Swans: Just win.

[barry]

They say that great achievement comes from great opportunities. And this preliminary final could not be a better opportunity.

We have had:
- The longer rest
- No suspensions. Only one injury (McGlynn)
- Playing at home.

Pies have had:
- 6 day break
- hard game
- Captain suspended.
- Injury clouds over several key players
- Emotional interuption with J Mac funeral.
- Travelling.

Swans players, the only thing stopping you getting to a grand final is yourselves. There are no excuses.

[ScottH]

3 things I'd like to see which will help us win.

1) Pyke had an ordinary start against the Crows. Needs to make more of a statement.
2) Jetta needs to fire up the rocket boosters we saw in the 1st 3/4 of the season.
3) All out attack on the ball. At least once against the crows the ball bounced in front of several swans who stood back waiting for the other to get the ball. Ended up in a Crows haands.

[Rod_]

Ditto

And we want it more is the only add. We must want it more than the Pies

Rod_

[mcs]

Ditto

And we want it more is the only add. We must want it more than the Pies

Rod_

That's the thing that sums it up. We must show we want it more - at every ball up, every marking contest, every time the ball is in dispute, our boys have to show that we want it more. Do that, and the rest will take care of itself.

[Mrs Shaw]

Swans: Just win.

If we can win the centre clearances, we've got it in the bag. Come out hard and fast and the game is ours

We can win this, the boys just need to get that into their heads.

It's their nerves that worry me, there better not be any silly mistakes.

[ScottH]

If we can win the centre clearances, we've got it in the bag. Come out hard and fast and the game is ours

We can win this, the boys just need to get that into their heads.

It's their nerves that worry me, there better not be any silly mistakes.

That's asking a lot Kyles!!

[swansprincess]

If we can win the centre clearances, we've got it in the bag. Come out hard and fast and the game is ours

We can win this, the boys just need to get that into their heads.

It's their nerves that worry me, there better not be any silly mistakes.

I agree that's the big thing! Jolly was completely dominated last week by cox and nic nat, but the pies smashed them in the clearances and that's where the game was won. If we can beat them there, the game can be ours.

[Mrs Shaw]

Swans: Just win.

That's asking a lot Kyles!!

Mistakes will come from nerves. If they can settle their nerves early they will be fine.

[barry]

3 things I'd like to see which will help us win.

1) Pyke had an ordinary start against the Crows. Needs to make more of a statement.

Pyke was well beaten by Rutten, but Rutten also thrashed Pavlich the following week. Rutten is in hot form, and matches up well on less mobile big forwards.

I can excuse Pyke for that game, but would want to see a lift this weekend.

[Swannette]

Read something of an analysis of our last meeting and the gist of it was - we won clearances and got more of the ball from disputed situations and may have had more inside fiftys too but the thing that journo identified as the clincher was the pies had much better spread and run. Am no analyst meself but thought that made sense. Which brings us back to the old pearler of needing to want it more above everything else. Bring it on!

[Alan]

Pyke was well beaten by Rutten.

I was at the Crows game and watched a number of contests between Mumford/Jacobs and Pyke/Rutten through binoculars and Pyke, on several occasions, was unduly and without reasonable justification manhandled out of contests by Rutten (Crows fans call him "the truck"). Most of these were marking contests and would have been penalised between round 1-23. He did take a couple of good pack marks on the way out of D50 and aided us getting into F50. On the hole it was a very tight congested game and Mummy found it tough to get down to ground level and have his usual influence because there were so many other people there. I did not notice Mummy spending time in F50 when he was not rucking, probably to keep it open.

[Rod_]

Round 19 to Round 20 Pies - 7 Days, Swans 6 Days. both had hard games Saints and Blues.

13 days off vs 6 days - take the 13 days....

It is our time to turn the hot pies to cold / frozen pies!

Keep the ball off them and hold them out for the first half.. come home the better and run over the top of them!

Rod_

[top40]

It will have been 7 years, 2 months and 28 days since Sydney last beat the Pies. In essence, 2647 days. To quote Gough Whitlam's election slogan of 1972: "Its Time!"

[The_Jam]

God-damn, I am excited by this game!

I am very new to AFL and therefore know very little but I have a few thoughts on the keys to Friday's clash:

1. As has been said, clearances are important. In the round 20 match, the AFL.com site says swans lost the clearances by 10 (51-41) despite winning hit outs (48-68). Coll did not have Swan either. So I think the first thing we need to is bring up the clearances (or lower Coll's clearances).

There are other options. The other way we have won the ball this year is intercepts around the defensive fifty, and rebound. The problem with the intercept model is that it was build on Jetta's run and carry through the middle. And while I think he has been alright(better then most people seem to have him), taggers have put themselves between him and the goal a lot in the second half of the season and this cuts off his run. That, or just denied him the ball full stop. Also, being rebound heavy requires a very high disposal efficiency, which versing Coll in a final, I wouldn't want to rely on. The other side to the clearances is that, despite the fact that our defense can repel a @@@@-load of inside fifties, any defense struggles if it is coming in straight from the center. So clearances are king in this game. That being said, if we both win clearances and intercept well, we are devastating. This is what was happening for 3/4 of the Essendon game.

2. Another thing I think we need is possessions by Goodes and Jetta front of center. When these guys have possessions in our attacking half, we score. If they are outside the fifty, they usually put the ball into a dangerous area. Or inside, Goodes creates with speed and strength and Jetta can kick them from anywhere or by getting goal side. I think they will also have good enough delivery to lessen Ben Reid's impact on the game, and lessen Coll's rebound.

3. Finally, we need Jude and Morton to play small. Both of these guys can lead, mark and goal. And if that is available, yippee! But I would bet that the ball will be coming inside 50 under a lot of pressure. We need someone to crumb and apply a tonne of forward defensive pressure. Jude can do this. And Morton looked to me to be up for it. It is the 'messy' kind of goals that are going to win this game, I reckon.

If it was not clear from the post, all this can be taken with a big dose of IMO,

Go Swans!

[hot potato]

Maintain composure, cool heads win finals. Play in front, play the ball.
Don't give away silly frees. Kick truly.
= Historic win for Sydney.