Round 1 V St. Kilda - Game Thread

[giant]

I've got a glass half full/empty thing going on with Sat's game.

The half full version suggests that a young side with a few key players under-done did extremely well against the premiership favourites with many of the new boys showing some value.

The half empty version suggests that close to our best squad couldn't beat an under-done Saints team, the team we match up best vs amongst the Big 4, and despite keeping Dal Santo, Montagna & Hayes pretty quiet. And a number of the new boys struggled.

Or maybe I should accept it's round 1 and too early to be suggesting anything...

[Peace]

we didn't have our "best" squad on saturday night, on paper and through the pre season it looked great but i dont think we will see our "best" squad until round 8-10 when everyone finally starts working together properly. You can't just shove a heap of new players into the side and expect them to play like they have been together for a few seasons.

I think we did very well on saturday night and we are going to get a lot better.

I predict us bouncing back big time next week, even if its adelaide.... white will step up after being so dissapointing and our back line will be tight!

[dimelb]

The reaction of the family physio, who used to be an AFL physio: 'Wow, Swannies are looking good!'

[hot potato]

I thought White had a shocker. With Playfair kicking 4 and Bradshaw sure to improve he might have trouble holding onto his spot. Currie is always an option as well. I think however Roos will give him more chances and give the team a chance to settle down.Kennedy did not do enough either and a swap for Hanneberry could give the team a bit more penetration. Now Bevan is a forward player I would have him in instead of McGlynne who was servicible but will never win us a game.I see Tiger agrees with the critics on here that his delivery was off and we hopefully will see improvement.He needs to flatten out his kicks by leaning back more like Eski and that will stop them going too high. Get rid of that Gaelic football chip that a round ball promotes. I like the Swans team however.Mistakes in the backlines and the Umpires lost us the game.We will do better as Adelaide,coming off a thrashing will discover.

The best player to model kicking skills to a running target is IMHO Andrew McCloud. Gary Ablett close for second.

[Asterix]

Apologies if posted before but did anyone else hear something about one of the Saints "goals" brushing the post and another being touched on the line?

[Melbournehammer]

My own view is that this game was a wasted opportunity. I don't think st kilda are anywhere near as good as they were last season and we match up on them really well. LRT plays Kosi as well as he plays anyone - he is perhaps the slowest tall forward in the comp other than resting ruckmen. Grundy is reasonably well suited to Riewoldt and our midfield can blanket the saints because they aren't particularly quick.

We were better than st kilda in most aspects of the game other than our singular inability to actually defend 10-15 metres out from goal - the situations which led repeatedly to st kilda having a player get the ball with all of the swans otherwise lying on the ground around them were just killers. I am sure I am not the only one who panics when i see reg and LRT trying to handball to each other and I would prefer if reg is going to try to outmark riewoldt that he does that near the 50 instead of metres from goal.

I have said repeatedly (although only occasionally here) that moving goodes to the forward line will be two losses for us. I don't think he is anywhere near as good a forward as he is a midfielder and we desperately need someone who can break from packs with the ball. I am not saying he didn't play well but my view is that it is a mistake to put him in the forward line when other teams can then play a negating player on him and he can't use his general fitness as well as height to beat them.

I think the umpiring was absymal - but then i think that every week and it really wasn't the reason we lost.

[Jesse Richards]

"That defensive group has been around for a fair while and I just thought the number of easy goals we were letting in really hurt us and at the end of the game, it sort of cost us the game." Paul Roos
Swans mystified why Dawson escapes charge - Official AFL Website of the Sydney Swans Football Club

Shaw and Kennelly didn't play together last year. Kennelly wasn't around last year. Mattner and Ted were named on the bench. Kennelly, Shaw, Malceski and Mattner were more focused on moving forward rather than on defending. Yes, our defence let us down and they weren't the only players with the fumbles, poor kicking and not hitting targets. Nor were they involved in the squandered opportunities of the first 10 minutes. I could go on and on. Maybe Roos was selectively quoted. There were problems all over the ground. We had no reply to the massive floods and at the end didn't man up to put pressure onto the StK backline when they tossed the ball around unopposed in our 50 in the dying minutes.

I rarely criticise Roos but ... Maybe it is better to keep our expectations of a win to ourselves - the unusual heat from StK certainly had an effect on the outcome - usually they leave us alone - this time they pulled out the dirty tricks early on..... And we lost because we didn't play well enough to win.

[AnnieH]

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

I'm trying to fit harem + white together. A work in progress!!

[rojo]

When you think about it, the backline's 'lapses' on Saturday are not so surprising. It must be confusing to have even 3 let alone 4 running half-backs trying to sort out who should be doing what, and then you have 3 talls plus Bolton and no small defensive back. No wonder there is confusion. I would play a backline of Kennelly, Grundy and Shaw, Smith, Bolton and LRT with Malceski on a wing. Then what to do with Richards and Mattner. I can't see them being dropped, but keeping them in the team will keep out right now say Bevan in the forward line, and Hanners in the midfield and later on Rohan and TDL in the forward line. I think the team is unbalanced by having too many backline players that seemingly have to be played.

[Nico]

My own view is that this game was a wasted opportunity. I don't think st kilda are anywhere near as good as they were last season and we match up on them really well. LRT plays Kosi as well as he plays anyone - he is perhaps the slowest tall forward in the comp other than resting ruckmen. Grundy is reasonably well suited to Riewoldt and our midfield can blanket the saints because they aren't particularly quick.

We were better than st kilda in most aspects of the game other than our singular inability to actually defend 10-15 metres out from goal - the situations which led repeatedly to st kilda having a player get the ball with all of the swans otherwise lying on the ground around them were just killers. I am sure I am not the only one who panics when i see reg and LRT trying to handball to each other and I would prefer if reg is going to try to outmark riewoldt that he does that near the 50 instead of metres from goal.

I have said repeatedly (although only occasionally here) that moving goodes to the forward line will be two losses for us. I don't think he is anywhere near as good a forward as he is a midfielder and we desperately need someone who can break from packs with the ball. I am not saying he didn't play well but my view is that it is a mistake to put him in the forward line when other teams can then play a negating player on him and he can't use his general fitness as well as height to beat them.

I think the umpiring was absymal - but then i think that every week and it really wasn't the reason we lost.

Agree on Goodes. We don't have enough class in the guts without him there.

[DeadlyAkkuret]

Ideally our middle 6 would be McVeigh, O'Keefe, Hannebery, Bolton, Kirk and then Goodes for that added class/xfactor. That imo is a very good midfield and they could match any side on their day.

[hot potato]

Goodes should be allowed to roam wherever he thinks fit for the state of play if he still has the stamina.

HP

[Triple B]

Goodes should be allowed to roam wherever he thinks fit for the state of play if he still has the stamina.

HP

I'd be surprised if he doesn't have that licence already

[AnnieH]

I'd be surprised if he doesn't have that licence already

He's got the licence, and on Saturday night it was used. I've said it a gazillion times ... just let him go. Let the other team worry about how many they have to use (waste) to try and man him up.

How about those two air soccer kicks leading to goals?? What a freakin legend.

If it weren't for Goodesy, we would have lost by more.

[Old Royboy]

Irrational view of the game.

Swans are off to a flier. Umpy thinks ? I hate Sydney, better do something about this?. ?Two cheap frees for two goals and Saints back in it. The Swans commit a couple of dumb turnovers to give the Saints another couple. Umpy thinks ?OK job done, I can umpire fairly now.?
Go to last quarter Swans get a roll on, less than a kick in it. Umpy thinks ?better do something about this? Two cheap frees in goal range plus a 50 metre penalty ? but still the Saints are only eight points up. Couple of minutes to go: Tadhg marks 50 out, and is illegally smashed. Umpy thinks: ?Gee how do I get out of this?? OK, I can say he didn?t hold the ball, I can get out of giving a fifty, there?s Mc Glynn over there, he can?t kick the distance ? I?ll give the ball to him.? Less than a minute to go, Goodes stages for one. Umpy thinks, ?less than a minute to go, should be safe here, This should deflect any doubters, I'll give the free.? Siren. Umpy thinks: ?Job well done boys, let?s get out of this dump.? Aggrieved Swans fans around the country are going ballistic.

Rational view.

Both teams had 6 free kicks inside 50. They kicked 5 we got 2 Bad kicking is bad footy. We won more hard balls, but poor disposal both in general play and for goal cost us big time. We failed to react quickly enough after we turned the ball over, and they made us pay. We got a couple of bad calls but If we had done our jobs properly the umpies would have had no chance of having any influence because the game would have been dead and buried. Suck it up, and learn for next week.

Those are my thoughts during a bad game like Saturday and the reality 48 hours later. I make a big enough goose of myself at the game, but at least some sense has returned when I get home, so I don?t post afterwards and make a bigger goose of myself.

Trouble is, deep down I am still struggling. Every time I see a game in Perth or Adelaide I see the effect a home crowd can have. What happened on Saturday would NEVER have happened there. The team can take some blame, but we the fans should too. The crowd can influence the umpires, but most of the Sydney crowd decline to do so.