Tough May and June ahead

[top40]

In light of the Swan's recent great form and without sounding like a wet blanket, the 8 games that Sydney are drawn to play in Rounds 6 to 13 inclusive, are all bar one, quite difficult.

There are home games against:
Brisbane
Fremantle
Essendon
Collingwood

The Bombers game would be the only game where the Swans are comfortably favourite, (although they did win at the SCG last year).

Then there are the Away games, against:
Geelong
Western Bulldogs
Hawthorn
Port Adelaide.

Sydney would start underdogs for all four games, particularly the first two.

My assessment is that assuming the Swans beat West Coast at the SCG are are [4 and 1] after Round 5, to win half of the above games, and be [8 and 5] after Round 13 would be a mighty effort, setting us up to a return to September action. (Bearing in might that Richmond, North, and Melbourne represent 3 of the next 4 games in Rounds 14-17 inclusive)

[ScottH]

What happened to "one week at a time" Top40???

Nice assessment, I hope you are close at 8-5 is the worst result we achieve.

[cruiser]

Bring it on I say. Rounds 2 to 5 are like appetiser. Main course starts with the Brisbane game. It's winning those potentially difficult games that makes going to the footy so enjoyable.

[top40]

What happened to "one week at a time" Top40???

Nice assessment, I hope you are close at 8-5 is the worst result we achieve.

As far as I am concerned, "One week at a time" is just a AFL TV show on the Ten Network.

[top40]

Love your enthusiasm Cruiser.

Me? In relation Collingwood, I am so sick and tired in the past 5 years of going to those Homebush games, feeling like "this is the one" or "we're due" etc, only to be let down. Malthouse as a game day coach has the wood of Roosey. Besides, the Pies always lift for big home and away games. Alas, there may be one, (or even five counting my whole family), empty seats at ANZ on 26th June 2010. As I stated above, I'm a bit of wet blanket.

[Go Swannies]

Love your enthusiasm Cruiser.

Me? In relation Collingwood, I am so sick and tired in the past 5 years of going to those Homebush games, feeling like "this is the one" or "we're due" etc, only to be let down. Malthouse as a game day coach has the wood of Roosey. Besides, the Pies always lift for big home and away games. Alas, there may be one, (or even five counting my whole family), empty seats at ANZ on 26th June 2010. As I stated above, I'm a bit of wet blanket.

Of course you know that means we'll be cheering the Swans on to an emphatic win while you're sitting at home thinking "why was this the game i decided to miss - rather than all those earlier crap games against the Pies?"

We can't lose here. We're already ahead of predictions. Pure joy would be getting some big scalps and setting ourselves up for finals as the team improves (and there's room for it - but they haven't been playing together long). Or we just defeat the easybeats at home and maybe scrape into the 8 but get ready for a big year next year.

From your list, this is my optimistic judgement.

There are home games against:
Brisbane - a challenge but Braddy to fire against his old team and B2. Win
Fremantle - stifle their run and rebound hard. Win at home
Essendon - percentage boost (like two games so far today)
Collingwood - finally we have enough new talent to win when Churchill goes in with his always-winning gameplan. Win

The Bombers game would be the only game where the Swans are comfortably favourite, (although they did win at the SCG last year).

Then there are the Away games, against:
Geelong - In the game till 3/4. Anything could happen in the last. They won closely last time, we have more talent now and win this time.
Western Bulldogs - Swans rise up to smite Baz. They get no clear possessions and we rebound hard. Jetta runs the length of the ground for the winning goal.
Hawthorn - we extend the Hawks misery. Win
Port Adelaide. - ditto Port. Win

That'd be alright. Now I just have to go check my medication.

[liz]

Definitely needs to be one game at a time. Good start to the season thus far but a) we have next to no injuries to speak of and b) the teams we have beaten have collectively won just one game between them.

But before I sound too much like a wet blanket, it is finding out how we stack up against the better teams that makes this season exciting. Bring it on!

[teddys mum]

Win 6 from the next 9, we are real contenders - 5 from the next 9, we are competitive but no real threat - 4 from the next 9, we are pretenders

We won't beat Geelong or Collingwood, but Bulldogs at Manuka is better than at Melbourne, and if the footy gods are on our side against Hawks then who knows. The Dockers will be the litmus test for us I reckon.

[Midfield]

Definitely needs to be one game at a time. Good start to the season thus far but a) we have next to no injuries to speak of and b) the teams we have beaten have collectively won just one game between them.

But before I sound too much like a wet blanket, it is finding out how we stack up against the better teams that makes this season exciting. Bring it on!

We can only beat who we come up against, but i hope the team realise we have only defeated 16th, 15th and 14th.

[Peace]

you guys are funny, we are going to win them all.

[Peace]

We can only beat who we come up against, but i hope the team realise we have only defeated 16th, 15th and 14th.

we have beaten those three teams by at least 40 points.... thats not exactly scraping by. Considering collingwood only just beat melbourne by a point.

[Cheer Squad]

Love your enthusiasm Cruiser.

Me? In relation Collingwood, I am so sick and tired in the past 5 years of going to those Homebush games, feeling like "this is the one" or "we're due" etc, only to be let down. Malthouse as a game day coach has the wood of Roosey. Besides, the Pies always lift for big home and away games. Alas, there may be one, (or even five counting my whole family), empty seats at ANZ on 26th June 2010. As I stated above, I'm a bit of wet blanket.

I reckon we're in with a real show to beat Collingwood this year, simply because of all the personnel changes, and changes to our game plan. It helped get the Crows monkey off our backs, it helped with beating North in Melbourne, and it will help with Collingwood too. I'll bet we beat them this time.

[swans_premiers]

Fairytale Premiership for Roos this year.

[Bas]

Throw the wet blanket into the dryer.

We have lots of players in reserves putting pressure on the firsts. That is pretty good motivation. Forget the opposition.

[SimonH]

We can only beat who we come up against, but i hope the team realise we have only defeated 16th, 15th and 14th.

Statistically, we're a very odd one at this stage of the year. Bottom 3, and top, are all we've played. And if Essendon does well and we beat up West Coast next week, we might have only played the bottom four and top! Getting within 8 points of (current) best team in the comp, albeit at home, is probably a more meaningful indicator of where we are, than the other results. Although the 2 wins on the road are notable: winning interstate against any opposition in the current AFL requires some level of discipline... and Sydney is still a bloody disciplined side.

Of course, the bottom 3 are 14th, 15th and 16th in significant part because we pummelled them, i.e. after only 4 rounds the Sydney game represents 25% of their results. That said, Richmond were always liable to be crap (and geez, aren't they?). North are (again as expected) a bunch of triers who really just lack class against the better sides. The Crows have been the surprise packet. I suspect they'll come good at some stage (while still missing the finals) and other teams may curse their luck that they didn't draw 'em while they were crap.