Rnd 7 Vs Hawks

[Melbournehammer]

Pretty lucky we won a premiership then, eh?

For the last time - if you base you opinion of the side on one game then the answer certainly is yes.

[liz]

Meh. We played worse last year against Richmond and Saints. No doubt we need to improve throughout the year to challenge again, and with the players we have to come back in Shaw, Mumford,LRT/Tippet/Morton and possibly Rohan I think we will.

This.

We're clearly not currently as good a team as the Cats or Hawks, and probably the Bombers too. We need to improve. We needed to improve this time last year, and we did. Whether we can or not this year remains to be seen, but I'm not slitting my wrists over this loss.

Interesting game for Rampe. He was clearly singled out early as vulnerable, and there was a bad missed tackle on Buddy that should have stopped one of his goals. But he didn't drop his head and was serviceable for the rest of the game.

[annew]

We looked slow and in disarray, but we can turn it around. I can remember last year at this time thinking we were a dysfunctional forward line this year our back line is weak. Any defenders in the reserves?

[ernie koala]

The only thing worse than losing is losing and listening to BT, Darcy and Richo.

Agreed, talk about the 'C' team. Just revert back to the "Swans like it scrappy, lots of stoppages, blah blah blah." anyone would think we we still in 2005.

Then BT still refusing to admit he was dead wrong about Pkye...and lying about when he made the comments...ie not 6 years ago...but 2 years ago....What a small minded pathetic boofhead he is.

Then the great excitement at trying to talk up Goodseys missed toe poke at the ball, which collected Gibson in the shin....as a reportable offence. Also pathetic.

Just unlistenable.

[ugg]

I don't feel too bad actually, I thought we were beaten by a good side in a great form thanks to a month and a half of tough football. I thought our Round 7 last year was a worse performance by a long way.

[Go Swannies]

Okay we've played halfway decent football for two games this year and lost both. I was hoping we'd come out tonight to make a statement but it turns out that was what the Hawks wanted to do more. If that isn't the wake up (that I hoped the Cats results would have been) then we are in trouble. But I'm not worried yet. If was Horse I'd have Benny do the aftermatch talk - is he hungry for a shot at a Premiership or what?

Right now I think the Cats and Hawks are playing better footy than the Swans but not really anyone else. We'll find out over the next few weeks. We just need enough wins on the board to come back after the break fit, hungry and with (hopefully) LRT, Shaw and Tippett.

[Ludwig]

I don't feel too bad actually, I thought we were beaten by a good side in a great form thanks to a month and a half of tough football. I thought our Round 7 last year was a worse performance by a long way.

Exactly how I feel. We were beaten by a very good team. They were slick in their disposal and kicking for goal. We had nothing to challenge a very solid defence. They contested hard all night. They didn't have any letdowns, nor did we for that matter. They were simply a much better team all night.

Hopefully some of our inclusions after the bye will give us a much needed boost.

[wolftone57]

Reg; Can you actually kick to a Swans player. did you play with Brian Lake and Josh Gibson in another life? Why did you not take the ruckman or arrange something to help the kid Rampe when he was being monstered by; Hale, Bayley, Roughy & Gunston. Same applies to teddy who stuffed up all night tonight, unusual normally but this year he has been up & down.

Goodsie; A lot of people are saying he was our best. But I would like to know how many times he actually hit a Swans player. His delivery was crap both by hand and foot. He constantly put other players under pressure by making bad decisions. He was much better in the second half than first especially the last.

Jesse; Tried very hard under extremely hard conditions. Bayley was a first draft pick and is a very good ruckman, extremely versatile and agile. He at least presented in the forward line and kicked a goal. Give him another go if Mummy is still injured. He has had to come up to the pace of this level and a finals type pace after all that the Hawks put on, not us of course, we are still on under 10's pace. He was definitely not our worst.

Birdie; absolutely killed all night. They pegged his lack of pace and exploited it all night. He was at least 10 metres behind no matter who he played on. I thought he would have been subbed off.

Marty; I know why he was subbed. He was killed. He also didn't command the back line and as the senior player there he should have noticed Rampe was being exposed to the Talls. He didn't and Longmire sent him a message.

Bolts; the Hawks exploited his lack of pace too. They ran off him all night. He contested well and even won a few but the delivery was district footy class tonight and his opponent was a very good spoil and overhead mark.

Too many of our players seemed to want to get the outside ball tonight but not go in and get the hard ball. Joey, Parker, Ryano all tried hard in close but others were a bit reticent to go after the hard ball. Benny tried and threw himself in all night.

Hannas seemed to panic all night his delivery was terrible.

We have beaten nobody that is even vaguely challenging for the eight yet. The two sides that we needed to match it with, Hawks & Cats we were destroyed by. The Cats had us all night even though it took the third to finish us off and the Hawks knew we were dead in the second quarter. We have beaten no team of importance and we need to beat Collingwood, Carlton and Fremantle because Essendon will murder us if we offer up this crap. I don't think Pies are that good but the way we are playing even they will beat us.

Impressed by Lambie. He at least had a presence and seemed to have plenty of time. His delivery was pretty good under very tough conditions out there. I thought he could have been brought on earlier. I was right that there would be no change but I thought we might have played Morton and when Bayley came in I would have thought the alarm bells would have tolled. I wonder when Hawks made that decision?

Need to look at the back half while LRT is injured. We are a little light on tall backs at the moment and Reg is up and down, the same as Teddy. Teddy at least holds his own but Reg when under real pressure can sometimes go to water and tonight was one of those times. He was killed tonight and his delivery was crap.

[gumby_bolts]

Trying to look at positives, I think we outscored them in the last two quarters or close to it.
Pyke played well (I guess he should be now considering he has been playing 6-7 yrs, thanks BT)
Great to see goodes up and about in the midfield. He looked like he was back to full fitness.
More top level game experience for rampe and Armstrong.
Benny showing how big his ticker is.
Jetta laying some great tackles.
LRT, shaw, tippet and Mumford to come in soonish.
Any more?

[wolftone57]

Okay we've played halfway decent football for two games this year and lost both. I was hoping we'd come out tonight to make a statement but it turns out that was what the Hawks wanted to do more. If that isn't the wake up (that I hoped the Cats results would have been) then we are in trouble. But I'm not worried yet. If was Horse I'd have Benny do the aftermatch talk - is he hungry for a shot at a Premiership or what?

Right now I think the Cats and Hawks are playing better footy than the Swans but not really anyone else. We'll find out over the next few weeks. We just need enough wins on the board to come back after the break fit, hungry and with (hopefully) LRT, Shaw and Tippett.

At the moment Bombers would slaughter us too. dockers are playing pretty well as well.

[wolftone57]

Exactly how I feel. We were beaten by a very good team. They were slick in their disposal and kicking for goal. We had nothing to challenge a very solid defence. They contested hard all night. They didn't have any letdowns, nor did we for that matter. They were simply a much better team all night.

Hopefully some of our inclusions after the bye will give us a much needed boost.

John Kennedy: A team is only as good as the opposition allows it to be

he also said take every loss as a personal insult. Bleed with every lost contest, die with every lost game. Winning is about making every effort count, every possession a positive one, every tackle stick and every player doing his job.

That did not happen for us tonight. We had passengers. We have had all season. Players who just do enough in the easy games but in this game were found out.

[31 hard at it]

It was hard sitting there and seeing the Hawks dominate on the forward line.
We fought back well after quarter time but the effort was largely wasted with no structure up forward.
When its Jude and Benny as the only 2 up front againt 5 Hawks then bombing it in is probably not the right move !
So why did we keep on and on doing it

Another disappointing game at the G !

Lots of loyal fans in attendance but not a lot to take from it.

Luke Hodge is an awesome player.

[dimelb]

Our history indicates that if we kick 13 goals, we usually win. An exception is when we let the other team kick 18.
In the GF the best defence played the best attack and held their own; but you can't lose three first-choice defenders and expect the same results. I didn't expect to win tonight for this reason. Even moving Sam to defence for a while made some difference but couldn't solve the problem.
Our delivery was often astray because the Hawks' pressure was very good; in that area they beat us at our own game.
We don't have anything like the accuracy we had last year in kicking for goal. The coaches put a lot of practice into it last year and we improved, so a bit more of that might help. In any case we don't have a stable forward line at present, and we won't until Tippett comes on line.
The mids battled valiantly but lacked the precision in delivery shown by the Hawks.
Put it down as a learning experience for the youngsters - Lamb looked good at this level, Rampe made a mistake or two but worked hard all night and did good things as well - and let's do better next time.

[Industrial Fan]

White was not our worst. If one has reviewed every game of his and decided on "rubbish" then one could aptly be referred to as a buffoon.

He definitely has support for his place in the side. For example I'm sure Armstrong is delighted that White got a game.

The one we missed tonight was our weapon BLT. They were without Cyril but no matter as the ball wasn't hitting the deck in their F50.

We have work to do but SO much upside. We'll be there abouts when it counts.

[DamY]

Rnd 7 Vs Hawks

I was on the anti-Armstrong train but over the past 3 games I've gotten off that train and I think he's improving with experience