Is it Too Early to tank?

[Jewels]

yes, but I don't think that's anything to be proud of... I'm coming round to the belief that the current Swans aren't as good as I hoped they'd be...

I'm with you swan_song. I entered the season not expecting much and was pretty happy to get away with a two point loss to St Klueless. Then, after the great wins against Port, The Lions and West Coke, I thought that we were actually going to give it a red hot go. I accepted the loss to Geelong with the "We really took it up to them for 3 1/2 quarters" excuse, and that debacle last week I thought was just a blip on the radar.
But there's no excuses left after today. We were outplayed all over the park, Eade completely out coached Roos and the final score was flattering to us.
We were downright awful! Slow and cumbersome and completely clueless. Our skills were abysmal and I feel it's 2007 all over again.

[Zlatorog]

I would say no, but on the other hand, what it takes to replace some senior players that are under performing? A coach? Roos will have to start think seriously how is he going to rebuild the team and get rid of some of his player mates.

[bloods2005]

We really miss Barry Hall.. our forward line was shocking today, no wonder the cats got rid of playfair.

Mathews, J Bolton have got to go.... how was judes kick for goal.. 50m out.. didnt even reach that is shocking
in 1994 i was watching the eagles train before the grand final, and i saw mick malthouse kick goals from just outside 50m with tracksuit pants on... and jude bolton cant even reach

the start of that 2nd quarter was shocking, we @@@@@@ around with it.. went backwards/sideways then coughed it up.

i think were in with a chance next week at anz stadium against the bombers... if we cant win that.. were in trouble..

[tasswan]

I would say no, but on the other hand, what it takes to replace some senior players that are under performing? A coach? Roos will have to start think seriously how is he going to rebuild the team and get rid of some of his player mates.

I thought he was? unless im mistaken we have blooded quite a few youngsters this year and im sure if Mal and Shmidt were available they would take the place of underperformers not the exciting new players that we have unearthed.

[Legs Akimbo]

It seems to me we ARE in a rebuilding phase...for the past three years we've virtually stuck to the same team, with occasionally giving a younger player a run, but this year a number of newbies or near newbies have had regular spots, with some oldies like Mathews spending their time in the 2s...
That's sort of rebuilding in my book...

Colless on SEN before the game said that we are yesterday. I might need to get my hearing checked, but I am pretty sure he said it is not possible to rebuild without bottoming out.

[royboy42]

And it isn't possible to rebuild without bottoming out..BUT, that doessn't mean being on the bottom of the ladder.
It means going as low as you have to before rising again..It is possible that we have reached our bottoming point, it may be weeks away or longer.
Who knows?

[SimonH]

But there's no excuses left after today. We were outplayed all over the park, Eade completely out coached Roos and the final score was flattering to us.
We were downright awful! Slow and cumbersome and completely clueless. Our skills were abysmal and I feel it's 2007 all over again.

Not sure what game you were watching. Completely dropped our bundle in the 2nd quarter, but apart from that, well, don't make me say it, listen to the experts:

The Herald Sun's match report:

THE statistics said it was daylight robbery. No visiting side wins at the SCG with less inside 50s, less tackles, less clearances, less hitouts and nearly 50 less possessions.

'The final score was flattering to us'? What are you smoking? We won the contested footy, we got the ball, we butchered it on occasion around the ground but still used it well enough to create more scoring opportunities than they did, and we massacred those opportunities. The Dogs didn't. 2 of their points were rushed. 18.2 from 20 opportunities beats 14.10 (nil rushed) and at least one out-on-the-full from 25 opportunities. Bad kicking is bad football. Go back to practice. End of story.

We're not 'rebuilding', just because we're playing Barlow, Jack and Bird regularly and have toyed with playing White and Nick Smith. We may be rebuilding after BBBH, MOL, Leo Barry and Kirk retire. Replacing Paul Williams, Sean Dempster and Adam Schneider as the only first-22 players retired or traded over a two-year period, is hardly a stretch. Don't make me laugh about 'tanking', if that wasn't a useless recipe for success anyway. Have you seen our fixture from here to about round 14? Away vs Port and St K at the SCG would be roughly 50/50s; you'd possibly back the Woods to beat us, even in Sydney, based more on our very poor recent match-up against them rather than their current form.

For the rest, Sydney are likely to be hot-to-very-hot favourites. And as much as posters bitch about Sydney (hey, it's their job), it is one of the most consistent teams in the competition, i.e. one of the most likely to beat less-talented sides.

There are a lot of mediocre sides in the competition this year. I wouldn't give you two bob for any of the Ds, Weagles, Freo, Carlton, Richmond or Essendon for finals spots, unless 3 other teams collapse so horribly that one of them falls in by default; hence we're at round 7 and there are already only 10 decent competitors! And Sydney don't have a tough draw (3 very tough matches, based on current form, in the R15 to 20 bracket, and playing our recent hoodoo side Collingwood twice, but that's it). Hence it's not pumping the side up to expect that we'll finish 5-8. That's simply a middling result.

3rd or 4th (the Dogs will fall off their early pace; Geelong and the Hawks are less likely to) are the best-realistic-case scenario, and in such an even chasing pack, we're as likely as anyone else to grab them. If we keep our intensity and start kicking straight.

[NMWBloods]

That small extract does miss some other key comments though.

[Plugger46]

We have two of our best players to come back in - Hall and Malceski. We've also had a better start to the year this year. Talk about an over-reaction.

We will play finals and I reckon we'll finish 3rd or 4th.

[DST]

We were outplayed all over the park, Eade completely out coached Roos and the final score was flattering to us.
We were downright awful! Slow and cumbersome and completely clueless. Our skills were abysmal and I feel it's 2007 all over again.

So explain to me how we had more inside 50's, more possesions, scoring shots, clearances and basically squared the ledger on contested possesions.

We were not out played all over the park, neither was Roos out coached!

The simple fact was that the players butchered their general field kicking and didn't convert their scoring opportunities.

That's not played off the park nor being out coached.

DST

[NMWBloods]

So explain to me how we had more inside 50's, more possesions, scoring shots, clearances and basically squared the ledger on contested possesions.

"With superb passing, plenty of hard work in close, and a forward line full of options."

"If Sydney supporters walked away yesterday wondering just how it lost, they ignore the reality that the quickly maturing Bulldogs won all the key moments."

"The Bulldogs have added a blue-collar work ethic to their silky skills, and it won them yesterday's encounter.

They combined the glorious finishing ability of Adam Cooney with the grunt and determination of players such as little-known Tim Callan."

[DST]

"With superb passing, plenty of hard work in close, and a forward line full of options."

"If Sydney supporters walked away yesterday wondering just how it lost, they ignore the reality that the quickly maturing Bulldogs won all the key moments."

"The Bulldogs have added a blue-collar work ethic to their silky skills, and it won them yesterday's encounter.

They combined the glorious finishing ability of Adam Cooney with the grunt and determination of players such as little-known Tim Callan."

Agree NMWBloods, but they won the key moments due to better use of the ball as simple as that.

I wasn't happy with yesterdays result nor how we played, but to make comment that it was because we were out played or out coached is outrageous.

Based on the all the key indicators we played enough of the game on our terms, but just were not able to capitalise on it due to woeful disposal by foot in particular.

DST

[NMWBloods]

They were comments from the HSun!

I thought we were outplayed because they played better, but we weren't disgraced, just very untidy and very uncertain in spots.

The coaching problem is that we're uncertain and untidy and we have no forward structure. So probably not outcoached on the day, but it is an issue.

[cruiser]

Is this an entry in the "dumbest ever thread" competition?

A clear front runner this season. Possibly the worse thread ever.

[bandwagon]

No functioning forward structure. I can't deny the Bulldogs are a better team, but only we had kicked better than 4.6 in that third quarter....

Just about everything was wrong with our forward line in this game: ROK's kicking for goal has been woeful this year; a tall forward (Playfair) who is underdone; ditto for a goalkicking resting ruckman; a gameplan that overly relies on a CHF that is out of the side; our no.3 goalkicker out of the side; an out-of-form midfielder used as a forward....

At least we have the opportunity to improve in all of these areas.