Changes for Round 6 - CARLTON

[The Big Cat]

Charlie Curnow is a star in the making; saw him against Port, lots of overhead marks and a big body making things happen.

We should recruit him or someone like him ASAP, Reid just does not compare to him.

Yep. He has a long way to go before he's Sammy's standard. By his age Sam was a premiership CHF

[wolftone57]

If you look through our team list you can see that just about the entire team is either recovering from an injury last year, has had an injury this year or is presently injured and that is only the injuries that we know about. The Swans are very coy about releasing their full injury list, possibly because they do not want other teams to know our weakness and target it. Back in 2005 we had Dave Misson responsible for our fitness and conditioning and we had a team that sustained very few injuries. He unfortunately moved to Melbourne and since then our injury toll has risen and this year quite dramatically so. In my experience players who are not fully 100% fit tend to get injured more often and more seriously. I question whether our fitness and conditioning program is of the standard required to minimise injuries. The only two outs that I would not consider fitness contributing to are Heeney and Rampe. Even a fitter Rampe might have been able to jump that little chain.

So do I. The new fitness people are from NRL and the level of fitness is nowhere near what is needed in an AFL game. I'd hire a dance instructor before an NRL, RU or Soccer Fitness coach. at least you know a dance instructor will keep the side fit and nimble.

- - - Updated - - -

The umpires are David Harris, Robert Findlay and Shane McInerney.

I don't think we'll get any favours from McInerney. What about the other 2?

There's likely to be more Carlton fans than Swans fans - so we need to make sure we yell very loudly.

Findlay & McInerney, didn't they both umpire the GF? Don't like either of these mongrels. I wouldn't be surprised if they are taking backhanders.

[liz]

So do I. The new fitness people are from NRL and the level of fitness is nowhere near what is needed in an AFL game. I'd hire a dance instructor before an NRL, RU or Soccer Fitness coach. at least you know a dance instructor will keep the side fit and nimble.

Which "new fitness people" are you referring to. The Swans' website indicates that Rob Spurs still heads up the high performance team and he's been there for longer than I care to remember.

When a certain (now) high profile fitness head at another AFL club returned overseas from the UK (where he'd headed up the fitness team at an EPL club), I teasingly asked his brother (with whom I used to work) why he (ie the brother) hadn't joined the Swans instead (and this fitness coach started out at the Swans) and was told that the Swans already had one of the best in the business (in Spurs) and thus there was no opportunity for him at Moore Park.

[bloodspirit]

In seasons gone by I have heard players talk glowingly about Swans fitness staff. Also, was it Talia or Sinclair who, during last year's pre-season noted that the fitness levels were higher here than at their former club and the training harder? Plus, notwithstanding this year and the past couple of finals' campaigns, I think we've done pretty well on the injury front. Wasn't there one year in recent history where we played the fewest players over the course of the year or had the most unchanged teams?

[Ludwig]

I'd hire a dance instructor before an NRL, RU or Soccer Fitness coach. at least you know a dance instructor will keep the side fit and nimble.

Did you have something like this in mind?

[Hotpotato]

The amount of Brandon Jack hate is extremely puzzling

He's had minimal opportunities, and didn't even play a game last year. It seems to be the longer he hasn't played the worse he is.

In 2015 in particular he was actually pretty good playing predominately forward, and that was when he was usually subbed on or off during a game.

I don't believe his disposal is as bad as everyone is making out, and if he can use his pace effectively its a weapon we are sorely missing.

I'm hoping there'll be a few on here eating humble pie in the coming weeks

+1

I'm baffled too why BJ's disposal is under far more scrutiny and criticism than players whose names are inked in week in week out and who keep committing clangers on a regular basis .

What happened to the mantra: we don't care if you make some some errors as long as you go out, enjoy yourselves and have a crack.

The Swans don't seem to be enjoying the playing time much at all .
The Dogs and the Tigers do .
Is this a coaching thing ?

[jono2707]

So do I. The new fitness people are from NRL and the level of fitness is nowhere near what is needed in an AFL game. I'd hire a dance instructor before an NRL, RU or Soccer Fitness coach. at least you know a dance instructor will keep the side fit and nimble.

I hear the club is hiring a hurdles coach for Rampe......

[liz]

+1

I'm baffled too why BJ's disposal is under far more scrutiny and criticism than players whose names are inked in week in week out and who keep committing clangers on a regular basis .

What happened to the mantra: we don't care if you make some some errors as long as you go out, enjoy yourselves and have a crack.

The Swans don't seem to be enjoying the playing time much at all .
The Dogs and the Tigers do .
Is this a coaching thing ?

All the players in the senior team are capable of good kicks, regardless of their propensity for the odd (and awful) clanger. I can't recall the last time I saw Jack (at NEAFL level) execute what I would describe as a great kick, or even a good one. He tends to just bang it on his boot without ever even looking, even when in space and with little pressure.

As for teams enjoying themselves, I didn't see any lack of enjoyment last year, when they were winning. I suggest any team for which things are going well, for which confidence is high, and which is winning, will find footy enjoyable. And when a team finds itself in a hole, when confidence wanes, when even the good players are struggling a bit (maybe especially then), footy won't seem nearly as much fun.

[caj23]

His disposal couldn't possibly be any worse than Nick Smith's!

[liz]

His disposal couldn't possibly be any worse than Nick Smith's!

Wait and see...

(I actually think Smith started off his AFL career as a decently reliable kick. He's never been that penetrating a kick, but he was a good decision maker and generally kicked within his ability. In 2014-5 I believe there was a relatively sudden drop-off in his kicking ability, penetration and accuracy wise. It was such a deterioration that I suspected he might have a persistent injury - like a groin injury - that was affecting his kicking. My suspicion was confirmed - internally, still just a guess - when his kicking improved markedly in 2016. Indeed, I think both he and Grundy kicked much better last year than the previous couple of seasons. I agree that, in 2017, at least so far, his (Smith's) kicking has been pretty ordinary. Who knows whether this just reflects the added pressure that the defence has been under, or whether there is something more.)

[Nico]

Did you have something like this in mind?

The Chiang Rai midfield.