Changes for Round v St Kilda

[mcsquirta]

Love me some firey involved jones. Just needs to clean his disposal up.

Reminds me of when I first saw BJ, became a fan pretty quickly. Great vision, good brain, needs more tats.

[dimelb]

Jake Niall's take on what needs to happen:

John Longmire needs to do something to revive the Swans

It reads as if he has been part of our discussion.

[Scottee]

Jake Niall's take on what needs to happen:

John Longmire needs to do something to revive the Swans

It reads as if he has been part of our discussion.

He's on the money.

[ugg]

Not sure about Hannebery to half back, I don't think his kicking is good enough to be the creator from defence that Niall is pushing hard for, plus it negates his main strength which is his big tank and gut running. His inside work is also underrated and we would miss him in the middle.

[Scottee]

Not sure about Hannebery to half back, I don't think his kicking is good enough to be the creator from defence that Niall is pushing hard for, plus it negates his main strength which is his big tank and gut running. His inside work is also underrated and we would miss him in the middle.

He's on the money apart from that.

[RogueSwan]

Not sure about Hannebery to half back, I don't think his kicking is good enough to be the creator from defence that Niall is pushing hard for, plus it negates his main strength which is his big tank and gut running. His inside work is also underrated and we would miss him in the middle.

Also, I don't think his kick is as penetrating as others, eg Macca. I would be more inclined to put Jets in there before Dan and I don't want to change what Jets is doing right now.

[Ludwig]

I love what I see with the Bulldogs, because they break so much of the conventional wisdom about how to win footy games. I agree with Niall about doing something different. But there have been some changes from Longmire with BJ and Jones playing more.

One thing about the Bulldogs is that they don't care about a ruckman. They played without a recognised ruckman against perhaps the best one in the game in Goldstein. I saw that Goldstein had 53 hitouts with 20 to advantage. You would think that would be a game winner, but rather the Bulldogs won the clearances by 9 and romped away after the 1st quarter. I've been saying for a long time, if you don't have a dominant ruckman, do something else. Turn the opposing ruckman into someone who just starts the play, then use an extra 'runner' to turn him into a lumbering liability.

The North big men took loads of marks and kicked goals, but overall the counterbalance of the Bulldog running backmen of Johannson, Murphy and Biggs overwhelmed North with continuous forays out of defence and running all the way into the forward line and kicking goals as well.

Those are the 2 things I would like to see us try more. But perhaps it's a bit late in the season to make too many changes.

[Auntie.Gerald]

I would like to say if Buddy was playing and at his best the last few weeks and with McGlynn, Parker, Rohan and a fit Pyke we are a dangerous team but we need our best 22 to beat the top 3 sides

---------

so to agree the column written above he is asking us to believe that taking a top 5 midfielder in the AFL and move him to HBF ??? Hannes not a chance for me !!!

that we don't move the ball like other top 4 teams therefore we won't be able to combat them tactically or technically on game day ? i.e. attack always beats defence ?

That Zac Jones will help us win more then Rhys Shaw ?? i don't agree for 2015

he believes that we don't counter attack with lots of indv creativity off our HBF therefore we can not take on the heavy weights

lastly he assumes we are no longer a heavy weight for the finals which I do believe is a fair call

THERE is a strange reality though and that is if we back up a big win again today and we bring the hard hard hard edged footy it is a brand and style that is finals football and once we push ahead with this momentum it is a very hard style to beat

for me though we simply do not have the same potency in attacking players as the other teams in the top6 so it stands to reason that if a team gets ahead of us we will struggle to wrestle them back

BUT if we start to win the trench warfare style of footy then the opposition won't be using the ball like they would like to and that is an issue for the opposition as the players with great attack don't always muscle up for 4 qtrs and we have those players in spades but so do the top 3 teams

[Auntie.Gerald]

PS adelaide 42 and WC Nil after 20mins !!!!!

a week in footy is a long time

even if you are a superior chip and pass team like WC
and great off your HBF

[Zlatorog]

PS adelaide 42 and WC Nil after 20mins !!!!!

a week in footy is a long time

even if you are a superior chip and pass team like WC
and great off your HBF

Because they're top 2 anyway. Maybe they want to play the Hawks rather than Swans in the first week of the finals?

[Auntie.Gerald]

so we had two wins the last two weeks

we won by 16 goals each game i.e. 100 points

we played a team this week who we beat by 100points........ this team drew against the Cats last week and only lost by 5 goals against Freeo

I am happy with our march towards to the finals and both wins looked quite clinical !

[bloodspirit]

I love what I see with the Bulldogs, because they break so much of the conventional wisdom about how to win footy games. I agree with Niall about doing something different. But there have been some changes from Longmire with BJ and Jones playing more.

One thing about the Bulldogs is that they don't care about a ruckman. They played without a recognised ruckman against perhaps the best one in the game in Goldstein. I saw that Goldstein had 53 hitouts with 20 to advantage. You would think that would be a game winner, but rather the Bulldogs won the clearances by 9 and romped away after the 1st quarter. I've been saying for a long time, if you don't have a dominant ruckman, do something else. Turn the opposing ruckman into someone who just starts the play, then use an extra 'runner' to turn him into a lumbering liability.

The North big men took loads of marks and kicked goals, but overall the counterbalance of the Bulldog running backmen of Johannson, Murphy and Biggs overwhelmed North with continuous forays out of defence and running all the way into the forward line and kicking goals as well.

Those are the 2 things I would like to see us try more. But perhaps it's a bit late in the season to make too many changes.

Are you getting any more optimistic about our finals prospects or do you still regard 2015 as a write off and time to get underway with the mini-rebuild? Blooding new players, experimenting with new structures etc.?

[Ludwig]

Are you getting any more optimistic about our finals prospects or do you still regard 2015 as a write off and time to get underway with the mini-rebuild? Blooding new players, experimenting with new structures etc.?

Yes. I am feeling a lot more optimistic after the last 3 wins.

Funny how we came back to win our first game against Essendon after Parker got knocked out. Again, after Parker's injury in the Collingwood game, we've really turned things around. Maybe we play better without him, although I couldn't say why that should be, except perhaps that our other midfielders feel they have to step up.

It's hard to say how much of our reversal in form has been due to the weak opposition, but a lot of players that were in poor form earlier have suddenly raised their game. Pyke is turning back the clock to 2013, taking strong marks and kicking goals. Maybe he can get some of Goodsey's stem cell treatment and go on another year. KJ seems to play better when his little brother is in the side. Mitchell is in great form and Macca is getting back to his best as well. As has been mentioned, Reg is in career best form and Ted has also looked a lot better since returning from suspension. Maybe he needed some time off.

You have to get lucky with injury and form at the right time of year. Maybe after an unimpressive season we are finally hitting our straps. I don't think we'll really know until the game in Perth in a couple of weeks.

[bloodspirit]

Yes. I am feeling a lot more optimistic after the last 3 wins.

Funny how we came back to win our first game against Essendon after Parker got knocked out. Again, after Parker's injury in the Collingwood game, we've really turned things around. Maybe we play better without him, although I couldn't say why that should be, except perhaps that our other midfielders feel they have to step up.

It's hard to say how much of our reversal in form has been due to the weak opposition, but a lot of players that were in poor form earlier have suddenly raised their game. Pyke is turning back the clock to 2013, taking strong marks and kicking goals. Maybe he can get some of Goodsey's stem cell treatment and go on another year. KJ seems to play better when his little brother is in the side. Mitchell is in great form and Macca is getting back to his best as well. As has been mentioned, Reg is in career best form and Ted has also looked a lot better since returning from suspension. Maybe he needed some time off.

You have to get lucky with injury and form at the right time of year. Maybe after an unimpressive season we are finally hitting our straps. I don't think we'll really know until the game in Perth in a couple of weeks.

I think the opposition has to get some of the credit - hopefully they've played us back into form. But also I think we are getting some things right, things weren't as bad as they seemed (to borrow a line) and it really helps that some players are hitting their straps at the right time of the season - whether due to good management, luck or whatever.

Incidentally, how is it supporting the Swans from Thailand? Do you ever get to see games live?

[Ludwig]

Incidentally, how is it supporting the Swans from Thailand? Do you ever get to see games live?

I haven't been back to Australia in more than 2 years. I don't really mind not going to the games these days. With the Global membership you get every AFL game live on the video stream and can see the replays for up to a couple years.