Swans vs Dogs: In-game hobnob (aka the game day thread)

[Hartijon]

Good point,Its amazing to see him get free kicks.At the swans the opposition could put a saddle on him,ride him into the ground,hit his head ,back, arms in every contest and no free.One touch from Barry however and it was a free plus 50 .
Why?

[CureTheSane]

Lets all not hit the PANIC BUTTON YET.

2 weeks ago many on here were wondering how much we will win a Grand Final by.

We simply must beat Freo this week, Im confident we can turn it around.
Positives :
Not many yesterday, we were so poor.
Jude and Jarred McVeigh,thats about it.
Daniel Currie, TDL and Vespa must be closer
We had a heap of Quality out.

Negatives
Mike Pyke , hopefully 1 more week . Then on ya bike
Henry Playfair
Jesse White
Rhino WTF??
Lewis Jetta : needs a spell now
So it was another bad day in the office, showed up by quality opposition 2 weeks running.
Freo are a good side and we must beat them at the SCG or then we can begin to worry where we are at.
Cmon Bloods !!

Mr Fansy Pants with teh blue text....

[aardvark]

very appropriate, now the black mood is passing we are all feeling a bit blue!!

[Swans500]

Good point,Its amazing to see him get free kicks.At the swans the opposition could put a saddle on him,ride him into the ground,hit his head ,back, arms in every contest and no free.One touch from Barry however and it was a free plus 50 .
Why?

As some one said in the game thread yesterday...it is pretty clear it was the colours he wore for those years...gotta be some old worlde Sydney/Melbourne thing, cannot think of any other reason for the abrupt turnaround with BBB. Gotta say though, as dejected and one eyed as I am, I was kinda pleased to see him get a fair go in his twilight years!....strange feeling....

[BSA5]

Either he is nursing his knee still & not telling anyone. Or he is overtaking Luke Ablett in terms of being a soft ball receiver & little more. I noticed at close range against North & especially against the Cats how often he'd just half heartedly through one arm out to try and mark the footy. Never goes in & gets the hard ball at all. Maybe he feels with his slight frame that he will get creamed and thus be less effective for what he is good at, getting the ball out of defence quickly from half back.

Not the player I was so excited about a couple of seasons ago. And that greatly disappoints me.

JF

Missed this. Ridiculous statement for two reasons. Firstly, Malceski is averaging 7 contested possessions a game, which for a bloke playing his role is very good (it's the same as Brett Kirk, too). Secondly, and far more ridiculously, Luke Ablett a soft ball receiver? Really? Ablett was the complete opposite. He was in the team purely for his ability to win contested ball, get it moving forward, throw his body into the pack. Christ, nobody in their right mind would EVER play Ablett as a ball receiver with his skills.

[Jesse Richards]

That's what I'm thinking. He got another whallop last week too; he might be a bit more concussed than they think.

I think so, too.

[Jesse Richards]

I thought Moore was poor today.

That's odd, Scott. Thought he did better today than most of the boys.

[hammo]

Just got back from Canberra. Waste of a trip, @@@@ty ground to watch footy at and an even worse performance from the Swans. Won't even bother detailed comments they more or less my pre-match predictions of a flogging. For anyone still in any doubt, Playfair is slow, slow and a complete hack. Why he was given a run over others more worthy is beyond me. He also just picked up from where he left off with the stop-start game plan and no instinct at all to remotely move the ball quickly.

If they knew Bradshaw was going to miss, we needed a plan B which had to involve White or Goodes playing deeper forward. White to ruck may be good in theory to play him into some form, but he has gone backwards this year and it's no point being versatile if you can't hold down a permanent position somewhere and do it well (think Turnover Ted).

[Dogzbody]

I live in Canberra........ and agree Manuka is a terrible place to watch footy! For goodness sake, if they are going to pursue with this venture into Canberra....can somebody please spend some money on upgrading the facility! We've been watching footy there for years and they haven't spent a cent! Standing bleachers in the GA area....for goodness sake build a grandstand. Maybe GWS will warrant that...which is a joke in itself. Either bin Manuka as a venue or make it fit for AFL footy.

Just while I've got my crank on....the surface was rubbish also....players were falling over all over the place. Being a Canberran.....frost makes the subsurface wet, don't water it just because it might be slightly greener! (its frickin -2 degrees here overnight at the moment) You'd be better with yellow grass and a firm surface!!!!

Amateur horticulturalist out!!!

[Nich]

Just back from game. My two cents...

Positives:
McVeigh - excellent game, clean, skillful player
Goodes - tried hard, wish we had a few more of him
Jude - presented well, one of our better players

Negatives
Playfair - is a hack, wasn't even a target
Jetta - needs a run in the 2's
Roahn - long way to go, very raw
Pyke - just not a footballer
Roos - poor coaching day

Playfair - watching at the ground was an embarrassment! I don't have the words.
Jetta - just don't know what to think. As others have suggested I'm not sure we've found the right position for him an/or he's not seasoned enough to play in a posi Roos may want him too in the future.
Rohan - Starts at FF. I was sitting at that end. He presented well but the players did not go to him. They were always going to try and hit Bevo and Jude to begin with. The kid in his 2nd game, and his 2nd against top opposition ended up playing in FF, HF, Mid and HB. I don't know if Roosy wants to mix it up and see how he goes or what? He also seemed to cop a ankle injury down in my pocket in the 3rd qtr and kept putting in. I've got to say I would have him in the team right now above Jetta anyday. Give him time. He puts in effort and I think he'll get there. Needs to get stronger and get experience. He'll be good.

[bigswan]

I'm surprised that no one's blaming Barlow for the loss. The comments on Malceski and Luke Ablett are outrageous. When the side gets a few players back in the next couple of weeks we'll do much better. Look what Geelong did to Brisbane. At 3/4 time we could have been beaten by 70points and it ended up only 38. Face reality!

[aardvark]

I'm surprised that no one's blaming Barlow for the loss. The comments on Malceski and Luke Ablett are outrageous. When the side gets a few players back in the next couple of weeks we'll do much better. Look what Geelong did to Brisbane. At 3/4 time we could have been beaten by 70points and it ended up only 38. Face reality!

Barlow was a better contributor this week than last week

[Bas]

I live in Canberra........ and agree Manuka is a terrible place to watch footy! For goodness sake, if they are going to pursue with this venture into Canberra....can somebody please spend some money on upgrading the facility! We've been watching footy there for years and they haven't spent a cent! Standing bleachers in the GA area....for goodness sake build a grandstand. Maybe GWS will warrant that...which is a joke in itself. Either bin Manuka as a venue or make it fit for AFL footy.

Just while I've got my crank on....the surface was rubbish also....players were falling over all over the place. Being a Canberran.....frost makes the subsurface wet, don't water it just because it might be slightly greener! (its frickin -2 degrees here overnight at the moment) You'd be better with yellow grass and a firm surface!!!!

Amateur horticulturalist out!!!

You've obviously never been to Leichhardt Oval to watch the rugby league. It's been over 10 years since I was last there so they may have painted the toilets.

If the Swans had won, it would have been all good. I'm glad I didn't go down now.

[ROK Lobster]

I live in Canberra........ and agree Manuka is a terrible place to watch footy! For goodness sake, if they are going to pursue with this venture into Canberra....can somebody please spend some money on upgrading the facility! We've been watching footy there for years and they haven't spent a cent! Standing bleachers in the GA area....for goodness sake build a grandstand. Maybe GWS will warrant that...which is a joke in itself. Either bin Manuka as a venue or make it fit for AFL footy.

Just while I've got my crank on....the surface was rubbish also....players were falling over all over the place. Being a Canberran.....frost makes the subsurface wet, don't water it just because it might be slightly greener! (its frickin -2 degrees here overnight at the moment) You'd be better with yellow grass and a firm surface!!!!

Amateur horticulturalist out!!!

Manuka's day are numbered as a footy venue I think. I understand that he ACT gov is pumping heaps of cash into the ground Phillip. As for the grass, it is the type of grass that makes the surface slippery. Yellow (ie dormant) grass is ok for a week or two. A bit of traffic on it however and it all goes away...

[SwansFan1972]

No tears will be shed over Manuka being consigned to the dumpster.

Haven't been there since we unwittingly bought 'ringside' tickets right on the fence around 3-4 years ago to discover we had a security guard sitting on a full height chair directly in front of us. He was right in the line of sight of the centre of the ground and was of a build that pretty much obscured the entire centre square! He was also slated to sit there all match, no movement to spread the misery, unfortunately for us. The AFL controlling official on the day basically told us to rack off - "he had 15000 people to care about" and told me to write to the AFL.

We did, and were told it would be looked into (along with free tickets to the MCG next time we went to Melbourne). Yesterday's broadcast showed they still have security seated in exactly the same way - so I'm pretty happy I've never bothered to go back there.