What's our problem?

[707]

This is shaping to be a year when any number of teams could win the flag including us.

Reflecting on the two losses.

How many more inside 50s did we have than Adelaide - 22 I was told so if that's true we should have won comfortably. That indicates something wrong with personel in the fwd 50, how we bring it in to the fwd 50 or both.

Against Wretchmond, from the small amount I could bear to watch it looked like we got smashed at the centre bounces and stoppages so that's a different problem than we had against Adelaide.

Injuries are no doubt hurting us but Goodes is a long way off, Mummy is still out for a while I believe and Rohan aint coming back this year folks so we'd better find replacements.

Hopes rest with Walsh as the strong leading FF, Spangher if he can get right and maybe Pyke. Tom Mitchell looks a pipe-dream to play any significant role this year. Maybe, just maybe we should try Morton even with his faults as the guy can play and can do the impossible near goals.

We need to do something quick before we fall too far back in the pack. Oh, and Everitt must go, all this crap about being versatile is just irrelevant if you don't get the footy!

[Wardy]

As I have said previously being a swans supporter is like being married. All the vows get a run (some more than others) and this is just a slight rocky patch we are going through at the moment. No matter what happens win or lose, we all kiss and make up (metaphorically speaking) eventually.

[Big Al]

It's funny you know, with the Swans I'm usually patient, don't go half cocked and generally let the coaches who know more than me do their thing but when it comes to the NRL and the Tigers, I'm worse than anyone on here. When the Tigers disappoint me, which is bloody often, my mate reckons I provide the comedy gold that Triple B mentioned earlier because my long winded texts demanding the coach to be sacked and generally abusing players is in his words, "piss funny" I can never work out why I'm calm in the AFL world (outsude of gameday of course) and a bloody lunatic in the NRL world.

[Primmy]

As I have said previously being a swans supporter is like being married. All the vows get a run (some more than others) and this is just a slight rocky patch we are going through at the moment. No matter what happens win or lose, we all kiss and make up (metaphorically speaking) eventually.

Kiss and make up huh? Just who did you have in mind Wardy. JPK? I am not limiting myself to any one though, I will line up each and every one of them.....I think.....hmm....this is sounding just a little bit creepy .... why was I born too late!!!

[Primmy]

It's funny you know, with the Swans I'm usually patient, don't go half cocked and generally let the coaches who know more than me do their thing but when it comes to the NRL and the Tigers, I'm worse than anyone on here. When the Tigers disappoint me, which is bloody often, my mate reckons I provide the comedy gold that Triple B mentioned earlier because my long winded texts demanding the coach to be sacked and generally abusing players is in his words, "piss funny" I can never work out why I'm calm in the AFL world (outsude of gameday of course) and a bloody lunatic in the NRL world.

There is a word for that, but I can't spell it. We used to call them skitzo.

[WeHaveTheGoodes]

Watching big burly blokes running at each other at fast speeds would do that too you.

[Big Al]

Watching big burly blokes running at each other at fast speeds would do that too you.

That sounds like Sat night at my local pub.

Probably has more to do with my club being able to pull defeat out of the jaws of victory like no other club in the world.

[Xie Shan]

We're a bunch of opinionated no-hopers who think that because we watch one game of footy a week and waste our lives in online footy forums we know better than a dedicated coaching team who each spend 50+ hours/week working directly with the team and planning strategy.

Sounds about right!

[Xie Shan]

I think it's going to be the kind of season where even the higher ranked teams are going to have the odd bad game, so we might be able to get away with some of our deficiencies a bit more than in other years. And some of said deficiencies are decidedly worrying still. The Tigers always seem to get up to play us nowadays (see my comment in the other thread), so maybe it wasn't a bad time for us to have a bad game. But we absolutely cannot afford to drop games to teams outside the eight if we are to have any chance.

[Wardy]

Yeah we are a team that when we are tipped to rip another team a new one, we lose. We then go on and beat the teams that we are supposed to be thrashed by. So we just have to wait and see which team of "chameleons" comes to play each week.

[Nico]

Injuries...first 5 rounds we were able to cover any injuries. Mumford goes down, then Goodes, and all of a sudden we are exposed. Also reckon Shaw is carrying a calf injury which restricted his start to the season. It doesn't take much to upset the balance of any side. We need our best 22 on the field for us to be a chance. Unfortunately that's not going to hapeen for some weeks. I think we need as few injuries as possible and Goodes, Mumford, LRT and Spangher in the side to be at our best.

[Melbourne_Blood]

I don't cop the injury excuse. We've had a breezy run compared to West Coast and especially the Bombers. If we are a contender, 3 or 4 injuries should be able to be covered. The teams mentioned above have played well missing as many as 7- 8 of their first 22.

[Nico]

I don't cop the injury excuse. We've had a breezy run compared to West Coast and especially the Bombers. If we are a contender, 3 or 4 injuries should be able to be covered. The teams mentioned above have played well missing as many as 7- 8 of their first 22.

You're right, but we are not able to cover the injuries as well as other sides. What we have to do is win as many games as possible before get those I mentioned back. St Kilda in 2 weeks now looks decidedly like a very hard game to win, as does the Essendon game before the bye.

[Melbourne_Blood]

Yeah they will both be tough, but we simply have to win them. I think there's a couple of selections that can ( and hopefully will) be made that could potentially improve us a fair bit. One of those had already been made in TDL, the others are getting Pyke and Walsh in at the expense of Dre and White. Walsh is a bit of an unknown but I think Pyke can certainly have a big impact for us. He would need to be held by a big defender in the forward line,( take some pressure off Reid) and is a pretty good tap ruckman who can tackle also. I am confident Walsh would at least give defenders backing into space something to think about, which White does not.

[Jewels]

We're a bunch of opinionated no-hopers who think that because we watch one game of footy a week and waste our lives in online footy forums we know better than a dedicated coaching team who each spend 50+ hours/week working directly with the team and planning strategy.

Oh sorry, just realised you were talking about the Swans....

Hahaha

I don't cop the injury excuse. We've had a breezy run compared to West Coast and especially the Bombers. If we are a contender, 3 or 4 injuries should be able to be covered. The teams mentioned above have played well missing as many as 7- 8 of their first 22.

I don't disagree with you about the injuries the Bombers and Eagles have had but I think it's the quality of player that we have lost that has hurt so much.
The Bombers lost Hurley and Hille, the equivalent to our losing Rohan and Mummy, but losing Watson would be the only player that could equate to our losing Goodes and I'm sure they would be a far, far lesser team if that were to happen. Likewise with the Eagles, they look a hell of a lot less threatening after they lost Naitanui.