Match thread: Swans v Hawks.

[MattW]

Sigh. We were overwhelmed at clearance, where Isaac played a virtual lone hand - 14 contested possessions, 10 clearances (6 centre clearances). Jordon was good. Needed much more from Rowbottom and Sheldrick. Warner effective mainly on the outside. Really missed Mills and Gulden clearly. I suspect Cleary would have been helpful too.

Hanily is small, but plays with grit.

Grundy got on top of Meek in the ruck, but was well beaten around the ground and we need much more from him.

Wicks was outstanding and Blakey still looks great.

Amartey led the line, and kicked, well. I thought McCartin was fine.

Disappointing from Florent, Hayward and McInerney. Florent is too experienced to be making those mistakes. I liked the look of Bice preseason, perhaps he might ultimately come in, with Florent moving to the wing.

A lot of finger pointing and crankiness from McInerney, but needs to be making more impact on games. I had no confidence he'd slot that set shot and neither did he.

Paton looked a bit ordinary. I don't think it'll be long before we see Andrew, or hopefully Snell.

[Auntie.Gerald]

Meek
Barass
Ginnivan
Battle
D'Ambrosio

these 5 trades / mature recruits last two seasons really featured last night for the Hawks and is paying dividends

Battle at Saints last year ranked sixth overall in the AFL for marks per game, as well as second among key defenders in uncontested possessions.

vs

Adams
Grundy
Jordon

I felt that the defence focus of hawthorn just had too many key defenders dominating and taking marks ie keeping possession vs our constant spoiling

this really kept the Hawks in the pole position to sling shot the other way and creat havoc

[lwjoyner]

i did not watch ch 7 , but the fox panels is probably as bad, Lyon tellling us what the swans are about , dunstall a hawk , gerard with his abc tone its getting ridiculous the number of people involved. no wonder our subscription keeps going up. But back to the footy Patton should never been recruited, could not get a game at sts, (Battle at hawks was wanted but needed more money) and we did not recruit a tall defender particularly when the coach wanted to switch McCartin to the fwd line. But if we can keep our head above water until Mills, McLean ,Gulden return we may be ok as long as we get no long term injuries.

[Auntie.Gerald]

It’s an interesting one

who would have taken The Generals role yesterday given the variety of dangerous match ups he had yesterday evening?

Cunningham would have been ideal but not available

for me it shows we are skinny in the small to medium defenders that can handle the creative dangerous small to medium forwards

wicks did a very good job yesterday in the backs

Roberts ended up run with and so to Florent due to the fast rebounding from the Hawks superior cut off defensive line

so much so then they could send down Sicily to trap us in our back line and keep the game on their terms

[imuninformedtwo]

Sigh. We were overwhelmed at clearance, where Isaac played a virtual lone hand - 14 contested possessions, 10 clearances (6 centre clearances). Jordon was good. Needed much more from Rowbottom and Sheldrick. Warner effective mainly on the outside. Really missed Mills and Gulden clearly. I suspect Cleary would have been helpful too.

Hanily is small, but plays with grit.

Grundy got on top of Meek in the ruck, but was well beaten around the ground and we need much more from him.

Wicks was outstanding and Blakey still looks great.

Amartey led the line, and kicked, well. I thought McCartin was fine.

Disappointing from Florent, Hayward and McInerney. Florent is too experienced to be making those mistakes. I liked the look of Bice preseason, perhaps he might ultimately come in, with Florent moving to the wing.

A lot of finger pointing and crankiness from McInerney, but needs to be making more impact on games. I had no confidence he'd slot that set shot and neither did he.

Paton looked a bit ordinary. I don't think it'll be long before we see Andrew, or hopefully Snell.

A pretty good analysis. The onball brigade was very mixed as you say. When we got on top in there our scoring spiked, but too often they found a way to sweep the ball clear.

I do find the decision to play Grundy strange, given the lessons we should have taken from the back half of last year when he’s a bit sore. Ladhams is more than capable as a back up ruck and a lot of our woes last night started around the ruck contest.

As you say Wicks was outstanding. I probably always felt he played his role forward better than a lot of others on here, but if can maintain his discipline he should get an extended run at it and kudos to the coaches for seeing his potential down back.

[Kafka's Ghost]

Sigh. We were overwhelmed at clearance, where Isaac played a virtual lone hand - 14 contested possessions, 10 clearances (6 centre clearances). Jordon was good. Needed much more from Rowbottom and Sheldrick. Warner effective mainly on the outside. Really missed Mills and Gulden clearly. I suspect Cleary would have been helpful too.

Hanily is small, but plays with grit.

Grundy got on top of Meek in the ruck, but was well beaten around the ground and we need much more from him.

Wicks was outstanding and Blakey still looks great.

Amartey led the line, and kicked, well. I thought McCartin was fine.

Disappointing from Florent, Hayward and McInerney. Florent is too experienced to be making those mistakes. I liked the look of Bice preseason, perhaps he might ultimately come in, with Florent moving to the wing.

A lot of finger pointing and crankiness from McInerney, but needs to be making more impact on games. I had no confidence he'd slot that set shot and neither did he.

Paton looked a bit ordinary. I don't think it'll be long before we see Andrew, or hopefully Snell.

Great summary. We really got smacked in the clearances; the Hawks were much cleaner. Given the number of inside 50s our defence did ok, although Florent was Nowheresville. The forward line functioned well when we got it in there, and Hanily looks a real prospect. Losing Adams and Sheldrick didn’t help in the midfield.
Can’t see us threatening Brisbane next week with the current midfield.

[UUaswan]

Great summary. We really got smacked in the clearances; the Hawks were much cleaner. Given the number of inside 50s our defence did ok, although Florent was Nowheresville. The forward line functioned well when we got it in there, and Hanily looks a real prospect. Losing Adams and Sheldrick didn’t help in the midfield.
Can’t see us threatening Brisbane next week with the current midfield.

When you think they got 4 or 5 easy clean goals from waltzing out the middle that's hard to overcome.

We need to sort our midfield method, Grundy tap work was irrelevant and he isnt going to last long playing 85% ruck time. Around the ground he fumbled and got outworked by Meek, only 2 marks.

The amount of times they had 3 players to none trying to pick it up was bad, totally out positioned.

Agree Sheldrick and Taylor out didn't help.

[UUaswan]

Is Sheldrick injured ?

[crackedactor 01]

When you think they got 4 or 5 easy clean goals from waltzing out the middle that's hard to overcome.

We need to sort our midfield method, Grundy tap work was irrelevant and he isnt going to last long playing 85% ruck time. Around the ground he fumbled and got outworked by Meek, only 2 marks.

The amount of times they had 3 players to none trying to pick it up was bad, totally out positioned.

Agree Sheldrick and Taylor out didn't help.

Not only was Grundy's tap work irrelevant, I though his inability to man up on Meek was quite noticeable, as Meek had his fair of uncontested marks.

[UUaswan]

Not only was Grundy's tap work irrelevant, I though his inability to man up on Meek was quite noticeable, as Meek had his fair of uncontested marks.

Hrundy couldnt hold a mark and wentto ground too easy, he doesnt bounce up like he used to as well.

JMac doing boundary throw ins is Rd 21, decimated list stuff.
Not the thing you do Round 1 when you have Ladhams in the 2s and just experienced Grundy falling off a cliff after 15rds last year.

Amartey needs to stay fwd. All our pinch hit rucks from last year offered next to nothing, Ladhams has to be the answer.

[KSAS]

Is Sheldrick injured ?

From what i can tell, Sheldrick was subbed off at 3/4 time after having his head bandage from a open cut. No mention of any concussion concerns & he may've been subbed off regardless to inject Hanily.

Interestingly, match report stated we had no injuries despite Adams hamstring tightness. You'd think he would be doubtful for next week with his hammy history.

Haven't heard if Sheldrick will come under any sort of scrutiny when they showed him bumping near Choi's head early in the game, who played out the match with no apparent effects.

Reading the summarations of Grundy's game, wonder whether if he was still hampered with his knee soreness?. Agree with the consensus Grundy can't play same game time as last.year. So is it better to have him managed to miss certain games with Ladhams stepping in or playing both?

Whilst extremely disappointed to have lost opening home game, i take solace there were some positives to take out of the game. Namely, Wicks as a defender & Armatey displaying more potency up forward. McCartin did at least provide crumbing opportunities with his aerial contests, but of course would like to see him be more effective.

I thought Chad was BOG. Looked like he has gone up another gear and is set to have an even bigger year!

Can only improve from here as we start to properly adhere to Cox's new game tweaks in contested ball & defensive play.

[Nico]

When you think they got 4 or 5 easy clean goals from waltzing out the middle that's hard to overcome.

We need to sort our midfield method, Grundy tap work was irrelevant and he isnt going to last long playing 85% ruck time. Around the ground he fumbled and got outworked by Meek, only 2 marks.

The amount of times they had 3 players to none trying to pick it up was bad, totally out positioned.

Agree Sheldrick and Taylor out didn't help.

I've been saying this for years. We learned nothing from the GF in this regard. Again, we lost a game at centre clearances.

[Roadrunner]

I've been saying this for years. We learned nothing from the GF in this regard. Again, we lost a game at centre clearances.

Maybe so Nico, but I didn’t like the team selection when I first saw it and so was never confident. I appreciate we have a heap of injuries but there were 3 questionable positions as far as I’m concerned. First, we needed a back- up ruck so Ladhams should have played. Second, Paton may have impressed in preseason but this is not enough without proving he is ready by playing some really good games in the ressies. Third, we needed a tall in the back to help out- at the moment it has to be either Francis or Hamling, and move Ramps to HB- it’s too much to expect him to continuously play on giant forwards.

No doubt our selectors will take it on board!?

[crackedactor 01]

Ladhams in is a no brainer, leaves Amartey fwd.
Grundy ruckwork us deplorable, hits it to Hawks all night, fumbles, goes to ground, I'm hoping with a lighter workload in tandem with Ladhams he would be better. Not worth half the money atm.

Lizard very good. playing tall maybe gives him more freedom to run off ???
Been no bigger critic of Wicks than me but he has certainly found his spot in the team.

Our method in the middle is terrible, no one even looks like getting or even going for a ground ball.

Tom Mc was ok, can't see how he is fwd if Mclean or Logan are in the side or if we play against a tall fwd line.

Sheldrick just started to get into it then got hurt.
A few others came alive after the half.

Very fumbly as expected, @@@@ty free kicks as expected.

In summary. we didn't look good when we weren't in possession, alot of that is setup

Darcy Cameron was BOG in a 52 point loss. Not a bad effort. Why did we let him go again? i have forgotten.

[UUaswan]

Darcy Cameron was BOG in a 52 point loss. Not a bad effort. Why did we let him go again? i have forgotten.

Wouldnt read to much into that, he dominated the Ruck against a 2nd string ruckman afterthe other one got injured yet GWS destroyed them around the ball

Love his around the ground stuff though