We are officially embarrassing

[sharp9]

Pathetic. We have lost the tackles/one precenters/contested possessions/contested marks for the fifth or sixth time this year.

We have no grunt and, even worse, no polish to make up for it.

McVeigh is a sick joke
Crouch was truly appalling

This train is over. It's time to rebuild. Mark it down. This group is just not good enough any more.

St. Kilda were only average, yet we were smashed in every area of the game except hitouts. We are a joke.

Seriously, this premiership window is closed.

[ROK Lobster]

We are a joke.

Seriously, this premiership window is closed.

Steady mate, we beat Richmond (just), Melbourne and Brisbane. Just becaise everyone else does too doesn't mean we're not a great team.

[ugg]

Playing half-fit midfielders is not a bright idea. They were way too quick for us tonight,
Playing Jude Bolton in the forward line is not a good idea. His strength is in-and-under and that has little use in the forward line.
Playing a loose man in defence when we need to score goals in the last quarter is just plain dumb. We had to roll the dice then and give us a shot but we just sat back and did the same stupid things for the past 3 quarters.

[NMWBloods]

It's 2004 all over again. We should make finals but be no threat. Our premiership window is nearly closed.

2004 was a year of horrible football, kicking sideways and grinding out ugly wins, never looking particularly good.

Our rigid game plan is no longer working effectively and the players aren't smart enough (or allowed or trained) to do something different.

We can't kick enough goals and our ability to get the ball effectively into the forward line and convert is hopeless. We are too Hall-centric -- far too many times it is kicked to him when he is double or triple teamed. What's the point - he can't take pack marks.

We go sideways instead of forward, slowing the game down and making it easy to flood against us.

Our key players are well down and our younger players are not stepping up sufficiently.

We were totally outplayed and outcoached.

McVeigh really has to go.
Crouch looks slow.
Richards still struggling.
J Bolton has no influence again.
Mathews still too selfish and focussing only on his own man.
Bevan waste of a selection.

We had very few reasonable players tonight (Kirk, Davis, O'Keefe).

[Alison]

I thought Riewoldt was extremely good setting up play and goals. Bolton was really beaten tonight. Has had a couple of quiet games now.

I thought Leo Barry (although beaten by Gehrig) was not too bad. The first goal Gehrig kicked I thought he had his hands in the back of Barry and the 3rd goal he kicked they had switched and Bolton was on Gehrig. Leo just let himself down with a couple of lazy disposals but I thought his one-on-one contests were not too bad.

I don't know what others think but there seems to not be a lot of defensive pressure from our forwards (and midfields) and the ball seems to fly down into our defensive 50 which does not give our defenders a chance also leaving a really open forward line for our opponents.

I also noted that St Kilda seemed to do a lot of illegal blocking in their forward 50. Leo Barry/Richards were blocked out of a few contests.

I know a few of you have commented that Kirky was good tonight but (although seems to get reasonable amount of disposals) he seems quiet and not very effective. Jude Bolton is really down.

It just seems we need to do so much work to get a goal (and usually then it is a point) although we were a bit more accurate in front of goal.

I think we really need to look at our forwards/midfielders presenting themselves when we are coming off the defensive rebound. A lot of times it seems our defenders get them ball and no one seems to be leading so they have to stop and handball it.

Obviously all players need to lift as a team. It is probably not fair singling out players in basically an overall @@@@ team performance.

Anyway just some thoughts.

[Guzzitza]

It's 2004 all over again. We should make finals but be no threat. Our premiership window is nearly closed.

2004 was a year of horrible football, kicking sideways and grinding out ugly wins, never looking particularly good.

Our rigid game plan is no longer working effectively and the players aren't smart enough (or allowed or trained) to do something different.

We can't kick enough goals and our ability to get the ball effectively into the forward line and convert is hopeless. We are too Hall-centric -- far too many times it is kicked to him when he is double or triple teamed. What's the point - he can't take pack marks.

We go sideways instead of forward, slowing the game down and making it easy to flood against us.

Our key players are well down and our younger players are not stepping up sufficiently.

We were totally outplayed and outcoached.

McVeigh really has to go.
Crouch looks slow.
Richards still struggling.
J Bolton has no influence again.
Mathews still too selfish and focussing only on his own man.
Bevan waste of a selection.

We had very few reasonable players tonight (Kirk, Davis, O'Keefe).

Agree with all of the above, perhaps bar Richards who wasnt great, but there were worse out there. I also add Leo Barry to the list, he is ineffective against bigger players with the new hands in the back rule
- though really this has been an issue for a while. The problem is we dont have any players to fill that role, bar Vogels, who isnt up to it, and LRT who is injured and I think he'll take a long long time to get back to where he was at before - which wasnt much anyway.

[liz]

Agree with all of the above, perhaps bar Richards who wasnt great, but there were worse out there. I also add Leo Barry to the list, he is ineffective against bigger players with the new hands in the back rule

Ted gave away at least two HITB frees in front of goal. I can only remember one from Leo.

Leo was playing on a guy about 20kgs bigger than him and while this isn't ideal, its not his fault either. He did quite well in forcing Gehrig to take his marks wide and far - unfortunately for Leo, Gehrig nailed a couple of very tough shots at goal.

Leo managed to win a few contests against Gehrig. Ted seemed to lose all of them, against which of a variety of opponents he was moved onto.

Leo also provided a fair amount of run and mostly hit targets. Ted couldn't hit a team mate 5m away with a handball on one of the few occasions the ball was moving forward with some speed and space.

Really not sure what has happened to Ted this year. He started pretty well in the first couple of weeks but at the moment is showing the form that saw him dropped midway through last year. His spot is safe at the moment - at least until Dempster and/or LRT are able to come back - but he ain't playin' well at the moment.

[Captain]

We keep on picking useless players.

A midfield of Kirk, Bolton, Fosdike, Ablett, McVeigh, Bevan, Crouch, Mathews, Jack etc is useless.

Goodes needs to find form fast, he is average at best.

Our backline is vastly undersized and is missing LRT and Kennelly.

Why wouldn't Grundy or Vogels be picked to play on one of the Saints tall forwards. One of both these guys should be groomed for a key defensive post.

[NMWBloods]

Sixteen scoring shots is embarrassing.

Only one player to get more than 20 possessions is embarrassing.

[barry]

Richmond will be licking their lips for the round 17 game. They have already pencilled it in for their first win of the year!

[hammo]

That's the worst Swans' performance I've seen in a while. We have major problems and the season is in danger of slipping away very quickly.
Why Roos persisted with a loose man in defence is anyone's guess. Why allow Hall to be double-teamed? Send the extra man to the forward line and force them to play one on one football. Its not rocket science.
All our key players are down. For all Kirk's bravery he offers little in attack but at least he gets the ball unlike others in our midfield.
I feel sorry for Spida coming to play for this rabble with a coach who is a slave to his rigid gameplan and has no plan B.

[NMWBloods]

Worst thing about the loose man is it came too late and then was left there too long.

[NMWBloods]

Another embarrassing thing is our unbelievable inability to crumb. We don't crumb packs in attack, defence or in the midfield. None of our players seem to have the smarts to wait down during a contest and pick where it might go.

We are one of the worst sides I can remember at crumbing in the forward line.

In the back line it's always a worry when the ball goes in long. We have 3-5 players flying for the ball and sometimes no one stays down. Fortunately we often have a lot of players back so by sheer weight of numbers we can clear, but it's often not pretty and it's often a risk.

[Swannette]

Agree about lack of crumbers. I think someone said after last week's game that the crumbers in our forward line did well, but they were the Kangaroos. I occasionally notice Schneider stand off when a pack is about to fly, but not with regularity nor great effectiveness. He's not played much but I've noticed Simon 'the crumb' Phillips take up that crumb-ready position the most. He just needs to get picked to get a chance to show what he can do.
The other thing we could do so much better is shepherding. Sometimes, half hearted shepherds still result in the chaser succeeding in putting our guy off - even if he doesn't tackle him, he worries the Swan out of his intention and a sloppy pass ends up in a turn over or in the hands of someone under pressure who then turns it over. If you're going to shepherd, do it bloodly properly, or don't do it at all.

[ROK Lobster]

Another embarrassing thing is our unbelievable inability to crumb. We don't crumb packs in attack, defence or in the midfield. None of our players seem to have the smarts to wait down during a contest and pick where it might go.

We are one of the worst sides I can remember at crumbing in the forward line.

In the back line it's always a worry when the ball goes in long. We have 3-5 players flying for the ball and sometimes no one stays down. Fortunately we often have a lot of players back so by sheer weight of numbers we can clear, but it's often not pretty and it's often a risk.

Der... that is soft. Bloods players must throw themselves into any contest. The aims being, in order of importance:

to knock yourself out
to split your head open and require a bandage
to spill your own blood elsewhere
to give away a free to ensure a lop-sided count
to spoil the ball
to possess the ball (or move the ball to advantage)

It is un-bloods like to try and read the contest and gather a clean (soft) possession from the outside of the pack. Instructions are that if this actually happens the player who takes possession is to put the ball under his arm and head straight back into the pack. The first 4 aims stay the same. Number 5 becomes create a stoppage (whereupon the first rules come back into play).