Match thread: Swans v Cats.

[Nico]

That was a horrible second half. There is no excuse for some of the turnovers under no pressure. Our skills dropped off big time in the second half. Mills was a genuine turnover artist. That kick to Heeney in the middle with 3 players around him says it all. Why does Chad kick short stuff to short players on their hammer. I thought he played well but lost points for some stupid kicking selection.
I think I saw Rowbottom at a centre bounce once in the last quarter. We lose so much when he isn't played in the thick of the action.

Once again Hayward goes missing against a top side.

Hats off to Tom McCartin who kept Cameron goalless.

And yes, Heeney got a raw deal from the umpires.

I'm overseas and the bar where I watched it took the Ch7 feed. You would think it was the Geelong cheer squad doing the call. Probably the worst call of a game I can recall. Papley got a high tackle that wasn't paid and the dude calling the game said the umps don't like it when a player puts a bit of mayo on the tackle. Ah, goose, a high tackle is a high tackle. He didn't drop his knees and he was tackled from behind. The one where Heeney had his arm dragged down, Blind Freddy could see it but not one of 4 umpires.

But we have a lot of work to do before next season. When our skills are horrible we play horrible. Missed Grundy's second efforts and around the ground marks.

Will Sullivan get weeks for that very late hit on Blakey? It was way after the ball was disposed of. If he doesn't there is something very wrong with our game.

[crackedactor 01]

They tried a few different things today that contributed to the lose. Our inability to take contested marks is obvious. They often choose to kick the ball to the centre rather than go forward due to a lack of marking targets.

[stevoswan]

I came home from Europe just in time to see this....LOL- We have been outclassed today, some of our players are just not up to standard. They need to get fit...We need a full forward, somebody who knows forward craft, somebody who will present a target...we can' rely on Heeney to do everything.

But for me, what we really need is a forward. Is there anybody on the market we can steal?

Have you forgotten about McDonald and Amartey?

[UUaswan]

That was a horrible second half. There is no excuse for some of the turnovers under no pressure. Our skills dropped off big time in the second half. Mills was a genuine turnover artist. That kick to Heeney in the middle with 3 players around him says it all. Why does Chad kick short stuff to short players on their hammer. I thought he played well but lost points for some stupid kicking selection.
I think I saw Rowbottom at a centre bounce once in the last quarter. We lose so much when he isn't played in the thick of the action.

Once again Hayward goes missing against a top side.

Hats off to Tom McCartin who kept Cameron goalless.

And yes, Heeney got a raw deal from the umpires.

I'm overseas and the bar where I watched it took the Ch7 feed. You would think it was the Geelong cheer squad doing the call. Probably the worst call of a game I can recall. Papley got a high tackle that wasn't paid and the dude calling the game said the umps don't like it when a player puts a bit of mayo on the tackle. Ah, goose, a high tackle is a high tackle. He didn't drop his knees and he was tackled from behind. The one where Heeney had his arm dragged down, Blind Freddy could see it but not one of 4 umpires.

But we have a lot of work to do before next season. When our skills are horrible we play horrible. Missed Grundy's second efforts and around the ground marks.

Will Sullivan get weeks for that very late hit on Blakey? It was way after the ball was disposed of. If he doesn't there is something very wrong with our game.

Kicking is terrible as they are looking for targets that arent there as WE HAVE NOTHING DOWN THE LINE and thats why Hayward "went missing"

[crackedactor 01]

Have you forgotten about McDonald and Amartey?

Who are they? They will miss at least half the year with injury,that is something you can count on.

[imuninformedtwo]

Yuk.

The loss of any structure ahead of the ball, combined with the brain dead kicking inside f50, was the stuff of nightmares. Complete opposite to last week which makes it hard to explain. And the tackling was awful.

Ladhams showed why he is an AFL level ruck. Not a star, but capable, and it’s likely another side comes for him. I hope a preseason gets Mills back to his best. His decision making is all askew right now. I’m also worried about the lack of on field leadership during a surrender like that. He can’t be solely responsible, but . . .

I’m glad we’re a side that tries to win at all costs, as tanking is a horrible disease to infect a club. But our late surge up the ladder in 2023 really hurt us long term, as it took O’Sullivan off the table. He’d have been the perfect addition to our young group.

[Velour&Ruffles]

Ladhams was more than serviceable today. He has talent. We need to keep him.

[mcs]

Ladhams was more than serviceable today. He has talent. We need to keep him.

I think he continues to improve with age. No world beater, but more than decent.

If the rumoured move to get rid of the sub and simply have 5 on the bench, then I suspect having 2 genuine rucks in a team will again become the norm. If that happens, we can't afford to lose him at this point.

[111431]

That was one of the weakest and most insipid 2 half’s I’ve seen by the so called Bloods. There was no willingness to work hard. I fear for our ‘blood’s culture’ . Geelong have shown us up far too many times as being soft and not hard at the ball or the man with the ball. We have a very long period of rebuild ahead of us

[Thunder Shaker]

Ladhams was more than serviceable today. He has talent. We need to keep him.

Nine things we learned: 6) This Swan (Ladhams) is better than a back-up ruck. (afl.com.au. I edited the title to show where Ladhams is discussed).

[Roadrunner]

Ladhams was more than serviceable today. He has talent. We need to keep him.

Agreed- he kept at it all day and can keep his head high, which I can’t say for most of our other lads. Too soft, not enough game IQ with silly kicks, poor tackles etc. This team is too inconsistent to make it, though in fairness we have our 2 key forwards out. Nevertheless, very disappointed in this insipid second half.

[mcs]

So true. I almost kicked my TV to pieces when that happened. The umpiring today was atrocious. I’m not saying that’s why we lost but it detracted enormously from the viewing experience. I don’t know how many blatant Geelong throws went unpunished but it was in the dozens. That free against Heeney was the moment though when I thought I might never bother watching this stupid effing game again.

Bailey Smith turning up at the Cats has co-incided with a gameplan that already involved a lot of questionable handballs becoming supercharged. He is blatant however with some of his "Handballs" - and largely gets away with it.

[UUaswan]

Agreed- he kept at it all day and can keep his head high, which I can’t say for most of our other lads. Too soft, not enough game IQ with silly kicks, poor tackles etc. This team is too inconsistent to make it, though in fairness we have our 2 key forwards out. Nevertheless, very disappointed in this insipid second half.

The 1st qtr is us to a tee, unstoppable ball in hand.

After that was also our hallmark, too small and light to consistently win it back, manhandled, looked like boys vs men

[liz]

Yuk.

The loss of any structure ahead of the ball, combined with the brain dead kicking inside f50, was the stuff of nightmares. Complete opposite to last week which makes it hard to explain. And the tackling was awful.

I don't think it's that hard to explain. Geelong were far better at applying pressure and closing down space than the Lions were last week. It has been noted many times in the media how poor Brisbane's pressure was last week against us. And ours wasn't much better towards them so "awful" today doesn't represent a come down. Rather a continuation.

We tried to play a similar game style yesterday but it came unstuck due to a) the Cats being on to us and closing down space; and b) a litany of dumb, unforced errors and fumbles of the ground ball, only some of which can be attributed to the Cats' pressure.

Once it became clear we didn't have enough players "on" to play that style, maybe we needed to revert to trying to control the ball a bit more and playing slower. Cox has only had one pre-season in total control of the squad, game plan and pre-season so he's not had time to experiment. But playing around with different modes of play must be top of his list for this upcoming off season.

[imuninformedtwo]

I don't think it's that hard to explain. Geelong were far better at applying pressure and closing down space than the Lions were last week. It has been noted many times in the media how poor Brisbane's pressure was last week against us. And ours wasn't much better towards them so "awful" today doesn't represent a come down. Rather a continuation.

We tried to play a similar game style yesterday but it came unstuck due to a) the Cats being on to us and closing down space; and b) a litany of dumb, unforced errors and fumbles of the ground ball, only some of which can be attributed to the Cats' pressure.

Once it became clear we didn't have enough players "on" to play that style, maybe we needed to revert to trying to control the ball a bit more and playing slower. Cox has only had one pre-season in total control of the squad, game plan and pre-season so he's not had time to experiment. But playing around with different modes of play must be top of his list for this upcoming off season.

Yep - and he's said so publicly.

And I tend not to think that the Cats' pressure was exceptional. Rather, it was ok, but like you, there was more of b) than a) in our play yesterday. I think one of the bigger challenges he still has is the resilience of the group. It's been an issue he has regularly spoken about and it's why I wonder about our on-field leadership at times. Right now, I'm missing a Mr McPointy like Jarrad McVeigh, who actually corralled the troops and held people to high standards.