Round 2 Crows Vs. Sydney game thread

[Plugger1300]

Really enjoyed McGlynns game but BOG your joking. He was brilliant but the hard work was done in the middle. O'Keefe was sensational! Seaby has been enormous. Hannebury was also outstanding. How good was the tackling and the pressure.

[Jesse Richards]

Great game - despite the skill errors, now forgiven. I thoroughly enjoyed watching Hannebery and the new guys. One of the headaches for future opposing teams will be who to tag, who to put on whom. I think that most teams will run out of quality players before we do - if they put their best onto our youngest and newest, it will free up Kirk and Jude to shine again...we will be like slippery eels. A coach's nightmare and Roos' delight.

[DeadlyAkkuret]

Paul Roos was great in the presser, seemed genuinely excited about the list and the direction we're taking. It was funny when he dodged the bullet of calling Ablett slow by just saying that he's different to Hannebery and Jetta lol. We're a quicker team and we'll be a more entertaining team this year.

[AngryOfBendigo]

Amazing win and very unexpected I must say. We recruited extremely well over the off season. Everyone contributed.

Unexpected by whom?????????

[DST]

It will be a long year if every game the Swans win we have to read and hear about the "recycled stars" we have in the team. The Hawthorn flag probably gave legitimacy to the tanking / bottoming out theory, but it could also be a one-off. I have no idea why more clubs haven't taken the Swans' approach. Our drafting this year showed you can retain high picks AND recruit experienced players.

In contrast there is a bunch of kids running around for Richmond who will be lucky to win a game this year and the media already suggesting they stop playing the few experienced players they have and with it probably any hope of them being competitive. The journos who will rightly praise the Swans for giving chances to McGlynn, Kennedy, Seaby, Mumford etc should also start questioning why they aren't playing at a club like Richmond.

Couldn't agree more hammo.

I just do not understand why a club such as Richmond (or even Melbourne and North Melbourne) have not been more open to using later picks to egineer deals to get experienced players to the club to help out the youngsters and to remain competitive. It is one of the reasons why I think someone like Richmond loses so many promising kids and never gets the best out of them as they are constantly being pounded into submission in games and the kids get dis-heartened.

One reason is probably that players from other clubs do not want to go there and it shows what we have been able to build as a club that players want to move to Sydney for better opportunities and feel like they will be given every chance to succeed at the club.

DST

[liz]

Couldn't agree more hammo.

I just do not understand why a club such as Richmond (or even Melbourne and North Melbourne) have not been more open to using later picks to egineer deals to get experienced players to the club to help out the youngsters and to remain competitive. It is one of the reasons why I think someone like Richmond loses so many promising kids and never gets the best out of them as they are constantly being pounded into submission in games and the kids get dis-heartened.

One reason is probably that players from other clubs do not want to go there and it shows what we have been able to build as a club that players want to move to Sydney for better opportunities and feel like they will be given every chance to succeed at the club.

DST

Couple of reasons, I suspect.

Firstly, the AFL system is set up to reward being abysmal if you can't be competitive. The ridiculous PP system means you are far better off winning fewer than 5 games than trying to actually be the best a club can be.

Secondly, the media frenzy on superkids makes it easy for struggling clubs to sell the rebuild story to their supporters. No-one in the media wants to point out that Richmond and Freo have essentially been rebuilding for the last decade.

That said, both the examples about (Richmond and Freo) have recruited some experienced players in recent years (like McMahon, Cousins, Solomon, Tarrant, Bradley) but they haven't had the impact that other players have had at the Swans, Saints etc. When Roos recruits a recycled player, it seems he has a specific role in mind for them and integrates them into the team to support this, rather than just going after experienced players to bolster the overall squad. This is probably easier to achieve when you already have a relatively strong, balanced team than when you find yourself in the position that Richmond and the Dees are currently in. If you look at the examples of Richmond and Freo players I gave above, a few of them are quality players and have performed well for their new sides but still haven't made a huge difference to the performance of their new teams.

I strongly think the AFL needs to truly incentivise clubs to be the best they possibly can be each and every year. This probably means complete abolition of PPs (I would go further and decouple draft completely from ladder finish) and making it easier to recruit experienced players. Maybe short term salary cap extensions can be given to clubs that really do need a boost, while free agency will help the movement of players in future years (though I think this could be done by a smarter trade system than by free agency, per se).

[BigD]

Had to wait until I got home from work to watch the tape, but it was worth the wait. Great Win. 1st quarter was atrocious from both sides. Swans really sealed the deal in the 2nd and just kept them at bay after half time rather than put them to the sword. I was on tenterhooks right through the 2nd half waiting for the Crows to come back but they just couldn't find enough to do it. McGlynn was brilliant. Seaby & Mumford look to be a strong ruck combo(who needs Jolly). Jetta looks like he could be a superstar of the future. Hanneberry looked good in his first game for the year. All in all a great team performance.

[Captain]

How good was Jude's effort with 2min left! That surely is another gret sign of things to come.

[Primmy]

I have watched a bit of the replay and I would like to note a great big Whoo Hoo to Hanners. His hands were fantastic. The absolute concentration on the contest, speed of extrication of the ball and delivery to effect is incredible for a kid of his experience, but even more so was his judgement. He would wait for the opp player to take a bouncing ball and then pounce a tackle causing either a ball up or turnover.

I don't want to pump up his tires too much, but I also loved the fact that he looked so disappointed his kicking for goal was off. Watch out for next week. I predict a great deal of goal kicking practice to take place.

[Nico]

Just on the rebuilding thing. I think the other big plus for us is that we have recruited to beat the 2 compromised drafts coming up. The talk on the radio about this is almost paranoia as to how clubs are going to suffer and cope. We have depth and experience on our side plus a good group of young players coming through. I would expect we will delist our compulsory 3 this year and that's about all. May not even go for the trades but that would be against our grain.

[hot potato]

Andrew Faulkner, who covered the game for THE AUSTRALIAN began his piece "Sydney's motley band of blue-collar journeymen and rejects yesterday punched a hole in Adelaide's bold pre-season ambitions."

Well THE REJECTS will do me this year and for quite a few more....

cheers

HP

[goswannies]

Crows supporters were as ferral as ever! In the first quarter they were generally slagging our boys off. Second quarter the umps copped it. Just before half time and during the third quarter they started to abuse their own (with some of the foulest language I've heard in a while). In the last quarter they were either leaving to avoid traffic or abusing Neil Craig or saying nothing at all.

[707]

Joy of joys, beating the, no .... whipping the Crows at home, bloody fantastic to be there. Enjoyed the fact that we played so well and scored so often that the normal foaming at the mouth Crows crowd was kept quiet. A very satisfying trip home.

A few observations

Egg on the face of many posters here (including me re Seaby) for suggesting Seaby, McGlynn and Kennedy were poor recruitment. Hats off to the recruiting staff for identifying these guys and getting them on the cheap.

Our ruck combo of Seaby and Mumford is superior to last year and because there is two of them, shouldn't tire either during matches or as he season progresses.

McGlynn had a blinder and may never kick five again but he gives 100%, 100% of the time and that is the Swans style. He really is infectious and if playing offensively will be a hard match up.

Kennedy is another good pick up with his best still to come. The big bodied inside midfielder that we needed going forward.

Hanneberry was fantastic, how good will he be when he matures?

Two more "new recruits" in Tadgh and Eski provide so much run, depth and flexibility. I'm worried Shaw is now being less influencial, time for a rethink here as to role?

Just watching the match ups against the Crows, Sydney got them correct all day, probably because of the depth and versatility of our squad. We won the coaching battle.

Disposal quality still needs to lift, we were better than the Crows but a top side would make us pay.

Forward structure not really working but lets give Bradshaw and White time to settle. Bradshaw did some clever things, he'll be a big plus as the year progresses.

Jetta will be a star, coming along very nicely, just needs to back himself more and wait to have that first bounce!

Depth will prove invaluable as the year progresses, it just might frustrate those players stranded in the twos.

We're in for a fun ride in 2010.

[johnno]

Unfortunately, didnt get to see the game as i had a big easter lunch to attend(for those who dont know, I'm of Greek background, and our easter fell the same as the Catholic easter this year and I had to have easter lunch with all the relatives), I did however take the transistor radio with me with the ear plugs and listened to it on SEN, much to the annoyment of my aunts and uncles. I had to tell them, "you dont understand, its the swans playing!!!, they're bigger than Jesus!!!!" They still wern't impressed.

Anyway, as I have said in an earlier post somewhere, this game is/was very important in terms of the players belief. If they could get over this hoodoo, early in the season, it will fill the playing group with enormous confidence and they will now go on any win many more games.

From what I heard on the radio, the 2nd quarter was phenominal, ROK and Hanners sounded like they were everywhere and the SEN boys just couldnt say enough about the Ruck combo of Seaby and Mumford.

Anyway thats all I have to say, I'm off to the TAB now to stick $20 on the swans to finish top 4 and another $20 on ROK for the Brownlow.

HooRoo.

[AnnieH]

Unexpected by whom?????????

Not by me!!
I fully expected them to win.