Swans vs Carlton Game thread.

[Primmy]

I gave up watching the game not long after the pathetic Bruce called AJ lazy.....the 18 yo who plays his heart out lazy.....I found the commentary disgusting. And I will be writing to Brooce to tell him so.
I am not making any further comments on the game.

[Untamed Snark]

Cannot remember which of the less than capable commentators said it but the (about Mumford) "I'm a mummy not a footballer" remark made me want to slap him.

[stellation]

I gave up watching the game not long after the pathetic Bruce called AJ lazy.....the 18 yo who plays his heart out lazy.....I found the commentary disgusting. And I will be writing to Brooce to tell him so.
I am not making any further comments on the game.

If I recall the play you are refering to correctly, AJ blew a simple uncontested mark then was sloppy recovering the ball and kicked messily up the line to an open teammate which allowed time for Carlton to spoil the forward push. The ball had been swung across the ground and it had created the open man, I think it's fair to say that AJ was poor in that passage.

Based on his commentary over the last two weeks I'm not sure there are many bigger fans of Alex Johnson outside of Swans fans than Bruce, he has consistently raved about AJ. I don't think for a second that Bruce was suggesting AJ is lazy, he just suggested it was a lazy effort- and it was (I thought).

Cannot remember which of the less than capable commentators said it but the (about Mumford) "I'm a mummy not a footballer" remark made me want to slap him.

I assume it was because Mummy was running in a straight line, and it was an attempted joke that the classic horror film mummy staggers in a straight line and doesn't turn. Not a great joke, but certainly not a true attempt to suggest Mummy is any less of a footballer.

Just on that Hanners/Mummy passage, if it's true that Dan went off the ground to speak to him about it then I think the coaching staff needs to have a word (and I'm sure they will).

[Bas]

"Smash these Bloods
Come on Blues
They don't care
They got rid of Roos"

That is called wit?

How uncreative and stupid.

[Yuri H]

We matched Carlton for much of the game except in one key area. Goal scoring.

Pretty much. As our new & astute coach wrote in chalk at the season's start, the wiliest strategy is "kick more goals than the other team". Or he wrote something close to it. I'm sort of beyond sighing and cracking a sad joke about our regular third quarter nap and our (collectively) poor kicking. Until we get more goals once we battle the ball into our 50, we're doomed.

Fighting a cold, I chose to watch the game sober. After this, I doubt next week's game vs Col ... Coh-hoh-hollll ... Cawwwwwww ... I can't say the name ... will be watchable without a large dollop of cabernet in my blood stream, even if I've spiralled into pneumonia.

[Bas]

Fighting a cold, I chose to watch the game sober.

I'm on the Dr Oz no alcohol regime and it's games like that, that test you.

Next Saturday night....................................Iron Chef

[Untamed Snark]

.

I assume it was because Mummy was running in a straight line, and it was an attempted joke that the classic horror film mummy staggers in a straight line and doesn't turn. Not a great joke, but certainly not a true attempt to suggest Mummy is any less of a footballer.

Just on that Hanners/Mummy passage, if it's true that Dan went off the ground to speak to him about it then I think the coaching staff needs to have a word (and I'm sure they will).

I remember it being whan Mummy was in the ruck-however I am willing to conseed I may be wrong-the game did become a blur of misery

[aardvark]

If I recall the play you are refering to correctly, AJ blew a simple uncontested mark then was sloppy recovering the ball and kicked messily up the line to an open teammate which allowed time for Carlton to spoil the forward push. The ball had been swung across the ground and it had created the open man, I think it's fair to say that AJ was poor in that passage. I don't think for a second that Bruce was suggesting AJ is lazy, he just suggested it was a lazy effort- and it was (I thought).

I agree. It was a pretty ordinary effort and worthy of a spray from Bwooce. However if Bwooce dropped dead tomorrow you would hear my cheers from many miles away.

[Lucky Knickers]

...
I'd give up mummy, seaby and puke for him.
.

One of the worst decsions by the coaching panel was to syb Seaby when Richards could just shuffle from just before quarter time....

Letter swappers!

[dimelb]

Letter swappers!

Got a chuckle!

[ScottH]

Letter swappers!

I'm struggling with my Swyping.

[Bas]

Third quarter against us now will become a motivational film for Carlton players for the rest of the season.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/blues-coach-brett-ratten-to-highlight-third-quarter-dominance/story-e6frf9jf-1226078139761

Makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside that we were able to help them march towards the finals.

[Go Swannies]

Third quarter against us now will become a motivational film for Carlton players for the rest of the season.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/blues-coach-brett-ratten-to-highlight-third-quarter-dominance/story-e6frf9jf-1226078139761

Makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside that we were able to help them march towards the finals.

It should be for us too. So win/win.

[Scottee]

I just wanted to make a few comments as this was one of the few games that I actually got the chance to go to. You see so much more by being at the game rather than just watching on TV.

Overall I thought that the two big problems that we have are that the midfield in general has a very poor idea of how to deliver the ball into the forward line and that the forward line at this stage has a very poor idea of where to run.

I thought the following players were out of sorts: Mumford, McGlynn, Bolton, Mattner and in particular Malceski who was like a startled rabbit whenever the ball came near him and seemed to be playing with absolutely no confidence. I am afraid I now fall into the camp that says he should have a run in the reserves.

Unfortunately part of our problem is caused by our two up-and-coming stars in AJ and Sam Reid. AJ has a brilliant ability to get the ball and to negate his opponent, however at the moment his delivery is hesitant and his decision-making as to whether to go short or long, is poor. He is currently telescoping his intentions to the opposition rather than disguising them. Knowing that he is actually a booming kick it would probably be a lot better in the short term for the forwards if he would just blast the thing into the forward line quickly.

Sam himself has developed into a really good contested mark and the players look for him at every opportunity. It would be better though if instead of trying to take the mark Sam would act as a decoy and palm the ball to the smalls. At the moment there is a lack of cohesion in this area. I reckon the coaches should get out old footage of James Hird if they want to see how to deliver to the forward line. He would always deliver to advantage. If the player was under pressure he would kick to space that would allow his tem mate to push off.

The good thing about this problem for both players is that it is going to improve with time as the players mature.

Another thing that became obvious during the game was that the lack of success in our ventures into the forward line seemed to dishearten the team considerably and this is when Carlton were able to run riot. To think that we actually beat Carlton in inside 50s in that losing score is amazing.

The forward line actually seemed to be inventing new ways NOT to score golas. Lack of understanding and confidence in each other seems to be a big factor.

For those who criticise having two ruckmen, I really can?t understand what you?re on about. Who would have run with Kreuzer plus Hampson plus Henderson with only a rusty Mumford and LRT as backup? The outcome would?ve been made worse.

There were however a couple of reasons to hope. The first one is that I think Carlton is now a premiership contender. With the players that they have picked up and the return of Kreuzer, who is a far more accomplished player than I realised, they are more than half a chance.

So at least we weren?t thrashed by a mediocre opposition.

Another ray of hope, and I hope I?m not dreaming, is that by the final quarter the Carlton players were spent. I don?t think the goals in the last quarter were all classic junk time goals. Several Carlton players were cramping and they had lost their run. I think on a bigger ground we could have done better.

Another thing I noticed was that the umpiring interpretations were far different to our previous matches, especially in terms of holding the ball. When tackled the players will given all of the time in the world to dispose of the ball (except for a couple of notable exceptions applying to the Swans). There was even one case where a Carlton player was allowed an entire 720 degree turn whilst being tackled without a free being awarded.

The bottom line was that Carlton was favoured by the lack of reward for tackling because of their bigger bodied midfielders. We looked much better with Goodes in the middle.

For our better players Goodes was a clear trump card apart from his goal shooting, Joey Kennedy was a constant driving force and I thought that Smith was heroic in defence.

Anybody calling for Kennelly to be dropped for being too slow wasn?t at the game. He is as fast as ever and repelled a number of attacks. His only problem was a couple of brain fades, possibly caused by being forced to do more than his fair share of the running in the back half.

We need Gary Rohan back fit and firing if we are going to move up the tree. We also need get some goal kickers into the forward line. Other than parking ROK permanently up forward, White, TDL, Curry and LJ are the candidates but I?ll leave it to the coaches to decide because surely they have worked out that we have a blunt attack at the moment. Better understanding of forward plays would also help.

[mcs]

"There was even one case where a Carlton player was allowed an entire 720 degree turn whilst being tackled without a free being awarded."

That one was absolutely ridiculous because not only had he done a 720 but he had also taken on the man in the first place!


"Anybody calling for Kennelly to be dropped for being too slow wasn?t at the game. He is as fast as ever and repelled a number of attacks. His only problem was a couple of brain fades, possibly caused by being forced to do more than his fair share of the running in the back half."

I was at the game and I can't agree with that- he looked pedestrian to me. A couple of times he bought the ball out right in front of me and the dash just isn't there that once was. More importantly than physical pace though, he looks slow of thought now. You can't afford to have brain fades in the back line and in modern footy you just don't have those extra couple of seconds to think about it. It is a general problem across our team I think- too many players instead of taking the first and best option go back and think it through too often, thus wasting a chance to catch the opposition before everyone has pushed back.

Perhaps Kennelly should be played out on the wing, as he gets caught too often behind his man in defence, and brain fades in the defensive 50 are a surefire way to cost your team goals, which is the last thing we need. His run is still useful to us, but I'm no longer convinced he is good enough to be in our best back 6.