Match thread: Swans v Bulldogs.

[mcs]

Agree with the turf, what the hell is going on
Easily cost ourselves 4 games this year with poor disposal, both hand and foot.

Im not lauding effort
Effort is non negotiable in Jnr footy
Execution is expected in AFL footy

You can't win games of footy without a good level of effort however (well unless you are maybe playing Carlton lol), no matter how you want to dress it up.

Compared to some of what we dished up earlier in the season, it was terrific in that aspect.

And execution - beyond the foghorn of kicking for goal, it was vastly improved.

[Daisi]

Had an enjoyable night - bad kicking let us down but what a pleasure to see Errol coming back - next year Errol brownlow Swans premiership ! Great effort tonight some of our players are clearly not fit and I have doubts about Mclean

[crackedactor 01]

Lots of great efforts tonight. Still mystified how a AFL standard team kicks 4.10 from set shots. Just as well we had Heeney have a few set shots. Like Bueller's game tonight especially his competing and tackling. Needs to work on his set shots. To think if we kicked 6.8 from set shots, we win the game and that is not great kicking.Need another quality forward and defender.Ollie Florent was ordinary when he came on including fumbling the ball near goal, which gave the Bulldogs a easy goal. We should trade him if anyone will take him. I thought Sheldrick did some nice things tonight. Warner was OK but never dominates a game like he did last year.

[mcs]

Lots of great efforts tonight. Still mystified how a AFL standard team kicks 4.10 from set shots. Just as well we had Heeney have a few set shots. Like Bueller's game tonight especially his competing and tackling. Needs to work on his set shots. To think if we kicked 6.8 from set shots, we win the game and that is not great kicking.Need another quality forward and defender.Ollie Florent was ordinary when he came on including fumbling the ball near goal, which gave the Bulldogs a easy goal. We should trade him if anyone will take him. I thought Sheldrick did some nice things tonight. Warner was OK but never dominates a game like he did last year.

We really can not afford to lose Sheldrick. He is rough in terms of his ball use, but he can get the pill a lot and isn't a bad decision maker in general. It leaves us in a pickle with Rowy however - I don't think its a coincidence his output and performance has dropped a bit over the past couple of months since Sheldrick has been in there. I still think we need to change his role up and let him have some attacking licence, and see if he can do what he did in junior footy at senior level - no loss in trying when this season is all but done.

[dejavoodoo44]

We really can not afford to lose Sheldrick. He is rough in terms of his ball use, but he can get the pill a lot and isn't a bad decision maker in general. It leaves us in a pickle with Rowy however - I don't think its a coincidence his output and performance has dropped a bit over the past couple of months since Sheldrick has been in there. I still think we need to change his role up and let him have some attacking licence, and see if he can do what he did in junior footy at senior level - no loss in trying when this season is all but done.

I suspect that Rowbottom is playing with some sort of chronic injury. I noticed that when he tried to sprint, he was really labouring. If we were playing somebody like West Coast or the injury ridden Essendon, the selectors probably would have given him the week off.

[mcs]

I suspect that Rowbottom is playing with some sort of chronic injury. I noticed that when he tried to sprint, he was really labouring. If we were playing somebody like West Coast or the injury ridden Essendon, the selectors probably would have given him the week off.

You may be right - he is certainly not looking comfortable out there.

[MattW]

Based on the contest around the ground, we should have won that game. Dominated contested possessions, stoppage clearances, the ruck battle and tackles. Further, on the performances of Grundy, Gulden, Heeney, and Papley, we should have won it.

We lost it with some keystone cops defending (which includes wobbly kicking from defence), missed tackles and atrocious set shooting.

Mills had 0 tackles, missed about 5, and gave away a naive 50m. Blakey made bad kicking errors at key times. Hayden McLean has the look of a man certain he'll never kick another AFL goal. Florent hs played 180 games of AFL and somehow still lacks composure.

[rojo]

Did I imagine it or did Blakey actually make some very costly mistakes in that last quarter, both i decision making and execution!

[dejavoodoo44]

After our best tall defender was a late out, to join our best two tall forwards on the sideline, I was expecting that to be a bit of a blow out. So, I'm not too disappointed with a close loss. Though obviously, I would have preferred us to kick straight enough to get a close win. Plenty of positives, though.

Grundy was great in the ruck. 43 hit outs, many of them to advantage, 8 clearances and 28 possessions. Heeney was brilliant in the forward half and looked like dragging us to victory. Gulden in the second half was superb. I'm not sure if anyone can see and hit a target quite like him? Melican did plenty of good things. I'm still liking Wicks in defence. Jordon largely had the better of Richards. Our 78 tackles to 51 probably should have been rewarded with more holding the ball decisions. Blakey, Warner and McInerney all had some useful touches.

[SwanSand]

We should have won with average kicking.
We could have won with poor kicking and Amartey and McCartin and Rampe playing.
We could have won with better surface and better field kicking out of the back half.
We lost.
But lots of positives.
The one negative was the 10 min period in second quarter when they absolutely dominated and the last 10 min the third Quarter. We were otherwise good.
I cannot see any difference in the approach from Longmire to Cox era. I thought there was a defensive structural change last 2 matches but this match was just like last year. But maybe it was because we lost McCartin and Rampe.
Gulden and papley absolutely make a huge difference to our playing style.

[liz]

Mills was one reason why we made Port look so ordinary last week but he couldn't back that up. He had a couple of very good moments but wasn't as steady as we needed him to be. And Blakey, too, was more error riddled than normal.

Added to the obvious players who took us close - Isaac, Brodie, Tom, Errol, JJ - I think Lewis and Sam deserve plaudits for what they did. Lewis may have made a couple of errors but his good stuff outweighed those, and he had a tough role on his own. When the ball was in Sam's hands coming out of our back half, I felt the most confident.

Lloyd was much improved on his outings from earlier in the season. He may have mostly kicked long, barely directed kicks but at least he played on much more quickly than he has been, and found useful pockets of space in our forward line.

I'll add my bafflement (and irritation) to that of other posters about the state of the ground. It's gone from bad to terrible as the season has gone on and it's really hard to know why a world class venue can't lay a decent surface. Yes, we've had a fair bit of rain in Sydney over the last couple of months, but I'm not sure it that's any excuse. It's not like it's been torrential or never ending.

[UUaswan]

Lloyd is similar to Johnson at Freo

19 Kicks off 14 Marks, why ?
Teams let him go loose as they know he cant hurt you

[Nico]

Did I imagine it or did Blakey actually make some very costly mistakes in that last quarter, both i decision making and execution!

He sure did. Those dumb dinky kicks to the opposition was very frustrating. But he wasn't alone. Mills made 2 critical mistakes in the middle of the ground with 2 very poor handballs that he didn't need to make when he was clear. Our forwards looked to be one out against their opponents inside 30 metres. I reckon we stuffed up 6 times coming through the centre by over possessing. Buller had looked dangerous but no, they didn't want to go to the inexperienced player, and Mills is the captain. Twice he could have run inside 50 and had a shot.

Wicks played a top game on West. But Roberts, boy he was horrible. He had zero tackles and looked scared to get amongst it. Late in the 3rd quarter about 15 metres out from the Dogs goal, instead of putting his head over the footy he rolled half sideways into the pack to make it look like he was contesting. He was very, very soft all game and Florent to me, is a way better option in defense.
No.9 once again failed to perform against a top side. Unless he takes a mark he is beaten one on one when ball hits the ground. I thought Buller played a much better game but of course he will be the forward who goes out when Amartey comes back in.

Apart from the above we played really hard tough footy and probably deserved to win.

[UUaswan]

You can't win games of footy without a good level of effort however (well unless you are maybe playing Carlton lol), no matter how you want to dress it up.

Compared to some of what we dished up earlier in the season, it was terrific in that aspect.

And execution - beyond the foghorn of kicking for goal, it was vastly improved.

Im not saying effort doesn't matter, of course it does, im saying I'm not going to praise a professional athlete for putting in effort.

My 9yr old is expected to put in effort every week, no excuses

[Hotpotato]

The SCG used to drain brilliantly . Do those big name concerts
stuff it up ?