Horse

[IrishSwanPerth]

When we all start a new job, we are given goals and targets.
What are horses goals for the year? what is expected? Has he got two years to develop as a coach, or is he there to develop the young group?
If we dont make finals or beat a top 4 side, is this OK? I would love to know what is expected.

I know a lot of people arent happy but there are no good coaches available.
But also no point having a grade A team with a grade C coach. At best you will get get grade B results.

[Nico]

When we all start a new job, we are given goals and targets.
What are horses goals for the year? what is expected? Has he got two years to develop as a coach, or is he there to develop the young group?
If we dont make finals or beat a top 4 side, is this OK? I would love to know what is expected.

I know a lot of people arent happy but there are no good coaches available.
But also no point having a grade A team with a grade C coach. At best you will get get grade B results.

Gave Watson a free rein last night. He is Essendon's engine room and did nothing about nullifying him from my observation. Killed us.

[Dan]

But also no point having a grade A team with a grade C coach. At best you will get get grade B results.

We are definitely not an A grade team (yet).

[IrishSwanPerth]

a grade d team at the moment havent beaten any decent team this season

[dimelb]

a grade d team at the moment havent beaten any decent team this season

You think the Eagles aren't a decent team?
And Jack spent a fair bit of time on Watson - not a bad matchup I would think. Who else would people suggest?

[Dan]

You think the Eagles aren't a decent team?
And Jack spent a fair bit of time on Watson - not a bad matchup I would think. Who else would people suggest?

At the time nobody rated them, they have improved a lot since then.
Someone suggested Bird on Watson because Stanton was too fast for him.

[aardvark]

You think the Eagles aren't a decent team?
And Jack spent a fair bit of time on Watson - not a bad matchup I would think. Who else would people suggest?

Shouldn't let the facts get in the way of a good rant.......

[erica]

Here's your chance to ask our coach a question:

Ask A Swan with John Longmire - Official AFL Website of the Sydney Swans Football Club

Go easy on him.

[BSA5]

"What's the origin of your highly suggestive nickname?"

[wolftone57]

Reimers was having a field day on Tadhg & no move until the last, he kicked 4 all up. Monfries was going right up the ground & playing more as a mid than a forward & maybe Shaw should have gone to him as he was quite damaging at times. Too slow in making moves that count & Essendon cut us to pieces on the overlap again and used the corridor as we had no players guarding it. They were also able to get players free on the left side all the time.

There were many occasions when the on ball ruckman took the ball up or throw ins deep in the forwardline when the resting ruck was in the forwardline. Years back this would not have happened the resting ruck would have taken all the deep forward ball ups and throw ins allowing the on ball ruck to provide a block to the corridor. Many times Ball and Jolly did the job for us and Jolly continues to provide that role for Collingwood. This allows to have a floater and fast moves that provide overlap can be cut off by a big man. It won't work all the time especially if you have a little smart ass speedster who runs around the big guy but it makes them think twice & I know I would if I thought I was going to tangle with Mummy

[SPC]

I liked Roos as a coach, but I dont think you could call him overly adventureous. From what I have seen so far, Horse has done a good job of keeping this team competitive whilst building for the future more quickly than Roosy would have, by giving the new guys an opportunity to prove themselves earlier and a willingness to experiment to find the forward combo that will work in the near future, given the loss of Bradshaw and the failure of White to come up to the mark. He has given just about everyone a chance to put their hand up and own the forward role/s. No-one has really done that yet, either by ability or injury, but the search continues and that may need to be outside the current list of players on the Swans roster.

As for the stuff he directly influences - the team does not lack courage or motivation week in and week out, the game plan keeps us competitive most weeks, the simple fact is our results are limited more by the quality & skills of the cattle available to be selected each week, than the coaching stokes of genius or blunders. Take the Bombers game, yes they have some players out, but they had some big ins last week, it was do or die for them as far as the top 8 & they were at home in front of a vocal home crowd. You can argue either way about some of the coaching decisions like, selection of the team (but I didnt hear too many complaints before the game on obvious omissions - other than TDL who was brought in), impact of the sub (hard to get right every week), did Watson get tagged hard enough (I didnt think he ripped us apart), etc, etc, but even if you believe he made any errors there, we went down by 1 point and the players on the field kicked 2.9!!! in the last quarter, not to mention 2 goals for & 1 against given away by our best player & captain! When the players make as many unforced errors as they do & miss as many goals as they all did, they loose games they should win! Nothing to do with the coaches plan or structure, the players kicked 2.9, the players made skill error mistakes that let the Bombers back into the game when we were in complete control of that game. We just dont have Swan, Pendelbury, Thomas, etc, etc, etc running around for us and so we are limited by that.

I personally think he looks pretty good so far, but you wont really know untill the end of 2012, when he has had time to get games into the young players and sort out whats happening up front with a Bradshaw replacement or different forward line structure.

[Damien]

Bit early to go after horse. Some composure in key moments would see us fighting for 4th and 5th.

I'm more concerned about our experienced players at the moment than I am about Horse.

[Big Al]

Great post SPC (probably because I agree with all of it - funny that )

I've said all along that I think we're heading in the right direction as a club. We have blooded 5 youngsters who look very good. We have some good talent in the reserves coming through so the future looks bright. Horse has had to contend with keeping us competitive while building a strong list and I think he's done a good job of it.

[CureTheSane]

Two points

1. Do we really think that other team supporters would be putting Longmire up as a coach that should be dumped/overly criticised/ranted about?
2. Would be interesting to hear Roos' comments of what Longmire is doing right and wrong.