Round 18: Swans v Fremantle.

[lwjoyner]

my observations. Regarding Issac maybe the knock he got last week was an influensing factor, not his brilliant best tonig ht, but hey someone else needs to do it. Paps great whilce he was on ground but maybe we should have put him on for maybe in the middle or so of each qrt. he was going to run out of puff is he kept going like he did in the first qrt. I don think he was on long for maybe the second and third .Agree Hamling not up to it ans having to put Hayden to CHF to influence the FD capt doesnt help either H or th eFF line where he gives CC a cop out. Need Logan to fill this gap. Dane should have known, don't touch oppostion on the head its a free kick cost us a goal instead of a free to Dane and maybe help put us back into attack. Agree Dane is past playing on the full back line, maybe he should go the HBF or wing.
Our hff flanker suggest it was Caiden C let Clarke dominate and he run free all night setting up their fwd forays. He needs to be tagged tightly. Was JJ taken off Brawshaw who was qiet for at least 2.5 qrts and then seemed to roam anywhere he liked.
Seems like Cleary ,Cuinningham Iwho was also quiet) and maybe Sheldrake struggled all night. I thought HK did reasonably well for a youngster learning his role in the seniors. Thought Hamily also played ok.
Miss Justin Mc a lot . I too also suggest we need to test Sneel to see if he is up to senior football.
Perhaps Corey would have been a better bet than CC, he is quicker and seems to have better football IQ.
Need to get things right soon

[Roadrunner]

Great effort in the first half, but not good enough afterwards. Team selection: obviously Hamling is only a fill- in defender and shouldn’t play up front. Don’t know why Melican wasn’t picked. Not a fan of Cleary but if you select him, try in midfield as he’s not good enough as a HF. Bice should play on a wing, with Roberts HB and Ramps on the other flank with the Lizard helping out and creating runs. Bring Snell in for the pocket.

Lloyd is just useful now at best and has been a great servant but the time has come to try Dettoli or Phillipou with Logan back at CF.

[imuninformedtwo]

I think the ugly sister still looms large in the corner - mentality issues. We haven't learnt from 2022 or 2024 for mine - either in list management, in player's ability to push back when the going gets tough, or in our collective ability to take that next step. We could well make the grand final again this year, but I reckon there is a far greater chance if we do that we will see another folding effort like 2022 or 2024 then getting anywhere near winning the flag.

The mentality piece worries me, as it hadn't really reared its head this year. Yes, we've been beaten, but that happens or there's context (ie: no Errol or Isaac vs Hawks).

This game reminded me of the Gold Coast and GWS games last year, when he had cracking first halves and then - whoosh - disappeared. Cox has spent a lot of time on the resilience piece and to a degree, our ability to get through some of those close games pre-bye when we weren't at our best suggests he's made progress, but last night it came back. And it was largely our leaders, to be honest. Mills and Rampe had shockers, and whilst Chad had a crack (though his disposal was off), our mids went missing. I wasn't that convinced by Errol's game in the second half either.

It's easy to point the finger at Cleary, and I'm deeply unconvinced by him, and even my man Kyle lost a couple of critical contests late, but when the side is getting overrun, you want your leaders to reverse the trend.

Which gets to my second issue. If we have a full complement of midfielders - both getting players like JMac back and having Paps fit enough to run through there at times - I reckon we can match up better. But against the best, if we're missing one or two, our depth isn't there. And that's with Grundy largely matching Jackson, no easy feat.

I'm not as doom and gloom on what it says about the season (bar Freo have the cracking list we already knew about), but we do have some work to do.

[UUaswan]

The mentality piece worries me, as it hadn't really reared its head this year. Yes, we've been beaten, but that happens or there's context (ie: no Errol or Isaac vs Hawks).

This game reminded me of the Gold Coast and GWS games last year, when he had cracking first halves and then - whoosh - disappeared. Cox has spent a lot of time on the resilience piece and to a degree, our ability to get through some of those close games pre-bye when we weren't at our best suggests he's made progress, but last night it came back. And it was largely our leaders, to be honest. Mills and Rampe had shockers, and whilst Chad had a crack (though his disposal was off), our mids went missing. I wasn't that convinced by Errol's game in the second half either.

It's easy to point the finger at Cleary, and I'm deeply unconvinced by him, and even my man Kyle lost a couple of critical contests late, but when the side is getting overrun, you want your leaders to reverse the trend.

Which gets to my second issue. If we have a full complement of midfielders - both getting players like JMac back and having Paps fit enough to run through there at times - I reckon we can match up better. But against the best, if we're missing one or two, our depth isn't there. And that's with Grundy largely matching Jackson, no easy feat.

I'm not as doom and gloom on what it says about the season (bar Freo have the cracking list we already knew about), but we do have some work to do.

Very much that Gold Coast game a few years back, worst I've seen them play. This was close, we were 2 pts up with 12 mins to go so just as much about how good Freo were.

A coaches box that sat by and watched is the biggest disappointment. How many are in their clueless ?

Throw Hamling back ? Would it have mattered if he wasnt fwd ?
Throw Blakey somewhere to get involved?
Leave Gus over the ball
We need 2 tall permanent fwds plus Mclean if he has to ruck

To the mids defence, they dominated a half to a fwd line bar a couple that did nothing.

[mcs]

The mentality piece worries me, as it hadn't really reared its head this year. Yes, we've been beaten, but that happens or there's context (ie: no Errol or Isaac vs Hawks).

This game reminded me of the Gold Coast and GWS games last year, when he had cracking first halves and then - whoosh - disappeared. Cox has spent a lot of time on the resilience piece and to a degree, our ability to get through some of those close games pre-bye when we weren't at our best suggests he's made progress, but last night it came back. And it was largely our leaders, to be honest. Mills and Rampe had shockers, and whilst Chad had a crack (though his disposal was off), our mids went missing. I wasn't that convinced by Errol's game in the second half either.

It's easy to point the finger at Cleary, and I'm deeply unconvinced by him, and even my man Kyle lost a couple of critical contests late, but when the side is getting overrun, you want your leaders to reverse the trend.

Which gets to my second issue. If we have a full complement of midfielders - both getting players like JMac back and having Paps fit enough to run through there at times - I reckon we can match up better. But against the best, if we're missing one or two, our depth isn't there. And that's with Grundy largely matching Jackson, no easy feat.

I'm not as doom and gloom on what it says about the season (bar Freo have the cracking list we already knew about), but we do have some work to do.

We still have both depth and mix issues in the midfield group. We don't have sufficient depth, and we still have too many of what I'd call outside midfielders in the mix.

[UUaswan]

We still have both depth and mix issues in the midfield group. We don't have sufficient depth, and we still have too many of what I'd call outside midfielders in the mix.

Mills to the mids, Rampe to do Mills role
Melican to do Rampes role

[UUaswan]

For a good laugh, read the Team Selection thread

Even a pessimistic amateur from WA could see what was coming

[UUaswan]

So min 4 changes are Melican, Bice, Campbell, Logan

Hamling, Cleary, Daylight, Hannily, Harry

[Foreign Legion]

Campbell won't come in on (hopefully) playing 1 reserves game - he has missed too much footy. We missed one of Amartey or McDonald badly. Hamling has never been a forward. Cleary is not going to make it I don't think. He just doesnt take the chances he gets. I would drop Cleary, Hamling at a minimum. Bring in one of Phillipou, Dattoli for the Cleary role and either Melican or Snell for Hamling. If McDonald is fit he is first in though.

[UUaswan]

Campbell won't come in on (hopefully) playing 1 reserves game - he has missed too much footy. We missed one of Amartey or McDonald badly. Hamling has never been a forward. Cleary is not going to make it I don't think. He just doesnt take the chances he gets. I would drop Cleary, Hamling at a minimum. Bring in one of Phillipou, Dattoli for the Cleary role and either Melican or Snell for Hamling. If McDonald is fit he is first in though.

Campbell could come in and either do

1) What Hannily/Cleary do blindfolded
2) Play 45% gametime like Gus

Only one holding him out is Match Committee

[UUaswan]

To try to put some gloss on where we are at.

Brissy lost Rd 20 last year by 11 goals and the first final in September by 38pts

[imuninformedtwo]

Mills to the mids, Rampe to do Mills role
Melican to do Rampes role

That would be my preferred solution. We don’t have a lot of first hands mids, so to speak, and Mills is that. And he’d do some of the defensive work we miss with Rowie stuck forward.

[BRS328]

100 POINTS in the second half. How embarrassing. What is Hamling doing in the side??? I think a lamppost would have been a better option. So we can play a one and half quarters of pressure football and then we just crumble. What the point of us even playing in the finals? Some of the second half tackling was a joke.

The bottom six players for the Swans were the difference, and the difference in class showed in the end
Hamling, McLean, Cleary, Hanily, Shedrick and Cunningham had little or no impact on the game.
Hamling playing as a defensive forward did not work. McLean has previously been found wanting against good opposition in the past. One kick and two hit outs totally unacceptable. Cunningham has been a great player for the club but time may have caught up with him. I can only assume Sheldrick may have been injured given the limited game time.
On a positive note Kyle played a good game and showed he is up to the challenge against good opposition. Cleary and Hanily could not handle the pressure.

Freo have been very fortunate with injuries, but we all know this can change rapidly.

It is a wake up call for the Swans and there will be a number of changes next week. Will be interesting to watch the VFL game this weekend.

[UUaswan]

The bottom six players for the Swans were the difference, and the difference in class showed in the end
Hamling, McLean, Cleary, Hanily, Shedrick and Cunningham had little or no impact on the game.
Hamling playing as a defensive forward did not work. McLean has previously been found wanting against good opposition in the past. One kick and two hit outs totally unacceptable. Cunningham has been a great player for the club but time may have caught up with him. I can only assume Sheldrick may have been injured given the limited game time.
On a positive note Kyle played a good game and showed he is up to the challenge against good opposition. Cleary and Hanily could not handle the pressure.

Freo have been very fortunate with injuries, but we all know this can change rapidly.

It is a wake up call for the Swans and there will be a number of changes next week. Will be interesting to watch the VFL game this weekend.

Only chop out for Mclean was his rucking/fwd role.

Made harder without Logan or Hamling for that matter playing fwd.

This is why Ladhams helps Grundy and Mclean to do their roles.

I would have thrown in Green to assist in that role


Also 3 of those bottom 6 players were made worse by match committee. We all knew before the bounce what a few of them were incapable of

[stevoswan]

To try to put some gloss on where we are at.

That's a nice change. Phew.....it was getting tiring.