Rnd 17 MDT. Sydney V Hawthorn. SCG. 19.20 pm.

[Sandrevan]

I know I won't be well received for this, but my disappointment is already fading.

We've have 2x6 day breaks. A bunch of 1st & 2nd year players in the side, who only have a hand full of games under their belts. No Tippett. No Heeney. Laidler, Reid & Talia out - any one of them would bolster a backline that isn't the strongest in the league. Playing with a very inexperienced ruck division. Lost to the ladder leader. We've lost 4 games by less than 2 goals (not easy to swallow, but if things had gone our way a little bit more in those games we'd be feeling a lot better). 3 of the close losses were against Adelaide, Dogs & Hawks ... all genuine contenders.

I, for one, am still proud of the endeavour tonight against quality opposition. The loss hurts me as a supporter. But seeing the boys in tears in the rooms after the game ... they are hurting more than I ever will. We are still a contender in an even season. We are still a contender - for a team rebuilding on the run, by blooding new talent & restructuring in the absence of key players.

This pain will fade. The players will learn. A couple of decent wins will ease the disappointment .,, bring on Carlton



.... Oh & I hate the Hawks!

Not well received?? - I agree with your post. We've only had 1 real beating this year; GWS

The Hawks put us under heaps of pressure in Q2 yet we were only 11 points behind at half time. I thought they would not be able to keep up the pressure and in the 3rd we started to get some momentum. We wasted chances in Q3 and this (to me) is why we ended up loosing the game. We could have and should have been further ahead at 3/4 time. The 50 m penalty at 3/4 time really killed us - KJ would be filthy.

One main difference between this game and round 9 - Why was Sam Mitchell not tagged? He was very influential. We showed in round 9 that if you sit on Sammy Hawthorn are very beatable.
Refereeing - in close games like this they do make a difference. Eg one of Rioli's goals. Aliir was running in to compete in the marking contest with Rioli and McEvoy grabbed his arm and prevented him attempting to mark. McEvoy made no attempt to be in the marking contest. Rioli kicked the goal but it was clearly a free to the Swans. As had already been mentioned it's the frees we don't get that are the problem. The Hawthorn players will exploit this - if they get away with stuff they'll keep doing it.
Our pressure around the pack contest was pretty good but it fell away in general play; surely this is a result of 2 x 6 day breaks.
And McAvaney - yes I have to agree with others - he was nauseating. BT was almost as bad.

[Bill Posters]

Just read that article about the umpiring.

Makes me angry.. Why does Longmire never criticise the umpiring and ask for an explanation when it was so one sided?

[ugg]

Just read that article about the umpiring.

Makes me angry.. Why does Longmire never criticise the umpiring and ask for an explanation when it was so one sided?

Because he would receive a nice little invoice from the AFL.

[AnnieH]

I know I won't be well received for this, but my disappointment is already fading.

We've have 2x6 day breaks. A bunch of 1st & 2nd year players in the side, who only have a hand full of games under their belts. No Tippett. No Heeney. Laidler, Reid & Talia out - any one of them would bolster a backline that isn't the strongest in the league. Playing with a very inexperienced ruck division. Lost to the ladder leader. We've lost 4 games by less than 2 goals (not easy to swallow, but if things had gone our way a little bit more in those games we'd be feeling a lot better). 3 of the close losses were against Adelaide, Dogs & Hawks ... all genuine contenders.

I, for one, am still proud of the endeavour tonight against quality opposition. The loss hurts me as a supporter. But seeing the boys in tears in the rooms after the game ... they are hurting more than I ever will. We are still a contender in an even season. We are still a contender - for a team rebuilding on the run, by blooding new talent & restructuring in the absence of key players.

This pain will fade. The players will learn. A couple of decent wins will ease the disappointment .,, bring on Carlton



.... Oh & I hate the Hawks!

How did I miss this?
I hate it when you talk sense.

[Maltopia]

Because he would receive a nice little invoice from the AFL.

Worth the fine (paid by the club) I reckon. Members/supports need to know the club is trying to address the apparent bias, and AFL need to know they will lose watchers/supporters if they can't provide a fair and even competition.

Does someone have time to put together a highlights package of all the obvious missed free kicks not paid to us?

[Sandrevan]

What was the matter with Hannebery last night? Worst game I've seen him play for ages. Looked like he was struggling the whole game

[Sandrevan]

Because he would receive a nice little invoice from the AFL.

If he 'expressed his thoughts' to the media in the post match presser he would get fined by the AFL. However, surely a highlights reel presented away from the media glare would have a better effect.

[Flying South]

Blaming towers is a beat up, I agree. If he kicks it long it still goes OOB and the throw in is 40m further up the ground and we still lose possession. Had he gone a bit quicker he had free players, but the MO was to slow the play down and keep them off the ball so you cant have it both ways.

If the umpiring was even we wouldnt have had to worry about the last few minutes.

Sliding doors. If he chose door 1 and played on quickly, Rioli doesn't kick that goal to win the game. Choose door 2 and kick it long inside 50 and Rioli doesn't kick that goal and win the game. Door 3 short sideways kick, Rioli kicks that goal and they win the game. We don't know what would have happened if he chose door 1 or 2. They may have still won the game a different way. We'll never know. But what we do know is that his poor decision under pressure led to that goal. It can't be denied. If you choose to forgive him, then that is personal choice.

[rojo]

Re finishing out tight games: The problem now is that the whole team doesn't know how to play out those last couple of minutes when under pressure. They are all trying to remember, now what were we told to do in this situation, don't kick it long, keep it near the boundary line, okay so we kick it short and try to hold possession, oh dear - wrong. Who is minding whom, or should we be guarding space, like Lloyd chose to do, should we all be on the defensive side of the throw-in, like they were, where is Rioli - oh there he is, taking a mark - goal! Too many cooks, no one authoritative voice, general confusion. Evidently after the game v. Bulldogs they talked about what they should have done - in a meeting!

[Flying South]

Sounds weird, but I'm actually glad we lost. It makes it obvious we need to tweak. If we had won, there wouldn't be as many changes at match committee, and further thought about our game style. Winning in a poor performance would be more damaging to us at this stage of the season.

May work in our favour if Hawks finish top an we finish 4th. If I'm correct, we would avoid them in a prelim final.

[Flying South]

We had 54 tackles, which just pipped our 55 against Richmond as our lowest tackle tally for the year

Nail. Head. A big factor in the loss. I don't usually subscribe to the 6 day break theory but maybe it was a factor. Our intensity waivered as well. So may be it was a factor and may explain some tired players as well.

[DA_Swan]

What was our tackle count?
How many missed tackles?
How many "I'll just stand here and look instead of tackling" tackles?

I think our guys were saying gee its hard to tackle these guys when they hit targets and don't drop marks - maybe we should try that approach - as u say its the missed tackles that kill you !! not the ones that your expected to make !

[Mug Punter]

May work in our favour if Hawks finish top an we finish 4th. If I'm correct, we would avoid them in a prelim final.

I agree with this. I know the easiest route to the GF is top 2 but my preference would be to have a crack at them weak 1 and try and smash them up and give them the hardest run possible to the GF. And I think we are the best placed team to do this, I really do think we have closed the gap this year.

We really are being punished now for the Richmond loss that I just knew would come back and bite us. It's a simple equation now, win all our remaining six games, and I can't see why not, and we get top 4. Drop one and we need to rely on other results. Drop two and we are bottom of the 8.

The season is in our hands after 16 rounds, we have played some good footy and brought on some players . I'm loving this season so bring it on!

Hopefully last night will be our spark

[Velour&Ruffles]

Totally agree. Towers was far from our worst and people need to lay off this rubbish call for him to be dropped and never to return...for now at least.

Sent from my SM-G920I using Tapatalk

Yep.

[Velour&Ruffles]

Was that Hanners worst game ? I think his pace gets shown up in these big games.

Sorry but this is garbage. It was nothing to do with pace. It was everything to do with quality of execution, which is his perennial problem, irrespective of pace.