Match thread - Rd 12 v Crows

[Daisi]

I stayed till the very bitter end - now catching the train home - what a terribly disappointing night

[Daisi]

So the umpiring was shocking - there was no system out of defence - seemed to be kick and hope - very static forward line - we need a target there - Rowy and Grundy just tried all night - towards the end Rowy had a free against him and just shook his head in disbelief - some of those decisions were baffling - I won’t repeat what was said in the crowd but streams of people were leaving by 3/4 time

[Foreign Legion]

There were some horrible umpiring decisions no doubt - starting with the non free against Keays in the first quarter. But they don't explain that loss. Although we seem to be penalised EVERY time we kick it less than 20 metres but other clubs it is ok.

[UUaswan]

100%. Is that a confidence thing? The buck stops with the coach but we only had a handful of players who tried most of the night. I named them earlier and can add Rowy to the list. Lloyd, Corey Warner, Cleary, Adams, Bice maybe Campbell don’t deserve a game next week but we probably only have Mills to come in- a very sorry state of affairs.

What can be done guys? We are loyal supporters but a 90 point hiding at home takes some digesting. Cox and Co will have nightmares for a while, that’s for sure!
Good night everyone- we have to be patient until we get Errol, Paps, and even Amartey and Wicks back. If Francis is fit next week perhaps Cox will move the Lizard further up. He has to do something!

If we have no one to come in maybe try guys in different positions ?

Put Campbell, Cleary in the middle, ball hunting, Bice on a wing, give the guys the license to chase the God damn ball, be hunters not mitigators

P8ss Lloyd off, even with ball in hand he is short down the line, 30m flour bag
Adams too, he is too fumbly and with his speed that is terminal
Corey in the 2s he has no game sense let alone goal sense.

Hannily has goal sense, Dattolli has goal sense
Ollie over Lloyd.

Anything else on the whole f8cking ground for Blakey, wasting an all time career

That's personnel sorted, now the Coach needs a good look at himself, even when we get the ball we arent dangerous, change his method, if we are turning to ball over fwd of centre consistently that is the coach

[Roadrunner]

If we have no one to come in maybe try guys in different positions ?

Put Campbell, Cleary in the middle, ball hunting, Bice on a wing, give the guys the license to chase the God damn ball, be hunters not mitigators

P8ss Lloyd off, even with ball in hand he is short down the line, 30m flour bag
Adams too, he is too fumbly and with his speed that is terminal
Corey in the 2s he has no game sense let alone goal sense.

Hannily has goal sense, Dattolli has goal sense
Ollie over Lloyd.

Anything else on the whole f8cking ground for Blakey, wasting an all time career

That's personnel sorted, now the Coach needs a good look at himself, even when we get the ball we arent dangerous, change his method, if we are turning to ball over fwd of centre consistently that is the coach

All good points buddy- forwards leading to space and creating targets is on the players though. I honestly can’t believe that Cox tells the mids and defenders to bomb it forward! One problem is that when the defenders are under pressure, they just bomb it and 9 times out of 10 it goes to an opposition for an easy turnover. Why aren’t our boys anticipating these kicks? And why bomb it to a pack where we usually get out marked or punched clear to an opponent and then get counter attacked? Surely this is on the players. The reality is that without talented talls and smalls in our forward line, it’s not realistic to expect heavy or even decent scoring. Looking at ours tonight’s side, which forward would get into a current top 8 team? Only Heeney, and he spent most of his time in midfield.

We’re missing talent at the moment and it’s frustrating!

[crackedactor 01]

[QUOTE=Foreign Legion;n1249612]There were some horrible umpiring decisions no doubt - starting with the non free against Keays in the first quarter. But they don't explain that loss. Although we seem to be penalised EVERY time we kick it less than 20 metres but other clubs it is ok. [/QUO


I noticed that also, but to make it worse in the3rd Quarter Dawson marked a 10 meter kick and when the Swans complained the corrupt umpiring fraternity gave him a 50 meter penalty as well.

[UUaswan]

All good points buddy- forwards leading to space and creating targets is on the players though. I honestly can’t believe that Cox tells the mids and defenders to bomb it forward! One problem is that when the defenders are under pressure, they just bomb it and 9 times out of 10 it goes to an opposition for an easy turnover. Why aren’t our boys anticipating these kicks? And why bomb it to a pack where we usually get out marked or punched clear to an opponent and then get counter attacked? Surely this is on the players. The reality is that without talented talls and smalls in our forward line, it’s not realistic to expect heavy or even decent scoring. Looking at ours tonight’s side, which forward would get into a current top 8 team? Only Heeney, and he spent most of his time in midfield.

We’re missing talent at the moment and it’s frustrating!

Agree with that, but if the ball is long to Mclean, Heeney or Hayward who is on the ground ?

Cleary, Corey ? I genuinely dont know, when they do 5 handballs in the D50, 20m from goal I only see the Mclean or Hayward chasing?

It's like we are outnumbered by 2, that's probably because we are too busy running defensive

[The Big Cat]

I stayed till the very bitter end - now catching the train home - what a terribly disappointing night

Good Onya . I’m pleased to see a few real supporters on this site.

[Daisi]

Good Onya . I’m pleased to see a few real supporters on this site.

Well thank you- that's very kind- but I think everybody here is a real supporter. We all have different ways of showing it. I certainly don't blame people for leaving early tonight. It was a cold night, food and drink is expensive, and there's not much to do if your team is being walloped. I was lucky the people around me were happy to chat and groan and yell (at umpires) , and were good humoured, funny and constructive. I imagine others in the crowd were not so lucky.

I also enjoyed Barry Hall's confusion when the umpires tried to shake his hand at the coin toss- he didn't know what to do...

Also Goodsey was there- total highlight of the night.

[Dow]

We have learnt we need to retire Lloyd, Rampe, Hammling and players like Corey Warner, Bice, Sheldrick, McLean aren’t the way forward and need to be delisted as contracts expire

[imuninformedtwo]

Well, where to start. When an opposition player - Milera - says in a post match interview they could sense from our on ground communication that we’re a bit of a rabble, you know it’s bad.

There’s no doubt our ball movement is horrid but the broken tackles are a sign of the malaise for me. There was a play in the fourth quarter starting on the wing in front of the interchange bench, winding its way diagonally across half forward to the opposite forward pocket, for the Keays goal early in the fourth, when they must have slipped seven or eight tackles. Which means the effort might kind of be there, but it’s not hard, relentless effort.

What’s due to coaching and what’s not is hard to distinguish right now, but if I was Cox there’s probably two things I’d think through. One - he seems to have a bit of a game plan of the week. Early in the season it was a focus on contested ball and better full ground defence. I was cool with that as building good fundamentals and there were signs it was working. But now he often throws up a focus on something different each time. Defensive forwards against GWS (albeit it worked), kick it deep against the Bombers (it didn’t), small forwards last night (it didn’t). Settle the players by sticking to a plan. And the other is make a call on some players, and play them in proper positions. I know injuries and suspensions have made his life hard, but it’s possible.

For example, we wanted to play small forward of the ball last night to keep the ball in f50 and encourage some run. But we start Cleary on the bench and play Adams down there. Huh?

Which brings me to some players. Fair call on Bice. He will be back but he needs a stint in reserves, mainly because his defensive positioning and work is off the mark. But if Bice is alone in paying the price for yesterday, we’ve missed the point.

As players return, the following need to be progressed out of the side for good.

Adams. I never understood his recruitment as an ageing player with a poor injury profile. He lacks the running capacity required for the modern game. Time to move on.

Hamling. Just when we found some spark with four goals to start the third quarter, he gives up two easy goals on Walker. Hoo roo.

Lloyd. I’ve come around to Liz’s view here. At start of second quarter, a ball popped a bit above his head and he bunted it backwards into dangerous space in defence. He’s gotta take the hit. And in his best days, he would. Instead, he pushed the ball back into a goal scoring position. At the subsequent stoppage, Soligo scores.. Five minutes later, simple ground ball, fumble, they clear it forward and Thilthorpe scores the goal on review. To top off his night, with five minutes left in the game, he hack clears mindlessly from defence to space where Crows were always going to have two players set up behind the ball. He’s been a great servant but he’s done.

We get Mills back next week, I’d also give Hanily a run again. And then look to find an opportunity for Dattoli after a month of good footy.

i don’t really want to say too much positive but . . . I’d knocked Grundy a bit this year, but he was the one bloke who played 120 minutes of effort footy. A few others like Juzzy, Chad and Heeney were good at the contest. And I thought Mitchell was ok. After that though . . .

[lwjoyner]

I have been saying it for weeks, Cox is not for us can't coach. We have lost the swans mojo since his appointment, and remember he had a huge say in our drats picks this year, a little guy and number one when we are crying out for a tall defender or 2 to help tom mc. Ans then in rookie draft he picks up Patton a guy not wanted at st kilda. Time we stopped picking cast offs both in drafts and team selection. That means Francis and Hamling who we picked as rookies for TALL DEFENSIVE ROLES. The season is not teetering as some are saying an afl on line ITS OVER. PLEASE try players like Buller, Snell and Edwardes (when fit) and give them the rest of the year to show us they have what it takes.
Also need Stewie Maxfield, Brett Kirk and micky O and goodeys to have lead a redo or reaffirm SWANS mojo with the players by having some truth telling sessions, maybe without Cox and assistants, cause we have lost it, so quickly this year despite wins over Freo and Blues which seemed to say we had got it back again, but last few weeks it has disappeared altogether.

[lwjoyner]

Note I forgot to mention that i went over to A league grand final after the first nON free kick and Crows first goal, blatantly a free to Swans but play on called. Also Maybe Adam Simpson would have been a better call as coach wven if he eventually fell as WC coach. Hime an JL are tremendous on Fox Footy each week.

[neilfws]

Also Goodsey was there- total highlight of the night.

Yes, my highlight of the night too - great to see him as part of the '05 side.

As for the game...it reminded me of R16 2015 at ANZ versus the Hawks. Lost by 89 that night, a GF smashing the year before. And whilst I'm wary of "diagnosis from the stands", the team that day looked like their issues were largely psychological.

There are some concerning quotes in the match summary at The Age.

Adelaide’s Wayne Milera told the ABC post-match that they could sense that the Swans were “a bit of a rabble, just hearing them on the ground.”

Cox conceded Sydney’s problems had to be predominantly mental.

[Blue Sun]

We have learnt we need to retire Lloyd, Rampe, Hammling and players like Corey Warner, Bice, Sheldrick, McLean aren’t the way forward and need to be delisted as contracts expire

Lloyd needs an extended stay in the 2’s to regain some confidence.

This will likely be Rampe’s last or second last year, I think he’ll be okay if we can find some structure.

Hamling tries, but I agree, I don’t think he’s AFL material.

Bice and Corey Warner aren’t up to the challenge, I agree. They should be delisted along with Hamling.

Sheldrick and McClean will come good, I think. They show glimpses of greatness.

We lack leadership. Mills shouldn’t be captain, it should either be Heeney or Rowbottom. Cox needs to step up and developed a game plan or tactic that can stop the bleeding.

Take a mark, kick in, whatever, from there we need set plays to generate some space for safe leads and passes. We’ve been a rabble for most matches this year. No structure, no plan, no leadership.