vs Melbourne match thread

[DK_]

Unless forced by injury, or unless we have a massive lead , I bet AG stays in the vest til the 4th quarter.
If we play poorly , we have no right to look to him as the deus ex machina.

I say history to repeat and Swans to win by 31.

That's freaky! Well picked Nostradamous!

[DK_]

I don't agree.

Our mids are finding form

Our defenders have been excellent (one of the best outfits in the league)

Our forwards have been poor but will change dramatically with the inclusion of Tippett, Reid and a match fit Goodes.

If we get a lucky run with injuries, I predict we'll still finish top 4.

Sorry Melbournehammer, just noticed you qualified with "personnel improve'....So perhaps we agree?

I agree with this. Horse said in an interview once that it's important to be able to grind out a win when things aren't going your way. That's exactly what happened last night. You get 4 points whether it's pretty or ugly. We would have won by 80 points if we'd kicked straight.

For me, the positives were Goodes' successful return, the work rate (7 players over 100 DT points indicates a lot of hard work, which is how we beat the Geelongs and Hawthorns, not by better skills) and Derrickx took a step up.

[ScottH]

I am in this camp. From the grandstand last night he looked OK to me. He's no Mummy but he'll be picked again next week and deservedly so.

Precisely.

[aguy]

It was obvious that goodes was avoiding the tough contests but I think that was a wise coaching and management decision. After having seen Judd reinjure like he did it was a wise way to reintroduce goodes to match conditions. His touch looked spectacular.

[R-1]

I'm happy for Goodes to shirk contests forever now.

[Ludwig]

Unless forced by injury, or unless we have a massive lead , I bet AG stays in the vest til the 4th quarter.
If we play poorly , we have no right to look to him as the deus ex machina.

I say history to repeat and Swans to win by 31.

Can you do that one again?

And honestly, do we stand a chance against Hawthorn?

[Mel_C]

And honestly, do we stand a chance against Hawthorn?

Yes we can beat them if we play one on one and don't let them have a loose man. They don't like that because they can't play their short kicking game. I have been to a number of cats v hawks games and the cats always trouble them. Hopefully Longmire watches their recent match from Easter Monday.

Of course we also have to make sure we don't turn the ball over like we did last night and we have to kick straight!

[O'Reilly Boy]

Straight kicking would have made all the difference. 12-12 rather than 9-15 would have made us all feel a lot better. I thought Derickz's handballing was good in tight and Grundy was rock solid, contrary to those calling for his head on a stick. And it looks like Buddy is going to have to get used to wearing a defender like a cheap suit for the rest of the season. The sooner we can play Reid or Tippett up front the better, even if only to draw another defender. At the moment, our forward set up doesn't really seem to be placing demands on opponents' back 6 structure; the HFs are still getting sucked up the ground, so we win clearances, but are kicking to space cluttered with spares. As for Lloyd not being kicked to?one of my enduring memories of a couple of seasons in the mid 2000s was a young, hairy J. McVeigh forever running, unmanned, into space down the O'Reilly wing, waving his arms and never having anyone kick to him. Maybe a week's lay-off for #23 might help rebalance the attack?

[aguy]

Straight kicking would have made all the difference. 12-12 rather than 9-15 would have made us all feel a lot better. I thought Derickz's handballing was good in tight and Grundy was rock solid, contrary to those calling for his head on a stick. And it looks like Buddy is going to have to get used to wearing a defender like a cheap suit for the rest of the season. The sooner we can play Reid or Tippett up front the better, even if only to draw another defender. At the moment, our forward set up doesn't really seem to be placing demands on opponents' back 6 structure; the HFs are still getting sucked up the ground, so we win clearances, but are kicking to space cluttered with spares. As for Lloyd not being kicked to?one of my enduring memories of a couple of seasons in the mid 2000s was a young, hairy J. McVeigh forever running, unmanned, into space down the O'Reilly wing, waving his arms and never having anyone kick to him. Maybe a week's lay-off for #23 might help rebalance the attack?

I agree. If we just converted a few other behinds to goals I think we would have broken Melbourne and the game would have opened up much more and the result could have ballooned

[Go Swannies]

As for Lloyd not being kicked to?one of my enduring memories of a couple of seasons in the mid 2000s was a young, hairy J. McVeigh forever running, unmanned, into space down the O'Reilly wing, waving his arms and never having anyone kick to him. Maybe a week's lay-off for #23 might help rebalance the attack?

You're obviously delusional - did Macca ever have hair? And did he play last night - I didn't see him. I did see LRT scragged all night though. We always seem to get the B teams when they have taken their angry pills - GWS regarded the Swans game as their Grand Final and worked as they never have before. Melbourne had to show their new coach that he hadn't made the wrong choice - and nearly achieved it.

Melbourne 2014 = Sydney 2004? Or Freo 2012?

The Paul Roos game plan is always to get defence sorted out and then work on attack. I think Lyons left before the second part of the plan was executed, and it shows. But saying we played badly (though we did in bits) is to discount the incredible effort that Melbourne put into negating our best players. We were never given an inch of space and were harried throughout. Perhaps Buddy was practicing Buddhist mantras as he drove last week because I would have been considering punching some of the scragging Dees he had around his neck. Likewise LRT - and no doubt Macca the hirsute.

Remember how we regularly beat the Lions when they were at their best - well the Dees aimed to replicate that? If you want to play defensive-is-all footy (Remember the Richmond vs Crows game under Craig?) then you can drag any team down to your level until they tire. It was great that we played through it.

My wife went into the other room and watched Saturday Night Live and said she could still hear me screaming at the TV. It was an awful game to watch - up with the Saints in 2002 and 2005. But we got the four points. There are enough upsets around this weekend and we didn't add to them, phew.

When Sandra emerged last night I showed her every Goodes clip - and the roars when he came on and when he seas announced. She asked "does everyone love Adam?" - and I didn't tell her of the abuse he normally gets at MCG games. I wonder if that will be dished out to the sniping Australian of the Year this season. God it was good to see him back and finding space and targets. Does he have his own force field?

I went to bed imagining watching a game with Goodes, Franklin, Reid and Tippett filling our forward line. Sweet dreams indeed - I wonder if they'll ever be realised?

[O'Reilly Boy]

[QUOTE=Go Swannies;638730]You're obviously delusional - did Macca ever have hair?

mmm. yes. Hairier, but not necessarily hairy.

[wolftone57]

That was a sort of game that got better with each beer.

I know what you mean but the more I drank the angrier I got with the type of footy we were playing. Just horrible. There were too few positives. Melbourne will play scrappy ugly footy because that is the Roos way.

Rampe was good and his delivery is actually quite good. He is breaking the lines which I think is more his natural game.

Lloyd played his heart out, made space time and again only to be ignored. Stupid bloody senior players who can't use the ball well not giving it to a young bloke who uses far better than they ever could. We need to use this kid as he is really creative and gets to the right spots. so many times if we had used him we were out and away and his good delivery would have sealed the deal.

Shaw. Played better but his delivery sucks. He mostly just bombs the ball long again and again and mostly the ball just comes back again and again. He got a lot of it but as far as I am concerned he was nowhere near the 83% efficiency that is in the stats. Got no idea how they work that stat but I think it is badly flawed. For instance a disposal in a pack of at a stoppage is called an ineffective disposal yet a kick to a pack of opposition players and one of yours is called effective, why? They are both ineffective.

Kizza, Hannas, Joey & Parks were really good in close and outside.

Mal & Macca go dibs I am sure as they kick to each other so much. Recently I have noticed that opposition know they are going to kick or handball to each other so they cut them off. but they still insist on feeding each other even though they are not in a better position than other players.

Benny is better in the forwarline. He turns the ball over too much up the ground and in very dangerous positions. He turned over twice by kicking to the centre square, not good. That is the most dangerous part of the ground to turn over. Good sides would have punished his total of 6 turnovers in the midfield to half back.

Derrickx only just does a job. Prefer someone who can actually play, even if he is only just learning the game.

LRT is in retirement form the same as ROK.

Goodes is a freak.

Jetts was pretty good except for a couple of clangers.

Harry was again tagging. Birdy too. They were both generally pretty effective. I would love to see Harry permanently on the wing and Jetts the other wing. Harry & Jetts use the ball so well at their best, the same as Lloyd. See a pattern emerging? Yes, that's it, our young players all use the ball really well.

The backline is generally solid and Teddy was great but I have been surprised by some blues by Smithy this year. Very unusual turnovers from him. Reg is Reg.

The coaching wasn't terribly good at times again last night. Loose players allowed in their defence in the first half, at least Horse fixed it after half time. The long bomb permeated again much to my consternation. When we deliver the ball we are a much better side. We should always play one on one, I don't know why Horse insists on this extra man in defence as we are the only losers in that.

[Jewels]

Melbourne 2014 = Sydney 2004? Or Freo 2012?

I think you might be giving The Dees a little too much credit here, there has certainly been a huge improvement under Roos but I think they are still a long way off us in 04, maybe next year and a long, long way off the 2012 Freo team, perhaps 2016 for that one.

When Sandra emerged last night I showed her every Goodes clip - and the roars when he came on and when he seas announced. She asked "does everyone love Adam?" - and I didn't tell her of the abuse he normally gets at MCG games. I wonder if that will be dished out to the sniping Australian of the Year this season. God it was good to see him back and finding space and targets. Does he have his own force field?

This brings me to a question that someone at the game may be able to answer for me. The roar when Goodsie came on and then again when he was announced as being on, was huge. Was that our fans making all that racket or where the Melbourne fans gracious enough to cheer onto the ground The Australian of the Year and one of the all time truly great champions of the game?

[baskin]

I think you might be giving The Dees a little too much credit here, there has certainly been a huge improvement under Roos but I think they are still a long way off us in 04, maybe next year and a long, long way off the 2012 Freo team, perhaps 2016 for that one.



This brings me to a question that someone at the game may be able to answer for me. The roar when Goodsie came on and then again when he was announced as being on, was huge. Was that our fans making all that racket or where the Melbourne fans gracious enough to cheer onto the ground The Australian of the Year and one of the all time truly great champions of the game?

I'm pretty sure it was just the Swans Supporters. There were a lot of us at the game.

[ShockOfHair]

I take a lot of positives out of that. For one we put in a four-quarter effort. If we'd done that in every game we'd be sitting in the four. We also had key players like Hannebery and Jack playing themselves back into form.

Melbourne bring a pretty good defensive game. They put a lot of players behind the ball, which is why it was so scrappy. We held them to five goals and made a handy increment to our percentage, which would have been even a lot more if we'd kicked straight.

The big weakness was not being able to find a forward target. We saw the difference when Goodes came on and gave us a marking target. With REid and Tippett also to come back we can expect a big improvement on that front. After our lazy first month this game showed we're building in form and confidence.