Round 1 V St. Kilda - Game Thread

[Lucky Knickers]

Coulda been better.. Coulda been worse. The good thing is that this team IMO has a lot of upside. There were plenty of quiet patches and skills gone haywire, but I would have expected that with a team containing a lot of new players. Plenty of guys have lots of improvement to come, and I would hope it will be a much sharper looking team in a few weeks.

Umpiring was questionable, but we gave away even more goals in bad turnovers and slack marking. It'll take time, but it's already a much more enjoyable year than last year IMO the pressure is off, and we just sit back and enjoy the new-look team coming together.

My thoughts based just on tonight (bear with me, I was busy yelling so might have misjudged a coupe of these players):

Guys who I think will improve once they get more game-time and/or learn how our game plan works - Bradshaw, Kennelly, Jetta

Guys who I think are doing just fine at the moment - Seaby, Mumford, Kirk, McGlynn, Malceski, Moore, O'Keefe, Jack, Grundy, Mattner, LRT, Shaw, McVeigh, C Bolton

Guys who I think need to step up - Kennedy, Goodes (good in patches, but I expect more from a player of his calibre), Jude Bolton (ditto), Richards, White

I pretty much have to agree with everything you're saying Des. The upside for us it huge.
Some of the umpiring was very strange I must say. The jumper grabs paid to the Saints were paid when the ball was maybe 30 metres away wereas Jessie, Bradshaw, GOodes etc didn't get one boiled lolly when the ball was with 5 metres tops. Shame really.
I thought that was excellent game for 2009 rank 12 versus rank 2 and am pretty pleased.

[hammo]

I thought we were pretty disappointing and the Saints had us covered most of the night. Some flashes of brilliance from Goodes and McVeigh and not helped at all by dodgy umpiring.

Tadhg was far too loose in defence. His defensive game has never been great and sure enough Schneider did the damage when he had to. He wasn't the worst back there though. LRT had a shocker. We don't need him and Ted in the same team now that Grundy has established himself.

I thought Moore was OK, I don't understand the criticism of him. He had more impact than Bradshaw or White.

Mumford played really well I thought.

I would be fast tracking Rohan, Hannebery and Veszpremi into the team for a much needed injection of class and skill.

Overall, when St Kilda had the ball they had a clear game plan, knew where to run and where to look. When we had the ball it was generally confusion and not enough running.

When Tadhg was taken out it was a clear 50m as the St Kilda player was not in the marking contest. A blatant error.

[Agent 86]

It was not a 50 because the ump didnt think he marked it. Fair enough.

But everyone else there could see that he did. Poor decison. Very poor. & Given the soft free to Riewoldt & the bodgy 50m minutes earlier made it feel a lot worse. The Saints were crapping themselves when it got back to 2 points which made that period of the game all the more disappointing.

Yes, we turned over a lot of ball which you could argue lost us the game, but so did the Saints (esp. in Q4 - which should have lost the game for them).

[timthefish]

A few very, very doggy umpiring decisions ... not happy there.

woof!

[Jeffers1984]

Drop White. Sorry folks, it needs to be said. The whole team were "white-centric" - when other were available to kick goals.

A few very, very doggy umpiring decisions ... not happy there.

That was quick Annie. You gonna think of a nickname for White now? Woeful White perhaps? Since "Blind Barry" isn't with us anymore.

[Bas]

Just back from game. Turnovers really killed us. Supporters around me were very feral on some of the umpiring decisions. They didn't help the result for us.

[Swanner]

Just home from the game. Agree with comments on White. Umpires in particlar McBurney made big errors that really took the game out of our hands. The overwhelming feeling was a game decided by umpiring errors. The 50 after the kennely hit is basic umpiring. That would have put the margin at 2 or 3 points. Hugely significant and basic error by the umpires. I have been going to the footy for 17 years and for the first time i actually am undecided about going to the richmond game. Who wants to see a sport where umpire errors are so common and have such a huge impact on the game.

[timthefish]

I would be fast tracking Rohan, Hannebery and Veszpremi into the team for a much needed injection of class and skill.

i see where you're coming from but i think the squad from tonight needs a few games to settle and only a little tinkering here and there for the time being. we have to absorb and observe the outcomes of the changes that have occurred already.

[Mike_B]

Having sat with Des, our thoughts on the game are very similar. The forward line will take time to start functioning smoothly, but on the flipside, the run out of defence seemed a lot quicker and direct than previous seasons. We matched a team many are predicting to make the Grand Final, apart from some ill-discipline and poor skills leading to goals from turnovers. That is a huge positive, especially knowing that we will be up and down this year (or even within games).

Of the new boys, McGlynn obviously had a job to do so wanted sighted much, Kennedy was disappointing IMHO, Seaby and Mumford will form a good ruck combo this year and hopefully we can get a little more out of them around the ground as they get used to the gameplan, Bradshaw will be much better for the run having not played any competitive footy in the pre-season - it showed in his lack of touch, Jetta got himself into space a fair bit which is great in that it will allow him to use his pace more effectively against teams that don't zone as much as the Saints.

On some of the other players, good to see Kennelly back, even if his skills let him down. You can see he has the respect of the players and isn't shy in marshalling the troops. The Eski's skills looked back to the 2007 version, low bullets off the left boot, a very exciting sign. While Goodes did some brilliant stuff, I would have liked to see him pushing a little higher up the ground to get more involved.

I've said it since December that I'm looking forward to this season and tonight has not changed that feeling one bit. I'm not so worried about the final score, as long as the signs are there that we are building towards another flag, and while there was plenty to be upset about from tonight's game if you want to look at it that way, I'll be looking at the upside from this which still tells me we're in for a bit of a bumpy ride, but one that will be an enjoyable and exciting one to be part of.

[hot potato]

A pretty good effort by the rebuilding Swans, freakish accuracy by the Saints and their very disciplined backline (they wear their opponents to within cms) aided by a couple of soft frees and a soft 50m penalty got them home.

Skill level below the average for AFL by some players, and a fair few handballs to players in no position to take advantage of it.

Jetta seemed to be more needed in the forward line. Without Goodes we go down by a much larger margin.

Malceski's return to form very good, Shaw didn't run and carry as much as his usual self, Jack still can't hit a leading player on the chest from
35m.
There was an unusual amount of fumbling at ground level and an inability to hold marks, and lots of slipping over.

I hate The Swans losing at home as it affects the crowd and their confidnece but I'm always cheesed off when they lose.

HP

[Damien]

Um, not sure what to think, might be clearer in the morning but boy did this game take a bit out of me!. Loved Jetta most of the time and was impressed at his efforts to shepherd etc, Seaby good, Goodes and McVeigh good. White just didn't seem to have a second effort in him all night and didn't seem to be concentrating. I think a week or two in the reserves is needed to refocus him, I get the feeling with him interviews that compare him to Hall don't help his focus....

O/T: Was anyone else in Bay 129/130? We had the most annoying St Kilda supporter in history, not sure he shutup all night.

[timthefish]

If we can get the ball past the half-forward line, we'll be in with a chance.
Drop White. Sorry folks, it needs to be said. The whole team were "white-centric" - when other were available to kick goals.

1st week.
close loss to form team of comp.
drop developing key forward who underperformed in revamped lineup.
grind more pills into vodka.
repeat.

[liz]

My emotions coz I thought we coulda, shoulda won. Saints were a litle cleaner with their ball use when they broke free, which was probably the difference. The first quarter scoreline was particularly disappointing after we dominated the first 10 minutes for scant reward and then proceeded to concede 5 goals.

Can't say I agree with Des' disappointment in Goodes. Three goals and at least 6 goal assists I counted. All while being scragged. We're used to him dominating with possession around the ground but that's not going to happen with him playing as a forward.

Bradshaw and White need to do more but it was Bradshaw's first outing and he definitely showed his experience and wile in patches. Jesse needs to hang onto his marks but he's still very inexperienced as a key forward target - something it is easy to forget sometimes.

Liked Jetta's game a lot in the sense that he looked completely comfortable with the pace and intensity of the game. A few times he nearly did something really special. Don't think we'll have to wait long to see it materialise.

Most pleasing was probably the ruck combo. For a player who's confidence must have been dented by West Coast's treatment of him, Seaby has been pretty good since he first pulled on a red and white guernsey. Mumford is as raw as White but has all the makings of a very solid ruckman. Laid some great tackles and his work at ground level wasn't bad either.

Didn't see anything tonight to change my mind about our solid finals chances.

One last comment about the ground. It was shocking, with players from both sides struggling to hold their feet. You could see clouds of dust everytime someone fell over.

[Jesse Richards]

Swans and their supporters have had to cope with strange umpiring decisions for at least the past 6 years. It's a given. We need to win despite the umpires rather than play such low and close scoring games that we are vulnerable to losing because of them.

Still, it was an encouraging start tonight, with patches of individual and team brilliance amongst our numerous errors.

[CJK]

ANZ Stadium, what a joke.

I received the emails that the Swans had swapped changing room sides. Seems they did not. The kids lining up to clap on the Swans after half time and seeing the Saints run on was hilarious in a pathetic and sad sort of way.

And who can forget the 'Sing Sydney' or the 'Cheer Sydney' calls on the big screen when the Saints scored. Idiots.

EDIT - having read the thread; Lack of 'Tadhg was terrible' posts is pretty, pretty, pretty surprising. He was terrible, can't mark, can't kick, can't defend, can't tackle, can't grow hair. Terrible.