Postmortem - Where to go from here.

[mcs]

I just hope that the hurt of yesterdays pathetic performance can drive us to go to the next level, like the wees and poos used 2012 to drive themselves to glory.

We dont need a lot of changes, you dont lose only 3 times after the first month of the season if you arent doing a lot of things right. We most certainly need a good pre season though with a huge focus on skills amd accurate kicking under pressure.

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Hard to argue against this. Our clearance work was u/10s standard yesterday. Pyke and tippett did ok in the middle but the mids were crap house.

We are a proud club, but yesterday will sting badly. Itll be a good test of longmire's mettle to get them up and going again for 2015 and hopefully driven for redemption.

[Nico]

I think that before rebuilding comes recovery. After the game we went to the club dinner last night. Adam Spencer was the MC and gave a rousing speech to the effect that our future hasn't disappeared but the boys needed reassurance from the Swans faithful. They filed out and lined up on the stage and I have never seen a more sombre bunch of footballers. Dan Hannebery looked as if he might burst into tears and Nick Smith wasn't far behind him. I realise that it will sound odd to some, but I think this is a group that will confront their demons but will need to be restored to some kind of health before we will be able to do much else. That's in the hands of the team and the coaches.

It's been mentioned elsewhere on the board that we need to emulate Hawthorn after they lost the 2012 GF. The pain of the result has to burn and ignite a determination to redress the ledger. We lost this game in the mind. There is nothing wrong with our physical capacities that a bit of attention won't fix, but we need to pay more attention to the hardening of the psyche.

Disagree. Our midfield was found out for pace big time.

Sam Reid was horrible. Slow, fell over, has a turning circle of the Queen Mary and doesn't hold marks. Can't see how he magically becomes a CHB. Deadset passenger and I don't wear the excuse that Tippett, Franklin and Goodes keep him out of the forward line. Doesn't do anything around the ground. Doesn't do the loose man in defence job to any level of competency. Grossly overrated and hasn't improved.

[mcs]

Im hoping getting his injury fixed over the summer will help Reid, but he was just terrible yesterday. He hasnt come on anywhere near as much as he should.

[Mel_C]

Went to the swans event at Albert Park this morning. The boys were shattered as you would expect. This is going to sting and hurt badly.

You have got to love Buddy...he was able to hold a genuine smile for photo after photo. And he had photographers and journalists chasing him. So did Goodes. You should have seen the marks and bruises on Buddy's face...dirty buggers!

I'm glad I went to show them support. It was a great year and it was a shame we had to play our worst game in the GF.

Hopefully most of our players will have a strong pre season. We had a lot of slow starters due to injury.

[aardvark]

I reckon the boys listened to the press too much and thought they just had to turn up. We don't deal well with being favorites, it's not something that has happened very often in the clubs history eg. (2006). I think we just got a bit ahead of ourselves and the Footy Gods, as they do, brought us back into line. Hopefully the loss, a good trade period, and a strong preseason OUT of the media spotlight, along with a reinforcement of our required work ethic / culture will see a mean lean determined Swannies team fly under the radar and on to the ultimate success in 2015.

[Sincity]

I find it predictable that these discussions always centre on list changes - rather than the tactics or positional changes on the day.

I do agree however - that sometimes its harder to id whether its the player or the role.

In this category Id place Reid, Tippet Rohan, Smith & Rampe - all failed but was it their role? - eg Rampe is clearly a weak checker and poor overhead ....but Smith was a bad match up

Those who were not played in suspect positions but simply overwhelmed by better opposition - eg harder or faster - McGlyn, Jack, Parker, Pyke, McVeigh, Cunningham, Lloyd,

And finally - those whose attitudes were clearly suspect - Hannebury, Jetta,

Those who played their roles to the benchmark but may have tried too hard on occasions include Franklin, Goodes, Grundy, Richards, Bird, Malch, Shaw, Kennedy


IMHO serious questions have to asked of Tippets role considering Pykes lack of size, Hannebury's ego, Jetta's desire, Rampe's skill set, Reid's role, and the overall size in the midfield

[mcs]

Do something about our deplorable centre clearance work. The single reason we got blown away in the second quarter. 5 goals on the trot from clean centre clearances is simply not acceptable. And don't blame Pyke. You can't blame the backs for yesterdays blow out. The ball came in far too quickly and often for them to be expected to cope.

Disagree. Our midfield was found out for pace big time.

Sam Reid was horrible. Slow, fell over, has a turning circle of the Queen Mary and doesn't hold marks. Can't see how he magically becomes a CHB. Deadset passenger and I don't wear the excuse that Tippett, Franklin and Goodes keep him out of the forward line. Doesn't do anything around the ground. Doesn't do the loose man in defence job to any level of competency. Grossly overrated and hasn't improved.

I find it predictable that these discussions always centre on list changes - rather than the tactics or positional changes on the day.

I do agree however - that sometimes its harder to id whether its the player or the role.

In this category Id place Reid, Tippet Rohan, Smith & Rampe - all failed but was it their role? - eg Rampe is clearly a weak checker and poor overhead ....but Smith was a bad match up

Those who were not played in suspect positions but simply overwhelmed by better opposition - eg harder or faster - McGlyn, Jack, Parker, Pyke, McVeigh, Cunningham, Lloyd,

And finally - those whose attitudes were clearly suspect - Hannebury, Jetta,

Those who played their roles to the benchmark but may have tried too hard on occasions include Franklin, Goodes, Grundy, Richards, Bird, Malch, Shaw, Kennedy


IMHO serious questions have to asked of Tippets role considering Pykes lack of size, Hannebury's ego, Jetta's desire, Rampe's skill set, Reid's role, and the overall size in the midfield

Mcveigh should be anothr in the what is his role category. He had 11 touches in total - pathetic for a player of his class. When the going gets tough, he goes missing far too easily for a captain. Jack tried desperately hard yesterday to try and spark something, but mcveigh played more like his alter ego from days past McHack.

[stevoswan]

This loss hurts as much as any in my 54 years of supporting this club. I hope it burns in the guts of our players all summer long, and we see how much resilience/fortitude they have come next season. We will see if our 'culture' is real/still exists or if it was a myth propped up by some super efforts in GF's in the past. That culture will be sorely tested in the off season and beyond. It's time to stand up and be counted boys......

[Hartijon]

Someone said jokingly we needed LRT. Could he have done worse???At least LRT had the right attitude in a GF. What about protection for targetted players? Who went in to "heavy" the Hawthorn player who smashed Hanneberry? No -one!This was an out of character game for the Swans .What went wrong inside their heads before a bal was bounced. Did the thrashing of North Melbourne lull them into a coma ? The Hawks narrow escape from Port made them fanatically desperate from the first bounce.Lots of analysis needed to prevent such an embarassing loss to ever occur again.Longmire needs to look at his team selection and tactical responses.You have to get the ball first and we had one of the top collecter of kicks Mitchell, sitting on the sidelines watching players who some how beat him for a spot getting 2 touches in a half!! Gary Rohan was always going to be a risk as thats the way he plays and you cannot take those risks in a GF.

[Ampersand]

I find it predictable that these discussions always centre on list changes - rather than the tactics or positional changes on the day.

Agree. This game was lost in the player's heads and the coach's box before the first bounce, not for lack of talent.

[Conor_Dillon]

Completely agree that this game was lost above the shoulders.

Other than that our main area for improvement needs to be field kicking. When Jetta and McVeigh aren't finding the footy we look sloppy by foot.

As far as elite kicks go we only have Mal, McVeigh, Jetta and Buddy. Lloyd and Cunningham are decent but their roles don't allow them to find heaps of the ball.

[Conor_Dillon]

Compare this to Hawthorn who have Mitchell, Hodge, Lewis, Suckling, Roughead, Burgoyne, Gunston, Gibson, Hill, Lake, Rioli and Breust.

I know this is a matter of opinion but whenever Hawthorn beat us they always carve us up by foot

[andy0414]

Our midfield play needs some urgent reworking. The quick close in hand balling to someone standing next to you doesn't work against the top teams. We saw that last year against Fremantle then again yesterday. Compare that to Hawthorn who spread and find space with 15 - 20 metre handballs.

[mcs]

Our midfield play needs some urgent reworking. The quick close in hand balling to someone standing next to you doesn't work against the top teams. We saw that last year against Fremantle then again yesterday. Compare that to Hawthorn who spread and find space with 15 - 20 metre handballs.

It does work if you have sufficient possession and sufficient numbers of midfielders working hard enough to create the requisite space - neither which we had yesterday.

I agree though about the use of larger handballs to make space.

[Goal Sneak]

The wasted opportunity stings the most for me. There are so many individual factors that have to come together in such a way to a create a great team.

Form of individual players and injuries play such a big part in any team's run to a premiership. The combination of both good form across the park and pretty much a dream run in regard to injuries had us in the box seat this year.

It's not as simple as saying "we'll learn from it and come out bigger and better next year". The fact is the form of some of our list will improve next year, but so too, some players won't have as good a year. Injuries and the form of other teams come into it also, which just throws so many variables into the equation.

It's so bloody hard to win a premiership. I guess it's all these things that makes this game so great. It's so good when you get it right.

We've been so lucky in the last few years. Before the game yesterday, I thought "how could we possibly ask for/expect a repeat 2012"? But being hot favourites to win a Grand Final is a rare opportunity that needs to be taken. Everyone underestimated the intensity that our opposition could apply and we failed to adjust on the day. As bad as we were, the Hawks were amazing, everything you'd want in a Grand Final performance.

It's going to sting for a while. With a bit of luck, hopefully we'll be back in there next year and use that pain to ensure those kinds of opportunities don't go to waste.

Go Swans!