Just imagine...

[JudesaGun]

... if we can string 4 quarters together. Watch out!

Fade outs a worry but good sign we can still beat the top teams playing so inconsistently.

[swanspant12]

My god, why can we not play 4 quarters? One reason is we have a makeshift key forward in LRT, we need another key forward! through the draft or the trade table, why do you think the cats got back into the game? Podsiadly and Hawkins.

[Red]

And McInerney.

[bloodsman]

Looked to me that other than bolton our mids were out of gas and couldn't win the contested ball. Also we don't handle the spare man in defence which occurred after quarter time.

[goswannie14]

Looked to me that other than bolton our mids were out of gas and couldn't win the contested ball. Also we don't handle the spare man in defence which occurred after quarter time.

I don't understand why they didn't put someone back to man up the loose man. That negates the man being able to do what they want. Make them accountable, put an attacking player on them then they have to worry about their opponent.

[SwansFan1972]

My god, why can we not play 4 quarters? One reason is we have a makeshift key forward in LRT, we need another key forward! through the draft or the trade table, why do you think the cats got back into the game? Podsiadly and Hawkins.

And McInerney.

+1 - the numbers of frees don't tell the story. Cats got far the better of the context of the frees (in front of goal and in pulling up our play). Goodes 'play on' call was (as someone posted elsewhere) one of the worst calls of all time. No step or movement off the line, but the trigger happy umpie pre-empts and blew the whistle on what he thought was going to happen. Lots of other dodgy calls and even more non-calls.

The umpires department used to always defend their men by saying they only call what they see, but you don't hear that this year. Far too many examples of guessing and paying what they think is going to happen for that defence to have any credibility at the moment.

Agree with others that a solid 4 quarter performance would be great, but on the (very) bright side, one quarter of ours was enough to beat three quarters of theirs. Who would have said pre-game we could lose three quarters to them and still win?!?!?! Hopefully the 4 quarter package will be ready to be delivered in late August and throughout September!

[erica]

The umpires department used to always defend their men by saying they only call what they see, but you don't hear that this year. Far too many examples of guessing and paying what they think is going to happen for that defence to have any credibility at the moment.

I think the umpiring in general (not just Swans games) this year has been poor. So much happens on the field that the umpires simply do not see. Are they in the wrong positions too often?

[aardvark]

I don't notice the umpires a lot but I did last night. They were very ordinary.

[SwansFan1972]

I think the umpiring in general (not just Swans games) this year has been poor. So much happens on the field that the umpires simply do not see. Are they in the wrong positions too often?

Agree absolutely - umpiring across the comp has fallen off a cliff compared to previous years. I can't remember which game it was, but there was a touched off the boot call made which was simply unbelievable. Replays showed the ball was about half a metre clear of the player who supposedly touched it - just writing that makes it sound impossible, but it happened!

They have an unbelievably tough job to do, but too often they seem to focus on the tiggy frees and miss the blatant and worthy ones. And they are clearly not adhering to the 'pay only what you see' doctrine!

[ugg]

I think it's hard to sustain such an enervating game plan for four quarters, all the hard running that saw us kick away in the first quarter probably came back to bite us on the bum later in the match. It applied to this game, the Essendon game as well as probably the Bulldogs game but the Dogs weren't good enough to capitalise like the other 2 teams were. Longmire's game plan has released the shackles which is great to see and is producing results but there should be periods in the game where we need to slow it down, chip it around and/or force stoppages like we were so good at doing during the Roos Era. We need to do so especially when the opposition has the momentum. There were times yesterday when guys like Teddy were trying to slow the play down by giving the classic 'pat down' motion but the natural instinct to play on has been drilled into this team and it's a hard habit to break.

[DLBIA14]

We need to play tempo footy like in the premiership era. Fast bursts that are consolidated with holding, slow, tight footy that frustrates and strangles to opposition. That'll save us from running out of puff as we have done this season.

You're right Ugg. There were moments in the 4th were as a supporter you almost expected then to take the short kicks, hold the ball, force the stoppages and they just didn't. What really frustrated me was that they constantly kicked it long to a contest on the members side of the wing. They never used the fat side to make a fast running break and they never used it to get to a free man. It was predictable and stupid considering we were beaten in the air and then Geelong had the numbers at the ball drop.

It's going to be obvious once they watch the replay. I do think it is bad from a coaching side that they didn't encourage the side to try something different when Geelong was dominating.

Nevertheless we won, but honestly I spent most of the second half thinking we were going to blow it.

[Dan]

I don't understand why they didn't put someone back to man up the loose man. That negates the man being able to do what they want. Make them accountable, put an attacking player on them then they have to worry about their opponent.

If we move a player from our back line to match up on their loose man this would open up their forward line, giving Hawkins and Podsiadly even more space to lead into, and Motlop and their other faster players to run into (like we try to set up for Jetta). Also our forward line is then crowed, no room for forwards to lead and Jetta to run into.

[liz]

I seem to be going against the grain a bit here, but I didn't mind the umpiring yesterday. We benefitted from a few relatively soft ones early, and were probably on the wrong end of a few later in the game. But since the media discussion a few weeks ago about how some players create head high contact, there seems to have been a definite shift towards letting minor head high contact go where it is initiated by the player with the ball. And I like that. There were many frees that could have been paid yesterday that weren't, but I'd much rather the umpires err on that side than blow the whistle every minute or so.

In answer to why we can't play four good quarters, at least part of the answer is 'because there is another team out there'. And for the last two matches, it has been a high quality opponent. The Cats are far from at their best right now, but it was close to a full strength team, and they have a significant number of high quality and competitive players. People shouldn't underestimate the achievement of beating an almost full-strength reigning premier in a high stakes game with our two most important players well short of top fitness (and form) and our main outside runner well-checked for most of the night.

The fact that we actually lost the lead but found a way to wrest back control made the win very impressive to me. It speaks of a team that now has the self-confidence to match it with the best teams, and not just come away with honourable losses but to win the points, even when not playing great football for much of the game. There wasn't a single player out there (well, maybe other than Goodes and Mumford) who didn't make a number of really significant contributions to the win, even if at other times they also made mistakes. As Nico has pointed out in the match day thread, with Goodes off the ground in the last few minutes, our hardened leaders - especially ROK, Macca and Ted - were outstanding in finding ways to keep the ball going in the right direction.

[Nico]

On fade outs; it may be we have a fitness regime that is building towards finals footy. At some point I think these fade outs will cease all of sudden. Ted Richards on SEN this morning pointed out that we were playing a quality side that never gives up and they expected them to come at us in the second half, and we were up to it.

[Lucky Knickers]

Liz I'm not sure I agree with your umpiring sentiments ????but find myself in complete accord about the team performing significant acts in that final quarter.
Reg was excellent: punch out in a contest with Hawkins on the wing. Tackle on wojo (iirc) and taking the candy from wojo halting 3 Geelong attacks.