Longmire - How much longer?

[IrishSwanPerth]

Damien the job is too big for him, we were close to getting into a semi final last year and this year the only two teams I'm confident we can beat are the suns and port. Work that out?
Players arent responding, shocking decision making, has no idea about team structure and our skills are terrible.

[Frog]

Looks to me like the "bloods" culture, the Swans playing group and Roos are synonymous. Roos had the respect of the playing group. They wanted to play for him.

I don't think Longmire is a bad coach pers?. I do believe that he does not have the respect of the playing group.
It doesn't matter if Longmire calls the shots and they are not adhered to/followed on the field.

I think this goes deeper than players not being able to play (we all know they are better than what they dished up today) - I think this goes deeper than Longmire not being able to coach. I think someone has got their knickers in a knot and it's either the playing group or the coaching group. This needs to be fixed before the end of the season! If that costs us a coach so be it. If this costs us assistant coaches, so be it. But if it costs us exciting young players to other teams (GWS included) because they don't want to play for "the boss", then we have more problems for years to come.

Fix it. Now. The Swans have no other choice. If I didn't like my boss, I'd be looking for a new job too!

[Swannette]

Gee today was hard to watch. But how to improve things? Create a forward structure, work really hard on hand and foot skills and then for me the biggy is decision making. Am watching Geelong and how smart are they? yes they r skilled and apply pressure but it's what they do then - both with the ball and all over the ground that sets th up so well. They rarely sell a teammate into trouble nor do they really call for it when they know they'll be creamed. Footy smarts, for me is one thing we lack quite badly.

[RBS1]

Let's see what horse is made of , if he's got any minerals he will drop the Irishman and not play jetta for the rest of the year ! Our skills going inside 50 were horrible any danger of kicking to the advantage of our forwards . Can I also ask why horse let deliedio play free across half back for the best part of 3 quarters

[wolftone57]

There's not much Longmire can do when players put in an effort like that ... It's a cop out to blame it all on the coach, there were maybe 3 or 4 players that played anywhere near decent football today ... Not much a coach can do to fix that

Alison the game plan stunk. The selection process is all wrong & we aren't picking players for particular roles or games. We were getting killed in the clearances yet winning the ruck, why? Well they were getting the ball to the back side of the square & they know we set up on our back side so we don't man on man in the centre. When they got a run on all Horse could think to do was to flood (Rodney Eade style 1997 - 98) very old tactic & will never win you a game in modern footy. It also was a problem because when we did get the ball out of the back line all we encountered was Richmond players & it came right back. Longmire played the forward defensive press again today, every time we use this we get flogged. So don't tell me it wasn't the coaches fault & what's more it is up to the coaching staff to inspire a win & these blokes don't inspire anyone.

[Lucky Knickers]

The issues with the team would have been there for any coach who took over from Roos. Bringing Bradshaw in was a ploy to see if we could give it one last crack with Kirky et al for the big prize. At the start of 2010 we were looking very very good. Sadly due to injuries we weren't able to maintain the momentum but coming 5th was a great achievement.
To be fair to Longmire, he needs a chance to turn the list over. He needs to continue to develop the young players whilst shepherding the run off of the older end of our list (Kennelly, ROK, Bolton).
We are rebuilding. It is a long season, particularly for the young players (Reid, AJ, Jetta, etc) and that's what we are seeing. Overall, I am surprised we have remained in the 8 for as long as we have. I'm sure if there were significant issues between coaches and playing group we would have seen a much greater fall away far earlier.
Have faith people. What we are seeing is a team that is going through a metamorphosis. There are fantastic signs of what this playing group can be capable of as they grow and develop. We are still challenging for a top 8 position when we have no forward line and a developing midfield group.

[wolftone57]

Craigy? Really?

Turn it up...

Matthews or Watters or Neeld

[wolftone57]

Here they come everyone. The snipers are out and about. I don't know how old you are Caj23 but the message is clear - grow up!

Stop picking on the kid Big Cat that is all you do, you could be perceived as a bully & haven't you read the rules bullying is not allowed. You are probably a part of the coaching panel aren't you? If the coaches can't cut it, it is ok for the fans to tell them they think I believe this forum is still a democracy.

[wolftone57]

Fitzgerald was a good footballer. He was just injury prone. If White's output per game played had been anything like Fitzgerald's, I doubt we'd be complaining.



Before the start of the round just past, ROK was sitting 3rd on the leaderboard in the AFL Coaches' Award, behind just Judd and Murphy. Sure, how players poll is somewhat dependent on the competition they have for votes from other players (not just from their own team, but also from the opposition). But pretty hard to knock the season of a bloke that the AFL-wide coaching fraternity seems to reckon is having a pretty good season. (Or are all AFL coaches idiots, not just the Swans' panel?)

I did not knock ROK I questioned the coaching

[Sidney V]

L,L,L,L,Longmire = Lack of Leadership

[timthefish]

the more this site changes, the more it stays the same. before the premiership, this place was fun and filled with enthusiasm.sure, there was diversity of opinion but in general, most were behind and displayed a willingness to consider what was being done in aim of achieving a most difficult afl premiership. within weeks of 2005, a whole swag of new posters filtered displaying a massive sense of entitlement that i) they deserved another premiership and ii) their borish behavoir online and in the outer was synonymous with "passion".

suddenly, it was like barracking for richmond and before long, roos was cast as a dullard bully the team a bunch of hasbeens that were only getting picked because of their old acheivements.

now that the carping critics got their wish and the coach moved on we have a new spurt of malcontents tossing their toys out of their pram because the new coach doesn't magically have us gunning straight for a flag.

we have a list mostly built of young developing players with a couple of older players doing more than their share of the heavy lifting and teaching the younger players a lot with the limited time they have left. next year we will have a very strong but young engine room with a spine from grundy to reid starting to form.

yet this will not be a premiership side, probably not a top four and maybe not top 8. get used to it, enjoy the wins and the development and give longmire the chance to build something in the next two or three years that might just be able to compete at the top level of sport in this country.

or keep carping.

[Dogzbody]

Great post timthefish! I thought this afternoon and wasn't angry, more accepting if the fact that 2013 should be the next season of anticipation! Until then work hard and enjoy the wins! There are a lot of reasons to think that the young group with the mid agers will form a very good team in the years to come. Prediction: " Goodes departs AFL with Swans flying in 13/14 after playing Swans game record."

[longmile]

The issues with the team would have been there for any coach who took over from Roos. Bringing Bradshaw in was a ploy to see if we could give it one last crack with Kirky et al for the big prize. At the start of 2010 we were looking very very good. Sadly due to injuries we weren't able to maintain the momentum but coming 5th was a great achievement.
To be fair to Longmire, he needs a chance to turn the list over. He needs to continue to develop the young players whilst shepherding the run off of the older end of our list (Kennelly, ROK, Bolton).
We are rebuilding. It is a long season, particularly for the young players (Reid, AJ, Jetta, etc) and that's what we are seeing. Overall, I am surprised we have remained in the 8 for as long as we have. I'm sure if there were significant issues between coaches and playing group we would have seen a much greater fall away far earlier.
Have faith people. What we are seeing is a team that is going through a metamorphosis. There are fantastic signs of what this playing group can be capable of as they grow and develop. We are still challenging for a top 8 position when we have no forward line and a developing midfield group.

Probably the most intelligent thing I've read on this site all year.
Summarises our season better than I could of.
Sure today was a shocking heartless loss, but there is light.

[Rob-bloods]

This is a fans website and is a forum for opinions. If someone thinks Longmire should go they could be right they could be wrong. I personally do not like bagging the coach, especially a first year one, but I do have genuine concerns with the coaching setup.

That is in our setup our starts our structures and our selection policy. We do not seem to adjust to match conditions or the opposition. There are slightly less rotations this year so that may or may not be simpler, but set place plays like kickouts and zoning on opposition kickouts should be bread and butter. It was obvious today that we were bombing the ball long down the shaded flank for around an hour to no effect then for about 10 minutes we suddenly led up and kicked shorter andf got a few possessions. Hardly rocket science. Countless time this year we have played dumb tactics in the conditions or viz opposition set up but no changes happen.

Indeed coaches don't kick the ball and look we are not a great side but it galls me when we make Richmond look like premiership material and the coaches MUST take some blame for the rubbish we turned out against Freo, Adelaide and Richmond. Our lows are very low. One big issue is also on field leadership...I don't see any. Last year Kirky looked almost spent but he dragged the team to where they were with leadership. I just pictured Kirky when we two goals down getting back to the centre barking out orders and dragging the players in with him...anyone today? So off field leadership and on field leadership at issue to my mind, yeah some terrific youngsters coming on and Tommy Mitchell a good addition in a compromised draft but inspired leadership is a concern.

[Dooloo]

the more this site changes, the more it stays the same. before the premiership, this place was fun and filled with enthusiasm.sure, there was diversity of opinion but in general, most were behind and displayed a willingness to consider what was being done in aim of achieving a most difficult afl premiership. within weeks of 2005, a whole swag of new posters filtered displaying a massive sense of entitlement that i) they deserved another premiership and ii) their borish behavoir online and in the outer was synonymous with "passion".

suddenly, it was like barracking for richmond and before long, roos was cast as a dullard bully the team a bunch of hasbeens that were only getting picked because of their old acheivements.

now that the carping critics got their wish and the coach moved on we have a new spurt of malcontents tossing their toys out of their pram because the new coach doesn't magically have us gunning straight for a flag.

we have a list mostly built of young developing players with a couple of older players doing more than their share of the heavy lifting and teaching the younger players a lot with the limited time they have left. next year we will have a very strong but young engine room with a spine from grundy to reid starting to form.

yet this will not be a premiership side, probably not a top four and maybe not top 8. get used to it, enjoy the wins and the development and give longmire the chance to build something in the next two or three years that might just be able to compete at the top level of sport in this country.

or keep carping.

This. Absolutely brilliant post. Pretty much sums up how I feel