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There were encouraging signs all around on Saturday, but I found it frustrating to get 3 goals in front and then appear to doze off. Not to disrespect Richmond, who had a real go, and were lively in the midfield particularly, but why these lapses in pressure/concentration/whatever it is? Is it the coach(es) or the players? And how to fix it? Or am I just being picky?
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He reminds him of the guys, close-set, slow, and never rattled, who were play-makers on the team. (John Updike, seeing Josh Kennedy in a crystal ball) -
We let them back in through some plain dumb disposal decisions and poor disposal.
I just saw that kick of McVeigh's to Hall on The Winners. I was worse than what it looked at the game. He missed him by a country mile. Watching other games, their midfielders were hitting forward targets on the chest from 50 metres. -
Sure, it was a poor kick, but how often do you normally see poor kicks on highlight shows. The only reason that was included was because of the injury. Every other team delivers bad kicks forwards along with their good ones. You just don't see them on "The Winners". The Swans are certainly not the worst.Comment
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Exactly! The Swans are constantly quoted by R. Walls, Dermie, etc as the best team at hitting targets.
Admittedly a few years ago this was not always the case. The thought of Jasyn Daniels, Troy Gray, Andrew Dunkley (every other skills great), Frosty McPherson et al still cause shudders down my spine.Those who have the greatest power to hurt us are those we love.Comment
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Captain Logic is not steering this tugboat.
"[T]here are things that matter more and he's reading and thinking about them: heaven, reincarnation. Life and death are the only things that are truly a matter of life and death. Not football."Comment
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Swans are good at hitting target 20-30m away from a free kick, they rarely hit one out of the middle. It is our style of play (and it is not our's alone) that results in a high number of hit targets, not neccessarily the skill level.Comment
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How often do you see Hall being hit laces out on the tits at full speed on the highlights show these days? It doesnt happen often. WHen you have blokes with the foot skills of Ablett, Mcveigh, Kirk, Bolton, Mathews etc, what do you expect.
The ability of our blokes to hit a target off a step is alright. But once we have a bit of momentum and are charging at pace, the skills are terrible. Someone sit them down with a video of Lovett at the dome the other day or Mathew Bate today and you will see what I mean. Its not easy, but these guys are paid to do what they do...Comment
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Which makes it beautiful when you see Malceski passing to someone!!
Captain Logic is not steering this tugboat.
"[T]here are things that matter more and he's reading and thinking about them: heaven, reincarnation. Life and death are the only things that are truly a matter of life and death. Not football."Comment
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It's bad manners to run up the score and embarrass your opposition.Comment
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Agreed with the 2nd part - in general we look to have a high skill level not because we have good kicking skills, but because we make space very, very well, brought about by a combination of good dummy leads, blocks, discipline for players not involved with the play to keep out of leading space and our forwards having good footy brains (knowing when and where to lead). We look very good with kicks to the wing, HF and into an open forward line, but much less so with a crowded midfield or a crowded F50. There are some exceptions to this rule (Malceski, Buchanan and 2005 Hall) but most of our senior players are nowhere near the elite in terms of the combination of delivery accuracy and decision making.Comment
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Last season the Essendon midfield couldn't collectively hit the side of a barn. If one of their blokes has learned to do it over the course of the off-season, good luck to them.
Bate is a fine young player. I'm a big fan of his. He is a pretty good kick but even he misses some of the time. As for his team mates! I didn't see much of their game this week but against the Saints they could barely find a team mate with a 5m handball, let alone hit someone on the chest from 50m away.
I'd back the long-kicking footskills of Malceski and Craig Bolton against most players in the competition. Kennelly and Dempster are both pretty good, though a little inconsistent. Goodes' kicking to target has improved significantly over the past couple of years and is almost up there, even if his kicking at goal hasn't. Every team has a few who are good, a few who are woeful and a heap who are in between. Swans are no different to the rest.
As a team, I'd rate West Coast's footskills better than the rest. But skills are easier when you're surrounded by good players and brimming full of confidence. Bit of a chicken and egg situation.
As an overall team, I don't think the Swans are a long way back, and are probably just above average across the league.Comment
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The Swans had the worst kicking efficiency last season by far. But, they had the best opposition kicking efficiency (i.e. the lowest) and one of the highest kicking efficiency differentials in the competition. Its just a reflection of the game plan, with so many numbers around the ball, you wouldn't expect many clean kicks out of the middle.Comment
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