Peter Hanlon will be sorry

[Lucky Knickers]

If ever there was an article to fire up the swans faithful today to get behind the men of red and white it would be the opening point of this opinion piece.

1. Presumably the fact one of these teams will still be alive in week two of September is the reason people think the present finals system needs an overhaul.

Of course, the spectacular form Hawthorn and Dogs have shown leading up to the finals and of course what we saw yesterday clearly they are unlucky to have finished behind the Swans.

This follows on from Tim Lane's article on BPL several weeks ago. Where you think there should be a final 4, 6, 8...12...wildcard....conference system, the Swans have well and truly earned the spot in September.

[Nich]

Yeah I read that as well. I was fired up initially but the rage has subsided. Hopefully we string a few wins and I'll shoot him an email : )

[erica]

And who is Peter Hanlon? Never heard of him before.

[erica]

On second thoughts, maybe he's a Hawthorn supporter.

[Dalai Lama]

is he not from Hanlons Circus fame - as a clown prehaps?

[Lucky Knickers]

I did chuckle at the armchair bingo with 3 points for Taubert and Roos chuckling and paying no attention to the footy.

[Yuri H]

I don't mind snarky going-for-the-one-liner writing on occasion. It's self-conscious, poorly-written, achingly-hip snarky smarmy writing like Hanlon's utterly uninformative piece that I can't stand.

[stellation]

It looks to be just a silly, tongue in cheek article so I don't overly mind it in this case- but I am pretty annoyed by the sentiment overall. Roos sprouted off that if the team made the finals we'd just be making up numbers a few weeks ago, and I was pretty annoyed at that suggestion, too.

If finishing fifth is just making up the numbers/not deserving of being in the finals then that is absurd- it's fifth in a sixteen team competiton! The team as a whole (coaching staff, playing staff, trainers, recruiters) should be able to feel proud of that achievement, and not apologetic that they "slipped through". If an AFL list has 40 odd folks on it, there are 440 other players at AFL level alone who are infinitely envious of the position we held at the end of 22 rounds.

No matter what happens on the field today, and I will say I'm fairly confident it will end in success, every player who has worn the red and white this season and contributed to the effort has done us proud and can hold their head up. Am I just satisfied with one finals game? No, of course not- I want more than that and I'm confident the boys are going to give their all to guarantee it.

[Jewels]

It looks to be just a silly, tongue in cheek article so I don't overly mind it in this case- but I am pretty annoyed by the sentiment overall. Roos sprouted off that if the team made the finals we'd just be making up numbers a few weeks ago, and I was pretty annoyed at that suggestion, too.

If finishing fifth is just making up the numbers/not deserving of being in the finals then that is absurd- it's fifth in a sixteen team competiton! The team as a whole (coaching staff, playing staff, trainers, recruiters) should be able to feel proud of that achievement, and not apologetic that they "slipped through". If an AFL list has 40 odd folks on it, there are 440 other players at AFL level alone who are infinitely envious of the position we held at the end of 22 rounds.

No matter what happens on the field today, and I will say I'm fairly confident it will end in success, every player who has worn the red and white this season and contributed to the effort has done us proud and can hold their head up. Am I just satisfied with one finals game? No, of course not- I want more than that and I'm confident the boys are going to give their all to guarantee it.

Very well said Stell, I think you speak for most of us on here.

[dimelb]

Don't worry too much over it; Hanlon's piece is just a pisstake. He's on the Age sports staff, is worth reading when he's serious.

[ShockOfHair]

Hanlon was just pointing out the statistical truth. Can't complain about that.

I thought the armchair bingo was hilarious.. More Swans jokes than Ted's blog even. Shows Hanlon has actually watched the Swans this year.

[swans_premiers]

Hope he didn't get paid for that. Terrible stuff

[Triple B]

I didn't find it overly offensive, as dimelb said, just a pisstake.

I did like this though, quite a clever observation of our diverse travels of the past month.

"Having played to packed houses in Sydney, Perth and Brisbane, the Roos-Kirk farewell tour signs on for one last show in Melbourne. Break out the incense sticks and share the love, man."

[BSA5]

I didn't find it overly offensive, as dimelb said, just a pisstake.

I did like this though, quite a clever observation of our diverse travels of the past month.

Agreed. I thought it was a great article. He even recognised it as Steve Taubert that Roos is always talking to on the bench. I have always wondered why Taubert is always down there, seems I'm not the only one.

It's also quite possibly the most insightful and well-researched article on the Swans I've seen in some time. Which is saying something.

[DST]

It looks to be just a silly, tongue in cheek article so I don't overly mind it in this case- but I am pretty annoyed by the sentiment overall. Roos sprouted off that if the team made the finals we'd just be making up numbers a few weeks ago, and I was pretty annoyed at that suggestion, too.

You need to separate these comments into what Roos actually thinks and what he is trying to do with these comments.

Of course the club and Roos will be happy with any finals finish, as that is what they set out to acheive at the beginning of the year when everyone wrote them off.

Clearly comments like the above are aimed at the players to focus the team on the task at hand, which was getting to a home final and then winning it.

We had got ourselves into a reasonable position, could possibly make a home final as well. Why not have a dig at them to push harder and not just make up the numbers, go on go out there and prove me worng.

DST