Swans vs Port gameday thread

[ShockOfHair]

Who me? Nah it's Jesse Whites fault.

That thud was me falling off the Jesse bandwagon... not that he was to blame. Well done Port - they beat us at our own game.

Agree we missed some outside run - Jetta, Shaw, Rohan or even BJ would have been handy. Although they really got us on the inside too.

On the upside, all streaks come to an end. We'd won 8 on the trot against Port. Next week we play a coach whose beaten us the last 10. Let's smash that one.

[stellation]

Pretty dissapointing game to watch. I think I'd struggle to name a half dozen players who played well. I thought our defenders were close to terrible, probably the worst I've seen them all play individually at once in some time.

Onwards and upwards and what not, hopefully they'll turn it all around easily enough and get a win next week.

[annew]

We blew it today and will now be fighting with several teams to make top 4.

[barry]

I only saw part of the game game yesterday but my observations r this...

1. When jesse white and tony armstrong are getting games you know the depth cupboard is getting very bare. The same players were nowhere near it last year. Injury toll is hitting us.

2. In my mind wet weather footy is a lottery. Skills are nullified. If u win more than 50% of them, consider yourself lucky. J. White has always been poor in the wet. This is where his inconsistency is judged.

3. Port simply turned up for their "audit" prepared

[707]

Sometimes I'm embarassed to live in Adelaide, so many people and the media here have small town mentality - this morning front page headline is

Cop that Kurt

Cringeworthy!

[AnnieH]

Oh dear.

Before the game, the fox team were saying that we play every game like it's September... I think they thought that Port were easybeats.

Complacent.

Dangerous.

[Matt79]

Too many players had 'off' games during thr same match for us to win. So many too list who just did not have the same impact, fumbled, dropped marks etc. Before we cast too many aspersions from yesterday, lets see how we play Friday night with Reid and Jetta back. Then we can see whether this was a hiccup (like the Tigers and Saints) games last year or there are deeper problems.

Bring on Friday night!

[liz]

Except that Reid and Jetta almost certainly won't be back.

[annew]

Except that Reid and Jetta almost certainly won't be back.

yeah I read that what the hell

[stellation]

2. In my mind wet weather footy is a lottery. Skills are nullified. If u win more than 50% of them, consider yourself lucky. J. White has always been poor in the wet. This is where his inconsistency is judged.

I agree that he is hampered by wet conditions, I think to a fair degree it's because arguably his greatest pro is his speed for a guy of his size and on a ground like that you simply won't be able to see it- you might be able to be Jetta's size and push off on wet ground and still get some traction, but you're not going to be able to be Jesse's size and do the same because the ground will just give.

Whilst there hasn't been the usual "Jesse sucks" chorus ringing out after yesterday, I thought I might make the following observation for folks to consider;the key messages preached for getting the ball forward in the wet are- straight up the guts or long to the wing and spill it over to hope for a stoppage so you can do it all again. Now in modern, risk adverse football you are only going to just kick it up the guts if you have a completely open man or you are clearing your own half forward line (to avoid the quick rebound), if you're struggling to get it to halfway then you're going to be told to take it to the wing and the key forwards will absolutely be told the priority is to not allow a turnover- so marking the ball is great, but a secondary objective. Now think about how many times you saw Jesse getting to a pack on a wing yesterday and getting the ball over the line, that effort in the wet is as good as a mark in the dry and if it was LRT people would be lauding his efforts for making a contest.

Sure we lost, but I reckon he'd be a sore boy today after the distance he would have pumped into his legs and I think he was definitely doing what the coaching staff had instructed him to.

[Melbournehammer]

im not defending white here or bagging bird. but there was a moment in the third quarter where bird had marked 30 metres out from our goal and white made a lead to the wing - he had ten metres on his man and lead for i reckon 40 metres. bird chose not to honour the lead. ultimately white stopped about 5 metres from the boundary line on the boundary line side. bird then kcked the ball to the contest by which point the port player had caught up to white and was standing in front of him.

i saw that and thought the following:
1. bird has no faith in his skills
2. bird has no faith in jesse's skills
3. we didnt look like we knew what our method was to win the game in the last half.

funnily jesse got criticised on the whitey thread for making more of the 360 moment than his push to everitt. sadly i think he actually tried to push the ball to often to teammates yesterday. he may have been better off having take possession himself a few more times and making them actually tackle him.

[Primmy]

I am so annoyed. I mean, REALLY REALLY Peed off.

That's it. I am going to eat chocolate now.

[longmile]

I just thought we were a bit top heavy in the wet and resting on our laurels a bit on Saturday (which is very un-Swans).
Yes the loss was disappointing but I'm not hitting the panic button yet.
Look forward to seeing Reid, Jetta, Mumford and Shaw return.

[Matt79]

Except that Reid and Jetta almost certainly won't be back.

Bugger!

[giant]

Except that Reid and Jetta almost certainly won't be back.

Really? That's not good.

They were too good quite frankly, playing Swans style footy at its best. Yep, we were missing many, may have gone in too top heavy, had a few players down in tough conditions, and a number of otehr excuses - in the end, they were hungrier for the points. Sure hope that bye didn't come at the wrong time..