NAB Challenge: Swans v Giants.

[Swans500]

Compared to the majority of Swans pre season cup games...this was highly impressive to me....

[MightyBloods]

The best thing about yesterday's performance was, I thought, the evenness of contributions. The senior guys did their thing without really getting much out of cruise control, but to get such good contributions from established but still young first team players - Mitchell, Parker, Reid, Rohan and Cunningham - was very encouraging. Throw in the likes of Towers and BJ, who flashed in and out of the game but still showed a bit, and even young Lloyd, whose hands in traffic were excellent at times, and midfield depth is most certainly not going to be a problem this year. We just need to get some of the tall blokes on the paddock!

Spot on.
I was also highly encouraged before the ball was even bounced......Parker urging the guys on in the circle before the game. You'd swear he was the captain. Backs up Horse's request for the young midfielders to step up and the more experienced guys out of the centre action. I also loved Lloyd's clean & quick hands in traffic.
...and we have a serious midfielder in the making......go The 'Tommy Gun'!
Tommy D in the ruck appears to be really popular with the boys on and off the field.
Nick S was the only guy after the game to accept an ice pack in the rooms. He was also the only guy to stay rested against the wall with the ice pack on his ankle...it happened late in the last quarter. Likely to be rested next week.

[Panttz]

Yeah I did see that, he got up and looked really proppy. Not sure if it was the ankle or just cramp but I did have a few heart palpitations haha

Fingers crossed our unsung champion is ok for round 1

[Legs Akimbo]

I finished watching the replay and agree with the various comments. The core of our next midfield group (assuming they don't leave due to the Buddy stuff ) looks amazing. It;s funny to think that with all the draft picks they gave GWS and we snared Mitchell - he monstered it.

I really like the look of Jake Lloyd.

Mummy looked good for GWS, Lamb, not so much.

[Nico]

Jake Lloyd clearly looked ahead of Brandon Jack. Knows where the ball is at and has very good skills. Got a couple of good, clean centre clearances with slick handball.

[R-1]

Smith was moving after hurtng his ankle and didn't even get any extended attention from the bench staff after coming off. I reckon he just jarred something.

[tasmania60]

Pretty good hitout. Youngsters, players back from injury, rucks, defence all did pretty well.

Brereton: 'if Cunningham isn't in the Swans' best 22, that's real depth.'

agree looks sharp ,big guys to, not sure about carlton recruit maybe to early but foot skills a little ordinary !

[Ludwig]

I thought Laidler's kicking looked pretty good. It was hard to tell how effective he was because the ball didn't come his way much. I think he's sort of a Reg type, no fuss defender. He looked fluid and doesn't panic. Not quick, but gets to the right spots. Overall, I thought he did okay for a first hitout with the Swans.

[swanwolf]

Someone might be blocking the Swan's match but the other games are accessible which is all I needed to download quarters 1,2,3 & 4 of our game and will watch them tonight. So exciting! Don't tell me the score.

[Mr Magoo]

I thought the half time "analysis" of the Swans year ahead by the "experts" was interesting. Not so much for any telling insights but for the obvious resentment that the Victorian football community / media now has for the swans .

Funny how at this time last year no one questioned Hawthorns ability to somehow keep pretty much the same 2012 GF team (which was acknowledged at the time as being the most talented squad going around) - roughhead, rioli, mitchell, sewell, burgoyne, franklin, lewis etc etc - yet while they were still able to draft Lake to help get them to a premiership with little shedding of talent.

[Zlatorog]

It seems to me that we don't follow Melbourne media predictions of our inevitable downfall that never happened. For years since 2006 they were predicting wooden spoons for us and it did not happen. I liked Foxfooty until last year when they started negative comments about the Swans (Tippet affair) and it went on and on. Foxfooty has become a howler for Victorian clubs, so this year I cancelled Foxtel for that reason. I won't fund Eddie and his cronies any more.
I saw that piece my friend sent me and I was disgusted after watching it and confirming that I did the right thing to cancel Foxtel.

[rojo]

Thanks heaps Swanwolf for posting access to the replay of Thursday's game. I too found access to the replay on afl.com blocked and not being able find any other source was feeling quite deprived!! All is now well - so thanks again.

[chammond]

How come Lockyer and Marsh only played 20 minutes between the two of them? Seems a pointless exercise, or even insulting to Marsh . . . how can he show anything in just 9 minutes? Were they injured?

Re: the blocked game on Smart Replay: I am able to access the replay using IE11 but not Firefox27?? Not that I have a clue why

When the same thing happened last year, I complained directly to Telstra, and it was fixed within a couple of days.

[spiffy-dude]

I thought the half time "analysis" of the Swans year ahead by the "experts" was interesting. Not so much for any telling insights but for the obvious resentment that the Victorian football community / media now has for the swans .

Funny how at this time last year no one questioned Hawthorns ability to somehow keep pretty much the same 2012 GF team (which was acknowledged at the time as being the most talented squad going around) - roughhead, rioli, mitchell, sewell, burgoyne, franklin, lewis etc etc - yet while they were still able to draft Lake to help get them to a premiership with little shedding of talent.

They were ok except Robbo. He basically stopped short of calling Longmuire an over rated coach with a bad gameplan. He said horse is not elite even though he was reminded he won a flag recently which robbo was very quick to remind him the hawks are premiers and that the hawks lost the 2012 GF.

How the hell does "Robbo" even have a job in the media let alone a tv gig is beyond me. But then again Sam Newman was turned into a multi millionaire in melbourne through acting like a misogynist dickhead and well they do worship Eddie McGuire down there.

[ugg]

They were ok except Robbo. He basically stopped short of calling Longmuire an over rated coach with a bad gameplan. He said horse is not elite even though he was reminded he won a flag recently which robbo was very quick to remind him the hawks are premiers and that the hawks lost the 2012 GF.

How the hell does "Robbo" even have a job in the media let alone a tv gig is beyond me. But then again Sam Newman was turned into a multi millionaire in melbourne through acting like a misogynist dickhead and well they do worship Eddie McGuire down there.

It was a poor usage of words by Robbo, perhaps done on purpose to incite some reaction from the other members of the panel. But I think his point is quite valid, whilst other clubs had some sort of rotation policy going on, particularly with their midfielders, the Swans had many onballers who played 100% of the games and they seemed burned out by the end of the year compared to the midway point of the season where ironically, the media were purring about our 2-way midfield.

Robbo, I believe, was trying to say that Longmire will need to change his strategy and rest his key midfielders at times.