Rd 17 Sydney v Melbourne Game Thread

[wolftone57]

Jetta will bulk up & learn to tackle. We are in for a smashing for the next 2 weeks. The Cats will maul us and the Hawks will destroy us. I don't think the Cats are in as good form as earlier in the season but the Hawks are in awsome touch. The Bullies are hit & miss but you can't rely on them being on holliday when we play them. Lions the only side we have a hope to beat. WE DON"T HAVE THE CATTLE!!!

[ScottH]

I left at 3/4 time. Which I NEVER do.
Almost left at 1/2 time.

Nothing to cheer for or smile about.
Was an appalling afternoon.

Roos worst loss as coach (73), previous was 72 against PA.
6 time under roos we've lost by more than 50.

ROK is slow and dismal. Maybe trading him a few years ago would have been better.
McV was slower and dismaler.
Our style of play was slowerer and dismalerer.

There was very little method in what attack we could muster.
WTF was with the cross the ground stuff. Show some desperation, move it on quickly. (see above)
Hanners, Eski, Jack, Goodes, Irish, Mummy and McG, were about the only ones that seemed to try.
The rest were appalling.

Jetta has to start looking where is handballs are going. Missed ta close target badly at least 3 times.
Was gifted his first goal and blew it.

Ted is slower than Big Ted. Looked even slower than last week, if that's possible.
I reckon he had close to 10 goals kicked on him today by his various opponents.
I said during the first qtr, if Ted stays on Green we'll lose by 100, at least I got that wrong, but he kept losing his opponent.

All due respect to Melbourne.
Hard, faster, more desperate, and more skillful.
At least they made the day entertaining.

Oh, and I made it home before the final siren.
At least, we Melbournites will not have to suffer another game in Melbourne this year.

Bye Roos and Kirk, Thanks for the good times.
It was good while it lasted.

[Melbournehammer]

been smashed ups screwed us in the first quarter but just no where near it

Richards, bevan and pyke not up to standard. Get kirk out of centre bounces, like last week v carlton.

Goodes, mcglynn jetta and hannenberry can hold their heads up probably about it

fwiw i actually think bevan will b e named amongst our best.

[goswannies]

tadgh is not even a shadow of the player that he was in 2005

A bit harsh considering he is 5 years older! Most players aren't as good as they were 5 years ago. In fact, a fair number of them are retired. I'm sure someone will name a dozen or so who are better than 5 years ago, to which I'll in advance say that for every one of those there can be 5 named who are either de-listed or retired who must be worse). Hope that avoids any responses .

pyke is completely lost near his own goal

At least he kicked a goal. And he wasn't recruited as a key forward, he's a work-in-progress ruckman. From what I understand, in the 2's he spent a fair bit of his game down back.

[swansrule100]

A bit harsh considering he is 5 years older! Most players aren't as good as they were 5 years ago. In fact, a fair number of them are retired. I'm sure someone will name a dozen or so who are better than 5 years ago, to which I'll in advance say that for every one of those there can be 5 named who are either de-listed or retired who must be worse). Hope that avoids any responses .



At least he kicked a goal. And he wasn't recruited as a key forward, he's a work-in-progress ruckman. From what I understand, in the 2's he spent a fair bit of his game down back.

geez pyke gets cut a lot of slack becayse he is not a footballer, why dont we just recruit 22 canadians to play then we can accept any performance. He was exposed a lot today

[BSA5]

fwiw i actually think bevan will b e named amongst our best.

He will be, and justifiably. He was very solid in defence.

People are jumping on Kennelly, and more specifically, the decision for him to return. While he was quite horrible today (despite trying hard), I think people are forgetting that he has actually been pretty damn good this year, and we'd have been a much poorer team this year overall without him.

[Legs Akimbo]

It was really nice to see Jim Stynes relaxing and just soaking up the success of his team on a great day for Dees supporters. Positively glowing and whilst I still feel sick in the guts, at least this somehow makes it better.

The Dees have some amazing talent on their list. I actually reckon Watts is going to be very good once he gets it together. I also reckon Bailey is a great coach (and a good guy).

The image of a sarcastic Roos smirking on the boundary really irked me, and not for the first time. Maybe he gave Schnieder and Dempster to Ross Lyon as a thank you for the premiership because I am starting to wonder.

Whether Roos admits it or not, there is a recipe to beating his game style for teams that are good enough. It involves playing on and fast ball movement, a midfield press and using the corridor.

Time to move on.

[Melbournehammer]

A bit harsh considering he is 5 years older! Most players aren't as good as they were 5 years ago. In fact, a fair number of them are retired. I'm sure someone will name a dozen or so who are better than 5 years ago, to which I'll in advance say that for every one of those there can be 5 named who are either de-listed or retired who must be worse). Hope that avoids any responses .



At least he kicked a goal. And he wasn't recruited as a key forward, he's a work-in-progress ruckman. From what I understand, in the 2's he spent a fair bit of his game down back.

I guess so that we are clear - tadgh was a decent player five years ago - perhaps in our best 5 - he is now not even really capable of playing at afl level - and i guess for russell and other explorers the point i was trying to make is that he simply isn't good enough at the moment - and unless he gets some pace he ain't worth playing

and pyke doesn't know how to defend nor lead. just depressing

[liz]

Oh and forgot to add Kennelly returning has gone from a 50/50 call to imo an unmitigated disaster. He has lost at least 3 or 4 yards of pace, his disposal is poor and he offers very little defensively. He either should play on the wing, or simply not be picked at all. I've always loved watching him, but he is a shadow of his former self.

tadgh is not even a shadow of the player that he was in 2005, jack was lost

I realise games can look very different on TV to live, but on workrate and almost on effectiveness (Goodes might just pip him but was a little quiet in the middle of the game) I would have Jack as our best. I thought he was playing on Davey, who had touches but certainly was the reason we were carved up, plus he had numerous inside 50s, and chased, tackled and harrassed about as well as any Swan out there today.

On Kennelly, I agree he had a shocker today (though he was marginally better in the second half) but he has been close to our best for the previous two weeks. He is not, at the moment, the player he once was but is far from an "unmitigated disaster".

Overall, the defence was all over the shop but the way the ball came in so relentlessly, it was almost impossible to stop. The major reason why the game was such a shambles for Sydney was because the older, slower midfield brigade of Bolton, Kirk, McVeigh and O'Keefe were completely unable to have any impact on the contest. Also Mumford was beaten decisively for possibly the first time this season. I am in the camp that thinks a huge amount of the credit has to go to Melbourne. Right across their team they were on song with disposal quality, willingness to run, and tackle pressure. Even their scrubby and speculative kicks were hitting a team mate lace out. Sure, we should have put on far more pressure but in that mood, the Demons would have troubled every single team in the competition, and trounced all but the top handful.

Given it is much harder for the better players on the day to be truly effective when the team as a whole is going so poorly, I'd give pass marks to (not necessarily in order) Goodes, Hanners, Jack, White, Bevan, Malceski, McGlynn, Kennedy and Shaw. That might sound like a lot given how poor the team was, but I thought all these players at least had a real dip. Jetta slowed a few glimpses but not for long enough to really have been a decent player.

[sWAns63]

He should retire

[swansrule100]

The 22 we picked today doesnt provide us with a lot of options down back. We are missing lrt and bolts obviously, but given the best case bolton might be able to squeeze another year out of himself, we need to look ahead anyway.

Maybe we needed to look at a better balance down there today even if we did chuck one or 2 young guys in, couldnt do any worse. Once the demons were killing us what were the options down there? not much the backline is basically grundy and some running half backs with ted and bevan helping out, theres nothing much to work with even in terms of build and strength.

We have too many of the same old types out there, the biggest example to me is the backline, we end up asking kennelly to play as a key defender for a start and he simply is not able to perform that role, seems we shoot ourselves in the foot at the selection table

i dont know im angry and need a drink

[Swans500]

"The image of a sarcastic Roos smirking on the boundary really irked me, and not for the first time"

Me too.....

[goswannies]

geez pyke gets cut a lot of slack becayse he is not a footballer, why dont we just recruit 22 canadians to play then we can accept any performance. He was exposed a lot today

Was he our worst? And we only need to recruit 21 as we already have Mike

[swansrule100]

"The image of a sarcastic Roos smirking on the boundary really irked me, and not for the first time"

Me too.....

personally unless we cross to him and hes playing sudoku or something who cares how he looks, cant expect him to sit there crying, must feel helpless coaching a match like today

[goswannies]

I guess so that we are clear - tadgh was a decent player five years ago - perhaps in our best 5 - he is now not even really capable of playing at afl level

At least he delivers the ball better than Mattner and doesn't get corralled onto his left side everytime he gets it. And he wasn't our worst player. But I do appreciate that you said "at the moment".