Match Day Rnd. 3 Sydney V Collingwood. 7.50pm SCG

[Beerman]

I agree that aliir looked like that last night. My observation about him is that his first instinct is to feign a side step or handball and then straighten up and run. This has been particularly effective because most defenders when under pressure look to handball backwards to someone under less pressure.

My fear is that teams will work out aliir very quickly and he Will end up being tackled because the opposition stop falling for his tactics.

Time will tell. He does look elctrifying when he plays on

I love watching Aliir play. Not since LRT's early days have I seen a player who looks so much like they have no idea what's going on out there. His moves are really obviously telegraphed and he just carries himself like someone who is not an AFL player. The thing is, by the time you work out he knows exactly what he's doing, he's about 2 metres past his opponent.

I certainly wouldn't play cards against him for money.

[goswannies]

I love watching Aliir play. Not since LRT's early days have I seen a player who looks so much like they have no idea what's going on out there. His moves are really obviously telegraphed and he just carries himself like someone who is not an AFL player. The thing is, by the time you work out he knows exactly what he's doing, he's about 2 metres past his opponent.

I certainly wouldn't play cards against him for money.

Interesting observation, as I would respectfully disagree. When I see him, he often seems to either take strong defensive marks, or gets the ball in congested situations. In the latter circumstances, my perception is that appears to to have an extra half second or so to dispose of the ball by hand or foot - or fleet footedly extractes himself from the congestion for a quick run (almost loping like a giraffe - ie deceptively fast & difficult to catch, albeit with more more nimble footwork) but whatever he does, to me, seems more instinctive and slightly impulsive. Just my thoughts

[Wazza]

That was an interesting game what a difference in foot skills and pace lucky, Collingwood just didnt have the class in the fwd 50. Throw in a good key Forward and Collingwood would look very good. Our hustle style game i.e. push the ball fwd, contest the ball drop in fwd 50 will work on the SCG at times but it will fall apart on the larger grounds.

We have a few to come back in but Im worried about the back six, apart from Allir a real lack of speed and size. Jones is a warrior but he is not the smartest footballer out there, not a good decision maker, Mills tends to just throw it on the boot when under pressure, Lloyd good on the outside not a good one on one, Smith has lost a yard, Marsh and Newman both just need games and will be good but no real pace. Heath is a warrior but finds himself under pressure playing with what is essentially a reserve grade back-line. You can just imagine the opposition match committee's planning how to pull our defense apart. The sky hasn't fallen in yet we should make the 8 and see what happens from there.

Cheers

Waz

[stellation]

* Lloyd twice that I saw pulled back from putting his body on the line, a very very bad look

I hate to harp on something like this, but I did notice that a few times in the defensive 50- I feel like he took he dropped a couple of chest marks where he had to sit under it a little, and backed out of a chance to really get in front of a leading Pie (who marked and goaled). He's a very handy young player, but I'm not sure I'm sold on him as the guy to be flooding into the backline.

[CureTheSane]

Re the Jones play on call.
I assumed that there was no play on call.
Certainly watching live I heard no call to play on, which is kind of mandatory if you are calling a player to play on...

[1PR]

Its disappointing that in a time where so many injuries are present that Towers Cunningham and B.Jack are performing so poorly that they are not being selected. Those guys have all been in the Swans system for 4-5 years now. Due to their poor form the Swans have been forced to select two 18 year olds (Florent and Haywood) and a 19 year old (Dawson) to perform the roving, pressure forward roles. There may be a benefit to playing these young guys but Towers, Cunnigham and B.Jack should be doing these roles right now.

When the game was on the line we had to rely on Dawson a debutant to try and win the game twice:

- The kick from AA that was cut of by Varcoe
- The late snap on goal

Towers, Cunnigham and B.Jack have the bigger bodies and preseasons and that could have been vital late in the game.

Instead we are formed to use Florent and Haywood who have both performed well but don't have those developed AFL bodies as yet.

[Ludwig]

I agree that it's a shame that Towers, Cunningham and BJ can't be filling in for our injured players. At this point it just doesn't seem worth the effort to put time into these players who have shown that they cannot perform at a high enough standard at AFL level. We have some decent rookie players at the same time we have list cloggers like these 3 and Sinclair on the senior list. We are going to struggle without a near full list to choose from.

[Nico]

On umpiring - I watched a fair bit of the Melbourne and Geelong game and if you reckon the Dogs throw the footy then have a look at Melbourne; they are amazing and get away with it. And the protected zone rule; what protected zone rule. It is just out the window.

[Markwebbos]

Interesting that the Bulldogs had an appalling 1st Q and lost to Freo!!! You wonder how much both sides put into the game last week?

[annew]

Interesting that the Bulldogs had an appalling 1st Q and lost to Freo!!! You wonder how much both sides put into the game last week?

I wonder if the fact the umpiring had a different interpretation for holding the ball and the smaller free kick count may have had something to do with it.

[Hotpotato]

One of the commentators called the Bulldogs efforts 'their Hollywood handballs '

All the noise is working .

[Markwebbos]

I wonder if the fact the umpiring had a different interpretation for holding the ball and the smaller free kick count may have had something to do with it.

Seriously can everything not be reduced to the umpiring? I can't imagine how Freo would beat the Dogs unless the latter are under par

[Doctor]

I really don't see it in Foote - I want to see him succeed, but for every good thing he does, he does something utterly retarded to go with it.

Sinclair's effort is always there, but his hands let him down time and time and time and time again.

Dawson wasn't helped by the nature of the game. We played large parts of it without structure up forward, especially early. He spent a lot of time deep in defence early - something he is not accustomed to doing.

Any chance posters here can stop using the word "retarded"? That's twice so far on this thread. It's offensive and inappropriate.

[CureTheSane]

Any chance posters here can stop using the word "retarded"? That's twice so far on this thread. It's offensive and inappropriate.

I'm with you there.
Swearing is one thing but using a word to describe a disabled person in a demeaning way is out of line.
I never cared much for the swear filter, given societies seeming propensity for the use of such words in every day life, however I've always accepted that the rules here are as they are.
Which is why I was pretty amazed to see the phrase "suck a d*ck" used repeatedly in another thread.
Here I am complaining about under moderation, which is a turn for the books....
Either allow it all, or remove it all....

[Sandrevan]

I wasn't as upset about this game as I was last week. I was fairly unimpressed with Horses comments in the post match presser. 'We won the last 3 quarters of the game by 20 points but lost the first quarter by 21'. Yes, we were poor in the first quarter but worked our way into it. I thought Hannebery lifted in the second quarter and brought us back into the game. Both teams kicked poorly though - Collingwood poor goal kicking kept us in the game. Yes, I know Fasolo, Greenwood and Hoskin-Elliott kicked well.
A couple of brain fades cost us the game just as we were getting on top. Reid's handball to Buddy was awfull and Jones stepping over the mark was poor. Jones took the mark, made his slow down signal, then took 2 steps forward. The umpire called play on. It looked like Jones was a bit disoriented. Otherwise I thought Jones played very well.
George Hewett seemed to go missing - I know he's only second year but....
Like many have said Sinclair was pretty ordinary - he needs to learn how to catch a ball.
Watching the Freo v Bulldogs game tonight - the ball was bouncing around like it was in a pin ball machine. If the AFL wants a more open game style then we need to adapt otherwise it's going to be a very long season