Are we contenders in 2012?

[Industrial Fan]

If my memory serves me correctly, last time we won the flag we lost to Richmond at the G...

It's only round 7. Same as we were getting carried away after winning a few on the trot, two losses now will have no bearing on our form heading into September. More than enough time to make the top 4.

We'll get a few players back from injury, and as always a couple of youngsters will impress in the back half.

I still think we're thereabouts.

[sok]

Good teams, contenders, don't carry out of form players or players .....

You are right. Horse needs to be ruthless if we want to make it. Sam Ried has not performed at all in the last two matches. Ried, Mcglynn, Everett and White need to be send to the reserves.

We should give chance to reserve players to step up. Next game with the Demons should be a good time to do that. C'Mon Horse.

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[chunksngravy]

I like hearing some fans optimistic and positive spin on Sat nights showing, but after nearly 50 years of supporting the swannies through thick and very thin this was the first ever match that I left before the siren! I can forgive a spanking by a better side but we were so lacking in any intensity we made Richmond (Richmond for god's sake) look excellent. A few weeks ago we were gloating about our depth-Time to start using them Horse.

[WeHaveTheGoodes]

ok we got our usual 1-2 games that make ordinary teams looks skillfull and flag contenders out of the way. I expect these games every year.

And we are now...

Richmonds Bitches.


\0/

[BillyRayCypress]

ok we got our usual 1-2 games that make ordinary teams looks skillfull and flag contenders out of the way. I expect these games every year.

And we are now...Richmonds Bitches.\0/

No Goodes, no Swans. Richmond has troubled the Swans for years, so there is no now about it.

[Plugger46]

No Goodes, no Swans. Richmond has troubled the Swans for years, so there is no now about it.

I think you'll find that's off the mark. We used to beat them all the time up until that game in 2010.

It's round 7. When you bank wins early as we did, you can afford to drop a couple.

Even year and we're right in the mix.

[Ruck'n'Roll]

No Goodes, no Swans.

That may be an exageration, but in losing Goodes we lost both midfield speed and an effective key forward.
Co-incidentally they are the two areas where we have been a perennial problem. Until we fix at least one of these problems we're not really going to be a contender, and we won't win another flag until we get some sort of remedy in place for both.

[Melbourne_Blood]

I don't think speeds as much of an issue. When our midfield are firing they move the ball well and spread well. When our midfield get beaten, we will lose every time. Though without a froward line we will struggle even when our mids are up, but when they are up they do kick goals. Our back line managed to stand up reasonable well considering what they were asked to withstand. Most of other defenses wouldn't have held up that well I dont think.

[WeHaveTheGoodes]

Goodes is our Mr Fix It. How many more loses would we have had if Goodes didnt step up with 3-4 2nd half goals to pip us over the line. Or how many times has he busted open a game in the 3rd qrt.

I thought we would have copped well when we beat the dawks in tassie..but the reality is the dawks went to sleep in the 2nd half of that game.

So yeah we are essentially a one man team atm..as much as we might deny it.

[Ruck'n'Roll]

I don't think speeds as much of an issue.

We don't lose games from it every week (just as the absence of a forward line doesn't lose us a game every week) but with Goodes, Jetta and Rohan all playing we look quite acceptable speed-wise.
In the absence of 2 of them we look very slow.
Actually if you think about it, at the moment with only one player available with genuine pace, we are in the same position we were in a few years ago when the club recognised that the team had a pace problem and got in Rohan, Jetta and Byron Sumner.
So I shall have to disagree,

[Dogzbody]

Geez there is some negativity going around. Remember:
* the critical footy is always played in Winter
* two weeks ago everyone was drunk on how well we are going which is the same as getting drunk on how bad we are going..... ie this is footy, you are going to win and lose games
* Richmond are better than anyone gave the credit for, and Adelaide just smashed the cats (they are genuinely good this year)
* When we won the flag in 05 the CEO wrote us off at the start of the year due to perceived football incompetence (it wasnt winter yet and for memory we had a 2-4 start)
* The game swings so quickly, just about every club has vulnerability with injury and consistency during a season at some point.
* It is designed to be an even competition (cough cough....Adelaide and WCE draw)

Our time for consolidation comes now, we are 5-2 for goodness sake. We have intent, knowledge of our issues and a great fighting spirit.

I think this will be an enjoyable year yet!!!!!

[bodgie]

I think the negativity arises quite quickly because our game plan is pretty thin. It relies on the midfield dominating and contesting. If it has an off day there is very little in the way of plan B.

Throw Goodes forward we lose midfield speed (especially without Rohan)

No forward line to aim for if the mids aren't doing it

A mono ruck plan where Mumford/Seaby at the moment are vulnerable after 2 or 3 games.

After 3 or 4 years a lot of people here are pretty alert to the fact our coaches haven't developed the forwards or the personell is simply not there!

[Xie Shan]

No Goodes, no Swans. Richmond has troubled the Swans for years, so there is no now about it.

In recent years we've actually beaten them more often than not, but in particular since the 2010 game when we gave up that lead and they rallied late to snatch a win (think this was the game when Andrew Collins kicked the winner after being knocked out) they have grown another leg against us... wins like that are like gold in terms of building a team's self belief... we only have ourselves to blame really. Coincidentally that proved to be one Ben Cousins' last game against the Swans.

[Jewels]

I think the negativity arises quite quickly because our game plan is pretty thin. It relies on the midfield dominating and contesting. If it has an off day there is very little in the way of plan B.

Throw Goodes forward we lose midfield speed (especially without Rohan)

No forward line to aim for if the mids aren't doing it

A mono ruck plan where Mumford/Seaby at the moment are vulnerable after 2 or 3 games.

After 3 or 4 years a lot of people here are pretty alert to the fact our coaches haven't developed the forwards or the personell is simply not there!

What a load of bollocks!
Love or hate Longmire, one thing you have to give him is his willingness to change things up when the games not going our way, so I don't think the no plan B criticism stands up anymore.
Every team in the comp relies on their midfied for dominance. The midfield is the engine room, no engine - no running, so I really can't see where it's so wrong to base a game plan around it. Our midfield had a shocker on Saturday, plain and simple as that. Up until this week they had been pretty bloody good, but this week every line suffered because it was either going into the Tigers forwards too easily, therefore putting far to much pressure on the backline or being bombed madly into our forward line.
And finally, I think the coaching and the recruiting staff are well aware of our shortcomings in the forward line and have been working toward fixing the problem but they don't have a magic wand and it will take time. Walsh and Morton were both recruited to address the problem and hopefully in the not too distant future they will, but for now it's all a matter of geting the combinations woking, a problem that has intensified tenfold with the injuries to Goodes and Rohan and the lack of success of Everitt and White.

[longmile]

A mono ruck plan where Mumford/Seaby at the moment are vulnerable after 2 or 3 games.

After 3 or 4 years a lot of people here are pretty alert to the fact our coaches haven't developed the forwards or the personell is simply not there!

I think the ruck problem was the most prominent lesson to be learnt from the Richmond game. Our below par forward line was already a known issue, seen in our midfielders being our leading goal kickers. But our so-called deep ruck stocks have been exposed. I think when Mumford returns we should consider playing two ruckmen like Mumford and Seaby/Pyke and leave White at full forward to develop his game and hopefully add some structure with Reid and TDL, who are all young players and will develop a good forward line in the near future. The majority of the top teams have played with two ruckmen, something we've tried very little of since the sub rule