Sydney V Collingwood Match Day Thread

[dejavoodoo44]

Dermott is just a wee bit dumb... like Eddie he thinks if he repeats something enough times it'll become the truth.

Though unfortunately, that is the way that a large chunk of the Australian media operates.

[mcs]

I stand corrected, but l,m not seeing him do much with it ATM. He is not sticking or breaking tackles, disposal is still bad and he is becoming a source of turnovers. Some of that is confidence and he needs to find that for himself in the Ressies.

Lloyd is clearly lacking confidence at the moment, and it is really impacting on his game. It might be hard to drop him however, given the reserves have plenty of injuries piling up as well. I really like Lloyd as a player, but he last month or so has been disappointing - but he isn't the only one in that camp.

[longmile]

We cant lose Jetta, he seems to be the only one who can hit a target in our team

[mcs]

Poor crowd and injuries. Im not so sure.

Your 'love never dies' does it Barry........

[mcs]

Many of the posters on this site seem to focus entirely on the negatives or bait others with their particular hobby horse that's you Barry
It's four points which means we are still a chance to win the flag however to do that we need to play a better style of accountable football.
Interesting comment by Leigh Matthews ( I think ) after the tackle by BJ. "that's how all the Swans used to tackle" .
How quickly we turn on those that have served us well previously, there are so many examples but one that was highlighted last night was Mike Pyke who so many wanted retired because he was useless, unfit, had no idea how to ruck, can't mark, lazy etc etc.
If he can get back to his form of a couple of years ago he will be an asset during the finals .
I agree it was a frustrating game to watch but this morning there are 14 teams who would swap ladder positions without hesitation. Cmon you bloods !!!

There is no hope of Pyke being fit for finals - yes he was improved last night on previous appearances, but the poor guy still looks like he is playing at about 60%. Even if we gave him the next three weeks off, I can't see how he will get anywhere near being fully fit without a long break over the Summer.

The comment about the tackle by BJ is spot on. Every game this year I think, at some stage or another, I've wondered what has happened to our tackling, with the amount of poor efforts . Some serious tackling technique work needs to be done in the off-season - we need to get back to that point where if you get tackled by a Swan, it sticks.

[Ampersand]

There is no hope of Pyke being fit for finals - yes he was improved last night on previous appearances, but the poor guy still looks like he is playing at about 60%. Even if we gave him the next three weeks off, I can't see how he will get anywhere near being fully fit without a long break over the Summer.

The comment about the tackle by BJ is spot on. Every game this year I think, at some stage or another, I've wondered what has happened to our tackling, with the amount of poor efforts . Some serious tackling technique work needs to be done in the off-season - we need to get back to that point where if you get tackled by a Swan, it sticks.

Part of the problem is our insistence on playing zone defence, which as Cameron Ling pointed out last night is abysmally static.

We have players more interested in protecting "their space" than hunting the ball carrier. I think a large portion of our structural problems could be solved by just biting the bullet and manning up tight one-on-one including any loose men the opposition put back in defence. Tell our players that we back them to win contested ball and give them even numbers when we rebound out of our back half.

[mcsquirta]

Just had a quick squizz at the replay (mainly the last quarter) and I think the game looked better on TV than at the ground. Apart from the last quarter, both teams were fairly rubbish and the umpiring was consistently crap throughout. The speed of "play on" calls was absurd. By the last quarter Josh took a mark walked back turned and was called to play on. It was the same for a few others too.

I watched the 2005 GF recently and 1 of the commentators said, towards the end of the 3rd quarter, There's only been 2 free kicks paid since half time! It wouldn't matter if every player had an umpire on them, they'd still manage to make porr decisions

[mcs]

Just had a quick squizz at the replay (mainly the last quarter) and I think the game looked better on TV than at the ground. Apart from the last quarter, both teams were fairly rubbish and the umpiring was consistently crap throughout. The speed of "play on" calls was absurd. By the last quarter Josh took a mark walked back turned and was called to play on. It was the same for a few others too.

I watched the 2005 GF recently and 1 of the commentators said, towards the end of the 3rd quarter, There's only been 2 free kicks paid since half time! It wouldn't matter if every player had an umpire on them, they'd still manage to make porr decisions

It must have been woeful at the ground, as I thought it looked terrible on telly (I would of liked to have gone, but for once, I think I dodged a bullet haha!)

[Hotpotato]

I really enjoyed the intensity of the game (at the ground) , against a team that had the wood on us big time.
The season is not all about winning The Premierships , of course it's the ultimate goal , but other pleasures occur on the journey . Beating The Pies last night was one of them.
Cloke in , Buddy out, Parker stretchered off, seriously , that was an excellent performance by the Swans.
Players have become very good at breaking tackles. They have watched Buddy doing often enough, a fast moving player is difficult to stop.
Well done boys. Terrific win.
Just hope Buddy gets back for the finals or sooner.

[liz]

I really enjoyed the intensity of the game (at the ground) , against a team that had the wood on us big time.
The season is not all about winning The Premierships , of course it's the ultimate goal , but other pleasures occur on the journey . Beating The Pies last night was one of them.
Cloke in , Buddy out, Parker stretchered off, seriously , that was an excellent performance by the Swans.
Players have become very good at breaking tackles. They have watched Buddy doing often enough, a fast moving player is difficult to stop.
Well done boys. Terrific win.
Just hope Buddy gets back for the finals or sooner.

Sadly there only seem to be two or three other recent posts in this thread expressing this perspective. I might have quoted Faunca8 or Mug Punter, as they say much the same. I'm in the same camp as the three of you. No team can win the premiership every year (and think how boring it would be if your team did). This year was already looking highly unlikely for us, and with injuries to the likes of Parker, Laidler and maybe Heeney and Rohan, it would take a miracle from here. But for me, footy is as much about enjoying the small things along the way.

Sure, yesterday's game wasn't always pretty and it was frustrating to watch at times. But the guys dug in hard to extract a win in a game they could easily have given up. I think Mitchell's been one of our best over the last month or so, and yesterday it continued. He, along with Kennedy, shows a desire to really win the ball out of a contest and dish it out. For all our supposed midfield strength, I think we've been lacking in that area for a while, so to watch Mitchell graduate from a young player to a core player has been exciting. Similarly, Jack showed why the coaches have been giving him opportunities here and there. He's been showing that kind of aggression in the reserves this year. Even when the team was getting thumped by the likes of GWS, his tackles were sticking and his endeavour never wavered. When you look back to his game when he arrived at the club - a skinny kid who looked like he'd never laid a tackle in his life - it's been an impressive development curve.

I'm reading Vonnegut's "Timequake" at the moment. It's an odd book - billed as a novel but really more like a scrapbook of reflections on life. On paragraph goes as follows:

My uncle . . . taught me something very important.

"He said that when things were really going well, we should be sure to notice it. He was talking about simple occasions, not great victories: maybe drinking lemonade on a hot afternoon in the shade, or smelling the aroma of a nearby bakery, or fishing and not caring if we catch anything or not, or hearing somebody all alone play the piano really well in the house next door.

"Uncle Alex urged me to say out loud during such epiphanies: 'If this isn't nice, what is?' "

Surely beating Collingwood - however it is achieved - has to count as one of the great small things in life, regardless of how it fits into any bigger picture?

[undy]

Thought that moving Rampe ti play on ball in the last quarter solved a few problems. He looked to be having a bad day down back, but seemed to improve the on ball contingent.

[aardvark]

Surely beating Collingwood - however it is achieved - has to count as one of the great small things in life, regardless of how it fits into any bigger picture?

Absolutely!

[The Big Cat]

Longmire on ABC just now. Parker broken tibia and being scanned for ankle ligament damage. Best case scenario 4 WEEKS! I'd take that!!

[mcsquirta]

Surely beating Collingwood - however it is achieved - has to count as one of the great small things in life, regardless of how it fits into any bigger picture?

Funny, I went to the game looking at it as our Grand Final for this year, and I can't say I was disappointed. I remember saying to someone at some point in the 3rd that everything about this game is $h^##%. Both teams and especially the umpires interpretation of whatever this week's rules are.

But when Sammy took the mark at the top of the square in the last, the roof exploded off the top of the SCG. After waiting all night for us to just stop, I knew we were going to win. Probably only the Port game last year was more emotionally charged.

Watching the boys on the replay hobble into the change rooms afterwards, battered and bruised, it feels to me like we turned a huge corner last night. Injuries will do us in for the rest of the season I think, but it felt to me like there was a massive shift in attitude last night. Before the song when the boys were getting in the circle someone said "This is just the start boys"... I'm pretty sure it was Rhyce. He turned a corner afew weeks ago and one by one we're all doing it. It's really only the AFL commission and injuries that will do us in but at least Pridham is tackling the AFL and good on him!

[mcs]

Longmire on ABC just now. Parker broken tibia and being scanned for ankle ligament damage. Best case scenario 4 WEEKS! I'd take that!!

4 weeks - that would be incredible if that is the case - I can't believe we will see him back this year surely. Would be great to have him good to go Rd 1 next year however!