What went wrong?

[Wazza]

Roos was smashed by Eade.

Eade was happy enough to stay in touch with the Swans until Half time knowing Swans only had 6 day break and had a tough game against the Roos.

Came out in the 2nd half prepared to play on and run on every occasion - run the Swans into the ground and not allow us to control the footy or time. Pretty basic really and Eade pulled it off to perfection - every bulldogs player was prepared to back themselves, play on, run hard with and without the ball.

They really did play great footy.

Cheers

Waz

[giant]

Roos was smashed by Eade.

Eade was happy enough to stay in touch with the Swans until Half time knowing Swans only had 6 day break and had a tough game against the Roos.

Came out in the 2nd half prepared to play on and run on every occasion - run the Swans into the ground and not allow us to control the footy or time. Pretty basic really and Eade pulled it off to perfection - every bulldogs player was prepared to back themselves, play on, run hard with and without the ball.

They really did play great footy.

Cheers

Waz

What could Roos have done about this? Played the North game a night earlier?

Rocket coached well (as he generally does) but he also had the better (and fresher) cattle.

[giant]

That's pretty much a perfect summation. After half-time they just looked like they didn't have anything left in the tank.

It's also easier to bear the season ending now knowing that we were playing for the right to be smashed by Geelong next week. Although the Dogs looked better yesterday than they have for most of the last two months, I think they will get soundly beaten next week.

Geelong aren't quite invincible but an opponent needs everything to be close to perfect to stand a chance. With no Micky O, Goodes, Malceski and Kennelly all well below their best through injury, Spida well past his best and the youngsters still a year or so away from being able to to be reliable 4 quarter contributors, I don't think we currently have a team whose best is capable of beating Geelong's average.

Yeh, pretty much agree - especially winning one final makes the end of the season that much more bearable.

My only comment would be that the scorebaord flattered Bullies for mine - except for a poor 15 min period in the thrid qr we were competitive all night with one of the better teams in the competition and if we'd kicked 3.3 instead of 6 pts it would have been a damn sight closer.

That said, WB were the better side on the night and throughout the season. I get the feeling we're not that far off being competitve tho (lot closer than many give us credit for) but all a little academic while the Cats play the way they do.

[AussieAnge]

The Aker deliberate one resulted in a free to Malceski who missed the shot.

It might'nt have been the Aker one as the one I'm thinking about was fairly early on and I'm pretty sure it wasn't paid.

[Wazza]

What could Roos have done about this? Played the North game a night earlier?

Rocket coached well (as he generally does) but he also had the better (and fresher) cattle.

Simple dont play unfit players in Finals, the Bulldogs are a hard running side we didnt put a team on the field that could counter that. Eade toyed with us in the first half then let them off the leash

cheers

waz

[swaney]

Your kidding

[QUOTE=Chow-Chicker;413424]In hindsight, we should have done a West Coast this year. We are an aging unit with a prospect of slooooooooooooooowly slipping down the ladder over the next few years. West Coast recognised that they have lost a number of their stars and decided to bottom out so that they can blood youth immediately, and also be in a position to get good draft picks in the last uncompromised draft before GC and West Sydney come into the competition.

Are u serious? Supporters in sydney only like the swans when they are winning. Just look at the numbers they have been getting to the games lately. The supporters wont put up with the swans being on the bottom of the ladder while we rebuild.

[liz]

Simple dont play unfit players in Finals, the Bulldogs are a hard running side we didnt put a team on the field that could counter that. Eade toyed with us in the first half then let them off the leash

cheers

waz

I doubt there will be anyone running around tomorrow afternoon in Canberra that would have been a better contributor than Goodes. He may be far from fully fit but in recent weeks has still shown himself able to contribute.

With hindsight we can say that Malceski gave us nothing, but he's played a few reasonable games in recent weeks - as good as anything a Smith or O'Dwyer or White is currently capable of. And one might have been tempted to drop Kennelly coming into this game based on what he was capable of last week, yet he was one of the better contributors.

All in all, we just didn't have enough of our better players fit enough. I doubt any different combination that Roos could have put out there would have made any significant difference. On season-long form the result was as expected and probably a fair outcome.

[Wazza]

I doubt there will be anyone running around tomorrow afternoon in Canberra that would have been a better contributor than Goodes. He may be far from fully fit but in recent weeks has still shown himself able to contribute.

With hindsight we can say that Malceski gave us nothing, but he's played a few reasonable games in recent weeks - as good as anything a Smith or O'Dwyer or White is currently capable of. And one might have been tempted to drop Kennelly coming into this game based on what he was capable of last week, yet he was one of the better contributors.

All in all, we just didn't have enough of our better players fit enough. I doubt any different combination that Roos could have put out there would have made any significant difference. On season-long form the result was as expected and probably a fair outcome.

The mistakes were made weeks ago by not playing Currie and giving Fosdike a couple of games before the finals. Fosdike would have been a far better option than Malceski.
Dont agree about Goodes even using Grundy as a forward would have been a better option. Goodes wasnt going to get better as the finals went on. Richards could have been used up forward and Bird brought into the MF. Bird would also have given us more run than Moore.
Everitt clearly wasnt up to it last night or last week I really dont know what they expected of him last night bizzare.They could have tried LRT as a back up ruckman.

We kept the same structure which is fine if we are playing well but with selecting 3 possibly 4 injured players plus Everitt you are very restricted to the changes that can be made on match day. Against a hard running team the selection process was flawed.

Your sorta saying its ok for Roos to go through the motions because it would have made no difference and we had an ok season anyway? This season for me started to show the flaws in the Roos /Longmire era - are they out of ideas? time for a new midfield coach from another club with a fresh approach??


Cheers

waz

[hot potato]

Roos was smashed by Eade.

Eade was happy enough to stay in touch with the Swans until Half time knowing Swans only had 6 day break and had a tough game against the Roos.

Came out in the 2nd half prepared to play on and run on every occasion - run the Swans into the ground and not allow us to control the footy or time. Pretty basic really and Eade pulled it off to perfection - every bulldogs player was prepared to back themselves, play on, run hard with and without the ball.

They really did play great footy.

Cheers

Waz

Spot on Waz, The Saints did the same to the Wobblies tonite, it's great footy to watch. What did we get for the Schneider n Dempster trade again??

[Primmy]

We didn't win because we weren't good enough.

[Primmy]

We didn't win because we weren't good enough.

I am using the collective "we". oh dear, sick puppy. Oh well, I have a summer full of dvd's going back eight years to watch. Game one, 2000 here I come.

[Hartijon]

One thing i have noticed all year and it stood out quite glaringly again was our inability to apply "scoreboard pressure" You can argue the dogs didn't let us but that doesn't explain the gettable shots missed by Keneally,McVeigh,Bazza and Mattner at crucial times in the game where a goal inspires the team. The Dogs on the other hand got "high" on their accurate kicking and gained in confidence. The turning point in the game was the gift from the Gods straight in front that Kenaelly could not convert. I like the guy immensely but he's likely to miss these shots every time. At least we know that even with the Umpires on our side we still can't kick a winning score.

[ScottH]

I thought the turning point was the Hall miss, that could've made it a 3 goal game, but instead Griffin took the ball up to the other end without any resistance for a goal, to make it a 5 goal game.
Game over.

[hammo]

Dont agree about Goodes even using Grundy as a forward would have been a better option. Goodes wasnt going to get better as the finals went on.

Last week against North Goodes played one of his best games of the year.

[swantastic]

We let the game go in the 3rd quarter,when we kicked 5 points and they kicked 6 goals,2 i think.

If we had of kicked 5 goals then we would have made a game of it in the 4th.