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

[Agent 86]

That's assuming we win!

Rungs not rung.


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[Agent 86]

Bugger the game... Gary being ok is far nore important and wonderful news! As an aside, how on earth did Hawthorn beat West Coast?

Can't play away.


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[Wardy]

One of my biggest 'head scratchers' is......Brett Kirk! When he returned after the 2014 season, I thought "he's the man to get the 'Spirit of the Bloods' back on track".......and while we didn't drop off AND made last years GF, the 'spirit' now seems lost. We have talent....the fact that it's not coming to the fore atm has more to do with what's going on between the players ears than anything and this is where I thought Kirk's presence would shine. Apparently not. As a stand alone coach, his message may get through better and he may have a better game plan as well but as an assistant, I thought his 'mind influence' would be greater.........

This!!! All the carry on about Kirk and his inspiration blah blah blah ! Well where is his so called inspiration now?? I never fell for all the hippy hype when he played for us. Yep he was a player who put in, but just because you were a good player doesn't always mean you'll make a great coach. And our midfield is not performing. Was the "bloods culture" all a bit of a myth?? Who knows?? The fact is there is something wrong - & also Father Time is catching up with our senior players. Is JPK the right choice for captain?? Clearly it's effecting his game, he's lost his mojo. What's up with Luke Parker ? - he's lost his mojo as well. Should Dan Hannebery go back on the cans? Kieran's so far off the boil - is the family pressure building again or still? Tippett - his injuries are now a liability. Gary Rohan(who I adore) is also injury prone, he can't put his body through much more. Rampe, how such a stupid thing could happen to him tripping over the bollard chain out the front of the SCG, still angers me - and that one incident looks to have massively impacted our season - there are so many other unanswered questions. Is there some real discord there that we are not aware of ?(and the swans are excellent at keeping things like that quiet) But my real thoughts are that the team is just so spooked by two GF losses in 3 years - both of those seasons we were world beaters during the H & A and finals but come grand final day, they were like deers in the headlights and I don't think any of them have recovered from it yet.
We have been so spoilt with the constant success since 2005 that season 2017 just doesn't seem to make any sense.

[robamiee]

whats to say. it is what it is. its been a while for our club to be in this position.
reality is missing one finals campaign in 14-15 years is hard going and we as fans have been blessed for that reality albeit another flag or 2 would ahve been nice..

today though, we seemed to have no structure or confidence...Kirky as our forwrad coach doesnt make sense. he came from real defensive game plan in roosy and the go to freo with ross the king of defensive structure...our forwards got sucked up into our defense way too many times and when we did break we had no one to go to...time to get some recently retired players into our coaching staff up to speed of the the current game...

[Agent 86]

I've always felt some disappointment that our board didn't fight harder against the trade ban. We should have taken this to court rather than just cop it. Even if we lost, we'd send a sign to Melbourne establishment that we'd put up a fight - no matter what.


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[grarmy]

If that s really how you feel then I suggest you follow GWS instead.

Bit rough. The comments from Mug were reasonable given the pathetic performance yesterday.

[rb4x]

I am trying to find a reason for the pile of garbage we served up yesterday compared to the great game in Darwin the previous night. Our fitness and conditioning just does not seem to be right. The players look general slow and tired with a few exceptions like Heeney who has just had a decent rest. Perhaps the mantra of "we must work harder" is getting to them. I think we must work smarter not harder. Are they training too hard and are just tired when it comes to the game. In Darwin Towers was named as our best after a week off though I would disagree that he was our best but he did put in with a considerable amount of enthusiasm. I would seriously consider giving the players the week off at training just to freshen them up for the Brisbane game. Maybe just a light session of kicking the ball around to sharpen up the kicking skills but no heavy training.

Another point is that teams that make the finals are also penalised further by the bye before the finals. It gives teams who have no chance of making the finals to pack their stars in ice, send them off for surgery etc. and have an extra week to recover. Richmond, Port, Melbourne, Freo and Saints have probably benefited most from the bye and I think it is another small factor that has helped to even up the competition. Has not hurt GWS too much with their team of first round draft picks but the Hawks and Swans are really struggling and could not get a fit team on the park by the start of the JLT series.

[goods78]

This game will rock the club internally. Coming off a 90 point loss the week before, I think the selection committee had marked even our worst team down to win easily. That arrogance (I have never used that term before with the Swans) led to them to believe they could afford the luxury of schooling Allir in the reserves. Massive mistake which I would rate at 2-3 goals. Secondly, Tippet was injured on Thursday, yet Darcy Cameron was not seen as a logical replacement and played in Darwin? When we are struggling so much in the midfield, it seems ridiculous to not want to take first touch advantage in the ruck. Another result of the Tippet withdrawal is that Sam Reid again is forced to play all over the ground. He is a genuine marking CHF and were in desperate need of a target during that game. 2 goals from the Tippet replacement debacle. 4-5 goals as a result of the selection committee which I think would have given us a tight win. Don't get me wrong - we played terribly - but we were well behind the eight ball before the first bounce.


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[Jonesy94]

I watched a few minutes of few mixed games yesterday to see what is wrong and why we have fallen so far so quickly. Well its obvious to me the AFL has nullified in the way we play. Most of our core game plan is so redundant it explains why we are playing like a country football team.

One instance i noticed a lot has been how our players are now tackled with one arm pinged as soon as they get the ball, in the past kennedy attracted 3 players to try and tackle him while he always managed to release the ball to one of our players who would then with a chain of handballs move the ball quickly. That is not happening at all, players are not tackling Kennedy by the hips, they just ping one arm and he drops in the waiting hands of opposition players who just wait back.

This new method in tackling is happening across the league in a ploy to end stoppage based games.

We seriously look like an outdated team playing a different style from a different era. Horse and the club is stuck, we have players who were developed and trained to be tackle beasts, to grind down the opposition and squeeze up the ground where we then win the stoppage and go from there. Thats not allowed to occur no more as umpires allow throws and dropping the ball in tight AS LONG as the ball is moving out of congested packs. Kennedy and Parker have no adapt or are finding it hard and still trying to break tackles. Thats now holding the ball regardless if you had prior. You have to drop it the second you are touched.

I am so disappointed in the AFL for doing this, i rather watch a tight contest than the goal fest they want. Which makes me think this was a push by its commercial partners as well for more ad time.

If this is how the bastard AFL conduct business, well I am sorry Sydney I am going to do other things with my time than support this rubbish. I dont think theres one single code in the world that engages in rule manipulating each year thus to engineer the way the game is played.

[Jonesy94]

That arrogance (I have never used that term before with the Swans) led to them to believe they could afford the luxury of schooling Allir in the reserves. Massive mistake which I would rate at 2-3 goals. Secondly, Tippet was injured on Thursday, yet Darcy Cameron was not seen as a logical replacement and played in Darwin?


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People need to stop this obsession with Allir Allir. He is not our saviour and yesterday i dont think he would have made the difference. From all reports he has been avg in the reserves.

It will take one coach to shut him down and break his confidence. Remember when Clarkson almost destroyed Rampe when he first played against the hawk by isolating him down in the goal square? I dont want that with AA.

[Jimitron5000]

Fortunately I didn't see the game yesterday and only caught patches of it on the radio. Based on this and the other five weeks:
No Confidence - despite what they are doing at the moment they are all decent footballers. Missing targets 20m away and dropping chest marks is a confidence thing.

Leadership (on-field) - we have been fortunate enough to have a series of very good captains and extended leadership group over the past 20 years. As good as Kennedy is, I don't think he is a leader or an organiser. A couple of weeks back Callum Mills brought the team together and laid down the law. This should have been something Kennedy was doing but he didn't. Aside from that I haven't seen any leadership on the field all season. Someone, anyone, needs to step up.

Leadership (off-field) - Coaches need to have a good hard look at themselves and what they are doing. They need to acknowledge that it is not all the players fault! Whatever the message it is just not getting through. Our structures are appalling as well. Under 10 footy has a more coherent forward structure than us at the moment. And team selection, particularly ruckmen and the use of Sam Reid, to me makes no sense.

Missing players...we miss Mitchell. And I think at the moment we could do with a few McGlynn's who, if it wasn't going his way, he would at least make it difficult for the opposition. And perhaps Teddy was the great defensive organiser. Our defence has been a shambles, mind you it hasn't been helped by the midfield who aren't winning the ball or even making it difficult for the opposition.

All this leads to the players (and fans) not enjoying their footy. Much easier to be better at something you enjoy doing.
Whatever the coaches do in the next few weeks the players have to start enjoying themselves again.

- - - Updated - - -

And we could do with some tackling practice. The Myki barriers are more effective tacklers than us at the moment.

[stellation]

The team looked unfit, disinterested and seemed intimidated. They appeared disjointed- Carlton were targeting Mills all game (clearly they're that starved of team success that they take offence to not winning individual awards) and I can't recall seeing a veteran Swan really come in and put a stop to it.

I have no idea what the deal is. Did we try a different training regime? They look to have heavy legs far too early in games, the skills are woeful but even well directed kicks seem to almost always be going to someone who has an opponent right on their tail because they can't get decent separation.

[Jonesy94]

And players like Hanners who are always lively and critical of their own errors, even when it meant in the past something tiny, are not smiling nor are they chatty. After he kicked a goal yesterday he (hanners) seemed disinterested like we were either 100 points up or 100 points down. The senior players all seem introverted atm and their minds elsewhere.

Somethings up amongst the group of senior players who are usually tight, it happens they are all the core midfielders, which is where our root problems are coming from.

[crackedactor]

yes no support from senior players when Mills was set upon, displays they are playing with no pride and are disinterested. Take the last quarter when a Carlton player kicked is across the face of goal, first there was Grundy with Reid not far behind AND one Carlton player. Grundy fumbles as usual, Carlton player grabs the ball, Reid tries to stop him, and a Carlton player runs 60-70 meters to be in the contest and gets a handball for a goal. Where was our extra guy prepared to dash downfield to be in the contest! it is starting to remind me of the 1993 side.

[annew]

Bit rough. The comments from Mug were reasonable given the pathetic performance yesterday.

Sorry I disagree. After only:

1. missing finals one year in about 14
2. playing in 3 GFs in 5 years
3. our players not getting the breaks of clubs continuously in the bottom 8 as well as not having the ability to have our players go for their ops etc mid year
4. the bye at the end of round 23 effectively giving non finals teams that extra week on finals teams
5. our injuries therefore playing a lot of inexperienced players
6. not being able to participate in the trade period for 2 years

then I think the fall is expected. I think the swans will come back from this in the next few years but hey we have played a lot of inexperienced players and it makes it hard to win plus puts extra pressure on the players that have performed year in year out, finals year in year out. Most of the games this year we should have been blown out of the park on the scoreboard but we haven't been. I think they are trying as hard as they can with the cattle on the ground. Collingwood, Carlton, Brisbane, Freo etc are not much better and they have not played the finals the swans players have.