GAME DAY thread Swans v Cats Round 23

[BillyRayCypress]

I'm not negative. I hit the lead in my footy tipping.

Hannerbury had a poor game today. Really stuffed up a fair bit.

Well if at the start of the season, we were all told we would finish 3rd and be playing Crows in the first final, no one would have been complaining.

So bring on the Crows.

[Xie Shan]

The thing Geelong have that we don't is some big experienced bodies.
Many of our mob are still pretty raw.
I thought our skills were pretty good, but theirs (and hawks) were far superior.

Just need to get the form back that sunk the eagles. Last good game we played and won.

Playing the Crows won't help, according to Guy McKenna they are built like tanks! Or is he saying that the hoops make them look fat?

An undersized Suns outfit was shown up on Saturday afternoon by a Crows team that McKenna likened to "M1 tanks".

Adelaide has attributed some of its success in 2012 to its players' bigger bodies and with the Crows' fitness manager Stephen Schwerdt to join the Suns for next season, McKenna is hopeful his youngsters could develop in similar fashion.

"You saw today, whether it's the hoops of Adelaide ... it's like the M1 tanks playing with little dune buggies out there," McKenna said.

http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/146373/default.aspx

[Hazcam]

I'm not negative. I hit the lead in my footy tipping.

Hannerbury had a poor game today. Really stuffed up a fair bit.

Well if at the start of the season, we were all told we would finish 3rd and be playing Crows in the first final, no one would have been complaining.

So bring on the Crows.

You make a good point. I was expecting a top 6 finish after last year and we have done well to be 3rd. Oh so close to be 1st with just losses to cats, st kilda and Richmond if those other games went our way.

[Wazza]

Will be interesting to see what they do with Armstrong next week. Assuming Smith's ailment is minor (anyone know why he pulled out) he'll be an automatic inclusion. But Armstrong was definitely one of our best two or three today.

Agree Liz the biggest positive of the day was Armstrong really showed something

Cheers

waz

[Wazza]

We had one bad game for Gods sake - ONE!

We have had a bad month and the weaknest in all 3 loses was a poorly structured fwd line...we have been going on about the fwd structure since rnd 3 saying the style of play wont hold up It wont get better reid isnt going to make any difference he is 1 - 2 years away. The frustration is the selections over the last 4 weeks, Reid has been injured for weeks. Why give Morton 40 mins footy then drop him?? why bring in walsh for the most critical game of the year??

We have failed against teams we need to beat to be a true contender who cares how we beat GWS or Gold Coast , the 2 loses against Coll and Haw were very similar our inability to score when the pressure was really at a finals level.
We have had some easy games which have covered the obvious weakness in our game plan and structure been saying it consistently here since rnd 3 this fwd struture will not win finals... sad but true.

Cheers

Waz

[Bloody Hell]

Watched a replay.

Early Armstrong was very good, but faded late. Walsh played very well, and was the difference in the end. I think he was subbed with an eye on Parker and the fact he will probably play a full game next week. When he was subbed I think it was 53-53. Midway through the fourth it was 98-54...crazy. He has improved massively. These 2 were nowhere near the worst.

The boys look tired....need to beat the Crows next week for any chance of a GF.

[Swansinger]

My humble observations :

1)We got smashed in the centre.

2)Walsh , though ineffective , tried hard.

3)We missed Smiffy , but at least LRT got some time time down back.
Can't recall when I last saw him in our defensive 50.

4)We missed Sam as a target . Not an excuse , just a simple fact.
We do not seem to be able to cover for missing players well enough.

5)Just like last week , we turned the ball over far too often.
Credit to the Moggies for the pressure , but if we cannot deal with it , we won't go far.

6)Tony Armstrong might not be as great as his late namesake - but he will be very , very good.
I re-affirm my belief that he will , eventually , become a midfielder.
Trivia : he will be 24 on Grand Final Day.

7) I don't think Reg will get wiped out for next week. If he does , he'll be hard to replace - unless we have somebody to impersonate a statue.

8)Again , we delivered the ball to players' shins too much.

[giant]

Will be interesting to see what they do with Armstrong next week. Assuming Smith's ailment is minor (anyone know why he pulled out) he'll be an automatic inclusion. But Armstrong was definitely one of our best two or three today.

Slight tightness of the hammy apprently, should be good for next week.

Very much liked Armstrong's game and particularly liked the way he would often look to straighten us up thru the midfield - not unlike Tadhg used to do. Used the ball well and was one of the few out there that played with real energy - sometimes it doesn't hurt to switch things around a bit. Hope he gets a game vs his old club.

[giant]

Watched a replay.

Early Armstrong was very good, but faded late. Walsh played very well, and was the difference in the end. I think he was subbed with an eye on Parker and the fact he will probably play a full game next week. When he was subbed I think it was 53-53. Midway through the fourth it was 98-54...crazy. He has improved massively. These 2 were nowhere near the worst.

The boys look tired....need to beat the Crows next week for any chance of a GF.

Agree totally on Walsh - unquestionably the game had turned before he was subbed even if it wasn't reflected on the scoreboard, but it still seemed a really strange sub to me. I would have thought LRT or Bird would have been better options, both had ordinary games (I assume Bird was playing the defensive forward role on Enright? But at some point you have to release these tags and make a shot at winning).

[Dirtyburt]

Sure, ok. Take a deep breath, calm down and play the exactly same way as the past fortnight.

Yep, only execute better

[Dirtyburt]

Excuse me but I am talking about next year if you managed to by any chance read rudimentary English. Why don't you bother to read the thread properly? You obviously just skim or don't bother or are incapable of discerning what people are saying! If YOU/BURT looked very closely I say;

I always thought next year would be a better bet than this year anyway. I would think that was the plan anyway, that is why we recruited, Mitchell, Brown, Lamb, Biggs, Cunningham & Lockyer


Does this make it any clearer for you or do I have to spell it out!

You are correct in one respect, I rarely read the drivel

[Daisi]

I seem to recall another game against Port Adelaide at AAMI....That was a final too....now, mmm didn't we win that one? Wasn't that just a fabulous hard fought contest? We can do it again....I believe...

[Bloody Hell]

My humble observations :

1)We got smashed in the centre.

2)Walsh , though ineffective , tried hard.

3)We missed Smiffy , but at least LRT got some time time down back.
Can't recall when I last saw him in our defensive 50.

4)We missed Sam as a target . Not an excuse , just a simple fact.
We do not seem to be able to cover for missing players well enough.

5)Just like last week , we turned the ball over far too often.
Credit to the Moggies for the pressure , but if we cannot deal with it , we won't go far.

6)Tony Armstrong might not be as great as his late namesake - but he will be very , very good.
I re-affirm my belief that he will , eventually , become a midfielder.
Trivia : he will be 24 on Grand Final Day.

7) I don't think Reg will get wiped out for next week. If he does , he'll be hard to replace - unless we have somebody to impersonate a statue.

8)Again , we delivered the ball to players' shins too much.

I was going to reply to say that 2 is harsh on Walsh - provided a contest and was clear on a number of occasions only to - well you have it covered under 8. Would have kicked 5 if he had the Hawks midfield delivering it to him.

[Rob-bloods]

It's not looking great TBH. Grundy is a liability and we need to replace him, his mistakes are always really stupid ones and he bleeds goals with his panic attacks, Armstrong was impressive especially considering the poor performance overall. We must have cleared defence under no pressure and kicked to a Cat uncontested at least 10 times. Jetta has been ineffective in every BIG game. It was a real dog day yesterday, perhaps just a blip and we can come out firing next week.
Next year we need a key forward and a key defender to come from somewhere to win the big games consistently.

[Nico]

I think Armstrong might be better value as a small forward. Looking at the Saints today they had 3 small forwards who were the difference in the end. Armstrong reads the play well and may very well help with our forward defensive work. Those stats were horrid at Geelong. 5 forward 50 tackles. Certainly a better bet than TDL.