GFC gameday thread

[baskin]

84yo dad has been saying for a number of weeks now a number of our players look sore, especially Hannebery. Teams have spent all year hunting us and have now worked out what to do. As well as tagging they hammer Hannebery and the other mids into the turf at every possibility.

He also believes the young newbies and the likes of Everitt, White & Rampe while playing from well to brilliantly through the year would be tiring now on the back of playing so many senior games on the trot, which they haven't done before. (Mind you White & Rampe look ok to me!)

I tend to listen to my Dad as he is much more level headed than me. He still thinks we are a chance, but only if we have no more injuries and LRT could make it back in.

[Wardy]

geez kind of glad I didn't see any of it - heard enough on the radio and thankfully had other things to do & places to be. But its just like last year - we had injuries, we lost our last few games - and then what happened? and who's to say that the saints wont belt the crap out of Freo (or Pav will belt someone and he's suspended again & Ballantyne will get flattened too), and the Lions maul the cats - stranger things have happened. Obviously the boys need to do some soul searching this week, to the youngsters - stop trying to be flash - you are not in that league yet - just be sensible & do what your team mates tell you. The older guys, need to be that steadying influence on the youngsters and it should all fall into placv. (a simplistic view, but it is just footy) Next week we need to just to keep up with the Hawks, and keep Buddy & Hodge in check. However that will all for naught of if Stevic is umpiring next week, then you can count it as a loss.

[stellation]

Actually he was in there for most of the fourth quarter bounces. I sort of understood the thinking - he was our only player all day who looked like he could break a tackle and did seem creative enough.

Don't think he actually touched it mind you

Cool, I thought I saw it and was wondering if it was either just because they were short on numbers at one bounce or if it was a big acknowledgement by the coaching staff that he is starting to have an impact they were trying a Goodes style "throw a big guy in there to shake things up" thingy.

On what was a dour day, I genererally enjoyed Jesse's game. I thought it showed sustained development.

[Melbournehammer]

Cool, I thought I saw it and was wondering if it was either just because they were short on numbers at one bounce or if it was a big acknowledgement by the coaching staff that he is starting to have an impact they were trying a Goodes style "throw a big guy in there to shake things up" thingy.

On what was a dour day, I genererally enjoyed Jesse's game. I thought it showed sustained development.

Actually to give him a bit more credit and to show horse was trying stuff about halfway through the third quarter he got moved to the goal square and they took Tippett off. I wasn't sure what they were thinking but it wasn't a rotation because nick Davis came out and they made the moves

[Primmy]

Had a crappy incident this morning with frozen bread defrosting in my newascostabomb shopping tote. Bare with me here.

It wasn't in the frozen section, I didn't realise what was happening to the rest of my shopping and my new leather wallet etc. Long story short, I Went Off; saw the manager, many apologies, someone had done the wrong thing, would I accept a bunch of flowers, yes please, no you choose for me.

Big buncha redandwhite ones were presented to me. Kind of deflated my crappyness. Its a sign. Grand Final here we come!!! Someone start freezing loaves of bread!

[Go Swannies]

Had a crappy incident this morning with frozen bread defrosting in my newascostabomb shopping tote. Bare with me here.

It wasn't in the frozen section, I didn't realise what was happening to the rest of my shopping and my new leather wallet etc. Long story short, I Went Off; saw the manager, many apologies, someone had done the wrong thing, would I accept a bunch of flowers, yes please, no you choose for me.

Big buncha redandwhite ones were presented to me. Kind of deflated my crappyness. Its a sign. Grand Final here we come!!! Someone start freezing loaves of bread!

So the motto for the 2013 Swans' finals campaign should be "Bread Tough!"?

[dimelb]

Hope people don't mind, I thought a few positives might be in order, including one or two already mentioned.
1. Remember that poster photo of a lighthouse standing on a rock surrounded by pounding waves? Pykey marking, and goaling.
2. Ted. Enough said, despite imperfections.
3. Jesse continuing to step up; not just a flash in the pan.
4. Invaluable experience for youngsters.
5. Rohan still has it.
6. Benny's cameo of a crumbing forward. We need more than a cameo, more like a repeating loop. He could be our Chapman.
7. The sheer courage and persistence displayed by Hannebery, Jack and PPK.

[hot potato]

8. Mcveighs work is consistently excellent.

[Go Swannies]

This morning I was going to post in here but realised that everything I was going to say was identical to what I was going to say after the Cats game at the end of last year. That makes me think that the game may have been an aberration (or a clever plan), just as last year's was. I'd like to think that it will lead to the same conclusion as last year but I feel that we won't go B2B as too many players are out, too many kids have had a long season and too many good players will be out of form if we do try to bring them in. I hope I'm wrong.

Meanwhile, I'd take next Friday as a dead rubber and play the kids, try different positions and give Hanners (and maybe Kieren) a week off. We will finish 4th and we will almost certainly be playing the Hawks two weeks in a row. I'd take a loss this week for a win the week after. The team have the skill to do it but whether they have the endurance and the will - and the coaching - we'll have to wait to find out.

My conspiracy theory is based on the fact that I don't think Harry taylor is as good as he seemed last night. It'll be interesting to see what happens if he and Kurt meet again in finals. On the downside, I hope Mr Goodes has the same impact when he returns as Chappy had.

As long as we don't win this week and lose next week . . .

[Cardinal]

I thought we were smashed in the free kick count last night but Dogs currently have a 21 to 4 advantage over the Lions.

[ugg]

The count is 24-21 lions

[Nich]

The one main diff from getting spanked by the Cats end of last year was that Horse seemed a bit forlorn. Last year he was spraying the boys at the breaks. Maybe I missed it? He just seemed resigned to being 2nd best on the day? Am I over analysing things? Does he just know our injuries have cruelled our season and we are long shots for the Title or was he just thinking about September and what needs to be done to get them on track?

[Cardinal]

The count is 24-21 lions

Wasn't the 21 to 4 count "out of the last 25" or did I mishear ?

[ugg]

Wasn't the 21 to 4 count "out of the last 25" or did I mishear ?

Don't know I wasn't watching but if that was correct it means the Lions won the first 20 free kicks of the game

[Auntie.Gerald]

i still think it is fairly simple - our brand of football only works effectively when we win the ball in and under more then the opposition no matter where the ball is on the field

we dont play a brand of football like Hawks, Cats, North Melb nor Richmond

The above teams above like to bring it thru the middle and push ahead of their defender and take it to the opposition when ever they can. The Cats for example are happy to have 10 uncontested possessions if need be to isolate the opposition, create overlaps and back their forward entries to some superior attacking players in which they have many !!!

The Swans prefer to kick (blindly quite often as long as its forward) to a heavily contested mark upfront and lead like crazy to this hot zone in numbers and win the ball through rabid pressure......... now this a very very good brand of football if you are not superior player dependent ie year in year out this is a defining combative in and under football strategy and it is a style of football that the right type of body types can forefill and we have seen this year after year the last 20yrs and we have undoubtedly recruited to fit this style of football.

The Swans identified this football strategy to be crucial to top 8 team year after year.......for year to year success, for sponsorship, for financial survival, for this continuity of results bids then the opportunity to win the hearts and minds of the media and its viewers/readers.

The difference last season was we perfectly complimented the hard bodies with a super fast and skillful Lewis Jetta and a Adam Goodes that killed it in the finals !

We dont have these guys as yet in our team for the 2013 finals !!!

.............

I still like our overall strategy and I like our fast break slingshot counter to the forward press that was majorly employed last year - but right now it does not appear we have the players to counter the forward pressure of a Geelong, Freeo nor Hawks

I suspect with great certainty..............we wont change our strategy........... we will just rely on our key players to come back and be that spark in counter attack !

Im not 100% sure if this style of football with the players we have will be good enough in 2013 ?