Gameday thread vs Collingwood

[Hazcam]

Gee whiz that scoreline could've been 70+ had the ferals kicked straight. 32 scoring shots to 16 is pretty bad. We just looked so out of it and didn't have the intensity of the Geelong and Saints game. We played better here vs the Hawks (up until BBBH's triple 50).

We really need to get a big solid backman and 2 really speedy and silky midfielders. We also need a couple of these young indigenous guys. They are just magical at times and their speed would do wonders for us.

Ed Barlow is soft as a marshmallow I don't get it with this bloke. He's big and needs some mongrel honestly.

Could've been going to rd22 with some excitement but I guess it was clear we were never going to challenge the ferals. Will send off Mick/Leo/Crouchy with a win hopefully and ponder on what might've been.

Let's hope 2010 is a different story and relives the excitement year of 2003.

[Nico]

Nico I think Tim Watson referred to one of your other bugbears during the game about the Swans being too disciplined in sticking to their negating roles and not going for the ball. The particular instance was a kick into our forward line where our defenders just watched on as a Collingwood player took an uncontested mark 30 metres out when 4 of them probably could have made a contest.

It happened twice in nearly the same spot about 55 metres out from the Punt Rd goals. Rhyce Shaw should have gone the spoil in one case and Crouch just stood in front of his man almost shepherding rather than come in and spoil. Quite bizarre and both times the crowd around us, me included gave it to them.

They said on the radio that McLaren had a shocker. The worst I thought was when ROK got pinged HTB at CHB at the Punt Rd end. He was at least 30 metres away in the pocket and the players had their back to him and he called it before they hit the ground. ROK had no prior opportunity at all. ROK has arms pinned and at no time let go of the ball. Mclaren guessed from 30+ metres away.

Mind you as Scott said we got away with a few but the Pies did get at least 5 from frees. That one to Fraser against Pyke was a joke. The replay showed no contact by a long way.

We were outplayed so really the umpiring had little bearing.

[Lohengrin]

Im not convinced on that one

You're not convinced that the umpires made no difference to our game?

[Lohengrin]

Nico I think Tim Watson referred to one of your other bugbears during the game about the Swans being too disciplined in sticking to their negating roles and not going for the ball. The particular instance was a kick into our forward line where our defenders just watched on as a Collingwood player took an uncontested mark 30 metres out when 4 of them probably could have made a contest.

That was probably the one where Shaw stayed with Swan when he could have gone for a spoil. Terrible football, but our players have often been guilty of it.

[hammo]

It happened twice in nearly the same spot about 55 metres out from the Punt Rd goals. Rhyce Shaw should have gone the spoil in one case and Crouch just stood in front of his man almost shepherding rather than come in and spoil. Quite bizarre and both times the crowd around us, me included gave it to them.

Yep that was the one. I meant the Pies forward 50 of course.

Agree with our lack of forward pressure. Not sure if Moore's injury affected our plans but next season we really need to address this.

[Nico]

Reg was outstanding today, as was Goodes( as usual)
LRT and B2 were very good.
MOD showed plenty of run, today.
Bevan played pretty well.
White had little impact, but was impressive when he got near the ball, his chase on Shaw late in the game, showed he has some speed.

Pyke, was shocking, worked of the ball far too easily for someone his size, and seemed to have little idea of what he was supposed to be doing around the ground.

Barlow was just useless.
Crouch had a shocker.
MOL had little impact, as did Leaping.

Forgot Smith, and Moore.
Moore's tap which led to a goal(bevan), before he went off injured, was a highlight.
And Smith took a huge hit just in front of the I/C bench and just kept going. Pretty solid for a skinny looking kid.
He also kept Didak very, very quiet for the first half of the game.

Pretty much my thoughts Scotty.


Goodes was clearly BOG. Some of his evasive work was breathtaking. He made good footballers look foolish at times. His goal in the last Q summed it up. He had a week to look around, saw nothing going on so simply drilled it from outside 50. Collingwood supporters around us said he was clearly BOG and in a league of his own.

Smith v Didak - Smith did a great job. Didak got a lot of kicks around the boundary and mostly from handpasses.
Shaw v Swan - Shaw did a great job too. probably Swan's quietest game for a long time.
Jack v Davis - another stirling effort. Davis most of his possessions around the 50 and Jack didn't allow him to straighten up.

As good as these 3 played it was not matched by players up the ground and other Collingwood players rose to the occasion.

Smith looks a polished player rarely turns it over and has impoved his kicking a lot. Has a lot more distance and penetration. Midfield successor to Kirk I reckon.
Lrt - Gees how can anyone bag him. I thought he did a good job under enormous pressure.
Pyke - A long way off it.
O'Dwyer - we have found a player. He was one of the few who went direct. Playing back on smalls though is not his caper. Roos said when Moore went of it threw out the rotation so it looks like MOD went back.
Hanneberry found out the true pace of the game but he is only 18 so I'm not too fussed about that at this stage.
Leo's first quarter was a disater with a signature run the wrong way, tackle, BALL. He had clear space up ground but decided to go onto his wrong side. He wasn't too bad for the rest of the game.
ROK had a fair bit of it but was heavily tagged all game. Thought he hung onto the footy and finessed too much at times when a quick kick forward was the best option.
Crouch - He was poor. He continues to make obvious holds and gets pinged every time. He also did his standard couple of kicks straight to unmarked Collingwood players. He just doesn't look.
Grundy is a good footballer.
Jolly is very tired and rucks almost all game. He needs a genuine ruck back up.
Barlow - Enough has been said. What disappointed me was the number of times he was just nudged off the footy both in marking contests and running to the ball. He has very few footy smarts. He made a lot of runs to space but not quick enough and he got the ball knocked away. As someone else said there is a fair suspicion he hears foot steps.
Jessie White - he will be a very good player when they decide to kick to him inside 50 and have players at his feet.

Overall I thought our endevour was there but our disposal, static play, weak clearance work and general skill were what let us down and we were beaten by a much better team.

[ScottH]

Overall I thought our endevour was there but our disposal, static play, weak clearance work and general skill were what let us down and we were beaten by a much better team.

The other thing that was quite clear early on, was Collingwood were really off their game, dropping easy marks and fumbling, and they still in front up till half time. We were only just matching them. After 1/2 time it was a different pies unit, and the blew us away on the scoreboard, but should've been further ahead given the easy misses.

[DST]

It's becoming more apparent as the season goes on that we have a decent backline and some potential forwards to work with as well going forward, but it is the midfield where we are going to need to trade for and go for the most decent outside, quick, skillful midfielder we can get at pick 7 come draft day this year.

DST

[kerrsive]

This drove me nuts...
The Members side boundary line must have been painted with crack. No one had the slightest intention of trying to run the ball up the guts. Every time, the first option was to kick it within an inch of the boundary line on the wing to contests where a Swan player was getting double teamed. Did anybody else notice this or did I actually lose my mind at some point?

Other than that, it was a very empty/nothing game.

[stellation]

Didak came to the bench in the 3rd term.
Smith was running about 3 metres to his side.
Didak was looking at him and his mouth was motoring along.
Smith just focussed on heading to the bench, and totally ignored him.

I think Nick earned a bit of respect from Didak today.
I look forward to seeing Nick play this time next year, with another 20+ games under his belt. He is awesome.

Didak actually gave him a couple of pats on the bum after he took the mark over him (prior to Smith going back and kicking the goal). I was thoroughly impressed with Smith today, he held Didak by going and winning the ball himself- he made him work very hard for anything he got, and he rarely was in an uber dangeous position.

For those concerned about Hanneberry's pace- he's clearly not going to be the fastest guy in the competition, but keep in mind the impact a big ground will have on the legs of a guy that young; any time he would have had a chance to try to accelerate today his legs were probably already pretty tired. He'll be fine.

I liked White's game a lot today, good focus to stick in the game. I think he may be more naturally a CHF, but appreciate with our number of SCG games that is an odd position at times and don't overly mind seeing him at FF. Great to see him with some big leads up the ground.

[BSA5]

Pretty much my thoughts Scotty.


Goodes was clearly BOG. Some of his evasive work was breathtaking. He made good footballers look foolish at times. His goal in the last Q summed it up. He had a week to look around, saw nothing going on so simply drilled it from outside 50. Collingwood supporters around us said he was clearly BOG and in a league of his own.

Smith v Didak - Smith did a great job. Didak got a lot of kicks around the boundary and mostly from handpasses.
Shaw v Swan - Shaw did a great job too. probably Swan's quietest game for a long time.
Jack v Davis - another stirling effort. Davis most of his possessions around the 50 and Jack didn't allow him to straighten up.

As good as these 3 played it was not matched by players up the ground and other Collingwood players rose to the occasion.

Smith looks a polished player rarely turns it over and has impoved his kicking a lot. Has a lot more distance and penetration. Midfield successor to Kirk I reckon.
Lrt - Gees how can anyone bag him. I thought he did a good job under enormous pressure.
Pyke - A long way off it.
O'Dwyer - we have found a player. He was one of the few who went direct. Playing back on smalls though is not his caper. Roos said when Moore went of it threw out the rotation so it looks like MOD went back.
Hanneberry found out the true pace of the game but he is only 18 so I'm not too fussed about that at this stage.
Leo's first quarter was a disater with a signature run the wrong way, tackle, BALL. He had clear space up ground but decided to go onto his wrong side. He wasn't too bad for the rest of the game.
ROK had a fair bit of it but was heavily tagged all game. Thought he hung onto the footy and finessed too much at times when a quick kick forward was the best option.
Crouch - He was poor. He continues to make obvious holds and gets pinged every time. He also did his standard couple of kicks straight to unmarked Collingwood players. He just doesn't look.
Grundy is a good footballer.
Jolly is very tired and rucks almost all game. He needs a genuine ruck back up.
Barlow - Enough has been said. What disappointed me was the number of times he was just nudged off the footy both in marking contests and running to the ball. He has very few footy smarts. He made a lot of runs to space but not quick enough and he got the ball knocked away. As someone else said there is a fair suspicion he hears foot steps.
Jessie White - he will be a very good player when they decide to kick to him inside 50 and have players at his feet.

Overall I thought our endevour was there but our disposal, static play, weak clearance work and general skill were what let us down and we were beaten by a much better team.

Nico, I think this is the first time I've basically agreed with a post-match summary of yours. The only objection I have is that I thought Crouch was solid enough. Gave up a few frees, yes, and didn't hurt much on the rebound, but aside from that played a great defensive role. Cancel each other out, he acquitted himself reasonably.

Also, Hanners looks like he's playing a bit injured to me. Nothing serious, just wear and tear (he's a very young player, remember). If you compare his last couple of games to his first few, his chasing, turn of speed, etc, just aren't as prominent. Looks like he's labouring a bit, rather than being just "slow", and he showed no signs of this earlier, so I'd be inclined to give him a rest next week and make sure we get a full preseason into him.

[stellation]

No disrespect intended to the long term servants of the club, but I do think right now that we'll look a better side Rd 1 next year if only for the removal of a few automatic inclusions.

[ScottH]

No disrespect intended to the long term servants of the club, but I do think right now that we'll look a better side Rd 1 next year if only for the removal of a few automatic inclusions.

Me too.

[hammo]

I liked White's game a lot today, good focus to stick in the game. I think he may be more naturally a CHF, but appreciate with our number of SCG games that is an odd position at times and don't overly mind seeing him at FF. Great to see him with some big leads up the ground.

According to Paul Roos, White had a "shocker"!


Roos happy with Swans' youth focus - Official AFL Website of the Sydney Swans

[BSA5]

According to Paul Roos, White had a "shocker"!


Roos happy with Swans' youth focus - Official AFL Website of the Sydney Swans

Imagine how good Roos thinks he could be then!