Game Thread - Sydney V Dogs

[cruiser]

To add insult to injury - the bloody price of scotch went up at the SCG. $8.50 a can. Yes, that's right!! Eight bloody dollars and fifty bloody cents. That's robbery. The drink is warm (they fill the fridges an hour before the game starts) then they pour it into a plastic cup with no ice. I'm going to have to take TWO hippies to the next game.

You should do as Wardy does and smuggle in your own in a thermos.

[swansrule100]

I thought Barlow did a few nice things.

kicked it long into the forward line and out of congestion which was great in the last quarter.

funny how this led to goals both to magic i think, maybe if the team clears the ball and gets it forward quickly like that more than twice a game we will win

id rather see barlow have a go at a hall type role than playfair.

[NMWBloods]

To add insult to injury - the bloody price of scotch went up at the SCG. $8.50 a can.

Scotch from a can - that's an insult in itself!

[AnnieH]

Scotch from a can - that's an insult in itself!

It'll be my own "special pre-mix" next game.
A thermos of Scotch & Dry ... just to keep me warm!!

[BigD]

Having been at the game I can tell you i was completely frustrated at the inept performance of the Swannies. Started brilliantly in the first qtr then completely fell of the trolley in the second and couldn't find a way to kick straight for the rest of the game. No intensity at all and just didn't really seem to want to win.

On a side note, once again the yellow turd patrol was up to their usual high standard of screwing the swans with ridiculus and bizzare decisions. Any time there was a 50/50 decision we didn't get the call. Seems we only get a free kick when the infraction is absolutely blatant.

Here it is, midday Monday and my throat is still bothering me from screaming in frustration at bath the Swans & the Umps.

[swansrule100]

i watched most of every game this weekend, either live or replay.

i would say bar essendon last night our skills were the worst for the weekend.

[cruiser]

kicked it long into the forward line and out of congestion which was great in the last quarter.

funny how this led to goals both to magic i think, maybe if the team clears the ball and gets it forward quickly like that more than twice a game we will win.

And that's exactly how the Dogs played and won the game.

[NMWBloods]

kicked it long into the forward line and out of congestion which was great in the last quarter.

It's been working well for Geelong, Hawthorn and the Bulldogs - the top 3 teams. The Swans' game plan of slowly and deliberately work it forward is no longer viable as the main tactic - it hasn't been since 2006.

[NMWBloods]

On a side note, once again the yellow turd patrol was up to their usual high standard of screwing the swans with ridiculus and bizzare decisions. Any time there was a 50/50 decision we didn't get the call. Seems we only get a free kick when the infraction is absolutely blatant.

Here it is, midday Monday and my throat is still bothering me from screaming in frustration at bath the Swans & the Umps.

It's hard to complain too much about the umpiring when we received 14 free kicks and the 'Dogs just 10.

[AnnieH]

It's been working well for Geelong, Hawthorn and the Bulldogs - the top 3 teams. The Swans' game plan of slowly and deliberately work it forward is no longer viable as the main tactic - it hasn't been since 2006.

For once, I'd like to see the swannies just kick it up the bloody middle.
As I said to the ressies on the way out of the game yesterday ... "learn boys ... you don't win the game playing kick to kick after Qtr 1"!!

[swansrule100]

It's hard to complain too much about the umpiring when we received 14 free kicks and the 'Dogs just 10.

i thought the umps kept us in the game

[liz]

It's been working well for Geelong, Hawthorn and the Bulldogs - the top 3 teams. The Swans' game plan of slowly and deliberately work it forward is no longer viable as the main tactic - it hasn't been since 2006.

But they are three teams with exquisite footskills. It is the tactic that is working or the implementation of it? Obviously both but if you do it without decent footskills, I am not convinced it is going to be that effective.

And Roos knows this. All through the off-season he talked about the need to improve the footskill level of the team. He claims it is something they focussed on a lot during the pre-season. Certainly there is no evidence that all that practice has made one blind bit of difference to the experienced cattle we have out there, but Roos also clearly acknowledges he needs to find the personnel who can kick the ball.

The bright spot in all this is that Barlow, Moore and Jack are currently three of the better ball users in the team. And I think Bird will prove to be more than adequate by foot in time. The club targetted kicking ability when they drafted Vezspremi and Meredith. I suspect it can be traced back even a year before with the drafting of DOK - who is a beautiful kick of the ball on the rare occasions he manages to find the thing!

And it's why Smith was given a small taste of senior football ahead of O'Dwyer and Brabazon. (He may have made mistakes in that game, but he's fundamentally a far better kick than either of those two.)

[floppinab]

I'm still particularly frustrated by our forward setup.

We flooded heavily yesterday and when we do we only keep one or two in the Forward half and they come right out to half forward/centre square. When we do get the footy it's then a tough job to try and spot a forward through the traffic who has to lead backward toward the goal.
Compare that to the dogs who when they pushed a few back would always maintain at least 3 relatively deep and then lead up and outward to receive from their midfield. Our back five or six were probably at their worst defencively yesterday but I cannot understand why our forwards don't stay deep and lead out regardless to whether the flood is on or not.

[liz]

It's hard to complain too much about the umpiring when we received 14 free kicks and the 'Dogs just 10.

Whenever we're on the wrong end of a free kick count, people (rightly) point out that the number is irrelevant. It's whether you get your share of softies and how many completely bloopers you're on the wrong end of. So the raw number of frees is irrelevant.

That said, I think yesterday was the first game I've watched all year where the umpires have been almost invisible - which is the sign they had a pretty good game.

[floppinab]

One other thing, none of the players showed up at the post match function I was at. The consensus was they were getting an old fashioned roasting by the coaching staff.