Pies VS Swans Game Thread - The time for talk is over

[hot potato]

Making the yearly effort to see a photocopy of many games past against the Pies was deflating. Why are they in front all friggin night, first to most of the one on ones, you could tell in first 10 mins Swans were gone, gone , gone.... These Pies are well drilled, ferocious at the ball, always leading into space. Swans play reactive against them.
Roos may well chuckle on the boundary, he doesn't have to watch this again, we seem to play like we have no belief now in beating them.

hp

[Beaussie]

Playing at this inferior venue does us no favours. The crowds are dwindling, so the whole "blockbuster" theory is out the window. Why not give us a home chance by playing at the SCG instead of the concrete jungle with long grass.

Crowds are dwindling because we are @@@@e when we play the Pies and everyone knows it. How can we ever expect to win the big games in the finals if we play all our home games on the toy ground SCG????

[Xie Shan]

Back from the game, we're clearly not at Collingwood's level yet but our skills/delivery and decision-making were awful tonight - it must be a mental thing when faced by the Collingwood pressure - surely our players haven't been THAT badly scarred by all the losses against them? One thing I noticed about the Collingwood players is that they never give up the chase - when we started to turn the ball over under pressure, they knew that if they chased hard enough they would get it back off us soon enough, so of course they were encouraged to keep chasing! (Yes, we were THAT bad)

Defenders were exposed, particularly LRT, but they were constantly under pressure so they are partly excused. it was in the middle that we were smashed.

[Lucky Knickers]

Can everyone please calm down. We are not top 4 this year nor have we ever really done anything to think we are. We got beaten by a far superior side.
Let's not call for razor blades, the bottle of gin and the hot bath just yet.
Rather, let's take a deep breath and remember where we were at the start of the season and where we are now.
Last year everyone screamed for the debutantes and now you've got them you aren't happy that they have got us to 6th on the ladder?

[rojo]

After thinking about the disappointing performance tonight I reckon we are expecting too much of our team.

We have a bunch of senior players who are expected to carry the team and sometimes are getting found out. I agree with Melbournehammer, that the plan to turn Goodes into a key forward was a crazy one. But who else? Collingwood have Dawes and Cloke with Anthony and Rusling in the wings, all young players finding their feet. Who does Sydney have apart from Jesse? LJ and he hasn't played one senior game yet. Bradshaw dropped into Sydney's lap - he wasn't part of any plan so presumably the forward line tonight was the plan for this year.
Our middle tier of players is very thin and none of them are world beaters. Then there is Malceski, McVeigh and McGlynn and a group of promising and exciting young players.

Sure, the kick-ins tonight were pathetic and several players were out positioned, outplayed, outsmarted etc. and seemed to lack desperation (thank goodness for McGlynn!). If we continue to beat the teams below us this year I reckon we should be happy!

[hammo]

An absolute @@@@ing disgrace.

We couldn't hit targets to save our lives, no movement or desperation whatsoever, handballing to feet, an inferior midfield, poor coaching.

Hopefully that is Bevan's last seniors game. A shocking footballer. LRT only gets games because there is no ready replacement. He's a fraud. Can dominate ordinary defenders but against good teams he's slow. Getting toweled up by Jolly FFS!

Goodes is a flat track bully. So inconsistent.

White is starting to look like he'll never be a decent footballer. TDL must come in - White can't keep getting easy games without contributing, Likewise Jetta.

Currie for Pyke please ASAP.

And Vesz has to get a game in front of half those jokers tonight. Is Rhys Shaw any chance of hitting a target? I don't have much time for him.

[Xie Shan]

Can everyone please calm down. We are not top 4 this year nor have we ever really done anything to think we are. We got beaten by a far superior side.
Let's not call for razor blades, the bottle of gin and the hot bath just yet.

I know, and I was pretty calm after the game tonight - I'm more disappointed in the way we were beaten because it's not the way we want to play. I know Collingwood are a much better side than us right now, but we only made their job easier really.

[msb]

Not making excuses, but surely it would of made a difference with bradshaw, c bolton, kennelly, moore and seaby in? I am very glad I switched off when coll got to 5 goals up in the 2nd qtr, as others have said, same old style, game etc against this mob, cant stand to watch it. Next year I rekon there will be just pie supporters only at the game! And to think I actually considered flying up for this game!

[mcs]

I like others on here am not so disappointed in not winning, but in the way we lost. We had no run all night, slow to the ball all night, failed to mark up all night, poor at hitting targets all night, dreadful kick in's all night. The kick-ins were unbelievable- it was clear after the first couple that we were not going to get results by kicking it long to a contest, so what do we do- keep doing it all bludy night! How about trying something different boys. We have enough players that will run the ball that we can run it after a short pass or two, but oh no we just had to all night long kick it long and hope.

Biggest disappointment to me was that we were 2nd to the ball all night, and 2nd by a long way most of the time.
I don't know how many times I yelled out in sheer frustration as Collingwood found an easy clearance and then had 3 or 4 players clear with no Swans in sight. A lazy effort I thought, and while its clear that Collingwood is a class above us currently, the performance was poor. We frankly deserved to be spanked by 10-15 goals really.


I thought several of our guys tried really hard, but we were far more beaten than the score line suggests. There are some players however that simply should be dropped- Bevan is one that I'd be happy to see join Barlow as marked never again. He's a great tackle but his decision making is so poor and his disposal not much better.

Jetta is really struggling and while he made a couple of great runs and efforts at goal, he is not contributing much at all. Jesse has all the potential in the world imo, but he and Goodes are not working well at all up front together, and when he looks bad, he is awful as he was tonight. Pyke is doing fine as a second ruckman, but he is so incredibly clueless around the rest of hte ground that we can't afford to carry him any longer. Surely Currie can provide just as servicable backup for Mummy and at least contribute a bit around the ground. Vez should surely come back into the team as well imo.

TDL was fantastic in the 2nd's game I thought, and I'd love to see him in the team next week, probably at the expense of Bevan or Jetta.

I'm fed up with watching us get murdered by that filthy dirty scum. Maybe it will soon develop into the "Premiership match'- i.e. the next time we beat them will be the next time we win a flag. Lets hope we don't have to wait 72 years from 2005 for that to happen.

I know LRT had a shocker, but the back line generally were under an awful lot of pressure all night as our midfield got absolutely hammered and none of the defenders really did a lot. I was frustrated however by the amount of times that almost all our defenders were found 2 or 3 yards behind their direct opponent.

[ShockOfHair]

In the context of where the teams are at the result was no surprise, but the groundhog day feeling is still disappointing.

On the plus side:
- We fought a draw in the second half.
- McGlynn's efforts were sensational. I wish every player played with his passion and also his footskills.
- Malceski - equal highest number of disposals for Swans with 92% efficiency. He's not the best one-on-one defender, but if we'd had a forward to kick to he would've found him.


On the downside:
- Midfield: we matched the Pies on contested possession 143-145 and won the clearances 38-34, but lost the inside-50s 63-44, which says it all
- I don't know the inside-50 marks count but must have been about 20-8. White was MIA again, Goodes out of form. He's our best player. We're not going to be beat top sides with him making elementary mistakes.
- Bevan: to be fair, he set up a couple of goals with good kicks along the boundary but also made several critical turnovers. Time for Vez or TDL to step up?
-We were out-talled up back. Before the game we were wondering how Jolly would match up on Mumford-Pyke. The answer was we were too short in the backline. Mattner was on Brown for at least half a quarter. Mumford plays like a midfielder but isn?t the kind of player (like Seaby and Jolly) who?ll go forward and kick a goal or two.
- Pyke's limitations were evident. He was good in the ruck, not a great deal elsewhere.
- Was disappointed by Bird v Heath Shaw in the first half. Shaw ran riot and really helped set up the win. Not sure what Bird's instructions were but Shaw found a lot of space.
- Our kick-ins were tragic, especially in contrast to the Pies. Several times O'Brien just carried the ball out. As we all saw, we just bombed to a contest.

[DeadlyAkkuret]

Jude Bolton lmao. Should have retired 1-2 years ago. Missed two sodas. Living off Delta's name.

Wow spot the troll

[Damien]

Disgraceful night. The losing isn't what has upset me (not that it helps), it was just how soft we were (especially at the ball, no attack whatsoever). Melbourne showed what pressure and attack on the ball can do to the Collingwood setup, but we played like scared little kids tonight. Most angry I've been at a Swans performance for a while.

Oh and Swans, forget the additional couple of thousand people (and I mean that literally), get us back to the SCG where we can actually feel like it's a Swans home game.

[Bloody Hell]

Defenders were exposed, particularly LRT, but they were constantly under pressure so they are partly excused. it was in the middle that we were smashed.

LRT didn't have a great game, but he was constantly under siege.

Reid or Pyke is the only likely replacement. Both are a long way off.

Speaking of Pyke - I can't see the Swans being contenders relying on him in the ruck. It looks like he started too late, but his size and athleticism makes him competetive.

[SCGonasunnyday]

Thoughts:

1. McGlynn provided for me the only highlights of the game, his goals, his setting up of goals and attack on the ball was great.

2. It pains me to say because I am such a fan of Jetta but he cost us last night - not just the missed goals but the missed opportunities when we had a fast break (to be fair some of which were his doing) following which his disposal would result in a turnover or stoppage. The worst was I think the second behind where he had a snap for goal and Rohan was alone in the goal square 20metres away. Silly to say when Collingwood were so much better, but he could have scored/assisted the scoring of 5 goals last night which may have won us the game. Will be a star for us, and I look forward to him winning games for us off his own boot.

Other than this it was all pretty ho hum. With Collingwood's kicking for goal we had a great chance to win if we had played to our abilities.

[Dogzbody]

McGlynn, Kirk and Rohan were the only players I saw going in hard (and a couple of desperate, but late, efforts by Mal). Problem...

Exactly my assessment!