Rd 17 Sydney v Melbourne Game Thread

[Nico]

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

He was exposed today as someone who is completely out his depth. I can't cut him any slack. He isn't up to any AFL standard. Full marks mto him for trying but if he is part of our ruck structure of the future, heaven help us. I left at the 15 minute mark of the last quarter for the first time in 40 years, out of disgust, after he kicked the ball straight to a Melbourne player, when he had a week to find a player. Mind you Kennedy did that a few times, AGAIN.

[Nico]

He must learn to tackle.. That is where he is a liability..

I think Jetta's game is getting over rated. Sure he did a few runs but stuffed up 2 of them. If he has a bit of time he seems to be able to cooly place a kick to advanatge, but he hates going near a contest. In the third quarter he did a horrible kick to White (maybe 20 metres) but just stood there and let him try to win the ball, istead of following up to help out. Contrast the 3 Melbourne indigenous players who were fierce at the footy and repatedly went to and won contests.

[Nico]

having returned from the ground it is simply unbelievable how poor we were from the first moment. Malceski made to look amazingly slow, Moore either gets the ball or he is a liability - he is so slooooooowwwwwww, tadgh is not even a shadow of the player that he was in 2005, jack was lost, kirk is so vulnerable in modern footy due to his lack pf pace, pyke is completely lost near his own goal, o'keefe is far better than today but boy was he smashed by bruce,

we were so slow and so often second to the ball. their efforts were appalling.

unless goodes got it today no-one else did.

shaw may have turned it over but he tries and he doesn't hide - and we had a lot of players who hid today.

and the umpiring which had no impact on the game was unbelieavbly one-sided when the game was in the balance (ie for about the first ten minutes - when did the rule become it had to be an effective disposal for holding the ball ??)

it is difficult to fully express how bad we were - but the first ten minutes and in particular the first three hand passes to players stationary behind the ball were awful but to look at the team you simply wonder where they are ever going to get another win from

The first 10 minutes indeed. Now we all know that our form turned around when Goodes went on to the ball the last 2 weeks. So today he starts in the centre for the first bounce then goes forward for the first 15 minutes. In that time it is 7 goals to 1, game over. And O'Keefe played the entire game on the HFF when our midfield was getting flogged. Looked lethargic and disinterested.

[Nico]

Seemed a bit like a game of under 5's soccer today.

We'd get our hands on the ball, handpass within about a 2m radius, turn it over to see Melbourne clear it easily from the congestion and setup a quick entry to the F50.

I must admit I did get a laugh from Meredith running too far in the D50. No awareness at all.

Was he found out for pace or what, and didn't get near too many contests.

[dimelb]

He was exposed today as someone who is completely out his depth. I can't cut him any slack. He isn't up to any AFL standard. Full marks mto him for trying but if he is part of our ruck structure of the future, heaven help us. I left at the 15 minute mark of the last quarter for the first time in 40 years, out of disgust, after he kicked the ball straight to a Melbourne player, when he had a week to find a player. Mind you Kennedy did that a few times, AGAIN.

Disgraceful! And Michael Pykle and Kennedy were the only ones who did it!

[Nico]

Liz, I know you have always been a rap for Jack but fair dinkum have a look at his disposal. Today he managed to hit a couple of targets who were miles on their own with stabby little kicks, but his disposal and decision making need a lot of work. He just kicks to knowhere ala Leo Barry and his kicks are dead straight, straight to the opposition. No good if you get 100 kicks a game if you turn them all over. Then again he is not the worst. Kennedy takes that prize. He has no decision making skills and just seems to kick the footy and hope. He is now our new Luke Ablett at centre bounces. Gets his hands on it but the brain works too slow to dispose of it. Puts it under his arm and tries to barge through. Slow as treacle to boot. He certainly gets his hands on the footy enough but that's about it.

[Nico]

Disgraceful! And Michael Pykle and Kennedy were the only ones who did it!

Of course we had plenty who did that and throw in the handball for the sake of it. The Pyke one was the one
that finally sent me packing.

[dimelb]

Of course we had plenty who did that and throw in the handball for the sake of it. The Pyke one was the one
that finally sent me packing.

You lost your perspective at that point. The positives about Pyke are much more significant than his clanger count for this match.

[liz]

Liz, I know you have always been a rap for Jack but fair dinkum have a look at his disposal. Today he managed to hit a couple of targets who were miles on their own with stabby little kicks, but his disposal and decision making need a lot of work. He just kicks to knowhere ala Leo Barry and his kicks are dead straight, straight to the opposition. No good if you get 100 kicks a game if you turn them all over. Then again he is not the worst. Kennedy takes that prize. He has no decision making skills and just seems to kick the footy and hope. He is now our new Luke Ablett at centre bounces. Gets his hands on it but the brain works too slow to dispose of it. Puts it under his arm and tries to barge through. Slow as treacle to boot. He certainly gets his hands on the footy enough but that's about it.

Whenever we tried to clear the ball by passing out to someone wide, we were tackled or just plain fumbled. Kicking long to the forward line mightn't have been effective all of the time but it is when our forward line at least came into play. It was close to the only way we looked like getting it in there today.

I am very happy to stick with my opinion that Jack (and Kennedy) was one of our most effective players out there today, and I don't think this has one iota to do with any pre-conceived fanhood of mine for Jack.

[AnnieH]

Like I said another thread. The game was won in the first 30 seconds.

We were behind the foot for the rest of the day.

Pretty hard to pick three good players this week.

[Nico]

Whenever we tried to clear the ball by passing out to someone wide, we were tackled or just plain fumbled. Kicking long to the forward line mightn't have been effective all of the time but it is when our forward line at least came into play. It was close to the only way we looked like getting it in there today.

I am very happy to stick with my opinion that Jack (and Kennedy) was one of our most effective players out there today, and I don't think this has one iota to do with any pre-conceived fanhood of mine for Jack.

You said Kennedy was one of our most effecdtive out there today!!!!! I rest my case.

[Melbournehammer]

Whenever we tried to clear the ball by passing out to someone wide, we were tackled or just plain fumbled. Kicking long to the forward line mightn't have been effective all of the time but it is when our forward line at least came into play. It was close to the only way we looked like getting it in there today.

I am very happy to stick with my opinion that Jack (and Kennedy) was one of our most effective players out there today, and I don't think this has one iota to do with any pre-conceived fanhood of mine for Jack.

i guess the reason i thought he looked lost was that he spent his day chasing shadows and turning the ball over.to give him credit he appeared to get to contests -but even then would lose possession- players like meredith (and moore in particular) were so far from contests that they may as well have been playing on punt road oval for all the use they were. and i like meredith !

kennedy tried hard but we were so smashed inside i simply cant agree that he achieved anything. and their hbf were so much faster than our hff and our usual strategy of having numbers around or behind the ball meant that unless it somehow went to goodes from goodes we lost the ball and were burned the other way with fast ball movement

there was a goal they scored in the first quarter because tadgh zoned off his man at hbf - who received the ball and proceeded to push the ball into the centre corridor because no pressure was on him and it was like a domino effect - each swan proceeded to drop off as the ball was passed across the field for green to mark. the absence of pressure on the ball was frightening and driven by the fear that you look after your man alone but none of them thought they could stay with their man if they went to him and got turned around

[Nico]

i guess the reason i thought he looked lost was that he spent his day chasing shadows and turning the ball over.to give him credit he appeared to get to contests -but even then would lose possession- players like meredith (and moore in particular) were so far from contests that they may as well have been playing on punt road oval for all the use they were. and i like meredith !

kennedy tried hard but we were so smashed inside i simply cant agree that he achieved anything. and their hbf were so much faster than our hff and our usual strategy of having numbers around or behind the ball meant that unless it somehow went to goodes from goodes we lost the ball and were burned the other way with fast ball movement

there was a goal they scored in the first quarter because tadgh zoned off his man at hbf - who received the ball and proceeded to push the ball into the centre corridor because no pressure was on him and it was like a domino effect - each swan proceeded to drop off as the ball was passed across the field for green to mark. the absence of pressure on the ball was frightening and driven by the fear that you look after your man alone but none of them thought they could stay with their man if they went to him and got turned around

I too noticed that they were all too accountable for their own man. I saw Kennedy twice stand off by a few metres rather than go and put pressure on the man attacking the ball. Both times it was an easy clearance. One time he actually ran away from the contest as did Meredith. Kirk stood there on their HFF with his arms outstretched as if giving the Melbourne player safe passage for an easy running goal.

[31 hard at it]

It was a hard game to sit through. It got colder as each minute went by. Swans supporters openly talking of leaving before 3/4 time.
We were smashed out of the centre repeatedly and were inept so often.
Our passing and handballs , even when clear, were missed too often.
Too many swans seemed to have hands of stone and fumbled.
Adam Goodes is a star. Hanners tried hard .... the most disappointing day at the football since the 06 GF.

[Hartijon]

I think you can blame the coaches or praise them based on the performance of the team.You don't have to know all that goes on at training,you can see the efectiveness on game day.I rate Bailey as a coach his game plan against Collingwood was brilliant and today he out coached Roosey in every aspect.On paper there is not much between the teams.In coaching there is a huge chasm! Well done Bailey,can we recruit him for next year?i