GWS v Sydney Swans Game Day Thread

[WeHaveTheGoodes]

I don't know what to think. One of the worst games i have seen at this level, just have nothing...maybe..i'll try.

Homebush is a disgrace.

Not a good night to showcase the code tbh. CH 7 commentators gushing over GWS didn't make it any more pleasent to watch.

Seemed like we were still in pre season mode.

Bring on the real season next week.

[Danzar]

Half time I turned over to SBS and watched Rockwiz, back in time for the last quarter so I missed the good bit. I thought Jetta was betta and Hanners should have stayed home.
I'm wondering if Rohan has the body to play AFL or if he's just a bit of a sook?

Yep, hanners is struggling. I can't work it out. Clear potential still, in the right position, looks fit.

You've picked up on something with Rohan but he was out for a stack of games last year so I think he's missed out on some development in a critical year at his age. I think he's fine physically and definitely not a sook. Maybe he overestimates his body - he can throw himself pretty hard at a contested ball when he really should be flanking and using his speed.

Yep, Jetta. I wrote him off last year as lazy (and got killed by you guys for saying that). I stand by that as of today, but only just. He's getting there. He's got exceptional judgement of the ball in a one on one contest but tends to get lost in the wider contest.

And man, those boots. I swear to god the answer to Jetts lies in those boots. Why does he wear them? I think I know what he's getting at - something unique and recognisable that gets talked about and written about, etc etc. I love that stuff, but you have to own them and to do that, you have to earn them first. He needs to forget those dang boots for now. He can wear them later - his feet aren't going to grow any bigger for smegs sake.

[Danzar]

They're not going to win many games by playing 18 men in the backline. They may avoid some of the shellackings that Gold Coast received but they won't score many goals by relying on the odd break from the backline.

Having said that, it was a decent first up effort from them, and they kept playing for the whole four quarters. I thought they would tire as the game went on but it wasn't evident they were any more tired than the Swans.

I was surprised by their energy. Much better than the Suns looked for half a season. Even established teams can run out of legs - the Dees a few years back (I think right when Stynes replaced Gardner as President) would tank consistently about half way through the third quarter. Too many 0-50 gamers with stacks of talent but still developing their fitness.

Sheeds was all about defense tonight - flooded for much of the game (which worked in some parts but not all) and had a clear strategy to shut down our key play makers (which actually worked in my books).

I think it was the right thing to do.

I also liked how he used Izzy as a back up in the ruck - it will build his experience around the contested ball, particularly important given he's not of this sport and has to learn the subtleties as fast as possible.

[mcs]

Just back in Canberra after the long drive for what was a pretty awful display of 'AFL' football.

Firstly, I made a pledge to myself to not harp on about umpiring this season, but the helping hand given to the Giants was quite ridiculous. It was like the Giants were allowed to play by auskick rules at times with some of the ridiculous free they got. But anyway, we won't have umpiring that insipid most weeks hopefully.

I thought our skills generally were just as bad, if not even worse then last year (And worse than richmond were against GWS last week). Lots of poor balls missing leads, floaty kicks into the forward line, red hot handballs to guys already under pressure and some very ordinary shooting at goal. I know its the first game of the season and all, but it does not bode well for the rest of the season.

As usual, the ground conditions was rubbish, the atmosphere pretty bad (but the game was far from inspiring), and I find ANZ a very ordinary place to watch football - even sitting in the 3rd row of GA,you feel so far from the play in almost all the parts of the ground and spend 1/2 the game watching it on the big screen.

Kennedy was very good tonight, as was Jack, and Ted has become our Craig Bolton Mach II - Mr Reliable down back, always ready to take a good mark or clean up a messy situation. I was also impressed with Jetta tonight - he still made some silly errors, but his workrate was good around the ground and his tackling is improving. I also liked the little bit of Harry I saw tonight - didn't do anything special, but I like the way he goes about his business. I am looking forward to watching his development - we may well find that he becomes a regular in the team very quickly I think.

Poor old Sammy desperately needs some good goalkicking help.... he does so much right that it would be an awful shame for both him and the team for him to struggle because we aren't doing everything possible as a club to get his technique right. Still love his attack on the ball and his contested marking ability - when his kicking clicks he will become an absolute monster up forward.

All I can say out of that is I hope that is our worst performance of the year... for if we play worse than that at any stage, we will get hammered by any half decent team. GWS worked hard, pressured well, but it is pretty clear they are a young, very inexperienced side who will struggle to win more than 1 or 2 games. I said in the match prediction thread a 15 goal win would have been par for the course, and we should of got that but didnt.. A disappointing effort, but hey its rd 1 and we have a win on the board. I expect much, much better against Freo in a couple of weeks however or it could be ugly.

[DeadlyAkkuret]

Alright, so, my revised view of the game after the earlier frustration.

Pros:

Jetta. He's harder, smarter, and can kick goals. He looks like he belongs.

A lot of our best players seem disinterested and we still cruised. We'll be better for the run.

Reid getting touches even though he wasn't kicking goals. The kid is always in the game!

Parker before he got the wind knocked out of his sails.

JPK and Jack could be a very damaging duo in 2012 based on their first hitout.

Rohan is as tough as nails. It wasn't his flashiest night, but he stayed in the game and you could forgive him for having a quiet night after taking so many hits.

No one will flood harder than GWS this season. Their number one objective was to avoid a blowout.

Cons:

Reid's kicking for goal. Someone force him to have an all day kicking session with Nick Davis.

The forward line and the delivery into it, still very poor and Reid gets no help whatsoever. How can he kick 3-4 goals a game when he has to deal with 4 defenders?

A lack of hunger was understandable to an extent, but you can't just flick a switch and turn the confidence on. We better come out breathing fire against Fremantle at the SCG.

Goodes didn't take the free Brownlow votes on offer.

Cunningham came on too late and it showed. Horse needed to capatilise on his preseason form and GWS was the perfect opposition.

Our skills in general play are below average.

We obviously lack that killer instinct and it could see us come undone against superior opposition or even just a decent side. Our game tonight makes me worry that we could drop 2-3 games to weaker teams this year and I'll pull my hair out if that happens again.

The commentators were licking GWS junk all night and the umpires were worse. The bias towards the underdog was disgracefully obvious from the outset.




Round two is a chance to show that we can defeat a quality side and we're not just content with falling into the top 8 again.

[mcs]

I was surprised by their energy. Much better than the Suns looked for half a season. Even established teams can run out of legs - the Dees a few years back (I think right when Stynes replaced Gardner as President) would tank consistently about half way through the third quarter. Too many 0-50 gamers with stacks of talent but still developing their fitness.

I also liked how he used Izzy as a back up in the ruck - it will build his experience around the contested ball, particularly important given he's not of this sport and has to learn the subtleties as fast as possible.

Izzy, as shown by that tackle has the build and then good handball off, possibly has the skill to make it as an AFL player. But if they are going to play him as a forward, he has to learn how to lead very quickly. At the moment he seems to have no idea but to stand there waiting for a bomb in like he is still playing NRL. But he may get there, one day.

[Danzar]

Izzy, as shown by that tackle has the build and then good handball off, possibly has the skill to make it as an AFL player. But if they are going to play him as a forward, he has to learn how to lead very quickly. At the moment he seems to have no idea but to stand there waiting for a bomb in like he is still playing NRL. But he may get there, one day.

Completely agree. I reckon he got a famous Williams spray in that last quarter just before he came off the bench and made that tackle. Might do as a tap ruckman as well

[Danzar]

I don't know what to think. One of the worst games i have seen at this level, just have nothing...maybe..i'll try.

Homebush is a disgrace.

Not a good night to showcase the code tbh. CH 7 commentators gushing over GWS didn't make it any more pleasent to watch.

Seemed like we were still in pre season mode.

Bring on the real season next week.

+1 on your last two comments.

Oh and welcome back. Head over to 'The Sandpit' section of the forum. There's an award waiting for you

[bennyfabulous]

Watched it with another random swans man ( at a party, lucky to find one ) , we were both pretty disgusted with how we played. Margin aside, we played like crap tonight. Serve that up against port, we lose

Nope, No, No and No. Yes we played crap, but GWS had more intensity than Port has showed in a long time, just a scratchy start. Even with such poor execution i would like to think we could muster the intensity to still beat port.

[Panttz]

http://www.afl.com.au/Video/tabid/76/contentid/432705/invoke/Default.aspx

Good work Smithy on kicking those goals....


/killself

[Primmy]

Not going to read all the posts; probably saying pretty much what I would say.

NOT the best game I have ever seen. The crowd was weird - that's all I could say about it.

Seriously impressed by Teddy, Joey too (I see some here were not sure what he contributed, but he is magic at extracting the ball at the bounce), young AJ is going to be such a good player for the Swans, Jetts has learned a lot during the offseason, and his confidence and shutzpa has returned, Sam is still a kid (even with his build he is just a youngun) and is still on an upward path, why weren't there two proper ruckmen? get Seaby back, worried about Andrejs - he is a bit fluffy between the ears in a crisis, LRT is a BackMan, not a Forward!!!! FPS!Q!!.
Adam.....disappointed.

Right, will now watch the replay because I could not see much in the distance with that flicker fest of hording advertising obstructing what was happening.
Chips were (wait for it) $5.50!!!!! Thank heavens I brought my own goodies. But I just felt like a bit of fat and salt....

Finishing on a positive note. Is Kirky Gorgeous or What! The rest of the footy world is going to see just why we enjoyed his company; he looked at his interview subject instead of flicking his face to the camera all the time, but that happy face and proper hair do.....proud I am.

[Ruck'n'Roll]

Was I the only oldfart that had a flashback?

All those orange people dancing onto the ground before the main game started, it was like a Rajneeshi reunion (Hare Sheedy, hare hare Sheedy)



Actually while I was disappointed by the game it kind of went as predicted

The forwardline selected wasn't able to kick 20-30 goals

The Swans goalkicking yips continued

And ". . . these new teams often have a great deal of speed, especially with Rhys Shaw. I have no doubt our hard nut midfielders with go through the infants if they catch them, question is can we catch them?"
I guess the answer was yes we can catch them, but only on enough occasions to win by 10 goals.

[Ruck'n'Roll]

Speaking of flashbacks . . . is it just me or does "Gman" look an aweful lot like "Syndrome" ? The cartoon villain from the "Incredibles"

[erica]

Speaking of flashbacks . . . is it just me or does "Gman" look an aweful lot like "Syndrome" ? The cartoon villain from the "Incredibles"

Gman looked like he'd fall over in a strong breeze. Or if Cyggy went straight at him on his scooter.

[jono2707]

Speaking of flashbacks . . . is it just me or does "Gman" look an aweful lot like "Syndrome" ? The cartoon villain from the "Incredibles"

That ridiculous G-Man thing was greeted by howls of laughter - and those feet look like they're sponsored by a mafia concreter....