Reshuffle in the Ranks

[wolftone57]

Harley, Francou and Micky O: Those are 3 very classy and savvy additions that we made to our football department over the past couple of years. Should definitely make a positive impact on the field as well as in player development and retention.

I agree Ludwig. We lost Stone & Tudor together in late 2013. We really have played catch up this season. Stone was a genius & Tudor was also very good, after all he coached a VFL premiership. Replacing them with Marty alone was probably a mistake. Marty was given stoppages last season and Dew Strategy & midfield. So Marty was assisting Stewie. I hope Josh has a lot more freedom to develop strategy because I don't think Stewie's strategies worked last season in the midfield. In other areas maybe. But I think frankly that our side made it through the season on pure talent and coordinated team defensive play not necessarily on great strategy. Our defensive strategy worked but our offensive strategy where we bomb the ball to the forwards is very sus especially against sides that use the ball well and play a kick behind.

Our blokes are better when we move the ball quickly to fast leading targets, into space or set up for the slow leaching lead. To constantly be bombing the ball into the forward line was so bloody frustrating, as mostly it just kept coming back. Dew & Francou need to rectify that immediately. The common thread through all the footage I have been watching of the season, is the failure of players to lift their eyes and find good targets. They automatically just bomb away. This tells me it is a part of the game plan. A bloody stupid part of the game plan but one obviously Horse wants to keep. He might like to think again after our annihilation in the GF. When the mids & backs did lift their eyes and drilled the ball in to a leading target we were sensational.

The other thing is our defensive forward set up is starting to get found out as sides are putting a really quick player between centre and our half back and bombing the ball into space, see Dustin Martin. We are still using the same defwensive strategies we used in 2012. A bit old in the teeth. Mal kicks out, sometimes to self kicks to short lead, gets HB back. The player most used is Macca. Macca always looks to give back to Mal, don't know what Macca is going to do without Mal, he got half his disposals waxing with him.

[Ludwig]

Harley, Francou and Micky O: Those are 3 very classy and savvy additions that we made to our football department over the past couple of years. Should definitely make a positive impact on the field as well as in player development and retention.

[mcs]

I hope this interview with Tom Harley will make you feel better. He covers the change in coaching and addressing the problems of the GF.

Swan Tom settling in to new role - sydneyswans.com.au

He is the biggest signing of the off summer- and in my opinion will be a very important person to have in the ranks as we try and pick up the pieces from the GF disaster of last year.

A classy footballer on the field, a gent off the field (met him a couple of times through work when he was working with AFL ACT/NSW), and he has a fantastic footy brain to go with it.

You know for sure, if we are there on GF day next year, he will be getting a gentle call from Horse to give a rallying cry. If we win the flag in 2015, I have little doubt he will have had a significant influence, far beyond his role as general manager. The guy is a leader and a winner - something that will be very handy as we seek redemption for 2014.

[stevoswan]

There are certain people you meet that you know are headed one way...........and that is up for Tom Harley

A natural leader, confident and clear in his communication and I would suspect he will go on to to great things for the Swans !

I agree. I feel very comfortable and happy with Harley at our club. He is a winner.

[Auntie.Gerald]

There are certain people you meet that you know are headed one way...........and that is up for Tom Harley

A natural leader, confident and clear in his communication and I would suspect he will go on to to great things for the Swans !

[wolftone57]

I hope this interview with Tom Harley will make you feel better. He covers the change in coaching and addressing the problems of the GF.

Swan Tom settling in to new role - sydneyswans.com.au

Yes I listened to that. very good. Far too many gaps in stoppages & clearances. Marty was a backman first and foremost not s mid. He originally started as a half forward at Adelaide but rarely played mid. We had the same problem in 2011 when Blakey was mids coach. It was a disaster in reality. Defenders make great defensive coaches but very rarely make great or even passable mids coaches. Very happy to see Tom handling a question about this.

[wolftone57]

"We were leaving one to two opposition players free on the opposite side of the set up free every time. A recipe for disaster if you don't win the ball your way. The difference between our set up and the Hawks for instance is they relished their free players but sent two players extra to cover our free players".

Wolfie,
if they had 1 or 2 free players, and 2 on our one 'free' player, we must have had 4 or 5 'uninvolved' players. I never saw that.

I don't think you get my meaning. What happens at a stoppage. Players go to an opposition player. What we were doing was allowing one to two opposition players free on one side of the stoppage and setting up more players on the opposite side. What Hawks did was move more players up closer to the stoppage so they could block us from a clearance. We on the other hand just allowed the opposition to have the extra numbers on the other side and if they got the ball it was out. Our defenders tend to stay back and mind the centre, half back area and not necessarily move up to cover their opponent. This is part of our defensive set up and has been for three years.

[baskin]

I don't have confidence they have addressed it, but obviously they have recognised its a problem to be fixed, and hopefully this will see a marked improvement in this area next year.

I hope this interview with Tom Harley will make you feel better. He covers the change in coaching and addressing the problems of the GF.

Swan Tom settling in to new role - sydneyswans.com.au

[Mountain Man]

"We were leaving one to two opposition players free on the opposite side of the set up free every time. A recipe for disaster if you don't win the ball your way. The difference between our set up and the Hawks for instance is they relished their free players but sent two players extra to cover our free players".

Wolfie,
if they had 1 or 2 free players, and 2 on our one 'free' player, we must have had 4 or 5 'uninvolved' players. I never saw that.

[mcs]

I think we relied on JPK way too much to extract the ball and coaches found out that you stop him put a loose player around the stoppage to grab the spillage and then hand ball it to a running player was the way to beat us and well it worked. Only the good teams were able to beat us using this method.

A lot of times this year when we played lowly teams that i thought if they had a Grey or a hodge we wouldnt be so far high up the ladder.

But lets be glad they have addressed it, gives me a lot more confidence for next year and when we play the hawks.

I don't have confidence they have addressed it, but obviously they have recognised its a problem to be fixed, and hopefully this will see a marked improvement in this area next year.

[wolftone57]

I think we relied on JPK way too much to extract the ball and coaches found out that you stop him put a loose player around the stoppage to grab the spillage and then hand ball it to a running player was the way to beat us and well it worked. Only the good teams were able to beat us using this method.

A lot of times this year when we played lowly teams that i thought if they had a Grey or a hodge we wouldnt be so far high up the ladder.

But lets be glad they have addressed it, gives me a lot more confidence for next year and when we play the hawks.

I have been watching a lot of games and Luke Parker extracts almost as much as Joey. Certainly they cut off Joey's quick handball out but that is mainly at centre bounces. the stoppages around the ground were a different problem. We were leaving one to two opposition players free on the opposite side of the set up free every time. A recipe for disaster if you don't win the ball your way. The difference between our set up and the Hawks for instance is they relished their free players but sent two players extra to cover our free players. That still allows them two free and shuts down our free players. I am amazed Longmire let it go on all through the GF. It was obvious not only then but during the year. Most of the competition did take advantage of it but our mids defensive running and our great defence saved us time and again. We didn't do well at stoppages, clearances and centre clearances but were in the top four for rebounds. Very hard to win games putting your defence under huge pressure when the opposition is very good. Eventually every team will set up the same way as Hawks and then we would be cactus. But with Francou in charge of these situations maybe we can get better first ball use while shutting down the other mob.

[JPK12]

I think we relied on JPK way too much to extract the ball and coaches found out that you stop him put a loose player around the stoppage to grab the spillage and then hand ball it to a running player was the way to beat us and well it worked. Only the good teams were able to beat us using this method.

A lot of times this year when we played lowly teams that i thought if they had a Grey or a hodge we wouldnt be so far high up the ladder.

But lets be glad they have addressed it, gives me a lot more confidence for next year and when we play the hawks.

[wolftone57]

Does that mean no more Harley on 7? You could tell he was a swans fan everytime he commentated our games. He had to hide his loyalty to the cats though by pointing out obvious flaws when they were playing just to be seen as impartial.

Who was our stoppage coach this year? Our set ups were woeful and makes sense after the embarrassment of the GF in which we lost it in the middle no surprises that he was moved on.

Was it Dew?

Yes it was Dew I think. Mattner might have had a hand in it as well. The rotations, set ups and strategies were woeful as you say. But the thing I was astounded about was going back to strategies that had failed in 2011 & early 2012. The whole set up was wrong and the position the players found themselves in was always going to leave them behind their opponents. Plus the amount of times I saw a set up with at least one opposition player free was astounding. Robbie Grey, Trent Cotchin, Hodge, Abblett & so many others got huge numbers against us. So strange and baffling. But they didn't change them for the whole season or not greatly. I think that was Longmire's fault, after all he is the boss.

Can't wait to see Francou's new rotations, set ups and strategies.

[JPK12]

Does that mean no more Harley on 7? You could tell he was a swans fan everytime he commentated our games. He had to hide his loyalty to the cats though by pointing out obvious flaws when they were playing just to be seen as impartial.

Who was our stoppage coach this year? Our set ups were woeful and makes sense after the embarrassment of the GF in which we lost it in the middle no surprises that he was moved on.

Was it Dew?

[wolftone57]

im happy also wolf

Francou in - the stoppages was an area that continually concerned me in 2014 and we were exposed by the Hawks in melb both games this year.........not only did they make us look ordinary at winning the ball they also had the class down field to capitalise on their possession

mummy was a big loss in 2014 season and we carried ourselves thru some games via our superior depth and rebounding from our defensive arc but lets be honest buddy indv won us a fair few games...........unfortunately Alastair strategically picked apart with his hbf pushing early off their counterpart and pushed into the midfield running thru in droves - yes i agree with pagans paddock down field for buddy but the hawks know how to beat this and they a good enough to execute and not get caught out on the rebound

Crouch no brainer

Harley too is a class above

Agree AG this changes to ballgame somewhat. Harley is a super manager. He micromanages and everyone who has worked with him praises the way he goes about it. He is also a huge fan of the Swans, lives in Sydney and loves it here. Tom believes we have to best young list in the AFL and he will go out of his way to keep them here. What Geelong did to retain players ,hawks are doing the same thing, was to get individual sponsors through their management so the money coming from outside sources didn't effect the salary cap. I think this sort of deal will probably replace COLA.

Josh is a master tactician. He could have won a premiership with Roosters had he stayed. But he chose to join Sydney. Another who has such a high respect for our club. We are only now developing the team on and off field, after the loss of major players (Colless, Stone etc) to take us to the next premiership.