Swans v Dockers Game Day Thread

[Melbournehammer]

What annew said times 1000. As somewhere who was there for 1996 and 2005 at the scg, as well as 2003, 2006 and 2012 at anz the noise and experiences of the scg are infinitely better than anz.

I think the swans needed to come out after last week against the blues and make a statement saying the ground was unacceptable and the afl should change it. Like the 5 games in melb crap the club could be much stronger publicly.

[Go Swannies]

Amazing second quarter from Freo - there is no team that could have stood up to that, especially a tired, depleted Swans team. Thanks Swannies - amazing effort getting the B-team to a prelim. Next year should be something special.

[ShockOfHair]

We'd been running on empty for the last month or so, so no disgrace. We put up a fair effort to defend our flag against the odds and uncovered half a dozen gems in the process.
I'm already thinking about Tippett running out with Reid and Goodes, Rampe playing alongside AJ and Malceski, Jetta and Rohan burning up the turf.....

[aardvark]

Agree GS. The time and experience put in to our youngsters this year will hold us in good stead. Hopefully with a little luck we will avoid the injury curse next year. Exciting times ahead I feel.

[Swansinger]

Not a time to knock the boys , but to reflect with pride on getting to a PF , given the injuries , underdone players and the new breed just getting started.
Still , we were well beaten and all credit to Fremantle.

Plenty of positives , such as young Harry showing he can kick goals in big games . Ronnie will be a star - he's a long way off yet of course , but he showed a bit of composure and he just has "the look" of a future champion. Ranga's kicking was a bit off , but his workrate and positional sense looked good.

Not a great day , but I am proud of all the lads and justifiably optimistic about the future.
We will be back - and soon.

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Not a time to knock the boys , but to reflect with pride on getting to a PF , given the injuries , underdone players and the new breed just getting started.
Still , we were well beaten and all credit to Fremantle.

Plenty of positives , such as young Harry showing he can kick goals in big games . Ronnie will be a star - he's a long way off yet of course , but he showed a bit of composure and he just has "the look" of a future champion. Ranga's kicking was a bit off , but his workrate and positional sense looked good.

Not a great day , but I am proud of all the lads and justifiably optimistic about the future.
We will be back - and soon.

[Panttz]

Disappointing with the effort in the first half. Really struggled to get anything going. It felt like one of those games where everything that could of gone wrong did.

Oh well, now we get to spend the next 4 months seeing how large we can get the Tippet thread! Lets shoot for 500 ladies and gents

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Disappointing with the effort in the first half. Really struggled to get anything going. It felt like one of those games where everything that could of gone wrong did.

Oh well, now we get to spend the next 4 months seeing how large we can get the Tippet thread! Lets shoot for 500 ladies and gents

[MightyBloods]

The most disappointing thing about our defeat against the dockers......our "so called supporters" on this thread knocking the performance of our great team. With the amount of injuries to our senior players this year, making the prelim was incredible. To go further and make it to a grand final in itself would have made VFL/AFL history with the amount of players missing games from the previous premiership year. Sure I'm disappointed we lost but I'm mighty proud of our 2013 performance. And for the fair weather swan supporters that appreciate only the good times well you kind of remind me of ANZ stadium...a turf that shifts amd moves with the potential to damage.

[DamY]

Gotta agree with you MightyBloods. Really wanted the boys to get up, but it was one injury too many. Our best 22 was not on the field (no disrespect) but the boys that were on the field would have taken so much experience and drive away from it. TBH I didn't want Q2 onwards, was at a friends party but I'm not embarrassed by the boys performance. We have a such a bright future and this step could be what sets them up for the next few years.

Really really really looking forward to next season, I think we're gonna be there on the last Saturday in September!

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Gotta agree with you MightyBloods. Really wanted the boys to get up, but it was one injury too many. Our best 22 was not on the field (no disrespect) but the boys that were on the field would have taken so much experience and drive away from it. TBH I didn't want Q2 onwards, was at a friends party but I'm not embarrassed by the boys performance. We have a such a bright future and this step could be what sets them up for the next few years.

Really really really looking forward to next season, I think we're gonna be there on the last Saturday in September!

[ScottH]

Oh well. Has been a good year.
Got to see the future of the swans, and we've been lucky injuries up till this year.
Going back to back is always hard. Not too many teams do it these days.

Bring on 2014!!

[DaveyCaper]

Well, this Canadian does not think that the Swans has anything to be ashamed of!! I really did not have a good feeling going into this game as it is never easy to beat top sides when you have so many of your top players out. Your best players have to be your best players to win as the saying goes and a lot of the Swans best players were in the stands! You definitely have to hand it to Freo who brought incredible pressure, which would be even more difficult for the Swans with so many players down. There is a great core, both of experienced and younger players, and I feel that the window has not closed on the Sydney Swans. I have the feeling that there is still noise to be made!

[Auntie.Gerald]

Im not convinced that if we had our best team on the park we would have won........Freeo may have lost the game thru bad kicking at goal.....but lets be honest Freeo are ready steady go for a GF win IF they bring that intensity and structure to the MCG

The crowd was just amazing and together the freeo lads and the crowd went into a frenzy

For me if Freeo didnt have the following equivalent players it would have been interesting to compare.........

Goodes - Pavlich
LRT - Dawson
Mattner - Duffield
Shaw - Pearce
Reid - Johnson
Tippett - Clarke
Mitchell - Barlow
Johnson - McPharlin


interestingly Freeo do still have a lot of talls but they dont use them in the forwards as much as we do and maybe that it is part of their success ie they have such brilliant defensive pressuring small forwards that just win win win win the footy or tackle you till you turn it over

If Pavlich, Dawson, Duffield, Pearce, Johnson, Clarke, Barlow and McPharlin were out it would be fair to say that we would have won last night but if both teams had their best players out their it would have been one hell of a game

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P S - forgot to say that the dual of Crowley on Jack was great to watch

frustrating to watch our K Jack get sucked into the vortex of Crowley but Crowley didnt really play as tight as I thought on Jack and to Crowleys credit he made a stack of tackles, had 22 disposals and kicked a goal..............Keiron has something like 10 disposals but worse we didnt get any run from Keiron. Therefore Freeo shutdown a lot of our run as Kennedy, ROK, Macca or Bolton when moving into the midfield we dont have any leg speed

PSS - Fyfe was just awesome........the guy went from midfield to HFF to HBF and was just so fast out of packs, so high in spoils and marks.........just an awesome player to watch and one of the most difficult matchups in the AFL fullstop !

[hot potato]

The Boys were really gracious in defeat, we have to be as well. They still gave us an exciting year despite all the injuries (why were there so many).
This was Freos night, they were awesome, and you had to identify with the joyous crowd who have never experienced this nirvana (like we have) . It was the happiest crowd I've ever seen.
I hope they play as well in the Granny.
Thanks Swans, and congratulations Jude Bolton on a stellar career all in red and white.
HP

[Nico]

My hobby horse for a long time has been our poor centre clearance work. We have improved somewhat this season but in the finals against Hawthorn and Freo we have been done like a dinner. In both games the opposition has got first use at centre bounces with little opposition and then locked us in their forward half.

Before the game David King talked about how Freo get it forward and then lock down sides. We fell for it badly and for most part it was because they got the clean centre clearances quickly forward. It didn't matter what side's ruckman got the tap, their mids were quicker at the reflexes by a long way and our blokes always seemed on the wrong side of the pack and lead footed.

For mine that was game over in the second quarter.

We worked a lot better in the second half so I don't think fitness was a factor. Sure we were down in personnel but the disposal of some of the senior players by foot was nothing short of disgraceful. Kicks to players that lacked penetration and to wrong options that were cut off by Freo players, or grubbers was agonising. McGlynn's skills have not improved one iota since coming to the club.

How critical was that miss by Rohan in the 3rd quarter from dead in front. We would have been only 25 points down and who knows another before 3 quarter time and anything could have happened. He misses and they rebound with 2 goals for the game.

Having said that we have had a good season under the injury circumstances, and with hopefully a lesser injury toll in 2014 sees us up there again.

[aardvark]

Well, this Canadian does not think that the Swans has anything to be ashamed of!! I really did not have a good feeling going into this game as it is never easy to beat top sides when you have so many of your top players out. Your best players have to be your best players to win as the saying goes and a lot of the Swans best players were in the stands! You definitely have to hand it to Freo who brought incredible pressure, which would be even more difficult for the Swans with so many players down. There is a great core, both of experienced and younger players, and I feel that the window has not closed on the Sydney Swans. I have the feeling that there is still noise to be made!

Welcome aboard Davey and great first post. I totally agree with you.

[Bloodthirsty]

Last night's result is of no surprise. Too many injuries. No team would have made it as far as we have with the equivalent number and position players out.

Having 'depth' is different to having 'young talent'. Depth means you keep winning as though the injuries have no effect. We witnessed some genuine depth players with White, Rampe and Mitchell. The rest were just really good young talent that will develop, not best 22 (yet).

If we have a big pre-season and virtually no injuries next year, we will be the untouchable side that many expected us to be this year, except even better now that we've experimented so much. It is really important to get another pre-season in with Tippett. We heard so much about him "getting to know the Swans gameplan", then when he was on the park they totally changed it.

I will be barracking for Freo, but believe me when I say that is only because they are the lesser of two evils and I would prefer anyone to win except Hawthorn. Anyone. If the Hawks win then the Victorian media would feel justified in treating the whole season as a formality for a forgone conclusion. If they knew anything, they'd be secretly putting big bucks on the Swans for the 2014 flag.