Changes for Round 9 vs. Collingwood

[Melbournehammer]

. Most of our scoring shots come either via the "slingshot", which usually requires the team to find Jetta in space (with Jack an occasional substitute) or via mindless bombs forward to no-one in particular, from which point the team tries to create stoppages in a crowded forward line and score from there (something the team is fortunately rather good at)

An excellent description of our style. And the exact reason why Jetta shouldn't play small forward. He is one of the few that can mindlessly bomb with depth, and he isn't strong enough to create stoppages.

Horrible to watch at the moment, given the great skills to clear from stoppages in the back half.

Also part of the reason we are struggling because the powers that be are making it harder to create a stoppage and speeding it up when it occurs making it harder for us to get everyone there

[Melbournehammer]

You seem to be making a case for a change in roles. I agree, he is too stationary, just hanging off packs waiting for something to develop. As a forward, he could use his speed to put some distance between himself and his opponent in a situation where he is likely to get rewarded with a mark or other possession of the ball. His role would be more structured and he will be forced to move to the ball in particular situations. We both agree that if you can get him the ball in a dangerous position, he can be very damaging with his good kicking. To me, it seems like a player with top level straight line burst speed would make a good lead up marking target.

Except we are horrible at kicking to advantage, and it would require us pinpointing kicks to a very fast moving target, because if he didnt mark it, it is likely to be cleared pretty fast

[Jewels]

I wouldnr worry. Once tippet returns we wont lose another game.
Its actually a question of how many games clear on top we are.

I love your thinking there Baz, don't know if I'm quite as confident as you but the thought process is brilliant ????

[Ludwig]

Except we are horrible at kicking to advantage, and it would require us pinpointing kicks to a very fast moving target, because if he didnt mark it, it is likely to be cleared pretty fast

Firstly, we are far from horrible at kicking efficiency. and when we are playing well, we do this well. Sure we make plenty of mistakes and can improve. Perhaps another man in the open would help.

In any case, if a team can't kick to advantage, they might as well give up, because this is a key ingredient for success.

I'm sure you remember the GF mark Jetta took late in the 4th qtr., on the lead about 50 out. He had a leg cramp and the kick fell short. But this is the sort of role I think Jetta can do well, and is what I am suggesting.

[liz]

You seem to be making a case for a change in roles.

Not really - just a case for him playing his current role better.

[barry]

I love your thinking there Baz, don't know if I'm quite as confident as you but the thought process is brilliant ??

Thanks Jewels. This site, as wonderful as it is, is drawn to the glass-half-empty on occations. Even with a team that has just won a premiership, recruited a gun fullforward, and is sitting in 4th early in the season, there are those who greet pesimissim like a long lost friend.

Its as though they think a multi-premiership dynasty like Brisbane or Geelong is the only measure of success.

To my eyes we are looking good. Sure a win against Freo would have been nice, but footy is unpredicatible and upsets happen both for and against. We are blooding a few young players as the teams game plan evolves and adaptes to aging players (Goodes, Bolton will unlikely tear a game open again), and suddenly being the hunted team. We've also had to find new depth players with the loss of TDL, Spranger, etc.

I will not be judging the swans finals aspirations until Tippet is a good 4-5 games into his swans career, and how the side gells around him.

[barry]

All opposition sides see Jetta as the key to slingshot footy, and therefore the key to the swans game plan in 2012. In 2013, he would be the No.1 player to "stop" when working out tactics. This is tough on a young kid. But a altered game plan built around a key forward like Tippet will open up other opportunities for him.

[Melbournehammer]

Firstly, we are far from horrible at kicking efficiency. and when we are playing well, we do this well. Sure we make plenty of mistakes and can improve. Perhaps another man in the open would help.

In any case, if a team can't kick to advantage, they might as well give up, because this is a key ingredient for success.

I'm sure you remember the GF mark Jetta took late in the 4th qtr., on the lead about 50 out. He had a leg cramp and the kick fell short. But this is the sort of role I think Jetta can do well, and is what I am suggesting.

If the answer to our problems is pyke kicking the ball off the ground from a ruck stoppage then I guess I have got it all wrong. In my opinion it worked because gibson was naturally sagging off to the dangerous spots rather than expecting a kick off the ground going twenty metres - but it worked. I guess to my mind that sort of luck will come off once or twice every five matches or so.

And I think our kicking around the ground is very poor - my recollection from one of the footy programs this week was that our kicking efficiency was terrible, amongst the worst in the comp- and i would like to see what it is over the season in the north, geelong, freo and hawthorn games as opposed to the soft games (I wouldnt count st kilda because the conditions meant that kicking was horrible for both teams).

We are a very good team at using handballs in tight to get a player free who is then encouraged to kick the leather off the ball. Its not a bad tactic and we won a flag from it but it doesnt mean that our kicking is great it just means that they know what they are supposed to do.

I just think Jetta gives us an outlet from stoppages which opens up space meaning that at least one opponent must stand wider than normal. that gives jack and hanners the opportunity to burst through the middle. without him wider teams can sag their defence into the pack and unless goodes is on song we dont look very damaging.

[ugg]

Our kicking efficiency is the worst in the league but you have to take into the fact that we have the highest contested possession rate in the league (by a significant margin) which will diminish the quality of our kicks. We also have the least amount of uncontested marks meaning we don't mess about chipping it sideways and back, but often kick it long where there's space to work into. It doesn't result in an efficient disposal as classified by the statisticians but it often works out in our advantage.

[Jewels]

Thanks Jewels. This site, as wonderful as it is, is drawn to the glass-half-empty on occations. Even with a team that has just won a premiership, recruited a gun fullforward, and is sitting in 4th early in the season, there are those who greet pesimissim like a long lost friend.

Its as though they think a multi-premiership dynasty like Brisbane or Geelong is the only measure of success. .

Oh brother do I hear you! I often sit open mouthed reading this site as you would think it was a Demons fan site and not that of the defending premier with the doom and gloom and the we are crap, can't kick, can't mark garbage that is so often posted on here.
Get a grip folks, yes we're not great atm but tell me when was the last time a Sydney Swan team went through the season without making us fans want to pull their hair out? I can't remember it ever happening.
And for the record I think The Pies will do us this Friday night, but I still won't think our season is done and I'll still have faith that when the business end of the season rolls around we'll do what we have to do and if we don't, well @@@@ happens. As I said to a loud mouthed Hawks fan on the way out of the MCG the other week, we are and forever will be the 2012 premiers, nothing can take that away.

[wolftone57]

In: Tippet, Shaw, Johnson
Out: Walsh, Rampe, Everitt

I hate to tell you but Kurt can't [play until round 12 & Aj is still injured and won't return until next year. Happy days lol

[wolftone57]

I don't think we will see Reid as a defender until the Tippo/Reid forward combo plays out. It's hard to find a dynamic duo forward line, so we've go to give it a shot. We already have some very good tall defenders, just that a couple are injured at the moment.

I do think he would make a very good defender, and maybe it will end up that way. In the long run, it will depend on how a number of players develop and what where the structural needs are.

I think Tommy would make a very good defender. I have seen him play on some really good players in the Twos. Those players generally come from sides like GWS, Suns, Brisbane and Queenbean. He played on O'hAlpin and touched him up & he has also played on Karnesis and did pretty well.

[DeadlyAkkuret]

Are wolftone and melbournehammer the same person?

[wolftone57]

I don't get this notion of stationing Jetta in the forward line as a small forward. At the moment, Jetta is a fairly limited footballer - he might develop more tricks as he gets more experienced but essentially he has just two at the moment. His importance to the team stems from just how good he is at those two tricks, and how valuable they are when he executes them well.

Firstly he can run really really fast, while carrying and (sometimes) bouncing the ball. He mostly runs in straight lines - ie not ducking and weaving through traffic (one trick I hope he develops because he has shown odd glimpses). But the fact that his best work is in a straight line means he needs space, and lots of it.

His second major trick is that he can kick the ball really really well. His long, effortless kicks for goal are a delight to watch and already fill a highlights tape after just a year or two playing at the very top level. His radar isn't always on, but it's on often enough to make it a very valuable weapon. His kicks to a target in the forward line are almost as valuable, when he choose to do that, rather than go for the glory himself. When he manages to blinker himself from the kick'n'hope malaise that sometimes infects the whole team, he can spot and hit a target 50m away on an angle with a sizzle that few others would contemplate, let alone execute.

What Jetta doesn't do particularly well - yet - is any of the things that you need in an effective small forward. The likes of Milne, le Cras, Thomas, Betts are all sensational contested marks. They read the ball through the air, they position their bodies to protect the drop zone, and they can leap in the air when they need to. The number of even semi-contested marks Jetta has taken during his Swans career thus far is fewer than Pyke probably takes while making breakfast of a morning.

I also can't recall him kicking a proper crumbing goal, unless you count those where he's front and square of a contest 60m out from goal and just bangs the ball through of one step. He doesn't duck and weave, work the angles and dribble them through along the ground like a Betts or Milne can do with their eyes shut.

And while his pressure work and tackling are definitely getting better, he doesn't move from one contest to the next, scraping and pressurisng like an Alwyn Davey or Jeff Garlett or Allen Christensen or our own Benny McGlynn.

While Jetts is a long way from the scintillating form of 2012, I can't see why you would move him from a role where he might stand a chance of using his greatest assets to the benefit of the team, even if it is just a couple of times a game, to one where he possesses none of the major skills that are required to be dangerous.

You mention players dribbling the ball along the ground Liz. This is one of my pet hates. We play with an oddly shaped ball and it can dribble out of bounds just as easily as through the sticks. If the ball is kicked in the air correctly it has less chance of being cut off, going off course and making the kicker look like a pratt. I know they practice these little dribbles and some are very good at them but I am not the only one who think them crap. Listen to Jason Dunstall, Barry Hall, Paul Roos, Leigh matthews, Matthew Richardson and Craig Bolton on the subject.

[wolftone57]

But there's less space in the forward line than anywhere else on the ground, unless the team is able to get the ball down there really quickly. And if Jetta is already stationed down there, it robs the team of one of the most likely to be able to get it down there quickly.

agreed Liz and they have already tried that trick for Jetts and it was highly unsuccessful. Early this year when he wasn't getting a lot of pill they played him forward for a quarter and a half. He was even tighter marked and couldn't use his pace at all as they constantly cut him off. Leave him where he is as I think he is playing himself back into form bit by bit.