Out with the Old - In with the New

[liz]

LOL. We've lost in Perth to one of the best teams in the competition, in red hot form. We "coulda" won that game.

We lost a game by less than a goal in conditions we all know the team is crap in (leave aside why they are so crap) by another team in excellent form, after gifting them half a dozen goals by an uncharacteristically fumbly defence.

Had North "worked us out" after smashing in the rain in round 4 last year? If so, what was going on in the prelim final?

I don't deny the team has some challenges. All teams have. We need to improve. All teams do, if they want to contend. The goal is to be playing your best football in September, not April. We have a couple of players who may be on the cusp of losing their automatic spots in the team. That's natural for all teams, wherever on the ladder they are. We may or may not be good enough to beat Hawthorn, Freo, Port etc in September. That's why the season is played, to get to that point. We'll find out then.

[Ludwig]

I think this is a lot more to do with conditions...we've played a couple of very wet games which makes it hard to take contested marks.

I agree.

I would say that we outplayed both Freo and WB for most of both games, but we were killed by errors, particularly in the first half. When we got our game going we looked okay. But this is not to say that we don't need to find some better options to move the ball quickly out of defence as well as finding forward targets other than Buddy.

One worrying thing about the last 2 games is that we were outplayed in the last 10 minutes of both games.

[dimelb]

Shirley Yujest? I certainly agree with replacing the older guys with the youth to give them a chance but you don't throw the baby out with the bath water.

It's OK S.S.Bleeder, Beerman's actually keeping the baby.

[RogueSwan]

...
One worrying thing about the last 2 games is that we were outplayed in the last 10 minutes of both games.

I think maybe this is due to the opposition getting out to a good lead and then the boys working hard to get back in the game but have run out of steam by the middle of the last quarter?

[O'Reilly Boy]

LOL. We've lost in Perth to one of the best teams in the competition, in red hot form. We "coulda" won that game.

We lost a game by less than a goal in conditions we all know the team is crap in (leave aside why they are so crap) by another team in excellent form, after gifting them half a dozen goals by an uncharacteristically fumbly defence.

Had North "worked us out" after smashing in the rain in round 4 last year? If so, what was going on in the prelim final?

I don't deny the team has some challenges. All teams have. We need to improve. All teams do, if they want to contend. The goal is to be playing your best football in September, not April. We have a couple of players who may be on the cusp of losing their automatic spots in the team. That's natural for all teams, wherever on the ladder they are. We may or may not be good enough to beat Hawthorn, Freo, Port etc in September. That's why the season is played, to get to that point. We'll find out then.

Hear hear. Hope that they take it out on the Dees tomorrow.

[WauchopeAnalyst]

(Just from me: my vocabulary and ability to communicate is decreased due to an illness and it is not going to get better. I hope you understand what I am saying and not too much waffle)
I think Ludwig is just about right in terms of what his is looking at.

Shaw: looks exciting and I think too many people think like that but he is a ?torcher? and poor decisions. Thanks for the flag and can play reserves.

Grundy: Champion data says that Reg and Teddy are in the top 6 defenders for one-on-one contests, I read last week on one of the related ?Supercoach? websites and the systems works well but Reg is playing without confidence and fumbles and poor decisions. Needs a friend and Mc Veigh can become the director of defence

Laidler: Old school defender and hard around the contest, a bit slow but every defender needs some help. Hard as nails. I want him in the team.

McVeigh: goes back to defence same as last year. Can direct and mostly good decisions and kicking. Last year of ?Captainship?. We need more physical leadership (Selwood, Hodge) not ?Churchillian? speeches.

Rampe: with Reg back there I want Rampe away from the goals as he gives away frees for no reason.(Great against Robbie Grey) Speed, works hard and a very good long kick but doesn?t read the play well.

Lloyd: the most composed player we have at 21??? Good decisions, reads the play and good kicking.

Mc Glynn: wants to be a midfielder, but doesn?t have it. Hard for the ball but doesn?t use the ball well. Locked in ?Ballantyne? player. Needs to fly around creating pressure with and without the ball and will kick goals.

Robinson: True Mid/Fwd ? smart around the ball and can kick a goal.

Goodes; Legend, but the game is coming past him: 20 Clangers in 3 reserve games. At a lower level, there should not be that many (but Hewett and Robison did plenty on the W/E) Well play in front of the ball and kick goals from there.

Now the bigger problem.

Why do we dump, bomb, just kick it up there somewhere near a forward. Sometimes you have to but we do it way too much!!!
Why aren?t our forwards blocking and use screens to release players and supporting each other. Because there is no support. and Longmire believes our forwards can kick goals every time the ball comes into the forward line by themselves.

The Swans are vanilla and a lot of teams have worked it out, we have so much talent but the match plan is so similar for the last 10 years, but for the slingshot, all the ball goes to Franklin and Tippett. No crumbs, or just a few, no easy goals, just have to work so hard to get goals. Franklin is ?torching? the ball because at Hawthorn free players all over the place and for us, no-one, because every player is making sure they are am the right position for defending first or Horse will yell at me (Mitchell).

Tippett and Franklin gets a friend each from Mc Glynn, Jack, Rohan, (Kennedy & Parker (blocking/ marking themselves), Hannebery, Mitchell, Bird, Lloyd, Heeney, Robinson, Jetta and others. Keep changing the line, sometimes Parker/ Kennedy and Mc Glynn/Heeney. Make them think. Change angles. Hit the midfielders from 35 to 50m out. We can?t change tactics in mid stream. A full preseason and our attack would be impossible to stop at times.
I don?t want massive change but a new AJ or the old AJ would be great for the team.

Geelong and Hawthorn well show us were we are!!!!

PS: Jetta kicking at 81%???

[Beerman]

Yes, my previous post was a gentle poke at those suggesting wholesale changes to our team.

Yes, we have some issues. But so do Hawthorn and Port and everyone else with the possible exception of Freo.

There is no-one in our team who offers nothing. The question is do they offer enough to win a grand final? That's not an easy question to answer but at least we are in the ballpark.

Personally, I think we have been too predictable. Mitchell is good because it frees more of our kids to move around the ground more.

We should experiment with some of our out of form players but wholesale changes (ie 3 or 4 at a time) are not required or helpful.

[WauchopeAnalyst]

Overall just 2 changes, GOODES and SHAW out, but how comes in and can they give us something like the bulldogs or saints even the eagles. Who are the best 3 players in reserves who has not played 1sts yet. When I lived in Sydney I watched all reserves and you can see what was coming now I can't and many others can't either. I read stats and little highlights. Can they improve the team??

[mcs]

Geelong and Hawthorn well show us were we are!!!!

Hawthorn definitely will test us big time but I think we will beat Geelong comfortably - they have not impressed me at all this season, and if our midfield is on, I think we will easily beat them at home.

[ernie koala]

(Just from me: my vocabulary and ability to communicate is decreased due to an illness and it is not going to get better. I hope you understand what I am saying and not too much waffle)
I think Ludwig is just about right in terms of what his is looking at.

Shaw: looks exciting and I think too many people think like that but he is a ?torcher? and poor decisions. Thanks for the flag and can play reserves.

Grundy: Champion data says that Reg and Teddy are in the top 6 defenders for one-on-one contests, I read last week on one of the related ?Supercoach? websites and the systems works well but Reg is playing without confidence and fumbles and poor decisions. Needs a friend and Mc Veigh can become the director of defence

Laidler: Old school defender and hard around the contest, a bit slow but every defender needs some help. Hard as nails. I want him in the team.

McVeigh: goes back to defence same as last year. Can direct and mostly good decisions and kicking. Last year of ?Captainship?. We need more physical leadership (Selwood, Hodge) not ?Churchillian? speeches.

Rampe: with Reg back there I want Rampe away from the goals as he gives away frees for no reason.(Great against Robbie Grey) Speed, works hard and a very good long kick but doesn?t read the play well.

Lloyd: the most composed player we have at 21??? Good decisions, reads the play and good kicking.

Mc Glynn: wants to be a midfielder, but doesn?t have it. Hard for the ball but doesn?t use the ball well. Locked in ?Ballantyne? player. Needs to fly around creating pressure with and without the ball and will kick goals.

Robinson: True Mid/Fwd ? smart around the ball and can kick a goal.

Goodes; Legend, but the game is coming past him: 20 Clangers in 3 reserve games. At a lower level, there should not be that many (but Hewett and Robison did plenty on the W/E) Well play in front of the ball and kick goals from there.

Now the bigger problem.

Why do we dump, bomb, just kick it up there somewhere near a forward. Sometimes you have to but we do it way too much!!!
Why aren?t our forwards blocking and use screens to release players and supporting each other. Because there is no support. and Longmire believes our forwards can kick goals every time the ball comes into the forward line by themselves.

The Swans are vanilla and a lot of teams have worked it out, we have so much talent but the match plan is so similar for the last 10 years, but for the slingshot, all the ball goes to Franklin and Tippett. No crumbs, or just a few, no easy goals, just have to work so hard to get goals. Franklin is ?torching? the ball because at Hawthorn free players all over the place and for us, no-one, because every player is making sure they are am the right position for defending first or Horse will yell at me (Mitchell).

Tippett and Franklin gets a friend each from Mc Glynn, Jack, Rohan, (Kennedy & Parker (blocking/ marking themselves), Hannebery, Mitchell, Bird, Lloyd, Heeney, Robinson, Jetta and others. Keep changing the line, sometimes Parker/ Kennedy and Mc Glynn/Heeney. Make them think. Change angles. Hit the midfielders from 35 to 50m out. We can?t change tactics in mid stream. A full preseason and our attack would be impossible to stop at times.
I don?t want massive change but a new AJ or the old AJ would be great for the team.

Geelong and Hawthorn well show us were we are!!!!

PS: Jetta kicking at 81%???

Excellent post.

[RogueSwan]

Overall just 2 changes, GOODES and SHAW out, but how comes in and can they give us something like the bulldogs or saints even the eagles. Who are the best 3 players in reserves who has not played 1sts yet. When I lived in Sydney I watched all reserves and you can see what was coming now I can't and many others can't either. I read stats and little highlights. Can they improve the team??

Maybe it will be someone unexpected, someone who just seems to chug along in the Two's but once given a chance in the Seniors takes the opportunity and never turns back?
It would be nice to have an AJ type Premiership story this year.

[Nico]

Hawthorn definitely will test us big time but I think we will beat Geelong comfortably - they have not impressed me at all this season, and if our midfield is on, I think we will easily beat them at home.

Not if Geelong jumps us like they have done to the sides in the games they have won. We have to be switched on right from the start.

[Untamed Snark]

Good thing they're predicting rain on Saturday

[MightyBloods]

(Just from me: my vocabulary and ability to communicate is decreased due to an illness and it is not going to get better. I hope you understand what I am saying and not too much waffle)
I think Ludwig is just about right in terms of what his is looking at.

Shaw: looks exciting and I think too many people think like that but he is a ?torcher? and poor decisions. Thanks for the flag and can play reserves.

Grundy: Champion data says that Reg and Teddy are in the top 6 defenders for one-on-one contests, I read last week on one of the related ?Supercoach? websites and the systems works well but Reg is playing without confidence and fumbles and poor decisions. Needs a friend and Mc Veigh can become the director of defence

Laidler: Old school defender and hard around the contest, a bit slow but every defender needs some help. Hard as nails. I want him in the team.

McVeigh: goes back to defence same as last year. Can direct and mostly good decisions and kicking. Last year of ?Captainship?. We need more physical leadership (Selwood, Hodge) not ?Churchillian? speeches.

Rampe: with Reg back there I want Rampe away from the goals as he gives away frees for no reason.(Great against Robbie Grey) Speed, works hard and a very good long kick but doesn?t read the play well.

Lloyd: the most composed player we have at 21??? Good decisions, reads the play and good kicking.

Mc Glynn: wants to be a midfielder, but doesn?t have it. Hard for the ball but doesn?t use the ball well. Locked in ?Ballantyne? player. Needs to fly around creating pressure with and without the ball and will kick goals.

Robinson: True Mid/Fwd ? smart around the ball and can kick a goal.

Goodes; Legend, but the game is coming past him: 20 Clangers in 3 reserve games. At a lower level, there should not be that many (but Hewett and Robison did plenty on the W/E) Well play in front of the ball and kick goals from there.

Now the bigger problem.

Why do we dump, bomb, just kick it up there somewhere near a forward. Sometimes you have to but we do it way too much!!!
Why aren?t our forwards blocking and use screens to release players and supporting each other. Because there is no support. and Longmire believes our forwards can kick goals every time the ball comes into the forward line by themselves.

The Swans are vanilla and a lot of teams have worked it out, we have so much talent but the match plan is so similar for the last 10 years, but for the slingshot, all the ball goes to Franklin and Tippett. No crumbs, or just a few, no easy goals, just have to work so hard to get goals. Franklin is ?torching? the ball because at Hawthorn free players all over the place and for us, no-one, because every player is making sure they are am the right position for defending first or Horse will yell at me (Mitchell).

Tippett and Franklin gets a friend each from Mc Glynn, Jack, Rohan, (Kennedy & Parker (blocking/ marking themselves), Hannebery, Mitchell, Bird, Lloyd, Heeney, Robinson, Jetta and others. Keep changing the line, sometimes Parker/ Kennedy and Mc Glynn/Heeney. Make them think. Change angles. Hit the midfielders from 35 to 50m out. We can?t change tactics in mid stream. A full preseason and our attack would be impossible to stop at times.
I don?t want massive change but a new AJ or the old AJ would be great for the team.

Geelong and Hawthorn well show us were we are!!!!

PS: Jetta kicking at 81%???

I love this post.

[mcs]

Good thing they're predicting rain on Saturday

You have got to be kidding me! If Sydney gets rain on either Friday or Saturday, the surface is guaranteed to be pretty awful, given the NRL game there on the Friday night.

One of these days I'll be surprised and go to a Swans game in Sydney again where it doesn't rain.

- - - Updated - - -

Mc Glynn: wants to be a midfielder, but doesn?t have it. Hard for the ball but doesn?t use the ball well. Locked in ?Ballantyne? player. Needs to fly around creating pressure with and without the ball and will kick goals.

As good as Mcglynn was last year in midfield, I'd like to see him move back into the forward line again - we are still so desperate for more crumbing pressure in the forward line and he can provide it, alongside Heeney when he returns. If we are going to continue with our bomb long tactics all the time, we should at least have a forward structure that is half suited to it to take advantage of it.

- - - Updated - - -

Not if Geelong jumps us like they have done to the sides in the games they have won. We have to be switched on right from the start.

If we are on at the start and don't get them away, I still think we will beat them early. We need to turn up with pressure like we did against Port however - when under pressure, their midfield is a shadow of what it once was, as their young guys are of a similar quality or ilk of their better players now gone.