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

[liz]

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.



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Welcome to RWO AB Swannie. You've said almost exactly what I was going to write. Very impressed with Hayward, though the size of his body suggests he'll struggle to impact consistently at senior level this year.

While I am optimistic about where the list is heading, I think we may still take some time to get going (in terms of wins) this season. The players we are waiting to return, hoping they will add some experience, include a second year small forward who's had almost no pre-season, a third year wunderkid who we all know will eventually become a great player but whose stamina levels will probably be affected by his illness, and a talented but inconsistent ginger who struggles to keep his body in one piece. Rampe, sure, is dependable but he's going to be out for at least the next five weeks.

Last year the team reached the grand final despite so many young and inexperienced players because the senior core played great footy all year. It won't matter how the younger and fringe players are shuffled through the team unless the experienced midfield can find it's mojo.

Hopefully the team will get into their stride before the season too far gone. What the Dogs showed us last year is that the bye gives opportunities to teams outside the top four to refresh and make a tilt at the premiership if they can play their best footy in September (and October).

[frankee]

I hate that the umpiring decisions have taken the spotlight instead of Sam reids 6 goal game.

[Goal Sneak]

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.

I think it's because he punched the ball through the behind posts instead of the goals?

[AB Swannie]

Welcome to RWO AB Swannie. You've said almost exactly what I was going to write. Very impressed with Hayward, though the size of his body suggests he'll struggle to impact consistently at senior level this year.

While I am optimistic about where the list is heading, I think we may still take some time to get going (in terms of wins) this season. The players we are waiting to return, hoping they will add some experience, include a second year small forward who's had almost no pre-season, a third year wunderkid who we all know will eventually become a great player but whose stamina levels will probably be affected by his illness, and a talented but inconsistent ginger who struggles to keep his body in one piece. Rampe, sure, is dependable but he's going to be out for at least the next five weeks.

Last year the team reached the grand final despite so many young and inexperienced players because the senior core played great footy all year. It won't matter how the younger and fringe players are shuffled through the team unless the experienced midfield can find it's mojo.

Hopefully the team will get into their stride before the season too far gone. What the Dogs showed us last year is that the bye gives opportunities to teams outside the top four to refresh and make a tilt at the premiership if they can play their best footy in September (and October).

Agreed Liz. I think Rampe is a huge loss and we will struggle to contain players like Stringer without him for the next 5 weeks. Rampe would've locked him down last night. Heeney is also huge as he probably helps free up Hanners, Parker, and Kennedy. I don't see Rohan and Papley as important as our forward pressure last night was pretty good.


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[Meg]

I think it's because he punched the ball through the behind posts instead of the goals?

No, it's because the ump judged Mills was not under immediate pressure. That determination applies at all times including in the goal square. It was probably right. Picken(?) was clever in that he anticipated what Mills would do and slowed up throwing his arms in air to show he wasn't about to tackle. Mills didn't know that though.

[swansprincess]

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.

You've hit the nail on the head right there.

[aardvark]

The point is that no one in their right mind wants what Mills did to be a free kick. They've taken it too far.

[wolftone57]

1. The umpiring again impacted the contest and this should never happen. There seems to be one rule for the opposition and one for us. I know Gillon McLachlan hates Sydney and his brainchild, GWS, are now the Sydney favourites of the AFL. Horse alluded to the umpiring in a sarcastic call for our players to play to the new interpretation of the holding the ball rule. He said they must be doing something right and us something wrong. Dogs get away with more scragging, blocking and interfering in the contest than any other side. But they also get frees that they should not get. Interesting.

2. Reid could have kicked 10 last night if Tip had not done his ankle. Maybe we should put Tip on the Disability Pension he is injured so often. The forward line worked very well last night and the young kids were super. Bud had a frustrating night in the forward line simply because he was blocked/shepherded every time he approached the contest. So he decided to run from the wing to get his goals.

3. It was good to see Aliir out there and I think if he wasn't there we would have been killed by their talls. I thought the two frees against him were dross, absolute crap from paid off umpires. The AFL is sponsored by a Bookie corporation and you can't tell me this is not impacting the way the umpires adjudicate. Other than Aliir I think the backline wasn't too bad but still down on 2016 form. too many opposition players able to get free and giving them far too much room on the lead.

4. Harry Cunningham's effort in the defensive goal square epitomises his effort over the night. Poor. He didn't seem to impact the contest and didn't seem to put in enough effort. The mark by Bontempelli should not have happened and would not have had Harry attacked the ball rather than waiting.

5. Florent's run down of Johanison shows just how fast he is but more importantly his goal from the free was sensational and highlights the talent this kid has. But on the night the pick of the newbies I thought was Hayward and running a close second was Newman. they were both super. We can't blame the young kids for our loss but there are a few senior players who really need to have a good look at themselves. Cunningham being the worst player on the field last night through lack of effort. Parker & Hannas might have played themselves into the game in the second half but they were extremely poor in the first half. Parker 6 disposals to half time Hannas 9. Some of their first half efforts were indeed poor. Mills was terrible no matter where he played last night following on from his shocker against Port.

6. Horse adapted well to not having two rucks. Reid thank goodness didn't spend too much time there but unfortunately that meant Naismith had to do more and he tired toward the end.

Next week will be interesting. I wish the reserves game was being streamed but it isn't and I don't have the funds to go. So I will look to the Twitter feed and Ugg's Reserves feed here as someone will be there. Looking forward to seeing how Dawson, Cameron and the other young lads go. Leonardis needs to do something soon or he might be de-listed at the end of the year.

[Meg]

I agree that rules that require subjective judgement by the umpire are controversial. Both the deliberate out-of-bounds and the rushed through rule are being interpreted by umpires as 'player must be seen to make effort to keep the ball in play'.

[CureTheSane]

I don't believe that the umpires go out and target us to persecute.

Realistically this cannot be true, no matter how it seems.

So this leaves two options
1. Other teams have been trained well how to put themselves in positions to draw frees
2. The Swans have been very lacking in addressing this issue.

It seems this has been an issue for the Swans for years, so why has nothing changed?

I noticed last night a bulldogs player collected the ball in the forward pocket and knew a tackle was imminent.
He had the ball in one arm, and raised it up to around his shoulder, waiting for the Swans to tackled for the ball (high) and give away the free.
Smart, and it nearly worked.
An obvious technique, and I wonder how many less obvious ones there are?

[CureTheSane]

My take on the game last night is that Parker is well down. I would rate him as poor (compared to what is should be doing as a minimum)
I thought Allir was better than most have rated him.

Many of the same issues as last week.
Bulldogs were able to regularly find targets in free space and create a line of passage.
Swans ALWAYS seemed to pass to a played who was just about to be grabbed.
The Swans just don't seem to have the time to spot the correct played to pass off to, particularly in the midfield.

[gossipcom]

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

With all due respect you know nothing about the game. He'd left the ground and couldn't pullout. End of story. On top of that; unintentional, low impact, blah,blah.

Woah okay I'll just go into the cave I've been living in.

As much as I would love him to get off (since as everyone said it was low impact etc) I wouldn't be surprised if he misses a week that's what I was referring to with the carryover points. Because we've seen incidents in the past like these that have resulted in a week if there were points there.

Before I go [emoji106] to those who have debuted this season plus Reid, Buddy and Lloyd last night.

But yeah back to lurking I go.

[annew]

I think the newbies, Reid and Buddy were great. I think that considering Tippo went off early and 10 players had played under 30 games we put up a great fight. Because of the bye after last round it is no longer that great a benefit finishing top 4 so anything s still possible this year. We are still better than 0-2 and can turn it around.

[dejavoodoo44]

Thought it would be interesting to show a couple of screen shots of two of the more contentious decisions last night. Excuse the blurry nature, but hey, that probably helps to emphasise the point, in relation to the momentum changing 50 against Zak Jones.
In the first one, that blurry yellow thing next to Cloke's chin is the ball. He is yet to take the mark. As you can see, Jones is already in the air and with his chin level with Cloke's shoulder. The angle of Cloke's body also suggests that he is moving towards Jones. I lack the physics skills to work out how much time Jones had to pull out of the contest, but if he attempted to say to himself, "Phark! Mark, pull out", I doubt if would have got past the 'ph'.
Capture.PNG

[goods78]

One aspect regarding the umpiring that has been overlooked is the impact of the swans having the exact same umpires as round one. You could imagine the umpires review last week going over some of decisions that were missed or poorly officiated. It's fair to assume that some round 2 contests would be judged with this review very fresh in the umpires minds. Don't get me wrong, there were many obvious officiating mistakes. I would bet that in other instances, the team umpired by the same group two weeks in a row would be on the wrong side of the free kick ledger.


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