Match Day Rnd. 2. Western Bulldogs V Sydney Swans. 7.50 pm Etihad Stadium.

[mcs]

[QUOTE=Nico;720055]

Parker is injured. He played with his knee bandaged and to me appeared restricted in his movement. Hanners also played up forward more than usual and he doesn't seem to be getting to contests as normal. People are bit harsh on Jack. He didn't play a pre season game and few players get their touch back overnight.

I thought there were some encouraging signs for KJ in the second half, when there were some signs the rustiness is disappearing. He will be much better next week.

I also agree about Parker - i wonder if they are just waiting for a few players to get back, in particular heeney, before they try to give parker some time off to get right.

[MattW]

[QUOTE=Nico;720055]

Parker is injured. He played with his knee bandaged and to me appeared restricted in his movement. Hanners also played up forward more than usual and he doesn't seem to be getting to contests as normal. People are bit harsh on Jack. He didn't play a pre season game and few players get their touch back overnight.

Yes, and despite that injury and having no movement at all, Parker willed himself to 16 possessions in the second half. Jack also tried really hard despite also being hampered. What ails Hannebery is less clear. His mind doesn't seem in it, like he's playing stressed.

[Hartijon]

Same as the GF. Same teams ,same players missing during the game, same umpiring, same total injustice to the Swans, Same result, same outcry.

[aguy]

I'm not overly disappointed with that game. To be honest I'm always disappointed when the Swans loose but I didn't enter that game with any expectations of even coming close to last years premiers with the super young and inexperienced team that we fielded.

We were much more competitive than last week and against port Adelaide playing like we did last night we would have beaten them. The first gamers all loooked really good and florent looked much better than last week. His goal assist was supers and that sort of inside 50 has been a big weakness of ours.

I also agree that Hannebery and Parker are both looking rusty but remember they both had injuries over the off season and same goes for jack. Aliir was very rusty at the beginning but slowly got better. Same story for him too coming back from injury.

All in all given some time for the senior guys to find match fitness and when we get some guys back from injury / illness with the addition of those new guys I think we are ok.

I would imagine that when heeney Rampe Rohan come back then Cunningham marsh etc will find it hard to keep their spots.

People are also talking up Cameron as the replacement for Tippett next week. It will be very interesting to see if horse selects Cameron ( same youth policy as this week) or whether he chooses a little more experience in Sinclair. My gut feeling is that Cameron would be the better choice as he will need to play the forward / ruck role which I think Cameron is better at instead of the main ruck which Sinclair is better at.

I've also got a feeling that the match committee viewed the bulldogs game as almost a lost cause so why not give the young guys a go to see how they hold up. Pretty well was the answer.

[baskin]

Can someone please explain the deliberate free kick to Mills? If he was so far out from the goals to warrant a deliberate free, why was Picken put on the boundary to take the kick. Based on where the umpire set the mark Mills must have been very close to the goal line.

[aguy]

Can someone please explain the deliberate free kick to Mills? If he was so far out from the goals to warrant a deliberate free, why was Picken put on the boundary to take the kick. Based on where the umpire set the mark Mills must have been very close to the goal line.

There is no explanation. I'm sure that we will be seeing that one on whistleblowers and them admitting they got it wrong. Too bad that it changed the game

[AB Swannie]

There are heaps of positives to come out of this game. From our first two draft picks, Hayward was terrific all night. Florent dropped off in the second half but has clear class. I reckon these are two 150 game players for the future.

Newman looked very composed for a debutant and showed great skill. I was also very impressed with Hewitt's first half. He is still a very young guy and could easily develop into Tom Mitchell's replacement long term. Lloyd was great all night.

As others have said, Allir was rusty early but looked the goods as the game progressed. I still think he will be elite by season's end.

When you also consider the impact of Tippett's injury and the changes to structure/interchange plus the questionable umpiring, we have every right to be optimistic after this game.



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[lwjoyner]

I'd back bulldogs for ps now with the free kick bonanza continuing on from last year. I thought It might be a different team this year to receive this benefit (like sts or dees) but no scrays again. Ump iring has been sh'' house since gees left and dare I say it since goldy retired. Why do the umpire pay it differently for our opposition for the same thing

[aardvark]

then a week off with general soreness could be the model. .

or they might end up with a month of Major Illness or if they don't behave a few days with Corporal Punishment.

[56-14]

or they might end up with a month of Major Illness or if they don't behave a few days with Corporal Punishment.

Like your post following on from General Soreness

[aguy]

Well I was wrong. AFL says mills was in the wrong !!!!

Patrick Keane on Twitter: "AFL has deemed delib. rushed free in Dogs/Swans as correct under stricter 2017 ruling, due to no physical pressure when ball put over line. https://t.co/Q04FKgmyxH"

[dimelb]

I went to the game expecting to lose but ready to cheer the boys on. I ended up hoarse and only mildly disappointed. The new boys were all good, even brilliant in patches. As others have said, Buddy was outstanding, as was Sam. The future is looking OK.

I am not surprised at people bagging Harry Cunningham, our whipping boy du jour, but I am surprised and disappointed that one or two of our more reasonable posters have joined in. He had a decent average game which included the odd tackle, is probably not in our top 22 by now, but was by no means disgraced. He had no chance in the world against The Bont, and neither would anyone else on our entire team. Watch the replay and you will see his eyes were on the ball almost all the way into his hands, exactly what you would want to see him doing. If you're going to criticise him for that you may as well bag Nick Smith (wrongly labelled as Jake Lloyd in The Age photo) for being outmarked by little Dahlhaus (and I suspect that's mislabelled too).

If Parks is carrying an injury, give him time to get over it - we will need him later more than now.

And while I was annoyed by some of the umpiring, I was livid after watching the replay. It was some of the worst I've seen.

[swansprincess]

Well I was wrong. AFL says mills was in the wrong !!!!

Patrick Keane on Twitter: "AFL has deemed delib. rushed free in Dogs/Swans as correct under stricter 2017 ruling, due to no physical pressure when ball put over line. https://t.co/Q04FKgmyxH"

This makes me mad.
Mills was initially under pressure because Picken was chasing him. Then Picken decided to stop chasing and throw his arms in the air, and I don't see how that is Mills' fault. He didn't know the chaser had stopped in the time it took him to punch the ball.

And the fact that Picken was close enough that if Mills had of picked it up, he would've been tackled (and pinged for holding the ball no doubt) shows that he was under pressure.

[Ludwig]

I like the way Longmire handled the umpiring decisions. From the website about his press conference:

Sydney has to address its players' failure to adapt to this season's stricter holding the ball interpretation, coach John Longmire says.


The Swans lost the free kick count 18-31 in their 23-point loss to the Western Bulldogs at Etihad Stadium on Friday night.


Longmire said the difference in the way both teams had coped with the prior opportunity rule had been glaring.


"I've just got to look at the way we coach them to be honest. The holding the ball decision was us and them," Longmire said.


"We must have missed something. We need to have a look at that, about what the prior opportunity (rule) is and how we're doing it versus our opposition.


"So we need to look into that, clearly, because it just felt at the time what we were doing around the contest compared with the opposition - they must be doing something a bit different we need to look at.


"We're clearly doing it the wrong way, so we need to sharpen up on that."

He was very clear about what he felt about the difference in umpiring, but cleverly framed it in a way by taking the fault of not coaching the rule properly.

As for the Mills decision, the AFL will now have to live with that interpretation. It was never going to be clear how strict the ruling would be until there was a borderline case. Now we know what immediate physical pressure means. The way the rule is written, it was a fair call under a strict interpretation since Mills could have tried to take possession of the ball and then tried to evade Picken.


The first part of this season is almost a write-off. I'd be happy if we can just win next week. Maybe if Heeney and Papley are back by round 5 we can give the Giants a run. We have a lot of senior players out of form, or at least down on form. Maybe they're carrying injuries. Who knows. As has been noted, it's not clear what the problem is with Hanners, after it was reported that he was having his best pre-season.

Hopefully Dawson and Rose will be ready for selection soon, as we may need more replacements the way things are going. Foote may get another go next week, hopefully to replace Cunningham. I would like to see O'Riordan given a chance as well, but it will probably take an elevation to replace AJ to do that. It's a shame that some of our better young players are rookie listed. I can't wait till that anachronism is gone.

On the Zak Jones hit on Cloke: I reviewed the video in slow motion. To me it doesn't look that Jones made high contact at all. All the force was to the body, but the force of the contact to Cloke's body pushes it backwards and Cloke's head moves forward and appears to be hit. It was just a hard body hit that could only be deemed as late. It was so close to the moment Cloke marking the ball that it barely deserved a 50 metre penalty, but I think he should get off completely.

[mcs]

This makes me mad.
Mills was initially under pressure because Picken was chasing him. Then Picken decided to stop chasing and throw his arms in the air, and I don't see how that is Mills' fault. He didn't know the chaser had stopped in the time it took him to punch the ball.

And the fact that Picken was close enough that if Mills had of picked it up, he would've been tackled (and pinged for holding the ball no doubt) shows that he was under pressure.

It is a retarded rule, full of interpretation. Easy to fix though - either get rid of it completely, or make all rushed behinds punishable by a ball up at the top of the goal square. Either way, no interpretation required and players will adapt to whatever rule is chosen.