Rnd 3 Match Day Thread Swans V GWS at the SCG 4.35pm.

[aardvark]

How good is grundy this year ?. He'd be the firm Backman of the comp.

It's a rare occasion I agree with you Barry but I thought Reg was superb tonight. He'll feature strongly in my TLM votes this week.

[Mug Punter]

It's a rare occasion I agree with you Barry but I thought Reg was superb tonight. He'll feature strongly in my TLM votes this week.

He's actually fine when he talks about football

[WauchopeAnalyst]

I apologise. I very bad night for me. Sorry.

[Doctor]

Firstly, I thought it was a high pressure, good quality game between two very strong teams. Mistakes were the result of very strong defence and no space. Probably another example of what it's like at the ground. I'm stunned reading some of the negativity on this thread. I can't believe we were watching the same game.

Secondly, no-one is calling it Battle of the Bridge any more. I didn't see it referred to as that once all week and the Swans' banner referred to it as Sydney Derby IX. Everything I've seen on Fox since I've been home have referred to it as that too.

Thirdly, what a brilliant ovation it was out half time for our retiring legends. It was such a pleasure to be out there. I loved it when some of the AusKick kiddies ran away from their game to hug Goodesy. My son was one of the AusKick umpires and he said that the noise from the crowd when Goodesy and Pykey went past the game he was doing was amazing.

I think both teams will make finals and should have successful seasons. I love the way we've changed things up this year and how we're approaching our footy. Long may it continue. Good on Parker for winning the medal but I thought Hanners was best on ground tonight. He had plenty of friends though.

[Untamed Snark]

Battle of the Bridge is a horrible name and needs to be changed

Anyone hear the crowd figure?

The name was created to try draw a line between the Swans and the rest if Sydney.
Funnily enough since the gw$ have joined the comp Swans membership has steadily gone up

[Mug Punter]

The name was created to try draw a line between the Swans and the rest if Sydney.
Funnily enough since the gw$ have joined the comp Swans membership has steadily gone up

And the area GWS are meant to be cultivating they are woefully neglecting on a grassroots level, ask Campbelltown Football Club how they have benefitted from GWS's entry into our market and how they view the GWS sponsorship of Manly AFC (of all clubs)

They are a bunch of clowns

[graemed]

Rnd 3 Match Day Thread Swans V GWS at the SCG 4.35pm.

Huge game by Tippett and Sinclair. All week, every footy program on air carried the crushing tackle by Mumford yet these two looked anything but intimidated. They were fierce in contested balls even after Tippett copped a serve in the first quarter. Great effort over the entire match and gives me real confidence in this pairing.

Thought Shiel was outstanding for GWS as was Shaw and we need to acknowledge that we were in a genuine contest last night. The fact that some of our younger players were down slightly in no way undermines their continued improvement.

Hewitt will be a better player for having watched how Shaw was able to work off him and generate space and drive. Mills learned a lesson from Palmer in the NAB game and came out and played his best match so far, Papley got the worst of the umpiring but continued to press and made a difference. Robinson was outstanding on Whitfield clearly taking the points, not bad for a kid from Mosman Swans against a first round draft pick. While Lloyd held Scully a million dollar recruit well throughout the night.

Meanwhile, Heeney looked to be carrying a injury late in the game, his pace is definitely down and he looked in pain possibly from acting as a mattress for Parker.

[stellation]

On the back of one of their best wins last week and with a local derby I reckon there would have been fewer than 1,000 genuine GWS fans there tonight.

And it correlates to the story in the paper today that said that of their 13,840 members last year 36% actually support another club. So, they have about 8,850 members that are actually fans and I reckon you could strip 3,000 out of that number for their Canberra members which is where I actually think they'll end up anyway. That's 5,850 in Sydney and I suspect that includes a few 3 game memberships and the like. Overall they are lucky to have a rusted on supporter base of 3,000.

And before any peanut comes on here and says "it's not so long ago we were getting 3,000 people to watch the Swans", even when we were the worst team in any code in Australia we still had average crowds overs 9,000.

GWS aren't getting 3000 people to a game, though- when the Swans were getting 9000 people to a game there was a fair chunk of them that would probably have identified the Swans as their second team, as well (and I'd say there's still a few members who might feel that way). I have pretty clear memories of going to Swans games in the 80s and 90s and there was probably a 50/50 split of folks wearing Swans jumpers vs. folks wearing some other club's jumper.

- - - Updated - - -

Is Tippett the form ruckman in the competition at the moment?

I was really impressed with Papley again, he showed great maturity to keep his head in the game and just keep plugging away- I already had confidence when he went back for his set shot that it was a goal.

[Beerman]

It was a strange sort of game. I suppose if you just keep sending the ball in long, which usually is not such a bad idea at the SCG, you're going to depend on the ball bouncing your way often enough to outscore the other team. Horse probably thought Buddy and Tippo would out-muscle their smaller defenders and take a heap of marks inside 50, but it didn't quite work out that way. And we were caught napping on the rebound far too often. We didn't utilize the younger guys who were so prominent in the first 2 games. I like it better when we use all our players rather than put the onus on just the senior players and a single main tactic for scoring.

My thoughts exactly. Our forwards were making a good contest, but where were the small players to win it when it went to ground? Particularly in the first quarter it seemed like everyone was jumping for the ball and when it went out the back a couple of times, there was no-one to take advantage.

It wasn't the most entertaining game to watch until the fourth quarter, but that quarter left me feeling pretty happy.

[Beerman]

I apologise. I very bad night for me. Sorry.

Don't feel bad. At half time I was thinking that it wouldn't surprise me if we lost it. I was at the showground that fateful day and just had the feeling that if GWS could stop throwing the ball away like they did in the first quarter and step up a bit, they would blow us away.

Fortunately is was us who lifted the pressure on the ball carrier and improved our ball movement and left them behind. It was a good tough contest. It will be interesting to see where GWS finish this year. Everyone seems to think they're a good chance to play finals, but it 's hard for me to see it.

[barry]

Battle of the bridge is the name used by foxtel, 7, and both sydney papers.

Gws are safe. There is more money spent propping up vic teams than sydney teams and youd think there is far more strategic value in GWS than the demons.

[dejavoodoo44]

Huge game by Tippett and Sinclair. All week, every footy program on air carried the crushing tackle by Mumford yet these two looked anything but intimidated. They were fierce in contested balls even after Tippett copped a serve in the first quarter. Great effort over the entire match and gives me real confidence in this pairing.

Thought Shiel was outstanding for GWS as was Shaw and we need to acknowledge that we were in a genuine contest last night. The fact that some of our younger players were down slightly in no way undermines their continued improvement.

Hewitt will be a better player for having watched how Shaw was able to work off him and generate space and drive. Mills learned a lesson from Palmer in the NAB game and came out and played his best match so far, Papley got the worst of the umpiring but continued to press and made a difference. Robinson was outstanding on Whitfield clearly taking the points, not bad for a kid from Mosman Swans against a first round draft pick. While Lloyd held Scully a million dollar recruit well throughout the night.

Meanwhile, Heeney looked to be carrying a injury late in the game, his pace is definitely down and he looked in pain possibly from acting as a mattress for Parker.

Just to emphasize your point, Whitfield was actually a number one pick in 2012 and Scully was a number one for the Demons, back in 2009. I don't think either of them has really set the competition on fire. While the other number one pick wandering around last night, Patton, only still seems to play the occasional eye-catching cameo.

[dejavoodoo44]

And the area GWS are meant to be cultivating they are woefully neglecting on a grassroots level, ask Campbelltown Football Club how they have benefitted from GWS's entry into our market and how they view the GWS sponsorship of Manly AFC (of all clubs)

They are a bunch of clowns

GWS sponsoring Manly!? Ahhh, I think that is the sort of administrative decision that comes under the category of modern surrealist performance art.

[johnno]

One thing I learned after watching this game on TV, these 2 teams need clash jumpers. The orange and bright red look too similar in long shots on the telly.

For games at GWS, if we go our all white uniform with the red V should be fine.

For games at the SCG, Giants need to come up with something otherwise I wouldn't mind if went the all white uniform there too, I like that outfit.

[aardvark]

Battle of the bridge is the name used by foxtel

Foxtel were calling it Sydney Derby 1X actually.........