Match-day thread : Semi-Final 2 versus Hawthorn

[robamiee]

i think the signs are good for us..
one area we have struggled with this year is when teams drop an extra player back we dont seem to be able to work our way through it..
poor sammy got cleaned up multiple times by gibson coming in..and how many times did the hawks have clean clearance through the stoppages with the 3rd man up..
i thought we could ahve done with seaby tonight their 2 ruckmen worked well...
i dont blame the umps tonight a cple of bad decisions, but we got some dubious frees as well.
aside from my earlier whinge about driving from perth it was a good exp, brought my 3yo son who showed no interest till 3rd qtr funnily enough...then fell asleep at 3 qtr time..maybe he knew something....
be interesting to see at trade time what happens..draft aint worth anythign this year..

[Melbournehammer]

I am just over the criticism of white. Sure he was @@@@ when the whole side was. But when we were doing well everywhere he ws part of it. He's not a match winner but he is a quite capable second ruck. Plus the side simply doesn't respect his leads he makes reasonable leads but we spent the whole time kicking high to reid - in fact we were so Reid centric it played int their hands. Having said that Gibson wasn't marking the ball and most of our scores were from stoppages in the forward fifty.

I think much more criticism needs to be directed at the midfield - rok was second to the ball all night, mcveigh was next to useless as a back pocket, Bolton was largely anonymous, jack was really quiet and our skills were appalling. If you think about the goals conceded as a result of hanners missing a target in the first quarter, goodes and mcveigh consecutive turnovers inside fifty in the second etc. I think goodes probably cost us as many goals today with lookaway handballs which missed the target - hes a wonderful player but sometimes it would be better if he just did the simple things. In any case the number of times we tried to square the ball and missed the target says a lot about where we are at

For us to win at that ground we are really going to have to get jetta into the side and playing well. I do
n't know how that's going to happen but it needs to happen. We are simply very one paced at the moment.

[swans_premiers]

I am just over the criticism of white.

I thought white was one of our better players tonight.

[Melbournehammer]

I don't blame the umpires. But they were inexcusably bad. the number of non-awarded frees were really staggering. At least three goals were a direct result of obvious frees which were not awarded. And that doesn't count all of the frees awarded around the ground which hawks got instantly and the swans did not.

[HBAsyd]

White is soft and needs delisting while some other team may see value. His attack on the ball is fanciful at times.

ROK was bad but dont use him as a defence of White. ROk has runs on the board.

We need pace and skill on the larger grounds. grunt and determination can only get you so far.

White was not one of our better players

[robamiee]

i agree hammer, we seemed very Reid centric, too much really for the yng fella.
I think we still need a power forward..

Jetta's pace def would ahve been useful tonight as well, but he needs to work harder in pre-season in regards to reading the game a bit better. TDL needs to put a solid pre as well..
we dropped alot of marks as well tonihgt coming into the forward 50...

[JudesaGun]

Would it have killed channel 7 to make some sort of assessment of the Swans game or season or any individual performances tonight? Nothing.

Compare that to last week when the whole of the post match and media coverage wa focused on the Saints and I am getting sooooo fed up with the one-sided commentary. Channel 7 is a joke.

[goswannies]

White was not one of our better players

He wasn't our worst.

When LRT first joined us we used SOS as a specialist coach to turn him into a premiership defender. Why not get a specialist forward coach for Man Mountain? Plugger might have some spare time...

[ugg]

Longmire kicked 511 goals and won the Coleman in 1990. I think he has a fair idea of how to play as a forward.

[swansrule100]

The year was good overall and the fight tonight was pleasing, would like to see us land a big fish with salary cap
Space.

I actually think overall white spangher reid looked ok, i want to see lj developed though

[Melbournehammer]

i agree hammer, we seemed very Reid centric, too much really for the yng fella.
I think we still need a power forward..

Jetta's pace def would ahve been useful tonight as well, but he needs to work harder in pre-season in regards to reading the game a bit better. TDL needs to put a solid pre as well..
we dropped alot of marks as well tonihgt coming into the forward 50...

I agree with you now. Geelong showed last week how if the ball is moved quickly to power forwards the hawks defence is very isolated and power forwards mark and score. Tonight showed the opposite. A very slow movement of the ball allowed hawthorn defenders to easily spoil athletic but not strong forwards

[SwansFan1972]

White is soft and needs delisting while some other team may see value. His attack on the ball is fanciful at times.

ROK was bad but dont use him as a defence of White. ROk has runs on the board.

We need pace and skill on the larger grounds. grunt and determination can only get you so far.

The strange thing is that we play subi pretty well. It's big. Not too dissimilar to the MCG - longer but not as wide.

Not sure how accurate this site is but it says that Manuka is about the same size as the MCG and we play ok there.

I reckon Hitchcock's birds had some dastardly effect. Having to run and kick through clouds of flying rodents is something to get used to - and since we see the MCG about 2 or 3 times a year, not much chance to get used to them!

The AFL needs to do something about it though - was a constant distraction, and no doubt many spectators would be taking home some 'lucky' additions to their clothes!

[31 hard at it]

Nice of the Hawks to stand by and applaud as Goodes and Kennelly were chaired off.

The boys were obviously tired tonight with a few carrying injuries.

Kennedy was outstanding with his inside clearances, Goodes kept trying, Rohan needs a full injury free pre season and he could be anything.

A frustrating night but proud of the Team and also the supporters who put in a lot tonight.
The ground really rocked in the 3 rd qtr as the run was made.

Scarf and cap packed away.

Bring on 2012

[swansrule100]

Im not sure what goes on at the mcg and if its not just more of a coincidence our record is poor due to some difficult games being played there

[HBAsyd]

the birds...the birds....

yes distraction indeed.

there were 2 teams playing.

heads up though. some fine tuning around a good squad is all we need.

Some Jetta dash, with Shaw would have been nice down the length and breadth of the G.

Well done to our loyal servants and now we move on, to start the next chapter. the Horse is quality and I believe we ar ein good hands....he will do well at trade