More Than One Way To Skin A Cat

[TheHood]

Has the Richmond win over the Crows got you thinking about whether the Swannies would have adapted and crushed the Tigers or suffered the same fate as the Crows?

I have the unprovable belief that we would have adapted and punished the rubbish the Tigers served up. The Crows were lamentable for not changing tac in the second half.

Sydney to me look (although definitely beatable) like a team that knows how to shut down the most talented of midfields, move faster than the fast and scrap with the lowliest.

Anyone else have any thoughts on our adaptability?

[RogueSwan]

I agree with you Hooded One. I think it is because of our strong onfield leadership. Players seem more likely to take it on themselves to fix things when the current plan is not working. This is a lot quicker than waiting for the coaching staff to work out the problem then get the message out onto the field. Maybe the Crows rely too heavily on Craig to work things out themselves

[BigBadBarryNo1]

Tigers could've tried that with us, but we would've overcome it because we've played in that kind of crappy style before haven't we? *snickers*. But these things are always a 2-way thing, and it takes 2 sides to play that bad.

I have no doubt that it was the fact that everyone expected Wallace to comeup with their normal hard running fast game, a game which Crows with their defensive unit would easily shut down.

With Wallace this was about tactics to defeat them and this was probably their main way due to the injuries that they have in their rookie team.

He showed a way through by manning up, getting numbers behind the ball, and admitting surrender to the fact that if he were to allow contests of the ball, he'd lose against such a hard team like the Crows.

Not pretty but smart, and that's how we got stopped from an even bigger massacre in the 2nd half of play last year against the Lions.

Not pretty, excessive, but smart... and they only "just" got away with it.

As for any rantings by Sheedy, well that's what Wallace called it as - theatre. Sheedy was just trying to deflect attention from his Bombers, whos team team is in a much worse state - the only time when the Bombers have tended to win in the past few years is by getting dirty and rough - worse and for a longer period than the Lions were when they stuffed up Riewoldt last year. Thier Lloydy has in more recent times tried not to fake frees and actually play some real footy, but the donkey got himself injured in the process.

[TheHood]

I seem to remember Plough commiting to the Tiger faithful to at least 15 goals a game?????

I love it when the Swannies snatch the 4 points, but I like my footy more when we do it playing good footy. Lets face it, good footy is entertainment.

So when a coach says fans don't care how we get the 4 points, I am never entirely in agreement (Roosy included).

I think Sydney has the strike power this year to win more games of footy on the offensive than ever before. Why:

Our running backs are hungry to set up attack;
Our midfield have become genuine ball winners (not just taggers);
Our clearance rate is climbing, meaning inside 50s are frequent;
Our forwards are functioning and hemming the ball inside 50 that can ONLY lead to more points scored.

Now THAT'S entertainment!

[graystar]

I haven't seen the Richmond Crows game but were the Crows just not manning up for a whole half of footy.

I think that if a team did that to us we would pressure them into mistakes through tackles and close marking.

[NMWBloods]

We should, but it's not necessarily the case we would.

[Pommie Swannie]

IMO the Swans are one of the very few sides capable of playing differing styles effectively, from free-flowing running football to the full lock-down. More importantly this style can be adapted during a game.

This was in evidence in the second half of 2005 particularly. One good example was against St.Kilda in the Finals when the team broke out in the final quarter having previously played on the back foot.

So I believe that yes, the Swans would have been capable of adapting to the Tigers' tactics.

Cheers

[Ryan Bomford]

Originally posted by graystar
I haven't seen the Richmond Crows game but were the Crows just not manning up for a whole half of footy.

It was funny watching FoxFooty's "The Winners" show last night. It gave you no idea of how the game was 'won'.

There was certainly no footage of the delaying tactics employed by the Tigers. From the 'highlights' shown the uninformed would have thought they were watching a high scoring shoot out.

[hammo]

Originally posted by Ryan Bomford
It was funny watching FoxFooty's "The Winners" show last night. It gave you no idea of how the game was 'won'.

There was certainly no footage of the delaying tactics employed by the Tigers. From the 'highlights' shown the uninformed would have thought they were watching a high scoring shoot out.

Unfortunately the rest of the game hardly constituted a "highlight"

[giant]

Originally posted by Ryan Bomford
It was funny watching FoxFooty's "The Winners" show last night. It gave you no idea of how the game was 'won'.

There was certainly no footage of the delaying tactics employed by the Tigers. From the 'highlights' shown the uninformed would have thought they were watching a high scoring shoot out.

They were obviously worried about their ratings if they'd shown the worse examples.