Round 16: Sydney v Hawthorn

[Meg]

I've not heard of any player challenging a fine before. Is this unusual?

I can't recall another challenge, players usually seem to pay up and run off laughing. Which is why I am assuming Parker is offended at the decision as it implies it was more than an accident.

[Mel_C]

There was a player a few weeks back that challenged their fine and they got off. I can't recall who it was though.

[Meg]

After thinking some more about the Parker incident, I can see why he is upset. Remember Stevie Johnson's hit in Jarrad McVeigh's groin earlier this year? The MRP kindly said that Johnson was merely trying to block McVeigh?s passage to the ball and, in doing so, made contact to McVeigh?s groin area. "It was the view of the panel that Johnson?s actions were not considered reportable as he was trying to win position for the ball, had it been loose. No further action was taken."

Well Parker was in a legitimate leap to take a mark. No wonder he is annoyed.

[YvonneH]

Luke has to pay $1500 now in lieu of $1000, but worth a shot in my opinion.

[dejavoodoo44]

After thinking some more about the Parker incident, I can see why he is upset. Remember Stevie Johnson's hit in Jarrad McVeigh's groin earlier this year? The MRP kindly said that Johnson was merely trying to block McVeigh?s passage to the ball and, in doing so, made contact to McVeigh?s groin area. "It was the view of the panel that Johnson?s actions were not considered reportable as he was trying to win position for the ball, had it been loose. No further action was taken."

Well Parker was in a legitimate leap to take a mark. No wonder he is annoyed.

Yes, Meg, good point. I was thinking along similar lines, but the incident that I was thinking of was Sam Mitchell wandering up to Tom Mitchell and felling him with a deliberate elbow to the head, in the previous Hawthorn game. In that case, Mitchell got a $1000 fine, for an unsociable act that seems much worse than the Parker incident.

[dejavoodoo44]

As we did in the 60's, 70's, and 80's, we can only but dream.....I know that sounds negative, but I can't believe I could feel so low about my club while it sits in the top four......really weird.

I suspect that it has something to do with the level of expectation. That is, in the past, we weren't used to the Swans being contenders, so if they put together another mediocre season, it only really matched our low level of optimism. But with a high level of expectation, there is a strong mismatch when they don't perform well and this engenders a much greater level of negative emotions.

[bloodspirit]

I hope we play them in a prelim final. I'd hate to sit through another GF like last year.

Good call! If we win, we have a real chance in the GF. And if we lose, at least we don't lose on the biggest stage and most important day!

[bloodspirit]

Yes I agree how can you improve when you lose players and can't trade them for anyone else. The AFL are cheats

I think we can trade for picks, can't we? You'd think Tippett would be worth as much as Paddy Ryder if we decided to cut him lose, wouldn't you? Maybe even more!

[bloodspirit]

I also think that, unlike sides like us and Freo, their brand of football is less physically taxing because it doesn't rely on applying intense pressure. That's why teams have a chance of getting back into a game against us or Freo, but much less so against the Hawks when they get going.

Very interesting point. I do agree that our game plan seems to demand much more of us so that if we are at all off it doesn't work.

[bloodspirit]

I agree with your analysis, Liz, especially the part about the concentration of our problems being in our defence. We've been a bit unfortunate that 3 of our injuries have been to what would normally be our small forwards, with the entire contingent of Rohan, McGlynn and Heeney all out at the moment. We should be much better once they return.

Our ruck situation is just something we will have to work out in due course. With all the injuries now it's pretty difficult to know where we stand. It would be good if we could get Naismith up and running for a few games at the end of the H&A season.

Except for Grundy, as noted, there has been a general falloff across the board in the defence. We used to be so reliant on Ted when he was at the top of his game, now that he's fallen off it really shows just how valuable he was. The combination of Ted, Reg and Laidler is just too slow and fumbley to get by these days. We need to have either Reid or XR as one of our key backs just for their pace alone. In XR's case, we may just have to hope for the best that he can grow into the role. It may take a miraculous comeback from AJ to make things right. A well coordinated defence takes time to develop and we might as well bite the bullet and start now. Things are not going to get any better with our current crew.

A few years back Shaw was such a valuable player running the ball out defence over and over again. Mal was pretty good as well. Now we need to put Jetta back to do that. We really need a player that's a regular part of our defence that can run and carry the ball out of trouble so we don't have to rely on blind kicks in desperation that just come for goals.

Nic Newman's been playing well. I wouldn't mind fast tracking him a bit. We could send Tom Derickx in for shoulder surgery (whether he needs it or not) and put him on the LTIL and upgrade Nic. If Marsh is a chance we might as well give him a go in the seniors as well. Both have good pace and can kick the ball long. One thing for sure is that we are really struggling getting the ball out of defence these days, just kicking to a contest along the boundary is sort of safe but not winning football.

While I generally enjoy your humour and pictures this is one of the less common occasions that I also agree with most of what you have to say!

[stevoswan]

Without wanting to sound pedantic, I was talking about Stevic himself: since while watching on Saturday night, it seemed that the other two umpires were pretty even handed, but Stevic was heavily favouring Hawthorn. Of course, my perceptions may have been slightly biased.

No surprises there, Stevic has a history of Hawk bias. He is a scummy cheat.....

[bloodspirit]

So is it better to have Buddy or a stronger bottom six?

Depends who you ask. The marketing and membershiop gals and guys are definitely happier having Buddy than a stronger bottom 6.