Where are we going wrong??

[Hartijon]

The Swans seem to be having a go but what they try is not coming off.Firstly HANDBALL: always one too many.As a forward waiting to lead to a kicker, watching the ball being fiddled around means by the time it does get kicked both your lead and your chance of an easy mark are gone.The Swans overdo handball.no more than 3 in a row!They also handball way too short.The long attacking handball to an outside runner is as effective today as it was when Polly Farmer invented it.

Secondly :Nailing your chances;Chances to win that game ended up with points.One of our best players missed a sitter at a crucial time and the kick in ended up an opposition goal! You can't miss easy chances and win.The Crows showed that the week before.

Thirdly: Creative Coaching: Don't let a loose man upset our forwards and drill into the players heads not tokickto 2 on 1 situations.Spray Shaw.get the team doing what you demand.Putting Grundy forward might have worked if he had kicked straight.Take control of the team

Without these problems addressed it doesn't matter who you drop or bring in...we wiill lose.

[Flying South]

I believe confidence is the single most significant factor in footy - probably in any team sport. That, and hard work. But players are more inclined to run hard when they believe it will make a difference.

It?s an interest conundrum. If a successful running game plan = Confidence + hard work + commitment. Without the hard work, you won?t get confidence. Without confidence, you won?t get commitment. Without commitment, you won?t hard work. Without hardwork ??. Something in has got to change to break this cycle. How do we bring back confidence, hard work & commitment? Make player changes and bring in pace, enthusiasm and freshness? Or retain the existing players and change the game plan until confidence, hard work and commitment is restored? Or a bit of both?

[707]

We had plenty of chances to win last weekas we did against Collingwood but in both games we just blindly kicked into an opposition dominated or worse still an opposition only forward half.

Just got to get better forward of centre. Surely this is what they highlight in the game review? I get beside myself with the kick into our foward 50 straight to a Maxwell type. FFS look before you kick!

[Auntie.Gerald]

I think there are many many layers to winning a game, winning a season, wining a GF and winning over several years

attitude indv
attitude team
availability of players through out a season
availability of players in particular games and particular match ups
skills
fitness
tactics
personal and team development
leadership
home ground advantage
supporter belief
media belief
opposition disbelief

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

BUT.......For me at the very core of football "you have to beat your player individually everyweek"........it is the very first lesson you learn as a kid. When this is adhered to within the team something changes on game day.......you feel the energy of the individual domination and this display / this act of power generally surges through the team. Then other individuals believe and the team starts to believe.........also it has a double up effect in that the other team looses momentum and starts to give up bit by bit as hope starts to fade.

We hear team coaches and senior players so often say how they were happy with their leaders or not happy with their leaders......they know how important the positive energy is in a team and how this energy so often starts and ends with their leaders. We as supporters and or players have felt this same sensation in many sports whether indv or team......when a player stands up and saids enough is enough and literally IMPOSES himself on a sporting game everyone feels it and it can lift the possibilities to a whole new level

For me we almost did enough to win 3 of the 4 but what what missing was two vital pieces to the puzzle........

firstly, we didnt bring that ruthless will to win and dominate our opposite player as mentioned above and our leaders are to blame in my opinion....only a handful imposed themselves when the game was on the line

secondly, tactically we fell apart when we were winning at half time against GWS and the Pies........the plan B by Buckley and Cameron worked........especially evident was Buckleys ability to build numbers around are predictable forward entries and then he smashed us with counter attack

[Flying South]

Thanks auntie. Nice piece. Certainly food for thought. Hopefully our leaders can inspire and coaches have a plan B.

[DA_Swan]

We just have not improved and others have got better and know what we do - for years everybody has said they know what you get when you play the swans - it is just really hard to beat them - we have recruited to improve our attack but our key defense and defensive pressure after being so solid for years is under the pump - highlighted more so with our lack of goals

North Melbourne beat us at our own game which is no coincidence given that Leigh Tudor is now an assistant coach there and north clearly have a hunger about them now that we are not showing - our best footy is when we stop other teams from playing - our Plan B is one on one footy - beat your man and we are not doing it - teams that match our pressure beat us and those with better skill beat us unless we play out of our skin defensively - we rarely if ever win high scoring shootouts unfortunately now more and more teams are matching our pressure and our skills are not standing up to it - our hand balling in the wet and trying to be clever in the conditions was not smart footy on the weekend - here's hoping for an improved effort by us as and that Fremantle are off their game this week and we only pick fit players !!

[Legs Akimbo]

For mine, the games i have watched, it looks lime we are making the same mistake of a few years back, which is entry into the forward lie from too far back. The cause may be structural, but they should be entering from high half forward, not bombing it from the centre line.

[O'Reilly Boy]

Great thread here, thanks.
It seems to me that the game-day coaching issue has been around for a while. Recall late 2012 at the SCG against Hawthorn, and late 2013 against Collingwood and Hawthorn?we had commanding early leads, in response to whichClarkson and Buckley made tactical changes and they ran over us. Part of it was tiredness, as has been frequently observed of the injury-plagued 2013 campaign in particular. But there is that worrying phenomenon of a reluctance to make effective real time changes, or to instead fiddle around the edges (throwing Grundy forward, for example) rather than responding to a changed game situation. That lack of flexibility, perhaps predicated on the idea that it all just needs to click into place, seems to me to be hurting us in all our losses this season.
At the same time, AG's argument about winning individual contests and imposing on the play is compelling, as is the observation that our i50s seem to be very high, which is making it hard to hold the ball in the attacking area. And there do need to be some personnel changes. But I would also like to think that the coaching box could respond pro-actively, reacting to unfolding situations decisively and aggressively, setting new terms of engagement, rather than chasing the game.

[Swanny40519]

I don't know if I am simplifying it too much, but if you kick more goals and points than your opposition you will win the game.

At the moment we get the ball in the midfield and bomb it forward to Buddy who is against two or three players and the other side clear it out with ease. Last week against North we won inside 50's but couldn't score. With a forward set up with LRT, Pyke, Derickx, along with Buddy, if the ball got to the ground we were hopeless at putting pressure on their defenders and nearly all the time it was cleared out with no pressure from the swans. We need some players who can pressure their opposition in our forward line, and we need coaches who don't leave one or two opposition players loose in our forward line.

Our forwards and midfield are too slow to move the ball forward and when they do it is just a high kick direct to the opposition team and not to any leading swans players,

footy is a simple game but gee we are making it look very very hard to play (and to watch).

[ScottH]

I don't know if I am simplifying it too much, but if you kick more goals and points than your opposition you will win the game.

Absurd theory!!

[Jewels]

footy is a simple game but gee we are making it look very very hard to play (and to watch).

Best comment I've read on this forum in forever (pretty accurate too)!

[wolftone57]

I agree with the Richmond analogy. This similar Swans team was moving the ball through the midfield with speed and finesse just a year ago. If the change this year is not Longmire's fault, it certainly is his responsibility to recognise the problem and find a solution. We are playing dumb football. You loose confidence when things don't work, so it's only natural that poor play exacerbates the problems.

The dynamic on the field during the game is difficult for the fans to assess; that's the job of the coaches and the leaders. Wet weather is not the problem. We were beaten on Sunday by a side that plays under a roof and is noted as a poor wet weather side. We had a lot of wet weather practice this year.

Successful sides execute under pressure with speed and skill; good sides make good decisions. This is not the Swans this year. I am disappointed in Longmire, because he should have realised that ROK and Derickx were poor selections. It indicates to me that he doesn't understand the situation unless it's beaten into him. It's a real worry.

There are players that simply should not be playing: ROK, Derickx, Shaw and LRT.

There are players that are down on form, like Hanners and Mitchell, but don't know what the problem is. You would hope the coach would.

I don't think we have a problem with the game plan. We have a problem executing the game plan. First we need to make changes to players that are physically not capable to executing well (4 players above). The mental side of things is up to coaches and the playing group to work out.

Sorry Ludwig we have problems with the game plan. It is predictable. I even know when he is going to change it up and kick long. You can almost time it by saying at half time we will come out in the third and kick long. Horse only seems to have Plan A & Plan B. No other. He is also allowing a loose man in defence which is killing us. We play better if we go man on man and use our strength, agility and when we have pacey players, pace around the ball and to move the ball on.

In saying that we do need to get some players who use the ball well into the team. We can't keep playing Shaw, who coughs it up one in every two kicks. We can't continue to carry players no matter who they are. We are carrying ROK, Shaw, LRT, Mitchell, Hannas (one good, two bad games), Derrickx. Add to that the fact the back line is not exactly playing the best footy either, especially the KPP. The KPP backs have had it easy for so long with Marty coming over the top as spoiler and now they need to stand up on their own. This will sort the men from the boys. We can't continue to expect the other players to pick up the slack. Time to bring in Biggs, Naismith, Membrey, Tippett, Birdie or Lloyd. Biggs & Lloyd have very good delivery and big Sammy can also spot a player up too. Membrey knows where the goals are.

I like the idea of Pykie playing second ruck with quite a long time spent in the forward line. We have been trying to do that but have not been able to because derrick has not been up to it. I think we need to play Sammy to blood him.

[Scottee]

Where are we going wrong? Paul Roos was never one to blame the players for playing poorly because "no player wants to play badly". Maybe we should be looking at the off -field management at the club rather than the players. Poor communication and lack of trust can undermine a players confidence and sense of joy in playing the game. Best practice at the player management level seems to be slipping with disturbing incidents such as the Mumford dirty needle incident, the Johnson knee stuff up, the extended injury list and the purported non-consultation with Keiren Jack over the contracting of Buddy. Perhaps to fix what is going on the management should be held to account.

[chuckie]

I know where we are going in September on our footy trip.

[wolftone57]

Where are we going wrong? Paul Roos was never one to blame the players for playing poorly because "no player wants to play badly". Maybe we should be looking at the off -field management at the club rather than the players. Poor communication and lack of trust can undermine a players confidence and sense of joy in playing the game. Best practice at the player management level seems to be slipping with disturbing incidents such as the Mumford dirty needle incident, the Johnson knee stuff up, the extended injury list and the purported non-consultation with Keiren Jack over the contracting of Buddy. Perhaps to fix what is going on the management should be held to account.

Agree there Scottee. I think there also needs to be confidence in the coach from the players. If the players feel they are flogging a dead horse, pardon the pun, they may not play well. In other words if the game plan is not working and the players see the coach doesn't seem to have any bright ideas they might just start to lose confidence in him. I don't see the players nodding their heads and jumping out of their skin at the breaks anymore like they used to. If the players have no confidence in the game plan then they may be careless in its execution. In other words if they don't think it will work they might just blaze away.

I think the coaches have to come up with some new strategies very soon. As someone said earlier, footy is not rocket science, it is a simple game and all you have to do is know your opposition, how to negate their strengths and how to exploit their weaknesses. In the meantime it does help to be able to execute with a high degree of skill. I think this is missing and it is the coaches fault. They are not reading the opposition at all. They seem not to be aware that some of our players would not get a gig with Melbourne the way they are playing. They seem to be unaware that execution with skill has become something this Sydney side will not be accused of. They seem to be unaware when the opposition coach has them on toast or makes a move they need to counter. If they are aware they rarely do anything about it.

I feel we have 'Three Blind Mice' in the coaching box.