Malthouse says Swans are predictable and easy to stop

[Cheer Squad]

I doubt anyone associated with the Swans would be impressed by those comments. I'm not. We're top of the ladder FFS!

We may well be top of the ladder at the moment, but I think there are legitimate question marks over the team.

We have notorious, longstanding hoodoos against two of the other top 4 teams - Adelaide and Collingwood. Both have defeated us this year. They may have been narrow defeats, but they were still defeats.

Saturday night was supposed to be when we finally overcame the Collingwood hoodoo, but we didn't. It was the same old story - another loss. Just like the loss to the Crows at the SCG earlier in the year.

If the top 4 remains the same at the end of the season, we will have to play at least one of these bogey sides in a Qualifying or Preliminary Final. Perhaps both. And until we defeat at least one of them, and preferably both, questions about our credentials will remain.

[Dirtyburt]

We may well be top of the ladder at the moment, but I think there are legitimate question marks over the team.

We have notorious, longstanding hoodoos against two of the other top 4 teams - Adelaide and Collingwood. Both have defeated us this year. They may have been narrow defeats, but they were still defeats.

Saturday night was supposed to be when we finally overcame the Collingwood hoodoo, but we didn't. It was the same old story - another loss. Just like the loss to the Crows at the SCG earlier in the year.

If the top 4 remains the same at the end of the season, we will have to play at least one of these bogey sides in a Qualifying or Preliminary Final. Perhaps both. And until we defeat at least one of them, and preferably both, questions about our credentials will remain.

That is a very well made point

[ShockOfHair]

Demetriou in 2005, Malthouse to inspire us this September.

[gomobeel]

absolutely...malthouse is a tool who loves the sound of his own voice....can't believe the first post had malthouse & humble in the same paragraph!....swans can win the flag...no doubt....and if they do just can't see ol' micky lining up to put his 2 bobs worth in then...

[GongSwan]

absolutely...malthouse is a tool who loves the sound of his own voice....can't believe the first post had malthouse & humble in the same paragraph!....swans can win the flag...no doubt....and if they do just can't see ol' micky lining up to put his 2 bobs worth in then...

How sweet would that be, there may be questions to be answered about our forward structure, it would be nice to have a really big bodied great marking forward, but we don't, so tactics are going to become more important. Horse will need to earn his pay come finals, not that he hasn't already

[SwansFan1972]

We may well be top of the ladder at the moment, but I think there are legitimate question marks over the team.

We have notorious, longstanding hoodoos against two of the other top 4 teams - Adelaide and Collingwood. Both have defeated us this year. They may have been narrow defeats, but they were still defeats.

Saturday night was supposed to be when we finally overcame the Collingwood hoodoo, but we didn't. It was the same old story - another loss. Just like the loss to the Crows at the SCG earlier in the year.

If the top 4 remains the same at the end of the season, we will have to play at least one of these bogey sides in a Qualifying or Preliminary Final. Perhaps both. And until we defeat at least one of them, and preferably both, questions about our credentials will remain.

Ok - gotcha. Might just as well run up the white flag now and leave it to Mick's 'better sides' to fight for the flag. Both of whom - by the way - have 10 goal thumpings among their losses this year. Not too many premiership sides in recent years (Port in 2004 was the last team belted to such an extent who went on to win) have copped a flogging of such proportions during the season. Might say that is reason enough to have legitimate question marks over whether either of them are worthy contenders this year. It's a good enough knock for me - you heard it here first - neither the Pies nor the Hawks will win the flag this year. Flag sides just don't get beaten by that much (nor should they). The Pies have been bloody lucky the last two weeks - if not for a rampant umpiring fraternity last week and a bit more straight shooting this week they'd have banked 2 points rather than 8 and would be in a fight with the Beagles for 4th. If Mick reckons such a team is one of the best in the comp, he's well and truly showing that his own best is behind him. Carlton beware!

Any team needs the planets to align to win a flag, and surely the Swans have as much chance as any of the other top sides this year. For the record, we couldn't beat the crows in 05 or 06 either. Didn't matter much in the final wash up though! Every team might have a bogey side they want to dodge, but hey, those same teams are all one step closer to when they WILL beat their nemesis (or nemeses!!)! When better to do it than when the stakes are as high as a final!

[Cheer Squad]

Here's some more commentary on Malthouse in this morning's Herald:

What does Malthouse know?

Q - What does Malthouse know?
A - How to beat the Swans

No prizes for guessing that.

[DamY]

I don't really believe in this bogey hoodoo crap, like Horse says, player lists change, coaches change, venues change, day to day performances change. It's like that MCG hoodoo crap, "Swans haven't won since xx" but if they played there more than once or twice a year, the result would be different. It's like if I walked down George Street and got robbed once, and never walked down George Street again, I could say "OMG George Street hoodoo, it's the most dangerous street in the world, 100% probability of being robbed". If we were say Collingwood and played there 11 times a year and we lost a lot of those games, then YES maybe I would say they're screwed, but it's only once or twice so I don't believe it. The most recent Collingwood game as well as the Adelaide game just got away in the dying minutes of the game, it really could have gone either way but it just fell their way at the last minute. Same with the Essendon and Geelong games, but I don't see anyone calling those hoodoos yet! (Or maybe they do on the other boards). Maybe they're just close games. Maybe it's just the nature of sports.

[Swansongster]

Ok - gotcha. Might just as well run up the white flag now and leave it to Mick's 'better sides' to fight for the flag. Both of whom - by the way - have 10 goal thumpings among their losses this year. Not too many premiership sides in recent years (Port in 2004 was the last team belted to such an extent who went on to win) have copped a flogging of such proportions during the season. Might say that is reason enough to have legitimate question marks over whether either of them are worthy contenders this year. It's a good enough knock for me - you heard it here first - neither the Pies nor the Hawks will win the flag this year. Flag sides just don't get beaten by that much (nor should they). The Pies have been bloody lucky the last two weeks - if not for a rampant umpiring fraternity last week and a bit more straight shooting this week they'd have banked 2 points rather than 8 and would be in a fight with the Beagles for 4th. If Mick reckons such a team is one of the best in the comp, he's well and truly showing that his own best is behind him. Carlton beware!

Any team needs the planets to align to win a flag, and surely the Swans have as much chance as any of the other top sides this year. For the record, we couldn't beat the crows in 05 or 06 either. Didn't matter much in the final wash up though! Every team might have a bogey side they want to dodge, but hey, those same teams are all one step closer to when they WILL beat their nemesis (or nemeses!!)! When better to do it than when the stakes are as high as a final!

I'll stick with this more optimistic view.

Irrespective of who we play in the finals, it is going to come down to who we have fit to put on the pitch and how we turn up on the day.

At our best (or even close to our best), there is no team or ground we should fear. All we need is minimal injury impact and a couple of good performances in September and we are into the grand final where anything can happen and our mix of hardness and spread should stand us in good stead.

Don't care what the experts say. We are a huge chance to go all the way this year.

[erica]

I'll stick with this more optimistic view.

Irrespective of who we play in the finals, it is going to come down to who we have fit to put on the pitch and how we turn up on the day.

At our best (or even close to our best), there is no team or ground we should fear. All we need is minimal injury impact and a couple of good performances in September and we are into the grand final where anything can happen and our mix of hardness and spread should stand us in good stead.

Don't care what the experts say. We are a huge chance to go all the way this year.

Totally agree. We can do this.

[wolftone57]

Interesting that Malthouse says Sydney have been helped by an easy draw. That is statistically crap and I can prove it. We drew only one easybeat in GWS twice, Hawks drew Power, Cats drew what looked like easybeats Crows, Eagles drew Lions. As it turned out Bullies have gone from a top 12 team to very much eastbeats and both Cats and Swans drew them and Crows turned out to be solid performers so Cats lose one there.

As it turns out we have played only two easybeats twice compared to Cats, Hawks & WCE one and Pies none. The Pies had the hardest draw of all the sides but they play at home 14 times and travel four times. Hawks play 13 at the G, 3 at Aurora and three away. Cats play 7 at Cattery, 4 at Etihad which is second home I think, 5 at G and 5 away. Eagles play 12 home, 10 away and only 2 at the G. We play 9 at the SCG, 3 at ANZ and 10 Away but only one away game at the G. All the sides that have played in the latest grand finals play at the MCG a lot. Cats, Hawks & Pies all play there regularly as well as Cats having a distinct advantage at the Cattery. Saints play at Etihad but do also play a lot of away games at the MCG.

[Auntie.Gerald]

Go the Pies



simply the best Mick when the Kanga's put you to the sword !!!

[DLBIA14]

What I find annoying about his bull@@@@ is that he acts like the Hawks and Pies somehow deserve to be ahead of us. I can understand if he thinks we are a relatively weak top of the table team when compared to previous years, but I can't for one moment accept that those two teams deserve to be top 2. The fact of the matter is, if they deserved it they would be there.

The karma bus has come to town.

[erica]

Oh happy day.

[undy]

schadenfreude