Richmond v Sydney

[aardvark]

Premier sides win ugly. Nice game Harry.

[Mel_C]

We are getting an injury every week now ????.

Hopefully we get Tippett and McGlynn back this week.

[Ampersand]

Tweet from Ben McGlynn:

@McGlynn_21: Gee that was hard to watch! @DHannebery nearly put a hole in my wall..#intense Congrats to @zakjones10 was Hard&Clean when needed!

I feel you, Dan.

[CureTheSane]

Forgot to mention Laidler. He was one of our best tonight.

I agree.
And Cunningham was a standout.
Jones had a good first game.

Malcheski had an average game with many mistakes
Overall the Swans handballs and short kicks were lazy.
They also took their eyes off the ball a lot when receiving and fumbled.

I rarely comment on umpires, as most of the time you'll find that most supporters only see the bad decisions against their side.
However tonight's umpiring was pretty bad. Too many inconsistent decisions, and poor decisions.
Also, last week the whistle was blown quickly and holding the ball was always on the cards
Tonight the whistles were away and you had to hold a player for 15 minuted before HTB was awarded.

[dimelb]

The most frustrating game I've seen in a long time. We weren't switched on at the start and not until the second half did we see anything like the required intensity. Some really good players did some really dumb things. It happens.

The umpiring was Amateur Hour.I can't recall when I last saw so much holding and scragging, and all without a free being paid.

Our defence was too loose for too long, and give credit where it's due, Richmond played some good football. For much of the game their handling was better, their positioning was better, they ran in support better. Fortunately for us they also overused the ball with a lot of kicking around. But there were passages when they looked the goods with accurate disposal, hard running, quick ball movement varied with careful short kicking to work their way down field ending with another Inside 50.

Agree with all that has been said about our better players, and Lance Franklin deserves a bonus .... well, that might be overdoing it, but he's sure earning his keep.

I also thought they looked tired much of the time, but they managed to rally in the second half and seal the win. Four points is four points.

[Blue Sun]

Just got back from the game an hour or so ago. Wasn't impressed to be honest. Really missed Hanners tonight, he is so important to us. Umpires were absolutely woeful, neither supporters were happy. There were some really strange calls that left everyone scratching their heads. The ruck situation is a real concern, need to get Pyke up and running. On a positive note I thought Cunningham was excellent, so was Jetta and Buddy of course. Glad he shut the crowd up with his 4 goals, the incessant booing was over the top and poor form from the Tiger supporters (but they got what they deserved in the end). Rance was all over him tonight, pulling at his jumper, arms around him the whole time, I hope Longmire asks for a please explain from the umpiring group - there needs to be some kind of consistency or confirmation on what is and isn't acceptable.

I will probably cop some flak for this, but I really don't think Derickx is AFL material - I hope he proves me wrong.

[WolfGang]

Lucky you weren't listening to SEN in Melbourne - as I did on the way home.

Lots of Richmond supporters & supposedly neutral supports - harped on about the poor umpiring standard for Richmond !!

After about 5 calls or so, a Sysdney fan called up and mentioned the "Buddy" scragging (??) by Rance - that was not picked up.

Anyway, a win is a win - just bank them.

Next week - only play fit / switched on players.

- - - Updated - - -

Lucky you weren't listening to SEN in Melbourne - as I did on the way home.

Lots of Richmond supporters & supposedly neutral supports - harped on about the poor umpiring standard for Richmond !!

After about 5 calls or so, a Sysdney fan called up and mentioned the "Buddy" scragging (??) by Rance - that was not picked up.

Anyway, a win is a win - just bank them.

Next week - only play fit / switched on players.

[rojo]

Wow! What a terrible first half. You can't complain about Bruce for his comments re us not looking like a flag favourite team. I thought the same as I turned the record button to off. Thank goodness we have Benny, Hanners and KT to come back in. Some players had shockers. Both tonight and last week, it was LF in the end that was the difference between a win and a loss, and that is a bit of a worry. Before you bag me out for being negative, Horse agreed in his interview that the team didn't play well.

However, having now aired my disappointment I will concede that it is unrealistic to expect any team to play at a high level week in week out and they have played some great footy over their last 8 games. And they did win. It's just that it was Friday night at the 'G' - show time!

[Ampersand]

The most worrying aspect of the game is that the Tigers showed other teams how they could beat us. Starve our big men of possession early and wait for them to tire late. Richmond basically played the equivalent of an Ali-style rope-a-dope.

[Flying South]

We all knew a let down was coming. We have virtually come through a mini finals series this past 5 or 6 weeks. Beaten all the top teams. That has taken its toll physically and mentally. Just glad we can bank the 4 points. Some observations;
- there were a lot of tired players. If I was the coaches, after tomorrow's beach session, I would say to the players, "see you Wednesday". Some rotations are required next week. Membrey, Robinson and Nankervis come to mind.
- both ruckman were terrible. For the 2nd week in a row Derickx looked cooked and tonight Pyke looked like a Canadian rugby player. Really need Naismith to step up and claim that No.1 ruck role next year.
- Cunningham gets better each week. He is very quick.
- Jetta is perplexing me. He is doing so many good things defensively. But when he gets the ball in attacking positions he is in two minds. Just not backing himself.
- Laidler fits beautifully into our working class backline. Reid looks better each week as that swingman.
- BJ improved. Worked hard but execution was lacking.
- Buddy is a champion. Would be looking forward to Tippett coming back or Nankervis going to full forward so he can play his more roving half forward role.

[Swansinger]

Awful, ugly game but plenty of positives....

We have now shown we can win any style of game...Pretty, tough, ugly..That's a great sign.

Zac Jones is an excellent player...Just the way he went about it, you can tell, he's a beauty (Same way I feel about Mitchell)

Cunningham had his best all round game for the Swans, really starting to look good...Sorry GWS, we aint giving him back..

Jetta transformation continues....19 touches, 7.. yes.. 7 tackles . Great stuff Lewis.

Another great understated job by Bird, in stopping Cotchin in the 2nd half.

Another solid game from Laidler, he's been a great pick up.

Buddy's will to win, not a part of his game often acknowledged, is as strong as anybody's.

- - - Updated - - -

As I said to my pal at the game : I've just seen LJ lay more tackles in one minute than he did in his entire first season !

[bodgie]

Our midfield seems to work as a pack and doesn't seem to have the depth that evreyone likes to say we have. If there are one or two having a bad night or out injured (McG and Hanner) the whole thing seems to fall apart. It's not like someone steps up to cover. They all need to be ON.

[bloodsbigot]

The most worrying aspect of the game is that the Tigers showed other teams how they could beat us. Starve our big men of possession early and wait for them to tire late. Richmond basically played the equivalent of an Ali-style rope-a-dope.

I'm a tad worried about this too but then I remember we've always had problems beating the tiggers at the MCG. I think it's just a matter of them matching up well on us and beating us at speed.

Also... I haven't read the thread yet... but surely I can't be the only one that thought Mike Pyke played like garbage and shouldn't have been picked in the team this week? He looked the crappiest I've ever seen him play.

[Ludwig]

We all knew a let down was coming. We have virtually come through a mini finals series this past 5 or 6 weeks. Beaten all the top teams. That has taken its toll physically and mentally. Just glad we can bank the 4 points. Some observations;
- there were a lot of tired players. If I was the coaches, after tomorrow's beach session, I would say to the players, "see you Wednesday". Some rotations are required next week. Membrey, Robinson and Nankervis come to mind.
- both ruckman were terrible. For the 2nd week in a row Derickx looked cooked and tonight Pyke looked like a Canadian rugby player. Really need Naismith to step up and claim that No.1 ruck role next year.
- Cunningham gets better each week. He is very quick.
- Jetta is perplexing me. He is doing so many good things defensively. But when he gets the ball in attacking positions he is in two minds. Just not backing himself.
- Laidler fits beautifully into our working class backline. Reid looks better each week as that swingman.
- BJ improved. Worked hard but execution was lacking.
- Buddy is a champion. Would be looking forward to Tippett coming back or Nankervis going to full forward so he can play his more roving half forward role.

All good comments. I though the same thing about Pyke playing like a Canadian.

I can see why Longmire likes BJ. He has a lot of potential. But he makes so many mistakes. He got better in the 2nd half, as did most of the team. I think he'll be a really dangerous player in a couple of years.

[Beerman]

Pyke looked like he has forgotten how to play, but he improved a lot during the game. (He might lack the instinct that comes with playing for a long time),

Most importantly, in the last quarter he could win some hit-outs which is critical when we are missing some of our key mids. This is more than Derickx could do, and I would play Pyke again next week for sure. He is still our no 1 ruck man.