Match Day Thread Rnd 5 V Western Bulldogs.

[aardvark]

No wonder he landed 11 tackles to lead our side. No one could see him coming.

Well it's good to know he actually did something apart from point and yell at people.

[dimelb]

Agree. It was like it was all too hard for quite a few. I was really disappointed in our captains, Mc Veigh was invisible for the whole game, Jack a little better in the second half.
The team we have at the moment won't win the premiership, as others have said it's time to take the hit with the next group of players for the greater good.

I did enjoy Gary Rohans game. He is really maturing into a good player.

I thought McVeigh was one of our better players, a decent kick out of defence and took others with him. He needs to stay down back, it's where he does his best work at present.

I do agree on Rohan, seems to be on an upward trajectory.

[liz]

Agree. It was like it was all too hard for quite a few. I was really disappointed in our captains, Mc Veigh was invisible for the whole game, Jack a little better in the second half.
The team we have at the moment won't win the premiership, as others have said it's time to take the hit with the next group of players for the greater good.

I did enjoy Gary Rohans game. He is really maturing into a good player.

I thought McVeigh was OK. Not outstanding but seemed to be in the right place at the right time lots of the time and was more composed than many.

Agree with you on Rohan. Loved his game. Hit the contest hard every time and won, or neutralised, many 50/50 balls. A couple of team mates would do well to watch a tape of his game to see just how hard he did crack in. Shame he didn't realise (or no one told him) he had time to pick up that ball in the first quarter, rather than hack it off the deck. Would have been a nice goal.

Hanners and Mitchell can also be pretty satisfied with their day's work, and I thought Tippo showed some amazing skills in the wet for such a big dude. Buddy, too, earned his pay, despite his goal kicking not being the greatest.

[mcs]

Mitchell absolutely needs to stay in this team. His kicking is no worse than Parker's (who seems to have the yips) and he takes the focus off Joey who always has a player on his back. It also frees up Hanners, Parker and Jack to rotate forward.

If one thing worked yesterday it was our tap and clearance work, especially before the heavens opened up.

I was really frustrated with Longmire's tepid comments about Mitchell's performance in the presser. If 30 disposals and 9 tackles on a first game return to seniors is par for him, what the hell does he have to do to impress?!

I was disappointed in that from Longmire as well. I know his kicking needs plenty of work, but our clearance work yesterday overall was the best imo of all 5 games we've played this year, by a decent distance. It's like he is being judged solely against what Kennedy, Parker and Hanners can do, rather than realising he is still 21 and developing as a player.

If it was me, I'd look to keep Mitchell in the team playing basically a Brett Kirk role - at the bottom of every pack, getting the ball out of congestion, and letting the others do the hardwork. His handball work is excellent and he is excellent at getting in and getting the pill out. The focus seems to be too much at the moment on trying to turn him into a complete midfielder almost overnight - and he is getting no room for error, which can't be said for a number of other players in the side, who seem to have a million lives to lose before they get blamed.

I thought Mitchell was very good yesterday (of course in conditions that suit him somewhat) and it would be insane for him to suddenly drop out of the team. Cunningham, Towers and Goodes should all be considered to go out before Mitchell is even mentioned.

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I thought McVeigh was OK. Not outstanding but seemed to be in the right place at the right time lots of the time and was more composed than many.

Agree with you on Rohan. Loved his game. Hit the contest hard every time and won, or neutralised, many 50/50 balls. A couple of team mates would do well to watch a tape of his game to see just how hard he did crack in. Shame he didn't realise (or no one told him) he had time to pick up that ball in the first quarter, rather than hack it off the deck. Would have been a nice goal.

Hanners and Mitchell can also be pretty satisfied with their day's work, and I thought Tippo showed some amazing skills in the wet for such a big dude. Buddy, too, earned his pay, despite his goal kicking not being the greatest.

Rohan remains an 'almost player'. I love how hard he goes in, and has a real crack - but his decision making is not quite there yet. That missed goal off the deck was a matter of poor communication - it was down the end I was and certainly didn't hear any call to let him know he had time.

He is almost there Rohan - just some more patience needed - it will click for him sooner and later. Shame its about 3 seasons later than it could have been if it wasn't for that grubby North Melbourne fool....

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I thought McVeigh was one of our better players, a decent kick out of defence and took others with him. He needs to stay down back, it's where he does his best work at present.

I do agree on Rohan, seems to be on an upward trajectory.

McVeigh has to stay down back and he has to show some greater leadership for a shaky back 6. He is so cool and calm with the ball in hand, and generally a good user of the ball.

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But I digress, Jetta - I've said all year - LAZY!! sure he is to be used for bursts of speed but if the ball is near you get in and have a go against your opponent! And never let him do the kick in again Ever!!! What the hell was that all about ?

As with Towers, I'm struggling to see what sort of role they are trying to create for Jetta. He is clearly still very uncomfortable playing in a more defensive orientated role, and his defensive pressure/tackling is simply not good enough a lot of the time. I continue to question whether the current role is ever going to work with him - and as for kickouts, as you say, what was thinking? Not that he was the only one guilty of terrible decision making in our own 50.

[annew]

Not sure I really understand the above. If you are comparing us to the Dogs (who are surprising everyone by just how quickly their young players are coming together), sure we don't because we haven't had numerous top 10 picks in recent year. I do think the Dogs have used theirs very well - Bontempelli, McRae and Stringer in particular are great pick-ups, even allowing for how high they were taken.

We lucked in with Heeney this year and it shows what a difference a genuine top 5 talent can make.

We are seeing a few barely hanging on at the backs of their careers but they have been part of a team has been very competitive for an extended period of time. Sure, another couple of clubs have been slightly better over that period - taking the period as a whole - but we've still been remarkably fortunate. And we still are, because the nucleus of a very good team is still there. Enough players played well enough yesterday in the conditions to have won that game if our defence hadn't had a half dozen or more brain fades.

I agree with your comments Liz and add that it is hard to improve your list when you are banned from trading for no reason, plus will still have restricted trading in 2015. This is going to pose a bIg disadvantage over the next couple of years? Our defence appears to be the problem and I don't know that there is anyone currently in the twos that can resolve this. People forget that it is only the start of the season and that teams like the dogs have a list full of Heeneys, who may or may not be able to last a full year yet. I am optimistic that like last year we will improve along the way. People don't forget we had the most brutal home and away game possible last week against a top 4 side in Freo at full strength and fit on their home ground in WA and nearly won.

[stellation]

Rohan remains an 'almost player'. I love how hard he goes in, and has a real crack - but his decision making is not quite there yet. That missed goal off the deck was a matter of poor communication - it was down the end I was and certainly didn't hear any call to let him know he had time.

He is almost there Rohan - just some more patience needed - it will click for him sooner and later. Shame its about 3 seasons later than it could have been if it wasn't for that grubby North Melbourne fool....

I think that's a fair comment, I dearly hope he can play the first dozen or so games and just build in confidence. I'd love for him to take a look at some footage of Jetta's play when he is at his best on the wing and take some notes on how he uses his pace- that at times frustrating canter/why isn't he going faster gives him time to at least be aware of what's around him and he can assess his options, knowing that if need be he can go up a gear to burn someone off. Gary can do the same, but I don't think he's yet had the confidence, which I think is just game time hopefully, to realise which pace he can run at and still be faster than most of the folks on the field- he doesn't always have to be going hell for leather, if he slows to 3/4 pace he's still probably going to be faster than most of the guys on the field.

[bodgie]

2 less riduculous backline turnovers and 2 of the easy goals would've have seen a good win in terrible conditions. I agree McVeigh may need to be based in the back six to add some relative composure and organisation along with Reid.

[liz]

2 less riduculous backline turnovers and 2 of the easy goals would've have seen a good win in terrible conditions. I agree McVeigh may need to be based in the back six to add some relative composure and organisation along with Reid.

Or even just one of either of those. That last poster to Tippett feels especially painful, given it happened late and so is easier to point to as a "what if"". His two snaps were excellent. Just a shame he couldn't nail the easiest.

But the defence was the hand-wringing aspect. Eight or so goals completely gifted to them.

[Ludwig]

Well it's good to know he actually did something apart from point and yell at people.

McVeigh was effective because he was disguised as a Doggie.

[Matt79]

Yesterday's match showed how desperately we need a decent small crumbing forward. Wet conditions and we still continually went high and long to our tall forwards which is fine if you have a crumber at their feet ready to pounce. (Oh how I miss Schneider Pig in his hay day).

[giant]

Or even just one of either of those. That last poster to Tippett feels especially painful, given it happened late and so is easier to point to as a "what if"". His two snaps were excellent. Just a shame he couldn't nail the easiest.

But the defence was the hand-wringing aspect. Eight or so goals completely gifted to them.

True dat, but it did make me think about how rare those sort of howlers are from the Swans defence. "Uncharacteristic" is the appropriate adjective in this case, and praise the Lord we don't support one of those teams where that sort of clanger count is par for the course. I'd be suicidal if we were.

Overall, very good game of footy in tough circumstances, we'll play much worse than that and still win the game, so I can live with that loss.

[aguy]

I've just finished watching the replay after being at the game yesterday. Bitterly disappointed with the result but such a hard fought game.

We definitely need to improve our skills. Has been said so much but it really gets shown in the wet weather. I was also confused by we didn't just long bomb more in the first half given that it was wet weather football. We were well on top in the hit outs and clearances so it was all about territory.

Honest truth is poor skills and decisions by our defensive 6 cost us the game. Shaw must be very angry with himself and rightly so. He was terrible. Rampe wasn't much better. I've quite liked Rampe many times before and thought he was great against port Adelaide and last year awesome against freo but he seems down on confidence and maybe he is a chance of being dropped.

Towers was also non existant. I've been quite keen on him before but I've had enough. Cunningham offers much more and while he has been a bit down at times this year he has shown enough last year and a few times this year that he has much more upside than towers.

On the upside I think the midfield did really well in a tough slog. Mitchell proved himself in his first senior game this year and should continue. Hannebery was outstanding. McVeigh needs to go back and be a permanent defender to shore up our shaky defence.


I'll post my changes in the changes thread

[moocher]

Think that we'd hoped to strengthen our back 6 during the draft until the ban put a stop to that but our backs look slow ponderous and lacking in confidence. Platful would be useful right now. I felt that there was not the closeness between the backs yesterday. Saw a couple of telling looks between players when yet another skill error or poor option was exercised. I've not been a fan of Reg for while and with Shaw's star fading fast I'd love to see some risk taking in selections. That's not the Swans way though is it.
I agree that we need a skilful small forward given the number of balls that hit the deck. Again some risk taking in selections would be good.

[goswannies]

On the upside I think the midfield did really well in a tough slog. Mitchell proved himself in his first senior game this year and should continue. Hannebery was outstanding. McVeigh needs to go back and be a permanent defender to shore up our shaky defence.

Well I hope neither of them head to Melbourne next year!

[aguy]

Well I hope neither of them head to Melbourne next year!

Agreed. Losing both of them would be a huge loss