I hate these games!

[Melbourne_Blood]

We should have an edge in the ruck I agree, but I wouldn't be underestimating the influence Mcevoy can have on a game. He is a very good player, and his marking around the ground is superb.

[Go Swannies]

Nope - I love these games. The Swans were back from WA, had a stack of favourable PR and were playing a team well below them. And the Saints really came to play - they are out of the 8 after that loss so it was important to them. And we played bad footy but with enough grit to get the win - then broke the game open. It was like a few years ago when we'd play the Cats and I'd think "we're playing as well as them" and then suddenly we are five goals down - we did a Cats: enough to win against a good, near full strength team. And that's despite Jetta and Goodes being largely irrelevant. How good was Pyke - he was tapping very well and taking contested marks and tackling hard? We should take as much from all that as we did from the slick show in Perth.

And, strangely, despite starting this thread, at the game I was pretty sure we'd win throughout as long as we didn't do anything stupid. For a while in Q1 I thought the umpiring would gift the Saints the game but we played as if we didn't care rather than drop our heads as the Swans have done in the past.

It's like we have several gears - the first gear grunt is definitely Kennedy and Jack. Top gear is Jetta and Goodes in full flight.

[mcs]

Nope - I love these games. The Swans were back from WA, had a stack of favourable PR and were playing a team well below them. And the Saints really came to play - they are out of the 8 after that loss so it was important to them. And we played bad footy but with enough grit to get the win - then broke the game open. It was like a few years ago when we'd play the Cats and I'd think "we're playing as well as them" and then suddenly we are five goals down - we did a Cats: enough to win against a good, near full strength team. And that's despite Jetta and Goodes being largely irrelevant. How good was Pyke - he was tapping very well and taking contested marks and tackling hard? We should take as much from all that as we did from the slick show in Perth.

And, strangely, despite starting this thread, at the game I was pretty sure we'd win throughout as long as we didn't do anything stupid. For a while in Q1 I thought the umpiring would gift the Saints the game but we played as if we didn't care rather than drop our heads as the Swans have done in the past.

It's like we have several gears - the first gear grunt is definitely Kennedy and Jack. Top gear is Jetta and Goodes in full flight.

Good summary of yesterday's game GS!

We won without playing well - which is what good sides do. And as I said in another thread last week, when one or two of our players have a down day (Jetta and Goodes yesterday), others stand up, such as Jack and Kennedy.
I also really like how this team never looks rattled recently. Even when we were really struggling in the first quarter (same as last week), we didn't resort to panic football, but just took little steps to stem the flow, and then get on top in the 2nd quarter. That ability to quell momentum, stop the bleeding and then find a way to get back into the game and finally take the momentum in the game was a great skill of the 05-06 vintage Swans - and it is critical to challenging for the Premiership.