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I really believe that even though he is a first year player Heeney adds so much to our team. We look a lot better with him up forward as he has the footy smarts and great skills that many of our players don't. Hopefully he'll be able to return in the 2nd half of the season unrestricted from the knee and I believe someone like him, even if he only gets 10 touches, could be the difference between us winning and losing a flag!
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Very good win. I thought we always seemed capable of breaking them open, but were held back by poor decision-making, lazy kicking and a leaking defence in that first half. Parker imposed himself on the contest extremely impressively, and Mitchell, Jack and Hannebery got the upper hand in the second half. I also thought that Jetta, in particular, and Franklin showed desire and confidence in their ability to win contests at crucial moments in the second half. Jetta has had decent possession counts the last couple of games and is playing with real belief. Goodsey's best game of the year.
Rampe, in contrast, looks well down on confidence. I don't think it's complacency, as has been suggested, I think he's a little unsure of himself. Looking over his shoulder, taking an extra step, over-deliberating on the ball. The last three weeks he's dropped some marks and given away some frees, and it seems to have affected him. I thought Nick Smith, again, provided the poise and polish that hauled the defence out of their funk. The guy doesn't make a mistake - I just looked it up: he's only given away two free kicks all year (Rampe 11). Laidler was solid again.
However, once again we did leak goals more easily than in the past and that is our biggest problem at the moment.Comment
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Was out at the game and didn't see anything wrong with Rampe's performance and decision making. Rhyce UnShaw, on the other hand, is a train wreck waiting to happen every time he gets or goes near the ball. Suggest it's time to replace him. Bring in Jones for the extra run out of defence.
I also thought Ted & Reg were outstanding, but of course not like the elite performance of Lukey Parker! Seriously, that boy is like Paul Kelly reincarnated but with better disposal. FREAK!
Tommy Mitchell is just an extractor and should never ever ever be dropped regardless of his lack of pace. No point having pace if you can't get the pill....Tommy gets it - a lot....Comment
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I thought McVeighs 250th was a cracker , if more people would buy a second with a sidestep when in traffic and then find the correct option like he does (and Jetta does a lot) time after time that would be awesome .Comment
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Ted played well except for the brain fart of a kick where from the pocket he tried to kick it 60 metres across the face of goal and kicked it straight to a cats player.
Parker was outstanding - as he has been for so much of his career. If injuries stay away (and he seems to be as hard as bricks) and he stays with the swans (lets hope we never have to worry on that front), he will be a 300+ gamer for the club. As courageous as they come, a superb mark, a good kick, and as hard as guts in and under. I remember when first seeing him in 2011, even for the brief glimpses we saw that year, that it was clear as day that he would be a superstar.
What a steal at 40in the draft he is proving to be
"You get the feeling that like Monty Python's Black Knight, the Swans would regard amputation as merely a flesh wound."Comment
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That is what I think drives a lot of the negativity - from myself included. Our 2nd half was very good, but we leaked 10 goals to Geelong in the first half - something we are not used to our defense doing. All those silly errors they made in the first half, we can atone for against most teams, but not against the best. It will be interesting to see how we go against Hawthorn. Everyone that was there in September is scarred by that performance, and will want to see something a lot better next Saturday."You get the feeling that like Monty Python's Black Knight, the Swans would regard amputation as merely a flesh wound."Comment
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During the game, every mistake sticks out in my mind and it takes a night's sleep to see the game from a more balanced perspective.
I agree with Conor_Dillon as well. We played pretty well for most of the game. We do however need to cut out some of these costly errors, as the poor first half against Freo and countless turnovers against the Dogs cost us 2 games. But if we can stop our risky kicking into the corridor and our free kicks, we should be fine. I think we should go through the corridor when we can, but not hang the ball out where it can be waltzed in for an easy goal. We can't afford any goal leakage against a team like Hawthorn.
Goodes played well enough where there is no obvious replacement for him just yet. Tom Mitchell adds a lot to our side. He's become the one that allows us to play Parks and Joey up forward more, which really gives us more potency to our offence. One of the best handballers in the game.
For some reason the quality of play seems to be down this year, in general. The poor goal kicking is inexplicable. Two potential top 8 sides, Essendon and North had such poor disposal in the Friday game, it was hard to imagine they were considered top 4 contenders by some. Even Hawthorn are missing targets these days. The exceptions are the Bulldogs, who have played some exhilarating football and the Giants, whose skills are awesome unless you put them under serious pressure.Comment
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Just a few observations not negatively just facts. Rampe lacks confidence and will still provide free kicks near the goals and did. Shaw ran well but turnover for 2 goals. PARKER is back and the X factor is back. Just like every other forward if you kick into the hole or space Parker will mark everything and most of the forwards will too. If we kick to space we will start becoming a gun team. Too many times do we just kicking on their head and the defenders love it. Defenders hate when the ball is dropping into the hole and starting holding and giving frees away. We dont get much because we kick to were the player is standing not running. Kizza did some good things but kicks too early like he doesn't want to get hit. 3 clearances shows the different. 1st, breaks away but kicks immediately straight to the defender. 2nd breaks away and kick early again to a pack and nothing, 3rd breaks away waits a bit longer kicks into the hole and Parker marks above Blicavs, because he could ran and jump to the ball. Grundy did the some thing and PARKER marked it above Harry Taylor when the ball dropped into the zone not on the man.
A lot kicking is about over coached players. e.g. Jake Lloyd - in his first NAB game, a couple of years ago, you could see straight away that he was smart and a very good kick. The longer he plays the more mistakes he makes, because his footy brain is now fried, look most players, as the coaches want robots doing the some thing every time and their footy brain is working against the coaches orders. Released on the wing, DH has sprinted from the back 50 into the forward flank, into 25m of space, and I expected that Jake will kick it, but kicked to Rohan with his man .5 of a metre behind and under the gun. That is coaching, honouring leads, but all players have to open their vision again. Our team does not use the ball well because in 10 years of Roos and Longmire coaching, under pressure, we just kick it foward. The Hawks and Cats have won 6 with skill, we have win 2 with defence, effort and heart not skill.
If we just allow a bit more freedom and options I think we are right to go for the flag. Kick in front or into space and our forwards will slaughter the defenders and the Hawks and Dockers are in our sights.Comment
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I thought Nick Smith was outstanding as well as Parks. Still too many dumb turnovers and 50 meter penalties, very unswans like.
Great to see the trademark intensity return in the second half. Next week will be a good indicator of our premiership chances. If we get smashed it's just about season over for me.Comment
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Same ump paid shaw deliberate oob, mcglynn 50 straight after and rohan running too far.
obviously a geelong stoogeComment
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Towers offered little off the bench except giving away a couple of frees. I just don't understand why they didn't put Bird in the sub role. He could have been a fresh player to run with Duncan (who was looking very dangerous before he was injured). I think a fresh attacking tagger is one of the few good roles a sub could perform. McGlynn did an awesome job on Selwood and worked his guts out all game.
Goodes had a mediocre performance and really seems to struggle to keep up with the pace of the game. A memorable moment being when Reid marked in the centre square and released Goodes with a handball that should have resulted in a shot on goal. Instead, he fumbled, hesitated, ended up tackled and the play broke down.
Longmire's backhanded praise of Mitchell is getting borderline ridiculous. Let's be clear: Parker wouldn't have been able to do what he did last night unless Mitchell was in the centre performing his former inside role.
The fundamental lesson from last night is sometimes you need to STOP OVERUSING THE HANDPASS AND JUST FREAKING KICK IT. We absolutely stank in the first half with out hesitant overuse.
We ended up with 218 handballs to 127 which is just crazy. The reason we are so bad at converting in the forward 50 is that we are so slow in getting it in there.Comment
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I knew him as a gentle young man, I cannot say for sure the reasons for his decline
We watched him fade before our very eyes, and years before his timeComment
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Sad when some start adding to the Goodes saga when he was not at fault.Comment
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