I agree with Liz, the only comment I would make is surley when we do flood can we please leave at least one forward in the forward 50 so when we do break quickly there is someone to kick to.
Who starts this style of play?
Collapse
X
-
The slow laboured rebound from the backline is, at least in part, attributable to tactics that other teams instigate against us - ie the uber flood. The Eagles used it to very good effect when they brought that weakened side over to Telstra Stadium in round 1 last year. Other teams used it against us a lot last year too. And why not, because it is very effective. Other teams know that the Swans like to play man-on-man, so most of the midfielders will follow their man back into our forward 50, further clogging it up. And then when a turnover arises, teams can exploit our midfield's relative lack of leg speed to run unimpeded through the middle of the ground and kick to a one-on-one contest where our shortish defenders are most likely to be vulnerable.
It both counters one of the Swans' strengths (when Hall is present and fit) in that our forwards are very pretty good one-on-one and with a little bit of space and work hard for each other to create even more space. Plus it exploits our two major weaknesses in lack of leg speed in the middle and lack of height in the backline.
The obvious way to counter it is to rebound more quickly from the backline since the uber-flood / slow chipping is in itself a bit of a chicken and an egg. Having players delivering into the forward line with better kicking skills than Bolton, Ablett and Kirk (and Mathews last year) would help too.
Sydney's recruiting suggests they are trying to remedy it. The club recognised that it was vulnerable to losing one (or both) of Kennelly or Malceski since these are the two most likely to instigate rapid rebound so they went out and got a 3rd player of this ilk, in Mattner. While I think Mattner's played well so far this year, I don't think he's been providing as much rebound as was hoped for. But the absence of LRT from a key defensive post has meant that Mattner's mostly been playing as a true defender. Hopefully that might start to change now. And if the miracle works and Malceksi returns for the second half of the year, we might finally get to see he and Kennelly work in tandem for more than the odd match here and there.
The drafting of Vezspremi and Meredith last year suggests an emphasis on improving the kicking skills of the midfield over the medium to long term since both were described as being very good kicks at junior level. And the introduction of the likes of Barlow, Jack and Moore into the team may start paying dividends sooner rather than later since all look very capable of hitting up a target from some distance (albeit not yet consistently).
So while the Swans are undoubtedly the instigators of crowding the contest, you can't ignore that at the same time other clubs are trying to negate our strengths and exploit our weaknesses. And when both we and our opposition are more successful at stopping the other's strengths than exploiting their weaknesses, you get a borefest such as last weekend and the round 1 Saints game.
The very best teams - Geelong now, West Coast recently - have beaten the Swans without resorting to playing the game on Sydney's terms. But the good but lesser teams that have not actively tried to counter Sydney's strengths have come up short. Port, the Western Bulldogs and Hawthorn are three obvious examples of teams that seem to want to back their speed and skill level against Sydney's grunt but none (yet) have had success with this approach. It will be interesting to see what tack the Doggies take this weekend, given that they've markedly improved their own contested ball winning ability since last year.
If other teams flood against us, then why the hell do we get critisised for in the Victorian media for flooding for?
Or is it, that the Victorian media doesn't actually know our game plan for, and are out to get us?Comment
-
Comment
-
Comment
-
The Swans are often criticised for their style of play. Sunday's match was horrible.
I heard Robert Walls on a number of occasions saying comments like "there are 17 swans in the defensive half".
As there were as many opposition players also in that half, what comes first: the chicken or the egg?
Do our opposition teams believe that they should undertake this tactic to win against us and start doing this? Or is it all the Swans' fault?
We have shown on many occasions that we can play a different style (refer the Port game).
Am I right in thinking that once you are tarred with this brush, lazy media commentators and opposition fans keep harping about it?
Your thoughts?Comment
-
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
-
We all know that he isnt going to run from one end to another so leave him there.Now this is a thread that i would expect on the ego -centric, wank session that is redandwhiteonline.com...
Comment
-
Comment
-
North started the 3rd quarter with 7 forwards inside their forward 50, throw in a couple of midfielders and their opponents and before you know it there are a lot of people down the back line. Most teams play man on man which means if your man goes forward or back you must go with him, Geelong play this style better than anybody they flood back and then when there is a turnover they break and because there skill level is really high they can hit there targets, compared to our skill level which is poor.Our forwards often get criticised for not being near goal and alot of the time that comes from either leading to early or our players are to slow delivering the ball.
Lockett when he would make his lead he would lead 20 metres in a forward direction if it wasn't delivered after his forward lead he would then go sideways with a lead if it still wasn't kicked to him he would then lead towards the goals, he would keep doing this until he got the ball most times no more than 30 metres out from goal, how many times do we see our current forwards leading and there marking up near the wings. I think if we could get our skill level up you would see us being alot more attacking.Comment
Comment