Match Day Rnd. 6. Carlton V Sydney. MCG 14.10 pm.

[liz]

How can Longmire say there is not much in the neafl? Aliir Aliir and Cameron should be certains and O'Riordan a 50:50 chance.


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O'Riordan is a zero chance unless someone else in the squad picks up a long-term injury in the next week (or you want to drop Melican and return him to the rookie list).

[DA_Swan]

I think what he said there was quite reasonable and true. It is unacceptable..... I just hope Horse turns the mirror on himself and his coaches, not just the players.......

Must be hard as a coach to ask players why they drop marks , miss tackles , fall over , miss targets and get penalised for the same things week after week - when the players fix up their mistakes he will be a good coach again

[Bexl]

I agree entirely. The players seem defeated already, as if there's no point to be busting their gut for their efforts to be spat on at finals time by a league that seems to sanction prejudicial cheating and biased favouritism......and delivering 'fairytales' and 'great stories'. We were once the 'great story', now we're just the enemy........

it's not a sport. It's entertainment to be marketed.

[stevoswan]

Must be hard as a coach to ask players why they drop marks , miss tackles , fall over , miss targets and get penalised for the same things week after week - when the players fix up their mistakes he will be a good coach again

I see your point and your right, I was just talking more in terms of 'effective game plan'........ours seems predictable, easily countered and passed it's use by date.

[Markwebbos]

I see your point and your right, I was just talking more in terms of 'effective game plan'........ours seems predictable, easily countered and passed it's use by date.

+1

[annew]

The umpires did the right thing. They aren't supposed to stop play until the next break in play. The only time they can stop it prior is if the play goes into the vicinity of the injured player. The guy driving the stretcher did the wrong thing by driving onto the ground too early.

Maybe but surely at some point if it appears to be a serious injury they can err on the side of caution and safety after all they make numerous other errors and soft calls. Common sense must come into play when a player is knocked out, it disrupts the play anyway.

[DA_Swan]

I see your point and your right, I was just talking more in terms of 'effective game plan'........ours seems predictable, easily countered and passed it's use by date.

Our game plan is not easily countered when we play well - is it predictable - sure - AFL is a simple game - but our best used to be better than other teams best - beat the swans and you were a good team - our midfield at its best last year dominated midfields - this year i have never seen Parker and Kennedy beaten as much - Cripps made Kennedy look very ordinary at times today which is not food from your skipper - we are clearly missing the inside mid to step up when the others are down that TM provided which it turns out was luxury that we could no longer afford given the big long prioritised contracts paid out last year to LP DH and JK - Mills who are all of the boil bigtime - Jones and Reid who have been amongst our best is hardly surprising given their contract status - you get more fight out of hungry players !!

Our game style reflects the abilities of our players and i would be interested to know how people think we should play for the remainder of the year based on the players we have

[Mug Punter]

Been following the Swans since their first game in Sydney.

Have never seem such a weak, pathetic, gutless performance from us in that time.

Words cannot express the pure anger I feel towards that bunch of highly paid and pampered little boys that were out there today, an absolute disgrace to the shirt.

Here is a tip "Parks", "Hanners" et al. I don't want to hear from you this week. DO NOT DARE utter the words "unswanslike", I do not want to see our Dalia Lama aka Brett Kirk front the press. NOTHING you say can absolve you from that pile of toilet you served up today.

As for the coaching staff, Horse you inherited the best list in the land from Roos and it is time you earned your corn along with your anonymously huge team of invisible and faceless men who form your coaching staff. I expect nothing less than utter and complete ruthlessness the next 16 weeks. Weed out the weak and the old and give us some hope.

Some emotional comments

* Lloyd is soft, pick 24-28 in a flag team
* Newman was utterly and totally shown up today against the worst team in the land as VFL standard at best and I find his worship here deluded
* Grundy is gone, as is Laidler
* Reid, trade him or get a first round pick
* Lloyd needs a heart bigger than a pea
* Parker and Hanners, if they are not fit then get them operated on and don't pick them
* BJ never to play seniors again, absolutely useless

I expect Florent, Maubain, Cameron, O'Riordan (as he has a bit of C@@@ in him), Aliir, Melican and Hayward to play every single game from here on in.

The others should be on notice. Pay em out, ship em out, I do not care but by the end of this season the chaff must be cut.

We are in serious rebuild mode here and I just do know if this mob has the stomach for it.....

[Meg]

As Liz has already said, O'Riordan is a rookie.

[Nico]

Went to the game and reckon it was the most disappointing game in many ways for a couple of decades. The difference between this team and 1993, is this team is fitter. The skills are just as bad. Did someone say 1993 was a rebuilding year. More like a going out the back door year.

On today you might as well put a line through the careers of Rose and B Jack. Although Jack, as I understand, had been playing on the ball in the 2's. Don't see the sense of bringing him in to play as a small forward. You could argue that Rose was a victim of the appalling delivery into the forward line but when he had his chances he was ordinary.

What got me today was the fumbling and dropping of simple chest marks. That is when on the odd occasion a pass actually landed on a chest. Someone said we can hit a chest from 15 metres. My point is why are we only kicking to a lead that short. Other sides are leading in space at 30-40 metres. One of the biggest culprits at these garbage chip kicks is Lloyd. He had 32 possessions and hardly had an effective one. It is all very getting the one,two, three handpasses in a play, but it snother thing to do something with it. He either kicks a floater 40 metres long and high of a garbage worm burner that a leading player is expected to pick it up on his toes. Correct me if I am wrong, but I reckon his was the hospital kick to Rohan.

Lloyd is only a handball receive player. One on one he gets done almost every time. In most games he plays as the full back sweeper/handball receive option. I have no problem with this, but he is such a waster of the footy, and for a player who gets as many stats as him he should be a play maker. He is like Cunningham; plays bruise free non contact footy. Stats today were "imposing"; 19 kicks, 13 handballs, 7 marks and 0 tackles. There was a play in the last quarter at a centre bounce. He is on the wing and the ball comes out his side. He had to go for it and he did, you could see him whince as he was about have contact. He didn't want to be there.

Contrast Heeney and Mills who put there bodies on the line and tried to create play. Some of Heeney's plays were inspiring for us supporters, but not, as it seems, for the team.

Parker has copped a bit of flak but I reckon he looked to work his way back into a bit of form in the last quarter. He worked much harder than he has all year. Hanners looks a shadow of himself and very slow.

Tom Papley is a lively player but he should be a dynamic one. It don't know if he is getting ahead of himself or believes his own publicity, but he makes some shocking decisions. We are playing better in the third quarter and gets into space and takes a nice mark on the run. But almost from the time he stopped he looked as if he wanted to stuff it up, and he did. What a dumb decision to try a chip pass which was spilled, but would probably have been called play on anyway for being less than 15 metres. He kicks that goal and we are on a mini roll. And he missed that one from very close in from a set shot. Get these brain fades out of his game and he could be anything.

While on dumb actions; what about Jones getting the free reversed. Dead set ding, dong. Undoes all his good work with a stupid action.

Harangue me if you must, but George Hewett still doesn't inspire me. He looks like he works hard and tries hard but does nothing with the footy. He scrambles most of his kicks, and those that he doesn't are just up and unders to nowhere. As a forward he rarely leads to space.

As others have said, what do they do in off season regards kicking skills. If these players I have mentioned improved their kicking and disposal selection (even just when clear) we would be a far better side. And they are not the only ones. To me it is obvious other clubs have worked very hard on improving in these areas.

Buddy dropped a couple of chest marks but he had to reach for them rather than have them land nicely on the chest.

As an overall observation; we don't have the cattle.

[Velour&Ruffles]

BJ, Cunningham and Rose will never be AFL standard. Melican might, but he is slow.

I don't know what game you were watching. One of the (very) few positives I took out of today was how quick Melican is for a big guy. A couple of his chases were fantastic. He can really move.

[Nico]

I don't know what game you were watching. One of the (very) few positives I took out of today was how quick Melican is for a big guy. A couple of his chases were fantastic. He can really move.

Agreed, he looks cool and composed under pressure. A real plus from today.

[Steve]

Maybe it's a difference in press conference style but after the defeat by the Saints Clarko said:

"Whether that's injection of younger players, change of game style, whatever it is, we need to try to find different ways to go about it. We just can't continue to accept mediocre performances like we got today."

The difference is so stark.

I understand the argument that "Longmire would addressing the issues more thoroughly behind closed doors" than he might be acknowledging publicly.

But the thing about saying it publicly is that you're making yourself accountable to actually follow through. Not just to supporters, but the media as well.

It's no good constantly making public comments that are blaming the players. Even if they aren't delivering, you have to look yourself in the mirror and ask why - and question the recruitment, retention and development and management of the players if they are indeed not getting the job done.

Even if it's disingenuous, it's a much better message to broadcast publicly that you're questioning everything, are willing to make any changes necessary etc.

Or in other words, what the other (4-time premiership) coach did today.

[Velour&Ruffles]

He had to go for it and he did, you could see him whince as he was about have contact. He didn't want to be there.

Thank you Stewie Griffin.

[Ludwig]

Our game plan is not easily countered when we play well - is it predictable

If our game plan is so predictable, then why can't anyone explain what it is. I thought our game plan was the style we played against against Adelaide and Geelong in the 2 games leading up to the GF. It seemed to work okay them. We just can't execute now.

Been following the Swans since their first game in Sydney.

Have never seem such a weak, pathetic, gutless performance from us in that time.

Words cannot express the pure anger I feel towards that bunch of highly paid and pampered little boys that were out there today, an absolute disgrace to the shirt.

Here is a tip "Parks", "Hanners" et al. I don't want to hear from you this week. DO NOT DARE utter the words "unswanslike", I do not want to see our Dalia Lama aka Brett Kirk front the press. NOTHING you say can absolve you from that pile of toilet you served up today.

As for the coaching staff, Horse you inherited the best list in the land from Roos and it is time you earned your corn along with your anonymously huge team of invisible and faceless men who form your coaching staff. I expect nothing less than utter and complete ruthlessness the next 16 weeks. Weed out the weak and the old and give us some hope.

Some emotional comments

* Lloyd is soft, pick 24-28 in a flag team
* Newman was utterly and totally shown up today against the worst team in the land as VFL standard at best and I find his worship here deluded
* Grundy is gone, as is Laidler
* Reid, trade him or get a first round pick
* Lloyd needs a heart bigger than a pea
* Parker and Hanners, if they are not fit then get them operated on and don't pick them
* BJ never to play seniors again, absolutely useless

I expect Florent, Maubain, Cameron, O'Riordan (as he has a bit of C@@@ in him), Aliir, Melican and Hayward to play every single game from here on in.

The others should be on notice. Pay em out, ship em out, I do not care but by the end of this season the chaff must be cut.

We are in serious rebuild mode here and I just do know if this mob has the stomach for it.....

You seem a little upset, Mug. Turn off the footy for a week and see what The Donald is up to. Maybe he'll get us into a nuclear war soon and they'll have to call off the footy season. That might cheer you up.

Just in case we're all still here in October, I think Lloyd just might be our best player this year, so I can't imagine how the others are going.