Sydney v Hawthorn - THE GRAND FINAL (Let's discuss!)

[swansprincess]

weather forecast looks utterly diabolical. Max 14 Showers with possible Thunderstorms and hail.

Generally Melbourne hail last about a minute at best. Nothing to worry about. (touch wood)

Just checked the bureau then, thunderstorms and rain are friday (yay for the parade) and just some scattered showers and thunder for saturday. Not too bad at all if you ask me.

[Swansongster]

Generally Melbourne hail last about a minute at best. Nothing to worry about. (touch wood)

Just checked the bureau then, thunderstorms and rain are friday (yay for the parade) and just some scattered showers and thunder for saturday. Not too bad at all if you ask me.

Never mind. I'll have a poncho, pre-match beer and a flag on the line to render the weather irrelevant.

[swansrule100]

When do they announce who presents the cup

[wolftone57]

Agree - the Pies game was more about how average they were. Swans need to improve a lot in terms of holding marks (Sam...), less turnovers and straighter kicking. Fortunately they tend to get reversed the following week. Staying on their feet on Sat will be important, if it's wet. Drop Jetta and Sam, put McGlynn and Rohan in!

Sam did drop too many but so did Roughy on the Saturday. He dropped nearly every mark that came his way, had a shocker. The Hawks kicking was just as bad as ours by the way and they had 70% of forward 50 entries and nearly lost the game. I agree we have to be more accurate in front of goal, in fact we need to be more accurate in our forward fifty entries too. There is no point in bombing the ball into our forward 50 if it is just going to a Hawks player who fires it back and they get a goal on the turn over. There were too many of those entries on Friday night, some of our players were not lifting their eyes to find out where our forwards were leading. They just expected them to be in the goal square but we are playing a different forward set up at the moment. Our players are spreading on the lead so the mids and backs have to be a bit more aware of what is happening up forward

[wolftone57]

Stats I like:
1) swans have gone from one of the worst kicking sides to the number one in terms of accuracy this year - i remember it was a clear direction at the end of last year (i'm sure we all remember the numerous games where our behinds greatly out-numbered our goals last year) that they would work on their goal kicking, and the stats don't lie.
2) i heard that we are also the team least likely to kick backwards - over the last couple of years (or even maybe around the 05/06/07 timeframe) it was all about tempo footy, and we would so often kick the ball backwards and try and set up the play. This whole 'slingshot' approach where we all crowd around the ball and leave a big open forward line looks like a pretty good strategy. you would think a loose man in defence (or at least always ensuring their is at least one hawthorn player behind our player) would be a simple thing to potentially counter this, but i'm hoping that hawthorn don't go down that path and try and play their attacking style.

Hawthorn will try to get Gibson loose in defence, if not him then Suckling or Burgoyne will be used as a spare man in defence as they both set up their play from there.

[wolftone57]

I'm hoping that now we've made the big one a bit of pressure will be off. I mean, we are not really expected to win, so the boys essentially have nothing to lose. And hopefully they'll just go out there and lay it all on the line and if that's not good enough, then so be it, but at least they did enough to know they couldn't have done anything more.

This is sort of like '96 except we are a far better side than that side even with Plugger. But we were not expected to win and unfortunately I think our players thought that way too that year. I looked at the first half and we could have won that game if the players believed. That is the difference this year, our players believe. There is another difference in that we have recruited players who have had success at junior level and know what is expected in a Grand Final. OK not at this level but they have tasted success and players who have had that want it again just like our veterans.

Our young blokes will perform just as they did last week. AJ & Smithy were wonderful as were Hannas & Jetts. Morton was solid other than that hit post and I think we were so cohesive last week. Go SWANS!!!

[Go Swannies]

And we need to drag Gibson well up the ground. Sacrificial forward will be???

[wolftone57]

sydney are a huge chance on saturday ..our defence the best in comp..our mids better ..their fowards edge ours-- however one thing i have noticed with franklin.if he misses his first set shot of the day then he misses all day ..his first shot will be a real barometer for the sort of day he will have ..the more the press talks about how hawks having sydney covered the more it will galvanise our team..they will bleed the ground red in this final and i really don't think hawthorn likes the fight like our guys do..sydney all the way

Don't be over confident that the Hawks don't like the fight because they will be in there tooth and nail. Having said that our blokes have shown they don't mind a fight no matter which way it comes so the Hawks are not going to put us off. We won the footy and the fight against the Pies.

[wolftone57]

Right about Jude but the coaches have some hard thinking to do about big Mike, Sam and any other players who are a worry in the wet. Hawthorn have the strong mids to drive the ball forward (Hodge and Burgoyne as well as their smaller mids) and we have the mids to match them.But there must be some serious thought given as to whether we can afford to have 2 players up front who are already lacking form not being able to handle the conditions and whether there are players that can do it better in the wet.
A particularly difficult decision with McGlynn possibly coming into the side and someone needing to go out (do Morton or Parker go out or is it Mike?).

McGlinn is out, he didn't pass a fitness test yesterday. I saw big Mike in the Two's in the wet and he was pretty good actually. He is very mobile for a big guy and when he gets a straight run at the pill he is pretty fast. He can also bang in at scrimmages too and get the ball out to the outside players and the same goes for Mummy. The side will stay the same. It might be wet but it won't pour according to BOM 'Scattered thundery showers', the weather this time of year is always variable so could do anything. We shouldn't worry about the weather too much we are a good side in any weather.

[bloodbrother]

my comment was not being overconfident , i just believe what i see and when i see the swans midfield attack on contested possession ,they are absolutely manical at their best..i believe the hawks like to get quick clean uncontested possession ,they don't like so much when it becomes a dogfight..i point to the game at the scg in the first quarter..when they hardly got past the halfway mark for the entire quarter...yes they did eventually win the game albeit with the help of a few questionable free kicks ,but they were rattled for sometime..my bet is sydney will try to bring it for 4 quarters this time ,,there will be nothing left on the park ..

[ShockOfHair]

And we need to drag Gibson well up the ground. Sacrificial forward will be???

He'll have LRT to deal with.

[swanfire]

Looking like the coldest day of the month, possible wet conditions... I wonder who that would play in favour of. I'm thinking it would be benefit us if anything. Hawks possibly under some fitness clouds... so there are some variables to consider. Should be a ripper...

[Go Swannies]

Goodes must have been practising for the rain. Did anyone notice how many times he didn't try to pick up the ball but just kicked it forward with a Pies player hanging off him? That must get frustrating for the defender.

[Ludwig]

He'll have LRT to deal with.

It will take at least 2 defenders to shut down LRT.

[swansprincess]

are we training at the G on the friday or thurday? I can't remeber, but if it's friday then we'll get a run in the cold and wet. Which would be extremely beneficial IMO