Swans vs Port gameday thread

[dimelb]

Port handled the conditions much better. We kicked long, hoped for the best and Port marked it. They kicked long and we dropped it.
Their pressure never dropped off, quite an achievement in the wet. Ours was patchy, very good at best but too often left Port players out on their own, and they made us pay for it.
The umpiring was as inconsistent as I have seen all season, I think to our disadvantage in terms of where the frees were awarded, but that isn't why we lost. We are normally good enough to overcome that kind of disadvantage, and we weren't good enough today.

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Port handled the conditions much better. We kicked long, hoped for the best and Port marked it. They kicked long and we dropped it.
Their pressure never dropped off, quite an achievement in the wet. Ours was patchy, very good at best but too often left Port players out on their own, and they made us pay for it.
The umpiring was as inconsistent as I have seen all season, I think to our disadvantage in terms of where the frees were awarded, but that isn't why we lost. We are normally good enough to overcome that kind of disadvantage, and we weren't good enough today.

[wolftone57]

This was the most pathetic performance of the year. We played really well in the wet against Saints and Essendon but today all we did was go back to the bomb I thought we had made obsolete. Very disappointing performance in every way, a step backward. Bird, no smarts in the wet at all, do not play him or Armstrong in slippery conditions again. We didn't seem to be able to handle the wind conditions even though out opposition handled them very well. Our game plan was obviously to just bomb into Tippett whether we were coming out of defence or going into the forward line. Very dry weather footy and bloody stupid. You can chalk this loss squarely down to really bad coaching on the day.

When the weather did fine up we still went the bomb rather than set up plat as is our normal game and that was game plan. You could see Mal & Macca even shaking their heads at times. I am sure this has been played out many times before with Horse's obsession with a key forward; Think Reid, to the detriment of the game plan. Tippett or Reid are not the saviours of our side & the sooner the coaches get that ito their heads the better. Yes they are going to be a really strong conduit to a premiership bit but no more. Our strength is our midfield and backs and I think they have every right to feal a bit miffed at today's game plan. It was crap for everyone. Bomb the ball on long and hope Tippett or White take a mark, brilliant John, might just have worked on a dry day, maybe not?

We will come back from this but I wouldn't go blaming individual players for the loss it was a team thing and ultimately the coach is in charge. But I will say that certain players are certainly not good in the wet. Birdie struggles, so did Tony A, I think the move to put Lamb as sub a bad one as he plays really well in slippery conds. He does come from Gipsland after all and it rains there more than not.

I bet Stewart is really well at training on Monday for Port. He was a last minute withdrawal from the side, I know why, it was wet, not at all his conditions. We took Tim Membrey mabe we should have played him as a Medium forward leading FF. Tippett at CHF. I suggested Tip play CHF and Jesse FF at footy park but with the weather it might have been better to play only one big man.

Oh well we go forward to next week. Still the most pathetic game of the season, what is more I have to put up with my older brother, nephew and niece skiting how they beat the Swans. @@@@ that stings!!!!! I was brought up in Adelaide, I HATE PORT!!!!!

[aardvark]

Ah well that should bring RWO back to earth. Now no more getting ahead of ourselves people. Its not the RWO way!

[Swansinger]

We were beaten by a better team. Errant shooting for goal kept the margin respectable. Ho hum , just one of those days , not the EOTW - nor EOTS , come to that ! I've already forgiven 'em.

Plenty of sub-par performances today - including from Josh Kennedy , who had a good first quarter but , to my surprise , was top of our "best" list.
Hey,if merely accumulating possessions was sufficient (it's not) , then we would have drafted the Sultan of Brunei.

[Nich]

Would I be right in saying that is our first loss with Morton in the Team?

[albrotha]

Also missing Jetta

[BillyRayCypress]

That would be right. I tip the Swans for the first time in 4 weeks and they lose.

Obviously can't play in wet undies. They should get some advice from that North Qld league player.

I'm glad I taped the game and didn't lose an afternoon. Hudson has become such an irritating caller. Just talks crap.

I think they thought they just had to show up to win. Could be worse, could be Mel without a sunrise.

[crackedactor]

normal

Port handled the conditions much better. We kicked long, hoped for the best and Port marked it. They kicked long and we dropped it.
Their pressure never dropped off, quite an achievement in the wet. Ours was patchy, very good at best but too often left Port players out on their own, and they made us pay for it.
The umpiring was as inconsistent as I have seen all season, I think to our disadvantage in terms of where the frees were awarded, but that isn't why we lost. We are normally good enough to overcome that kind of disadvantage, and we weren't good enough today.

- - - Updated - - -

Port handled the conditions much better. We kicked long, hoped for the best and Port marked it. They kicked long and we dropped it.
Their pressure never dropped off, quite an achievement in the wet. Ours was patchy, very good at best but too often left Port players out on their own, and they made us pay for it.
The umpiring was as inconsistent as I have seen all season, I think to our disadvantage in terms of where the frees were awarded, but that isn't why we lost. We are normally good enough to overcome that kind of disadvantage, and we weren't good enough today.

The umpiring was disgraceful today, very one sided, but we normally overcome this disadvantage. I had to laugh when Port A consistently threw the ball, particularly in the third quarter and were never pinged. Yet we got pinged three times in the last quarter. Today we did not come to play.

[Meg]

Well that was a cold and miserable experience. At least half my family is happy pity not the half I'm part of! Hope that's our horror match for the season over and done with. Well done Port though, they played with passion and commitment and with a game plan to neutralise our strengths. Worst part is Goodes' injury. If he is out for a period of time we are in trouble I fear given the number of other long-term injuries in our list.

[CureTheSane]

One thing i noticed today was that, yes, our Midfield depth is great, but we had no outside run. It was all JPK, ROK, Parks, Mitchell even Bird on the inside. Jude amongst it at times. Jack trying very hard once it got out. Hanners non existent and that's your ball game. Once it came out we had nothing (except for KJ). They tagged Dan and Macca and they were spot on the money.

I would have put McGlynn in the middle.

I'm not sure i can stick up for Armstrong anymore. No strength or speed. Sorry Tony. It's ok when we have the game under control but when it gets rough and tough, he aint the Man for the job.

I don't mind losing when we put in. We didn't put in and lost by 3 goals. Another lesson learned I guess.

Their enthusiasm and Hinkley won that. Surprised Horse didn't mix it up.

That pretty much summed it up for me.
Although Telstra had AFL Live issue and I missed the first half, what I saw n the second half smacked of a team who hadn't played enough together. Given our outs, that kinda makes sense.

[alt_mattr]

Boy, this forum turns on one loss - you guys are being way too harsh on the boys. In particular I think you are being very unfair to Armstrong who is playing his first game for a while and was just about everywhere on the ground. If he missed some tackles it was because he attempted so many. He is not ROK so you can't expect him to stick every tackle. The back line was under siege and held off Port until the last 15 mins so it is not fair to call any of them out as not performing - they must be exhausted. Tippet looked very good, just the key forward we need and he put in a few good bumps too. Hanners didn't make a huge impact but he put in and made contest after contest, would have been enough to get him praise a year ago. I spotted three things which I think led to the defeat:
- port were tackling exceptionally well
- we could not get it out of our defensive 50
- we had more than our usual tally of bad decisions.

I think the lack of mobile talls really hurts us getting it out of defence, instead of having two or three people to kick long to you have only Pyke who is buried under opposition players. We really missed Andrejs and Mumford (and Reid and LRT and AJ....) today.

I can't comment on the game without mentioning the umpiring which I don't think favoured any side particularly but which was almost completely inexplicable all day.

Finally, I completely agree that wet weather footy is not our style. Bomb it long? That is exactly what _didn't_ work at the start of the year. But you can't outrun your opponents on a wet track.

[ScottH]

Ah well that should bring RWO back to earth. Now no more getting ahead of ourselves people. Its not the RWO way!

We know who to blame for today. Don't we!!

Could this game be this seasons "Shocker"? I'm not feeling all that confident.

[aardvark]

We know who to blame for today. Don't we!!

Who me? Nah it's Jesse Whites fault.

[Cheer_Cheer]

Was this the 1st time Hanners has been tagged ? Where was he ? Armstrong was bad but Grundy was worse.. Dropped everything and coughed it up if he got it.
Smithy even seemed to get a touch of the Grundy's.. We seemed to miss that spread and run when we win the ball.. Instead we just bombed it long and back it came.. In the last qtr when we were trying to get out of defense was like watching ourselves 2 weeks ago except in reverse. After the Adelaide game I was so looking forward to taking on Carlton.. Now, not so much..

[hot potato]

Swans might just have soaked up all the rapturous press over the break, and had a a pudding or two too many. Despite the conditions , they were slower and sloppy .
Good debut by Tippett.
Port were hellbent to tackle harder and win the contested possessions, they were impressive .
Once Goodes was injured, it increased Ports confidence and they just went for it. Well done to them.
HP