First final

[Captain]

Situation now looks like this:

We beat Hawks, first final will be against Cats in Melbourne.

We lose to the Hawks, first final will be against the Hawks in Melbourne.

Both tough, not sure which I prefer!!

[hot potato]

Mmm, prefer to play much better against Hawks , but slip on a stray banana skin , and play em again in a week.

[mcs]

Either either frankly. We are going to have to find several extra gears on recent form to challenge either team at the MCG. Maybe Geelong as it would probably give us an extra bit of time off (As it would be on Saturday.)

[wolftone57]

If Lions beat Cats next week we will be playing them if we beat Hawks and Hawks again if we don't. Quite frankly I don't see why we are bothering we are only making up the numbers this year. On current game plan we couldn't beat Melbourne!!

[Melbourne_Blood]

Agree our form has been quite poor the past 3-4 weeks. We lost 3 of our last 4 last year but two of those were ripping games were we played very good footy ( v hawks and Collingwood) Would be loathe to completely right us off but our form slump is as puzzling as it is concerning. The poor quality of Forward entries and our lack of spread from the contest is killing us.

[annew]

Yes a bit hard to get excited as we look tired, slow and incapable of beating any of the finalists. injuries have caught up with us

[Ludwig]

Swans are in Rope-A-Dope Mode

The End of Our Home and Away Season


The Granny

[hot potato]

That's cheered me up !
Thanks Lud.

[snajik]

Situation now looks like this:

We beat Hawks, first final will be against Cats in Melbourne.

We lose to the Hawks, first final will be against the Hawks in Melbourne.

Both tough, not sure which I prefer!!

Am I missing something here? Regardless of whether we beat the Hawks at Homebush next week, we will still play them again at the MCG in week one of the finals. Unless Freo lose to St Kilda by 8 or 9 goals and we beat the Hawks by a similar margin. Unlikely.

The finals are shaping up as follows (based on current form):
Week 1 v Hawthorn (away) probable loss
Week 2 v Richmond / Port / North / Carlton / Adelaide / Collingwood (home) assuming the rumours we are hearing about Essendon's deal with the AFL are correct. Probable win unless we meet Collingwood.
Week 3 v Geelong / Freo (away) probable loss

We are going as well as can be expected considering the cattle available or unavailable. Beating a top 4/5 team from here will take a mighty effort.

[Wazza]

Agree our form has been quite poor the past 3-4 weeks. We lost 3 of our last 4 last year but two of those were ripping games were we played very good footy ( v hawks and Collingwood) Would be loathe to completely right us off but our form slump is as puzzling as it is concerning. The poor quality of Forward entries and our lack of spread from the contest is killing us.

Good points I think the speed from the spread is a major issue and our MF whilst good inside lacks real pace on the outside. Our form against quality teams Port Coll Geel has seen us unable to execute our game plan under pressure. Im not sure its something we can change this season and I will be unpopular IMHO given the way our game has been broken down by the better teams I think we will struggle to go too deep into this finals series. Injuries have had a lot to do with this, you cant go into finals with 4 -5 of your best 22 out and expect to go deep. But there is plenty to look forward to just its going to be .....next season.

Cheers

waz

[Cardinal]

No point waiting - the time to have a crack is now. Top 4 finishes are historically rare for the Swans and I would have unhesitantly have taken a guaranteed away qualifying final at the start of the season (including with a run of bad form leading into it).

Even with players back, it will be harder to make the grand final letalone win it from scratch next year than from where we are now. There will a number of improved teams next year and our form will not be guaanteed. No reason to expect that the team will not get it together for the finals and display bloods, guts and glory.

[ugg]

Am I missing something here? Regardless of whether we beat the Hawks at Homebush next week, we will still play them again at the MCG in week one of the finals. Unless Freo lose to St Kilda by 8 or 9 goals and we beat the Hawks by a similar margin. Unlikely.

The finals are shaping up as follows (based on current form):
Week 1 v Hawthorn (away) probable loss
Week 2 v Richmond / Port / North / Carlton / Adelaide / Collingwood (home) assuming the rumours we are hearing about Essendon's deal with the AFL are correct. Probable win unless we meet Collingwood.
Week 3 v Geelong / Freo (away) probable loss

We are going as well as can be expected considering the cattle available or unavailable. Beating a top 4/5 team from here will take a mighty effort.

If we beat Hawthorn and Geelong beat Brisbane (and it doesn't even have to be a big margin) and Freo beat St Kilda the top four would be Cats Hawks Dockers Swans

[snajik]

If we beat Hawthorn and Geelong beat Brisbane (and it doesn't even have to be a big margin) and Freo beat St Kilda the top four would be Cats Hawks Dockers Swans

Ah yes, true. However another unlikely scenario.

On another note I suspect Geelong might be a little apprehensive about facing Freo in Melbourne week one.

[bloodbrother]

bloods

A lot of people on here are really negative on the back of a loss, yes we played badly,but had we played well we still would have lost given the disgraceful umpiring ,they would not pay one free kick to a swan when clearly they were being held out of contests off the ball and paid free kicks to any cat who had a hand laid on them ,but it doesn't change anything .I would much prefer us to meet Hawks the first week anyway and contrary to many people here I really like our chances to win that and str8t thru to the prelim. this team is resilient and plays their best footy when people write them off..how do you think if any of the other top 4 teams would go without 5 or six of their best players out ? it is quite amazing that they have been able to lock up a top4 spot given all the injuries ..next week I hope that Longmire rests Hanners, JPK and maybe ROK as well , next week means squat ,the same as last night.if any team can bounce back it is the swans..keep the faith..

[aardvark]

I reckon we'll lose the first final, win the second then lose the prelim. When the emotion dies down we'll be happy with the season. We have some terrific new youngsters that have gained invaluable experience and will have said goodbye to some premiership heroes. Watch out next year!