Match thread: Swans v Lions.

[UUaswan]

We place far greater reliance on getting well structured behind the ball than a lot of other teams, which means we do let teams move the ball more easily up the ground than others. That is fine when we are firing on the turnover and moving the ball well - but if the other team is on and we can't get our hands on the pill, it spells trouble. It didn't help tonight that most of our tall forwards were utterly useless, and there was zero forward pressure for large chunks when we clunkily moved it in. And Brisbane's work rate was just too much across the park.

Im certainly not giving Amartey an out but if you move it slow by handballing to no-one instead of kicking it in long and quick, into a Harris Andrews D50, you have no chance

[dejavoodoo44]

A pretty good take on things.

I also reckon you find out a bit about players in games like that. Good on the Chad, what a game. He was best on ground in a side beaten by 40. Well done Isaac for battling through, Rowie, Curnow, Edwards, and a couple of others get a tick. But Bice was flat out awful and just refuses to put his body over the ball and can’t make good decisions with the ball in hand, Cleary ain’t it, and Lloyd was caught out defensively. And if anyone has seen Amartey, let me know. We should throw a packet of chips at him and say sign.

There was also a bit of an effort thing. The Lions were obsessed with protecting the corridor but still consistently found players on release on the wings. That’s running power and endeavour. It’s where we missed McInerney and our lack of midfield depth was exposed. That’s my biggest worry in a big game. Do we really run seven or eight deep. Brisbane, Freo and Geelong do. We don’t.

I also thought Sheldrick and Mills did pretty well in the midfield. Wicks was good in defence. In Amartey's defence, he did find space plenty of times, only for our players to kick it straight to Brisbane defenders. Though of course, it would have been nice if he converted when he did get chances.

After being pretty good last week, Cleary was terribly fumbly and tended to get in the way of players more likely to score. Since they're not giving him midfield time, it's probably back to the VFL. If Hanily is back fit, he has a good chance to win a spot.

Bice was genuinely a problem. Not just for the goals he gifted, but for so many of Brisbane's goals, it seemed that Bice was beaten somewhere along the line, or turned the ball over when he shouldn't have. Probably Roberts comes back in. And my opinion of Ladhams at VFL level, is that he gets plenty of possessions and hitouts, but only a small percentage of those are to our advantage. The difference tonight, was that he didn't get many possessions.

If Amartey's injured, I'd replace him with McLean, to do some chop out ruck and be a deep forward. And I'd replace Ladhams with a smaller forward, probably either Dattoli or even Phillipou? Though I suppose you could give Corey another go. Also, it did appear to me that Blakey might have been struggling a bit with an arm injury, that he may have picked up early. So let's hope that we don’t have to replace him as well.

And let's just hope that we can turn this game into an useful learning experience.

[crackedactor 01]

Amartey looked like his head space was not on the game. Looks like he has already decided to move on.

[UUaswan]

Amartey looked like his head space was not on the game. Looks like he has already decided to move on.

His agent could get away with the biggest heist ever if someone is paying Decent money for him

His last month wouldn't be acceptable for an 18yr old Draft Pick

[Nico]

If they are going to play Bice it has to be on the wing where he can get out and run. He is far too soft as a defender. Why on earth he is allowed to kick out is beyond me. He is a serial offender at doing short kicks to the opposition. You'd reckon he would learn by his mistakes. Rosas: as soft as butter outside in summer. Twice he had front position running to the footy and let his opponent go in front so he could tackle him. That's the sign of a very soft player who doesn't like body contact. Back to the 2's with him and bring in someone like Dettoli who is prepared to attack the footy. I can see why GC let him go. Sadly Ladhams showed why he is only a seconds player. Draper just knocked him off the footy too easily and in one case snapped a goal from it.

As good as Serong has been I think he should now go into the backline. Dropping Roberts was plain dumb.
We had 15 more disposals would you believe but simply slaughtered the footy. Sometimes I wonder about the footy IQ of some of our players. eg. Sheldrick. In the last quarter he gets on his own on the HFF, but instead of kicking to Curnow he tries to spot up a player leading to the boundary 20 metres away. There was a ton of space for Curnow to lead into.

I think Ladhams, Rosas, maybe Cleary and Amartey have to be dropped. I heard today Amartey wants $800k a season. He is deadset dreaming. I think Cox erred not giving him time at centre ball ups to at least get his hands warm. He played like he has been on the piss during the bye. McLean is better value.

On the kick ins; give it to Edwards, he lands it in the centre square. Brisbane covered our short kick ins so we really had nowhere to go.

I agree with another poster who said we handball for the sake of it. We had a number of chances to move the ball into the forward line quickly, but we aimlessly hand balled.

[UUaswan]

I also thought Sheldrick and Mills did pretty well in the midfield. Wicks was good in defence. In Amartey's defence, he did find space plenty of times, only for our players to kick it straight to Brisbane defenders. Though of course, it would have been nice if he converted when he did get chances.

After being pretty good last week, Cleary was terribly fumbly and tended to get in the way of players more likely to score. Since they're not giving him midfield time, it's probably back to the VFL. If Hanily is back fit, he has a good chance to win a spot.

Bice was genuinely a problem. Not just for the goals he gifted, but for so many of Brisbane's goals, it seemed that Bice was beaten somewhere along the line, or turned the ball over when he shouldn't have. Probably Roberts comes back in. And my opinion of Ladhams at VFL level, is that he gets plenty of possessions and hitouts, but only a small percentage of those are to our advantage. The difference tonight, was that he didn't get many possessions.

If Amartey's injured, I'd replace him with McLean, to do some chop out ruck and be a deep forward. And I'd replace Ladhams with a smaller forward, probably either Dattoli or even Phillipou? Though I suppose you could give Corey another go. Also, it did appear to me that Blakey might have been struggling a bit with an arm injury, that he may have picked up early. So let's hope that we don’t have to replace him as well.

And let's just hope that we can turn this game into an useful learning experience.

I'd give Ladhams another week
2 games in 10months is hardly a run at it and Grundy was by far the dumbest ruck on the ground.

Curnow and Logan need another permanent tall next to them, i suspect though against the Bullies, we wont play 3 tall fwds and 2 Rucks

If in fact Logan was a winger, not sure what the thinking was tonight, did he even leave the 50 ? How can it be that different week to week ?

[mcs]

Im certainly not giving Amartey an out but if you move it slow by handballing to no-one instead of kicking it in long and quick, into a Harris Andrews D50, you have no chance

Oh for sure. But its the lack of movement, lack of doing stuff all that is frustrating. The bloke is athletic. Get on your frigging bike and get moving around the ground for goodness sake. If you let Harris Andrews stand there all night, he will mark all night. Get him moving and lead him to the ball and make him accountable.

[UUaswan]

If they are going to play Bice it has to be on the wing where he can get out and run. He is far too soft as a defender. Why on earth he is allowed to kick out is beyond me. He is a serial offender at doing short kicks to the opposition. You'd reckon he would learn by his mistakes. Rosas: as soft as butter outside in summer. Twice he had front position running to the footy and let his opponent go in front so he could tackle him. That's the sign of a very soft player who doesn't like body contact. Back to the 2's with him and bring in someone like Dettoli who is prepared to attack the footy. I can see why GC let him go. Sadly Ladhams showed why he is only a seconds player. Draper just knocked him off the footy too easily and in one case snapped a goal from it.

As good as Serong has been I think he should now go into the backline. Dropping Roberts was plain dumb.
We had 15 more disposals would you believe but simply slaughtered the footy. Sometimes I wonder about the footy IQ of some of our players. eg. Sheldrick. In the last quarter he gets on his own on the HFF, but instead of kicking to Curnow he tries to spot up a player leading to the boundary 20 metres away. There was a ton of space for Curnow to lead into.

I think Ladhams, Rosas, maybe Cleary and Amartey have to be dropped. I heard today Amartey wants $800k a season. He is deadset dreaming. I think Cox erred not giving him time at centre ball ups to at least get his hands warm. He played like he has been on the piss during the bye. McLean is better value.

On the kick ins; give it to Edwards, he lands it in the centre square. Brisbane covered our short kick ins so we really had nowhere to go.

I agree with another poster who said we handball for the sake of it. We had a number of chances to move the ball into the forward line quickly, but we aimlessly hand balled.

Scott and Fagen wouldn't live with what Amartey is producing atm.

He would be in the 2s fighting for a contract

[Nico]

Blakey can kick it 60m, how is that fwd handball to a guy with 2 ppl on him the option when he can put it 35m out and give a fwd a chance

Agreed, but it's not just Blakey. Charlie Curnow can win most one on one contests , yet we don't seem to look for him on the burst. He was clearly one of our best and worked his guts out up the ground. Bloody frustrating.

By the way Amartey didn't have a stat up until half time.

[UUaswan]

Agreed, but it's not just Blakey. Charlie Curnow can win most one on one contests , yet we don't seem to look for him on the burst. He was clearly one of our best and worked his guts out up the ground. Bloody frustrating.

By the way Amartey didn't have a stat up until half time.

Its not just Blakey but surely when he has the chance, on his left foot, to put it deep in the 50, that has to be Option 1, 2 and 3 for our game plan

[UUaswan]

Oh for sure. But its the lack of movement, lack of doing stuff all that is frustrating. The bloke is athletic. Get on your frigging bike and get moving around the ground for goodness sake. If you let Harris Andrews stand there all night, he will mark all night. Get him moving and lead him to the ball and make him accountable.

WTF happened to Logan ? Averaging nearly 20 disposals a game for the last month playing up the ground.
This week the coaches decide to move away from that ? He didnt leave the 50, probably one of the reasons they couldn't get out of each other's way

[UUaswan]

And 5ft 10 Cleary on 6ft 9 Andrews

2 weeks for match committee and thats the @@@@ing plan ?