Conspiracy theory

[Go Swannies]

Last week I was annoyed. No, I was beyond annoyed. This week I was laughing and texting "Go Tiges" before half time. Either the Swans got food poisoning on the flight south or something really isn't right. I thought Teddy, Dan, Shaw and Kennedy tried. Reg and Marty were under a lot of pressure throughout but struggled on.

You can analyse the match ups and the stuff ups as much as you like but the skills of the individuals, with a very few exceptions, were not on display today. So at half time I started thinking whether the players may be trying to get rid of the coach? That's about the only reason they could collectively play so poorly. It worked for the Dees and the Crows and look at how they have lifted. I heard talk that there was some discontent even at the start of the season but the poor showing last week (can you kick 2/9 in a vital quarter - and give away a 10 point lead - without trying?) and the disgraceful offering today is telling us something. Did a tackle stick? How can a Tiger hack run through four Swans without any touching him - or lifting a finger? How can we NEVER be there to make a contested possession for a long kick down the midfield? How can we constantly kick to the part of the ground most crowded by Tigers players? Once I started thinking it was deliberate it certainly started to appear that way.

I gave my pass to a friend for the Saints game next week. I stand by my statement last week that I don't see any reason to support the Swans when they so disrespect me as to play Tadhg when he's simply no longer at AFL level. She's now not sure she can be bothered to head to Telstra herself either next week - I'll be in the Whitsundays and may not even check the score till later. I wonder what the attendance will be?

This season is over and there need to be some considerable changes before the start of 2012.

[Frog]

I've said much the same in the Longmire thread - No-one's listening it seems ... all too busy rebuilding.
There can be no rebuilding if the coach does not have the respect of the players or vice versa.
Remember the Goodes photograph from a couple of months back - I said it then, I say it now.
There is a dislike there ... That picture now speaks a thousand words.

[swansprincess]

For the first time ever, I left the game early. They let their fans down as well as themselves.

[MattW]

Goodes photograph?

[Kanga]

Gee you lot are a bit harsh.... throwing all the toys out of the cot!

Sacking the coach is not the answer, it is simply at the moment that you guys do not possess the cattle to worry any finalist. Your relatively favoured draw has meant you have been in the eight longer than justified on form this season. It will take two years and another KPP in the fwd line (Reid is doing an exceptional job for his age) for things to turn around. Horse will turn out to be a great coach - he wouldn't have lasted as long as he did under Roos if it was otherwise.

Keep the faith and stick with your team thru thick and thin....

[Frog]

Goodes photograph?

These pictures.

[ScottH]

Gee you lot are a bit harsh.... throwing all the toys out of the cot!

Sacking the coach is not the answer, it is simply at the moment that you guys do not possess the cattle to worry any finalist. Your relatively favoured draw has meant you have been in the eight longer than justified on form this season. It will take two years and another KPP in the fwd line (Reid is doing an exceptional job for his age) for things to turn around. Horse will turn out to be a great coach - he wouldn't have lasted as long as he did under Roos if it was otherwise.

Keep the faith and stick with your team thru thick and thin....

Gee just when you want to tell an opposition poster where to stick their opinion, they actually make sense.
Shame on you Kanga!!!
When you look at the coaches over the years who have had a target on them early in their careers, they are now succeeding.
Bomber Thomson, Ratten even Malthouse at the Pies.


Thanks Kanga.

[Frog]

Keep the faith and stick with your team thru thick and thin....

Oh, but we are trying.

But if the players don't like the coach, we need to find a whole new batch of players to like if they leave because of it.
So, who will it be? The players or the coach?

[Frog]

Gee just when you want to tell an opposition poster where to stick their opinion, they actually make sense.
Shame on you Kanga!!!
When you look at the coaches over the years who have had a target on them early in their careers, they are now succeeding.
Bomber Thomson, Ratten even Malthouse at the Pies.


Thanks Kanga.

Don't forget Buckenara.

[Dosser]

Gee you lot are a bit harsh.... throwing all the toys out of the cot!

Sacking the coach is not the answer, it is simply at the moment that you guys do not possess the cattle to worry any finalist. Your relatively favoured draw has meant you have been in the eight longer than justified on form this season. It will take two years and another KPP in the fwd line (Reid is doing an exceptional job for his age) for things to turn around. Horse will turn out to be a great coach - he wouldn't have lasted as long as he did under Roos if it was otherwise.

Keep the faith and stick with your team thru thick and thin....

Would that be all about us playing Gold Coast, Adelaide and Port Adelaide twice this year and not having to travel for half of our games?

[Big Al]

Gee just when you want to tell an opposition poster where to stick their opinion, they actually make sense.
Shame on you Kanga!!!
When you look at the coaches over the years who have had a target on them early in their careers, they are now succeeding.
Bomber Thomson, Ratten even Malthouse at the Pies.


Thanks Kanga.

Except for the favoured draw garbage it's the first post from Kanga that has made sense for quite awhile.

[SimonH]

There's a lot more evidence for the conspiracy theory that West Coast were throwing games last year to get rid of their coach... then when that failed, they said, 'Oh okay, this time we'll get serious and play for real' and produced what they have in 2011.

While we're ranting about widely held theories that are absolute rubbish, 'bottoming out'. Have a look at the origin (in terms of draft pick numbers, rookie, trade et al) of the 22 who are going to play for Collingwood in the 2011 GF, and the 22 who are going to play in the first week of September (but only the first week because of scheduling strangeness caused by the 17-team comp) for Richmond and Melbourne? See lots of advantage in copping hidings for years on end for heaps of nice high draft picks, does anyone? (Feel free to predict that these sides are Gunna Be Dominating The Comp in 2014; bottoming out theorists have been saying that Richmond's rapid rise was inevitable since at least 2004, and those re Melbourne since at least 2009. One of these years, by sheer force of time and chance, they'll be right.) Did anyone predict at the start of 2011 that Port Adelaide would finish stone motherless last, even below GC, breaking several match records on the way, because they have overachieved by failing to finish bottom in recent years, thereby depriving themselves of high enough draft picks and meaning they have by a long way the least talented list in the AFL? If so, please step forward and place your bets on when Port's "premiership window" will open again. If not, enough with that 'bottoming out' nonsense.

It is in our short-term interest, and our long-term interest, to play to win every week.

[royboy42]

Thread title is appropriate

[magic.merkin]

These pictures.

Lay off the cones, you're paranoid. The shots as posted aren't even in order. The last "damning photo" is before he has even walked past Adam.

[Go Swannies]

There's a lot more evidence for the conspiracy theory that West Coast were throwing games last year to get rid of their coach... then when that failed, they said, 'Oh okay, this time we'll get serious and play for real' and produced what they have in 2011.

While we're ranting about widely held theories that are absolute rubbish, 'bottoming out'. Have a look at the origin (in terms of draft pick numbers, rookie, trade et al) of the 22 who are going to play for Collingwood in the 2011 GF, and the 22 who are going to play in the first week of September (but only the first week because of scheduling strangeness caused by the 17-team comp) for Richmond and Melbourne? See lots of advantage in copping hidings for years on end for heaps of nice high draft picks, does anyone? (Feel free to predict that these sides are Gunna Be Dominating The Comp in 2014; bottoming out theorists have been saying that Richmond's rapid rise was inevitable since at least 2004, and those re Melbourne since at least 2009. One of these years, by sheer force of time and chance, they'll be right.) Did anyone predict at the start of 2011 that Port Adelaide would finish stone motherless last, even below GC, breaking several match records on the way, because they have overachieved by failing to finish bottom in recent years, thereby depriving themselves of high enough draft picks and meaning they have by a long way the least talented list in the AFL? If so, please step forward and place your bets on when Port's "premiership window" will open again. If not, enough with that 'bottoming out' nonsense.

It is in our short-term interest, and our long-term interest, to play to win every week.

Agree with most of that (except the "widely held theories that are absolute rubbish" bit). There is definitely a group dynamic in footy teams. The world beating Pies are largely the same losers of 2009 and there are some of the "soft" Cats still in the team from 2006. Likewise, the Dogs are much the same team as last year - likewise the Saints - but the results aren't.

The Cats turned the whole team around when they decided in 2007 that they had lost often enough. Who knows how the Pies would have gone if one kick in the 2010 GF had gone the other way? The Swans won a Premiership in 2005 because they showed to the world how bad they were against the Saints early that year. Then there's the Eagles this year.

I wonder what the catharsis for the present group of the Swans will be? Maybe it'll be losing the last five games of the 2011 season and missing finals?