes we as fans ignore that.

But what is frustrating is that hurt isn't being turned into fuel to take that final step. How much motivation do we need to have. 19 of the team out there yesterday were there 2 years ago... Yet that permeated into a second quarter where our pressure rating was absolutely through the floor, and we watched the game pass is by.

It is very hard to line it all up.

The bloods culture of the early 2000s is sadly is dead in my honest opinion. Culture changes over time, so that is not in itself a bad thing. But it seems to be morphing back into an 'almost there is good enough' culture - where accountability is low and we just shrug off appalling performances like yesterday and 2022 with a 'we will work hard to be thereabouts again' narrative.

As you say, it's beginning to get a little tiresome - irrespective of how good historically this period has been for the club. The game is about lifting the cup, not watching others do it in front of us.

[MattW]

Expected more from Longmire's press conference, in which he was prickly and defensive, and when given the opportunity to take responsibility: pointedly didn't. It was easily his worst post-GF-smashing post conference. His performance in the press conference gave little cause for optimism. The players all had little idea either.

Does it just come down to: do they *really* want it? Are they hungry or are they a bit comfortable? Clearly, they're not being led well before and during grand finals, and sorry, John, but that is your responsibility.

[barry]

as i said in the gf thread get another team to support.

I have

[Hotpotato]

Holy moly, was that the Last Post Barry ?

[Industrial Fan]

That’s the last time I trust a team coached by longmire.

next time we make the GF we should come dressed as clowns - at least that way we’ll be able to blame the big shoes

[KTigers]

I think when it comes to Longmire, it depends on how you judge failure. Is losing four (three very badly) grand finals in eleven years failure, or is
getting the team to grand finals four times in eleven years a success? Or is it a mix of failure and success. I'm with this latter perception of it.
Mostly footy is the H & A season and the actual games themselves and how they were played. And if we go 12-and-11 and finish 9th, was the
season a total disaster? The final result doesn't negate all the good things that happened during a game and during a season. Footy fandom
is mostly a journey (and often a lifelong one). The destination is just a small part really.

[UUaswan]

Needs to step aside, we arent the Bloods anymore, we are renowned for not showing up on GF day, laughing stock.

He should do Leon Cameron's role and be a bum tapper, need a coach is will hold them more accountable and ve more ruthless.

While he is at the helm, the only story will be GF failures, lack of trust when it matters.

[Roadrunner]

Needs to step aside, we arent the Bloods anymore, we are renowned for not showing up on GF day, laughing stock.

He should do Leon Cameron's role and be a bum tapper, need a coach is will hold them more accountable and ve more ruthless.

While he is at the helm, the only story will be GF failures, lack of trust when it matters.

Look, do we think Chris Fagan is ruthless? I don’t think so. He has built a team over the last 7 or so years and they are very good and peaked at the right end of the season. We peaked early and didn’t play consistently well towards the latter part- look at our performance at Port a few games back- equally shocking! I’m not absolving Horse and his assistants but this is squarely on the players. They lost concentration, forgot the game plan, didn’t fight together for the ball and didn’t apply the required pressure. And when they had the ball there was no leading in the forward 50 so they kept bombing it with the result that they were consistently out marked and the ball came back with a vengeance!

As for Horse’s presser- he was totally shattered so what could we expect? Anger? He clearly loves our club and our players- emotions are running at the max for all of us. Now is the time to get behind the club, or are we just fair weather supporters?

Clearly there are reasons as to why we choke in a GF. We only lost by a whisker to the same team at their ground not long ago and we had injured players. So it’s a mental thing. Maybe the boys need something to help them overcome their nerves, I don’t know.

For a comparison, look at the Hawks. They were easy beats at the start of the season. Then their confidence shot up to such a degree that they were almost unbeatable! What we lacked yesterday was a TOTAL belief in our ability to win and Brisbane had it. This explains our many mistakes and lack of pressure, which was very low compared to most of our games.

Bottom line: we need to find solutions instead of laying blame on everyone. Remember that everyone at the club is hurting right now, not just us!

And being angry or abandoning our beloved club is not the answer guys!

[UUaswan]

Look, do we think Chris Fagan is ruthless? I don’t think so. He has built a team over the last 7 or so years and they are very good and peaked at the right end of the season. We peaked early and didn’t play consistently well towards the latter part- look at our performance at Port a few games back- equally shocking! I’m not absolving Horse and his assistants but this is squarely on the players. They lost concentration, forgot the game plan, didn’t fight together for the ball and didn’t apply the required pressure. And when they had the ball there was no leading in the forward 50 so they kept bombing it with the result that they were consistently out marked and the ball came back with a vengeance!

As for Horse’s presser- he was totally shattered so what could we expect? Anger? He clearly loves our club and our players- emotions are running at the max for all of us. Now is the time to get behind the club, or are we just fair weather supporters?

Clearly there are reasons as to why we choke in a GF. We only lost by a whisker to the same team at their ground not long ago and we had injured players. So it’s a mental thing. Maybe the boys need something to help them overcome their nerves, I don’t know.

For a comparison, look at the Hawks. They were easy beats at the start of the season. Then their confidence shot up to such a degree that they were almost unbeatable! What we lacked yesterday was a TOTAL belief in our ability to win and Brisbane had it. This explains our many mistakes and lack of pressure, which was very low compared to most of our games.

Bottom line: we need to find solutions instead of laying blame on everyone. Remember that everyone at the club is hurting right now, not just us!

And being angry or abandoning our beloved club is not the answer guys!

All im saying is our story is tied to 1-4 in GFs
While he is at the helm we could go 22-0 and the narrative is the same.
If he is going to handover, the time is right

[dejavoodoo44]

Look, do we think Chris Fagan is ruthless? I don’t think so. He has built a team over the last 7 or so years and they are very good and peaked at the right end of the season. We peaked early and didn’t play consistently well towards the latter part- look at our performance at Port a few games back- equally shocking! I’m not absolving Horse and his assistants but this is squarely on the players. They lost concentration, forgot the game plan, didn’t fight together for the ball and didn’t apply the required pressure. And when they had the ball there was no leading in the forward 50 so they kept bombing it with the result that they were consistently out marked and the ball came back with a vengeance!

As for Horse’s presser- he was totally shattered so what could we expect? Anger? He clearly loves our club and our players- emotions are running at the max for all of us. Now is the time to get behind the club, or are we just fair weather supporters?

Clearly there are reasons as to why we choke in a GF. We only lost by a whisker to the same team at their ground not long ago and we had injured players. So it’s a mental thing. Maybe the boys need something to help them overcome their nerves, I don’t know.

For a comparison, look at the Hawks. They were easy beats at the start of the season. Then their confidence shot up to such a degree that they were almost unbeatable! What we lacked yesterday was a TOTAL belief in our ability to win and Brisbane had it. This explains our many mistakes and lack of pressure, which was very low compared to most of our games.

Bottom line: we need to find solutions instead of laying blame on everyone. Remember that everyone at the club is hurting right now, not just us!

And being angry or abandoning our beloved club is not the answer guys!

Yes, even though I was just wondering in the match thread, if it was time for Longmire to go, I do agree with everything you just wrote. And I do find it mildly amusing, how a number of people seem to want our next coach to be some sort of dictator, in response to being beaten by Chris Fagan: who's rumoured to be the nicest guy in coaching and seems to be some sort of beloved father figure at the Lions.

[imuninformedtwo]

I’m long on record as being a Horse fan. He’s a great footy person, and he’d be utterly devastated by yesterday.

But there are two sticky bits that come next. One is he’s out of contract at the end of next year. Coaches going into a season without contract security rarely end well; so a call on whether to go on or pull up stumps is in the making and it’s certainly not in our clubs modus operandi to let it drift. I’m not discounting that he’s already settled on next year being his last here. But it’s a hard one for the club to work through.

The second bit is what that did to his confidence. I bet he can’t fathom any more than me why Rowbottom could have a real crack, but his midfield companions couldn’t. Or why Matt Roberts was largely composed yet a dozen of his more seasoned companions, frankly, shat the bed. Or a journeyman like Fox maintained standards, yet a batch of stars at times were disinterested. There are bits about 2014 (the Hawks played one of the great games), 2016 (Stevic and co) and 2022 (youth) you can explain. Yesterday, no way. He will find it hard to reconcile that but that’s what he has to do. But frankly, so do some players.

I think my other worry at the moment is who’s technically in charge of some of this. I was unenthused by Leon Cameron’s appointment as I reckon he spectacularly failed to get a truly stacked list near a flag at GWS and I have never been impressed by him as someone with a clear footy vision. Yet he’s supposed to be the guy that articulates a case for what next to the Board and CEO.

I’m all for a legitimate debate about what to do; I guess I’m just a little less certain it’s as clear as some.