Official Game Day thread - Semi Final Vs Bulldogs

[mcs]

as always you make some good points Nico and Im too tired to respond to them all. But I have to defend Buchanan. He was the only one tonight that managed to get the ball consistenly, which is a lot more then can be said for others. And while stats dont say everything, they show to me he was more then servicable tonight. 19 Disposals with 13 contested possesions, 4 tackles, 4 inside 50's and 5 clearances. He was far from our worst tonight and in our best imo.

Totally agree about the midfield coach- I still fail to understand why a gun forward who had our forward line going so well is our midfield coach. Our midfield has been a shadow of its former self the last 2 seasons.

[mcs]

The worry is he got caught out badly with pace tonight both chasing and when in possession.

Fair point Nico and I guess there is a question mark over his pace over the long run but his fitness base is not quite the same as some of our other younger players either. A full hard pre season knowing he is part of the 1st team will see him come on a long way I think.

[reigning premier]

The retirements/delistings of Spida, Mathews, Crouch, Davis will free up a lot of space on both the list and salary cap.

BBBBH has at least one more year in him but is close to being added to that above list. Wouldn't be particularly peturbed if he ended up on it.

[Mogg0]

The retirements/delistings of Spida, Mathews, Crouch, Davis will free up a lot of space on both the list and salary cap.

BBBBH has at least one more year in him but is close to being added to that above list. Wouldn't be particularly peturbed if he ended up on it.

Hall was one of our best last night. He definitely deserves another year.

[Melbournehammer]

I want to say so much here. I completely agree with Nico. We are happy only because our expectations were so low. We have introduced the following young players - jack, vespa, bird, moore. All are small midfielders, some years away from contributing more than assistance to those who will be doing the heavy lifting.

the heavy lifters are old - leo, micky o, barry hall, kirk, jude. They are slowing down and in kirk's case there wasn't much more to slow down with.

none of them are going to be around for too much longer. there are no obvious replacements for our key forwards or our key defenders. lrt is only good enough to play on the third best forward and we will get murdered if he is asked to play on the better forwards. i mean seriously he's got beaten by minson and john anthony (and yes he beat johnathon brown)

we have no skilled outside midfielders and we desperately miss the maxfields and willos. where is the next one coming from ?

a better way of looking at our team is where are we in three years. as i see it our team would be

full forward: vespremi, blank, moore
half forward: o'keefe, blank, mcveigh
centre: jack, bird, malceski
half back: mattner, bolton, barlow?
backs: blank, lrt, bevan
followers: jolly, goodes, bird

inter:????

i reckon that side is pretty bloody ordinary.

as i say i wouldn't play lrt (frankly i wouldn't feed him) but he seems to be our local boy who gets a run no matter what the circumstances. we have plenty of decent smalls but no stars and frankly the freo midfield and youngsters run rings around our players.

this crazy comparison with west coast - that they have fallen further and faster than we have - if this is what it comes to that we aren't as bad as a team which has turned over the best midfield in the country when it previously had the worst attack and it has retained most of that worst attack is just crazy.

we have a long slide ahead of us because we take the view that recycling is the answer for short term maintenance. but trading the likes of schneider for mattner ain't gonna cut it. we need to find the next key forward now.

[beaker]

sad sad sad. it's definitely the end of an era - but as Kirky would say, we've always been Cortinas battling Porches.... so. what now? Prolly at least 3 years out of the 8 so we can get some players. We SHOULD have won '06, and that would make the rebuilding a bit easier to stomach. As it is, we're not looking good for some time now. The mantle is for Geelong and Hawthorn, Carlton in the next 3 years. We're over and out for now.

[smasher]

Had 7 disposals but at least he got 5 tackles.

He may have had seven disposals but they were 100% effective which isn't bad for your first final at the G.Shame he didn't get the ball more and I didn't see him in the second half.

[Nico]

He may have had seven disposals but they were 100% effective which isn't bad for your first final at the G.Shame he didn't get the ball more and I didn't see him in the second half.

Smasher, there were a few occasions where he made good space but was completely ignored. In one case Richards on the MCCmembers wing Richards looked at and chose to go backwards in the 3rd Q. A mindless act that allowed a hoard of defenders to get back.

It was typical how we played by refusing to go to a contest. Was it Roos who was first to the bench at 3Q time, sitting on his own and not real happy.

[NMWBloods]

The team is too drilled to go sideways and short and step back off the mark and take our time. In the last quarter with about five minutes to go when we needed to move the ball forward quickly, ROK had it at half back and didn't even look in the middle of the ground. All he wanted to do was kick wide and that was what he did.

The 'Dogs played on and ran far more than we did, especially in the third quarter. We were too stop-start and too slow building up. When we did move the ball forward quickly we had great options up forward, but we didn't do it enough.

Ablett showed yet again that he adds little value in the midfield and struggles in big games.
J Bolton really lacked pace and had little impact.
Crouch and probably Barry are finished.

We need to make some tough decisions for next year.

I also thought Eade outcoached Roos last night.

[Nico]

Fair point Nico and I guess there is a question mark over his pace over the long run but his fitness base is not quite the same as some of our other younger players either. A full hard pre season knowing he is part of the 1st team will see him come on a long way I think.

He's had some hard pre seasons to date and Roos was quoted as saying he needed that stamina base. Blokes like Mitchell don't appear that quick, and it was why he wasn't picked in the draft as an 18YO, but find the footy with constant hard running. If Moore doesn't find that factor next year then it maybe that his best option is as a crumbing forward.

[Nico]

At stages I thought Roos was being out coached but on reflection playing injured players gave him little or no flexibility. I thought he left the Bevanator on Murphy too long. One he got his tail up in the 2nd Q he towelled him up. He was too quick for Bevo who matches up better on slower players, but, Connolly will probably shoot me down on that one when he sobers up.

But Connolly I am not bagging the kid because he worked pretty hard in an adverse situation.

[swansrule100]

there was a period where we just stuffed up too many times, where we could of got control of the game.

For starters how did kennelly miss that super duper free kick. Mcveigh handballing over the top and missing the target near the goal square, mattners snap that my 10 yr old brother would do a better job of and mcveigh and hall missing. The dogs got a few goals in there as well. Costly


with all due respect to the guys we have too many unskilled players. Even one of our best kirk just cannot kick and he plays that way, always looking to handball.

We dont get the basics right, a ball comes into defence you have 3 against 2 or whatever, all 3 do not jump, 1 stays down surely??? we must lead the league in spoiling your own team mates.

[SwanJoel]

Crouch and probably Barry are finished.

I thought Crouch was one of our better plays, probably didn't win a great deal of the footy, but when he did he took on the Bulldogs and showed he's still got a bit of toe, even if the final kick wasn't always great. Atleast wanted to take them on and in my opinion that's a good sign. As for Leo i'd have to agree with you there, he just hasn't got the awareness (if any at all) when he comes out of defence it's embarassing to watch at times.

[Nico]

there was a period where we just stuffed up too many times, where we could of got control of the game.

For starters how did kennelly miss that super duper free kick. Mcveigh handballing over the top and missing the target near the goal square, mattners snap that my 10 yr old brother would do a better job of and mcveigh and hall missing. The dogs got a few goals in there as well. Costly


with all due respect to the guys we have too many unskilled players. Even one of our best kirk just cannot kick and he plays that way, always looking to handball.

We dont get the basics right, a ball comes into defence you have 3 against 2 or whatever, all 3 do not jump, 1 stays down surely??? we must lead the league in spoiling your own team mates.

Too right and Richards is one of the great culprits. Who was it he bowled over on the Southern Stand side when the player had the mark in his arms? I lost count of number of Swans players up in a contested mark in the Punt Rd end goal square.

[Pace To Burn]

Im not too worried after last night in terms of next year despite the fact we fell away after half time. Last week obviously took alot out of the side and they fell away badly but Goodes, Rok are obviously struggling and Jolly had no help and MOL was missed. I think Kirk just had no legs left and i agree that Roosy probably should have changed a few things earlier in terms of match ups and should have started Jolly in the ruck after Half time instead of Spida. But hopefully Goodes, Rok and few others will get patched up over summer and MOL will be back and i think we can still be competitive next year. Def need to trade for some speed and i would def try for Kerr or another proven ball winner. Should hopefully see improvement of Bird, Jack, Moore after a full year in the side and another preseason under their belt and hopefully Vespa too although i did notice that after he copped that rather small hit and went off, when he came back on pulled out badly of another contest next time he had to go(could be being abit hard on him) but its not something you would like to see creep into a players game.