Match thread: Swans v Collingwood.

[crackedactor 01]

Contested mark again - we are HOPELESS at them.

9 contested marks to one is not good enough. Hamling was poor and we desperately need Melican back in the side. Looks like Mcdonald will be playing next week. Tonight exposed many holes in the way we play when they shut down the corridor.

[dejavoodoo44]

Its nice not to have to put with BT - but there is a desperation from all in the commentary box to fill every space with noise. Daisy Pearce has really good stuff to say, but needs to learn to say it in about 1/3 of the words as well. Its an improvement without BT, but not much off a low base.

The only heads worth protecting in this game are clearly Daicos one. Was it Cleary that got cleaned up twice in about 3 seconds, yet 5 seconds later a marginal one at best was whistle straight to the lips because it was a Daicos.

We are trying hard, but our bottom handful tonight have let us down. And you can't afford to make as many elementary errors as we have had at crucial times against good teams. Feels like it'll be one of those seasons where we will beat plenty of average to poor teams, but not measure up against the best. Might be a different story when we get a few troops back later in the season, but need to ensure we are still in touching distance at that point of the season.

Yes, I think a few times tonight Daicos had no real idea why he got a free. I certainly didn't.

And I think that Cleary was one of our positives tonight. Did some really useful things when he had the ball, applied some strong pressure and looked like he has gained a little bit of pace. I hope that soon he gets more time in his preferred position of inside mid. In his junior years, his main strengths were contested possessions in traffic and quick clearances.

I also thought that while Collingwood were the better side, the margin was a bit inflated. In that, for a lot of the game, the scrambled ball seemed to bounce the way of Collingwood. Spoils, dropped marks, scuffed kicks, etc, often seemed to seek out their free players, while avoiding our free players. And I thought that was especially true in the opposing forward lines. Although, I'm not sure if anyone in our defence actually had a good game?

Heeney was our best and occasionally looked like swinging the momentum our way. While many others did some good things, most of them probably didn't do it consistently enough. Disappointing, but not depressing.

[mcs]

Yes, I think a few times tonight Daicos had no real idea why he got a free. I certainly didn't.

And I think that Cleary was one of our positives tonight. Did some really useful things when he had the ball, applied some strong pressure and looked like he has gained a little bit of pace. I hope that soon he gets more time in his preferred position of inside mid. In his junior years, his main strengths were contested possessions in traffic and quick clearances.

I also thought that while Collingwood were the better side, the margin was a bit inflated. In that, for a lot of the game, the scrambled ball seemed to bounce the way of Collingwood. Spoils, dropped marks, scuffed kicks, etc, often seemed to seek out their free players, while avoiding our free players. And I thought that was especially true in the opposing forward lines. Although, I'm not sure if anyone in our defence actually had a good game?

Heeney was our best and occasionally looked like swinging the momentum our way. While many others did some good things, most of them probably didn't do it consistently enough. Disappointing, but not depressing.

I can't see Clearly getting much time in there, as much as I'd like to see it happen too. Even Campbell still rarely gets any midfield time, despite being very decent in there as a junior footy player too.

Our defence really let us down a fair bit tonight through elementary errors. Definitely agree a lot of the bounce of the ball felt like it fell the Pies ways, but we were our own worst enemies defensively - 3 or 4 goals from horrendous defensive errors at the fall of the ball off a good pack.

[UUaswan]

If someone is taking a contested mark when you have a run at the ball, that is weak as p8ss.

Last half every thing forward was luck at best , obviously Amartey out doesn't help neither do dropped marks with limited opportunity

[crackedactor 01]

Sheldrick was ok as the game went on. Grundy was ok but Cameron got so many frees - someone else got just as many as Cameron - no surprise who that was.

If we didnt have ANOTHER bloody bye in the VFL this weekend McDonald might be able to get some decent form. Stupid bloody draw - I think we have had 2 byes already!

Strange game tonight - I thought the positives were Grundy still has what it takes to be a ruckman, Love Caiden Cleary game tonight, especially under pressure, Corey Warner's best game, Heeney can be brilliant at times and almost brought us back into the game. -I negatives were our contested ball was woeful early in the game. Nine contested marks to one, Mclean was OK but dropped a couple of simple marks. Hamling was very poor down back. Campbell's superb kicking was off tonight, cannot believe the after the siren kick from 50 meters fell short. Amartey looks gone for about 4 weeks plus. The defensive work of letting a Collingwood player sit in front of the marking pack by themselves was bewildering. Hopefully we will get players back next week for Port Adelaide.

[KSAS]

Daicos possibly the most protected player ive seen in 50+ years of footy

Daicos + Umpires = MAFS

[Kafka's Ghost]

Whilst disappointing, last night was the first time that the huge number of important outs became really obvious. Half the time Collingwood were just way smarter at any contest, and certainly losing Amartey so early in the game was damaging as well. Having said that, Sheldrick showed a bit of development, Cleary was a real positive and Corey Warner also had a good game. Chad is possibly still unwell, he looked pretty flat and lacked run and drive. Lloyd had a shocker; that kick for goal that barely made it from 40m, frequent turnovers and lack of defensive pressure makes me think he might also have been unwell. Or maybe the defensive unit just had a poor night. Hayward was a shadow of the bloke that tore it up last week.

[Nico]

Observation: Collingwood players are big bodied as against us with smaller and lighter players. We were out muscled at contests and Collingwood are very quick and good at the forcing the ball forward. We had more possessions but we did a lot of unnecessary hand balls.

Hill got 3 goals because his opponent, Wicks, was ball watching. Should have been on his shoulder. My mate Hayward was back to his ordinary best against a good side.

Once again we got slaughtered out of the centre. Why is it our mids can't read the ball from a knockout? The start of the 2nd quarter looked like the GF all over again. Just like against Brisbane we gave Collingwood the break they needed. 3 goals out of the centre in quick succession and our blokes were unsighted. There was one where Daicos took a hand pass and none of our players were in the picture.

[MattW]

That was disappointing. Dropped marks, poor kicks, missed tackles. Too many of our players are not reaching the next level, and I'm including some mid-career players.

Amartey injury badly damaged structure - Ladhams seems better around the ground than in the forward 50. Cox seemed frustrated that McDonald won't play this weekend. Hopefully, he gets up next game.

Hamling was continually beaten. Hopefully Melican is back next week.

Heeney played a near lone hand in the contest. Good to see him back to that form. Rowbottom was competitive, but made uncharacteristic mistakes. James tried but was beaten.

I thought Cleary was promising again. Good pressure, hard running, physical. Three centre bounce attendances is probably just the beginning.

Wicks was good again; he has been impressively disciplined in the tackle.

Corey Warner is developing well. It started with his tackling. Two great goals last night. He's looking more comfortable. His brother seems caught between bombing it and passing at the moment; not playing on instinct.


I think we should stick with Sheldrick and give him time to build confidence. Six tackles in 38% game time.

[rojo]

We did go into the game with quite a few inexperienced players, Hanily, Cleary, Brice, Warner, Sheldrick, as well as Hambling and Ladhams, and were relatively easily pushed aside by bigger and stronger bodies all over the ground, but we seem to be so drilled on our game plan and strategy that when that is closed down by a good team like Collingwood, we don't or can't adapt. The former no doubt contributes to the latter. For a player like Heeney, no probs. The worry is the inability of our 2nd tier players to adapt or provide leadership. The younger, and inexperienced players come into the team to play their 'role' but when the game plan is in tatters the result is our back line for much of the game last night.

Sigh! It's all a learning process! Hopefully we will learn from the mistakes of last night.

[crackedactor 01]

For what its worth. Watched a replay and there was so many un-Swans like football, particularly in tackling. We noted that Lloyd struggled to kick the ball 40 meters when having a shot for goal and Campbell was short from 50 meters when I have seen him kick the ball 70 meters.We all know that Chad Warner has been ill and has been recovering. Just wondering if a virus may be going through several member of the team. Maybe a wild theory but it could be a reason. I believe Collingwood could have won by 10 goals if they pushed it. If we play at the same standard we have no chance against Port ADELAIDE next week.

[SwanSand]

Riley Bice is rising and I am hoping that he starts taking some contested marks. If he can do that on a consistent basis, we may have finally replaced Jordan Dawson on our list. I think he is going to get going big time in the next few weeks.
hopefully with the return of Mcinerney, Melican and Mcdknald next week we will be a lot more composed with the footy and would have the smarts to get the opposition on transition a lot better.
but geez our problems that we are all saying for the entire last 3 years are still there, no decent talls that can take contested marks, no midfield bull that can get us going in the middle, and no tall defender to help out Tom Mccartin. Unless we fix these three deficiencies we cannot win the grand final.
next few weeks will be difficult too - no papley really hurts and now no Amartey

[Roadrunner]

Riley Bice is rising and I am hoping that he starts taking some contested marks. If he can do that on a consistent basis, we may have finally replaced Jordan Dawson on our list. I think he is going to get going big time in the next few weeks.
hopefully with the return of Mcinerney, Melican and Mcdknald next week we will be a lot more composed with the footy and would have the smarts to get the opposition on transition a lot better.
but geez our problems that we are all saying for the entire last 3 years are still there, no decent talls that can take contested marks, no midfield bull that can get us going in the middle, and no tall defender to help out Tom Mccartin. Unless we fix these three deficiencies we cannot win the grand final.
next few weeks will be difficult too - no papley really hurts and now no Amartey

Grundy has been ok but he doesn’t take many contested marks. McLean can, but he drops quite a few- we simply don’t have enough talls taking marks. We can’t rely on Heeney as he’s playing on the ball a lot and with Amartey out we have no choice but to bring Logan back earlier than planned, as with Melican. Our inability to control the air exposes us to a lot of pressure. As you say, our obvious gaps have been evident for quite some time and unfortunately our recruiters have not been able to solve this. Francis and Hamling may be ok at VFL level but clearly are not in our best 23. Other clubs have been able to recruit better. As for our mids- give me a break! Who have we drafted that has shown enough to become a regular? Either injury prone or not good enough. I don’t want to whinge but missing out on a player like Serong was a no brainer- I know KB has admitted they made a mistake but that’s their main job! As far as I’m aware, the only youngster in our top 23 is Matty Roberts- Errol and Braeden are from our Academy and were obvious choices.

Look, injuries can happen to any team and it obviously showed us up against the Pies. I’m sorry but I blame our recruiters for our lack of squad depth. It needs to be addressed and I think we’ve been far too complacent- time for major changes now!

[KSAS]

Tough start with our horrendous injury list & playing quality teams. We've done ok considering. The positive is that we've given opportunities to players like Bice, Co Warner, Hanily & Cleary to help improve our depth.

Hopefully our fortunes will start to improve as players begin to return, but resist temptation of rushing them back. For this reason i"m not keen on McDonald being considered, as he requires furthrr match fitness. Melican & McInnery would be my only ins.

So disappointing Riak is out long term, as he looked to have the goods to develop into the KPD we desperately need.

I'm hopeful we can finiish strongly in the back half of the season when we're at full strength, to make the finals with momentum. Fingers crossed with our injury list improving.

[Blood Fever]

Not stressed about this season given everything. Need another six months to recover from last year.