Game Day Thread Rnd 1 V Bombers

[Melbournehammer]

always amazing to see how differently people see the game. i saw towers repeatedly have clean hands and feed runners going to goal. did more than enough. on the other hand luke for all his effort and touches of the ball blazed away with poor composure. keiran jack has still not recovered. he was running side by side with hurley in the third quarter and the old jackwould have bumped him to get a run at the ball. he is still a bit skittish of contact.reg and ted were very good. shaw was fine. in fact the defence did well given just how badly the midfield travelled for the first half.

the bizarre thing is that nothing has changed. reid, tippett, franklin and goodes do not work. personally i think goodes is gone but i understand the view that he deserves a few more games. i have said it repeatedly but he is not a kpf and simply never has been. he is a rover and plays as a small forward. but he can't do it anymore. he has no sideways mobility perhaps as a result of the 2012 heroics. he doesn't chase and can't really tackle.

they have all gone out in my lifetime, my fave players, bayes, kel, kirky, maxfield. I'm pretty sure its his turn. football is a hard game and the end happens faster than most people are prepared for. id be dropping him for mitchell and seeing whether he can play more of on the ball player. he simply can't defend as a small forward and the modern game demands that player tackle.

mcveigh and mcglynn will both get inserted into the team. i suspect that cunning ham's spot is tricky and if jones comes back i'd like to see him push shaw out - i think shaw has more to offer than goods at the present time but it would be good for jones to make that position his own.

pykes ruck work remains so one dimensional its depressing.

tippett showed that if a lot of focus is on buddy he simply could have a 100 goal season if he can kick straight and stay uninjured. it sure would make us lot super threatening.

reid looked better in the back half than forward.

this seems to me to suggest that a forward line of franklin, tippett and four medium/smalls has got to be the preferred option.

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A few have been hard on Goodesy. It was a wet game and didn't really suit his style. I don't know that he has ever been good in the wet. I wouldn't be jumping off him yet. Jetta also; he wasn't recruited as a hard nut and never will be. He is an outside runner and he certainly wasn't our worst player.

goodesy's best ever game (imho) was in the wet against adelaide one night - i don't remember whether it was raining but it was certainly wet enough. he was so clean and it remains in my mind along with the 2003 qf against port and a game i saw when he was in the ressies at waverley park as the three gamers i will remember him for.as well i guess with a number of games against the pies when we couldn't beat them and he was the best on ground

[Doctor]

There is no better place to be than in the Swans Members' Bar when we win, especially when we win like that.

I can't be critical right now because I haven't come down yet (I'm still drinking) but when I do, I'd really like to know why Mitchell didn't come in as a late inclusion. I don't ask this with any Messiah complex but he was an obvious inclusion in today's weather. It felt like Hird had a plan and Longmire was a bit "Hey you, Strawberry, hit a home run!" in the first half especially.

[graemed]

I thought that while Parker was getting the possessions it was Hanabery doing all the right things all evening.
Parker was very down on his efficiency and many of his handballs were either slapped down or missed targets. Hanabery was precise and his fitness was telling towards the end of the game.
It was raining all evening yet we were trying to play dry footy with poor skills.
Franklin and Tippett were very good when the heat was on but it would true to say their opponents looked spent by then.
I also thought Reid was more than handy after half time especially when he was contesting third man up.
I believe Pyke was great and while he was probably beaten in the hit outs he was more than competitive in general play.
Our backs as a group were very sad and then I'm being generous. Nick Smith aside they were beaten to the ball repeatedly and when they were first to the ball they fumbled or turned it over.
Kennedy was missing targets with his handball and seemed to being feeling the pressure more than I can ever remember.
Jack was outstanding in the final quarter.
Lloyd was the catalyst to opening up play in the final as his running gave us options and allowed others to play on rather than the mark, stop, kick of the earlier quarters.
Shaw and Goodes will struggle to keep their places for the year. Neither were convincing and with pressure for positions its hard to see them keeping younger players out.
Why was Grundy dropping marks all year? I thought he might have gotten the spoil against no-one out of system after last year's GF.

I was cheering recklessly along with everyone else in the last quarter and couldn't have been happier to see the fighting qualities of many of the team but Jetta finds a way to run slowly to many contests and he's not allowed to do that.

I am off to Adelaide next week to see us play Port and if we play like that again we won't be coming back from 40 pts in the last quarter.

[ernie koala]

Great that we got up...But let's be honest, it was unconvincing to say the least...The Bombers ran out of gas.

The first 3 quarters were as soft as I've seen from the Swans in the last 20 years.....not dissimilar to last years GF.

I hope to see a much more committed, physical, 4 quarter effort, in the coming weeks.....

Having said that, it's 4 points banked...On to the next.

[goods78]

Nice post Melbournhammer.

All pre-season there has been the talk of atoning for our insipid performance in the 2014 GF. In the presser with Keiran Jack the other day, he looked like he was ready to run through a brick wall.

I can't understand the performance of the team in the first 3 QTR's - particularly the midfield group. I understand if skills are a bit down in the wet, but the effort was poor and the game plan (i.e. multiple handball chains?) was ridiculous.

Coaches and players alike - we are a dry weather team and seem to have no idea in the wet.

It was a great comeback with the whole team lifting. But we should not kid ourselves, I don't think we would have beaten any other AFL team who had a standard pre-season.

[Conor_Dillon]

Adam Spencer has tweeted that Longmire/Gibbs have said that Luke Parker is fine.

Whilst we were pretty ordinary tonight, I think it needs to be mentioned how Essendon played. They kicked some of the luckiest goals you'll ever see (all 3 of Cooneys, melkshams etc) then got absolutely gifted 2 with the ridiculous free to Goddard then the ridiculous free and even more ridiculous 50 to Heppell. Also they are traditionally very fast starters to the season.

Generally we're rusty in round 1 and ordinary in the wet so when we can combine the 2 and still get away with the 4 points I think you take that.

A lot of the game it felt like our players were showing genuine desperation but this also led to us rushing our disposals, particularly Parker and Kennedy...even though Parker was head and shoulders BOG until he was knocked out.

Towers and Cunningham were quiet but both did some nice things in the last quarter. Jetta looked clean at times but timid in others. Reid got better the longer the game went on. Tip's presence in the ruck and at ground level was almost mummy like, then he threatened to tear the game apart in the last. Buddy's tackle was brilliant. Jack stood up in the last quarter after being quiet early. Hannebery was good and really hard at it. Shaw was serviceable, Grundy played like a debutante...very shaky! Heeney is something special. Thought Gaz was good, same with Lloyd when he came on, worried about Goodes. Pyke was okay, Nick Smith was Nick Smith...Rampe was really good but still makes some ordinary mistakes. Bird wasn't too bad, Teddy did his job. Laidler will keep his spot

I think next week will give us much more insight into where we're at...hopefully we can translate that momentum into a fast start against Port to take the Adelaide Oval noise out of the equation early.

I'd start Lloyd and make Towers sub, potentially drop Goodes for Mitchell as well.

[Ludwig]

Just about everything was wrong until the 4th quarter. Poor intensity, commitment and skills. I know it was wet, but we were truly awful. It's hard to know what to make of it.

I watched the WB v. WCE game. It was fantastic. Full on. Both teams were hard at it for 4 quarters. It was exciting football and good quality footy as well. What a contrast to our game. It just may be our usual slow start. I recall last year when we beat WCE in the wet, it was a well played high quality game and the conditions were even worse than today.

I think Grundy is a good defender, but his hands in the wet are like butter.

Bird shows why he's in our best 22.

We need to change our formula a bit. Although Reid hasn't been impressive as a defender, we will have our hands full with Shulz, Westoff and Ryder next week. I don't think Laidler can handle any of them. Plus we will have to deal with a fit and very quick team, so not so easy to drop our quicker players, although I feel we need to do something about winning more ball inside.

I will assume that McGlynn will not be ready next week, but based on today, I would like to see Macca and Mitchell come into the side. I thought Towers was okay, and he does tackle. I would keep him in the side. The first one out for me is Cunningham. He doesn't do enough if he can't kick straight.

Malthouse wanted to play Laidler forward, but he apparently balked, which is part of the reason for his delisting. He's always been a good long kick of the ball and is a good choice in wet conditions, but I'm not sure if he has a good defensive matchup against a quick side like Port Adelaide.

It's always hard to suggest that we drop Goodes. He probably wasn't any worse than the rest of the lot when he got subbed out. Rampe looked good as a midfielder, but that would mean a bit of rejigging the back line. We could go with Ted, Reg, Reid, Smith, Macca and Shaw.

We need Jake Lloyd's kicking and decision making in the side.

[Beerman]

Congrats, boys, you were fantastic in the last quarter.

I hate Ch.7! They switched after the siren to the Lions vs Magpies game. I really hate them. We are in Sydney not Brisbane! We aret reated like crap.

I liked that actually. More football and less meaningless blather!

[longmile]

I just tried to watch the replay on afl.com.au but I noticed that now they want you to pay to be able to watch the game (frankly outraged). Is there any site where I can watch the game for free? Thanks
(I don't have foxtel either)

[YvonneH]

Not sure how I felt about the booing of James Hird. On one hand I liked it and on the other I didn't. Looking forward to how the papers will report it i.e. not fair on James as after all they were found not guilty (?) and how badly behaved are Sydney fans etc.

[Ampersand]

Not sure how I felt about the booing of James Hird. On one hand I liked it and on the other I didn't. Looking forward to how the papers will report it i.e. not fair on James as after all they were found not guilty (?) and how badly behaved are Sydney fans etc.

For the last time: neither a Essendon Football Club nor James Hird were found not guilty. It was the playing group that were exonerated of wrongdoing.

As coach, Hird presided over the club and welfare of the players during their disgraceful and dangerous supplements program and served a 12 month suspension for doing so. It's an absolute JOKE that this clown is back coaching senior football.

[Matt80]

I was a bit concerned about the vitriol directed at Ray Chamberlin. I was guilty as well as I yelled out "Ray"!!!! at the top of my voice.

In a week where NRL fans are being slammed for assaulting a referee, we should be treating the umpires with more respect.

AFL fans should be thought of differently to the barbarian NRL fans. We should be offering a 100% polite, family friendly environment so we can attract the polite good family followers of the NRL, who are disgusted by the barbarian crowds antics.

[YvonneH]

. Looking forward to how the papers will report it i.e. not fair on James as after all they were found not guilty (?) and how badly behaved are Sydney fans etc.

No mention of this in any of the papers as far as I can see, but mentioned on big footy (surprise, surprise).

[Jewels]

For the last time: neither a Essendon Football Club nor James Hird were found not guilty. It was the playing group that were exonerated of wrongdoing.

As coach, Hird presided over the club and welfare of the players during their disgraceful and dangerous supplements program and served a 12 month suspension for doing so. It's an absolute JOKE that this clown is back coaching senior football.

Correct.
I was one that booed Hird yesterday, he is a disgrace to the game and the fact that he remains a senior coach and Mark Thompson is without a club is very sad for the game IMHO. I did not boo or call out any disparaging remarks (well drug related remark anyway) to any player as I am glad they got off.

[S.S. Bleeder]

My comment wasn't about Jetta personally, I agree he was OK; it was that there were too many players selected who aren't hard nuts. It was exposed in the grand final, and again tonight.

It's one thing to not be a hard nut. But to actually shy away from impact (as Jetta sometimes does) or to not chase hard at AFL is inexcusable. Every player in the AFL should be prepared to take and give the knocks and bumps when needed. Players like Parker and Buddy are on another level again.