Longmire.

[Nico]

I would not get too excited about the increase in salary cap over and above expectations. If next year rookies are included on the main list and the rookie list is abolished then I would expect them to be also accommodated under the new salary cap. Which club has a very long list of rookies, eight in all. Hint they wear red and white. That might be about a million gone already. For other clubs not so much. GWS for example has two at present. The VFL will find a way don't worry.

No doubt they have already worn out a number of HB's already trying to work it out.

[Nico]

Some interesting stats on footy classified about Sydney.

Basically, teams have employed the chip-it-around, keepings-off-style against us and won. This is shown up in losses against Hawthorn, Collingwood where their uncontested marks/possessions is way higher than Sydney's. This points to Longmire not being able to combat that mode of play. Too stubborn to.

The other was ranking Reid, Tippett and Sinclair against their peers on average stats. All were average to poor. This shows to me that Buddy is basically holding up the forward line, and its time to think about reducing our big man count by 1 at least.

The chipping around is not new to us. Teams have been doing it for a few years. We drop extras back to chop off the final kick into the forward 50. In past years we have worn them down and gone on to win games. Many times games have been close at half time, and we have ripped them apart after the break. Not too many sides can keep up the chipping all game. I would suggest our poor disposal and ball handling had as much to do with our loss than anything else last week. This year we have had many injuries so our ability to combat this has been blunted somewhat. We were one down right from the start last week and 2 down before half time. That takes a lot away from the rest to run out the game. Patrick Dangerfield and Roos were quick to point this out in the after match review. Still it was a brave effort by the Hawks, so they say.

[liz]

I would suggest our poor disposal and ball handling had as much to do with our loss than anything else last week.

This. The Hawks didn't have total control of possession, even in the first half. But when the Swans did have possession, they weren't able to hold onto it. Handling of the ball was fumbly all night from too many players.

And, tactically, the Swans did get some control back but ran out of legs to be able to hold out in the end. When Towers missed the tackle on Sicily late in the game and chased after him vainly, you could see just how exhausted Towers was. Had we not been down two players (and had some very young players like Florent and Hayward who wouldn't have been able to soak up their share of extra onfield time), chances are he'd have had the energy to give chase with more effect.

[swansrob]

And, tactically, the Swans did get some control back but ran out of legs to be able to hold out in the end. When Towers missed the tackle on Sicily late in the game and chased after him vainly, you could see just how exhausted Towers was. Had we not been down two players (and had some very young players like Florent and Hayward who wouldn't have been able to soak up their share of extra onfield time), chances are he'd have had the energy to give chase with more effect.

This, along with Mills' late kick on goal, was telling of just how exhausted our guys were

[barry]

Plenty of teams win after losing two players early on. GWS did it against Collingwood a few weeks ago. Its not an excuse. And its not like we were playing a gun team. It was a declining Hawthorn, playing a heap youngsters.

[Auntie.Gerald]

Liz and nico i agree with ur comments as contributing factors

how would u remedy the dominant uncontested style of football that hawthorn play or the other teams that beat us playing a higher tweaking of uncontested footy

I'm saying we lean to much the way of contested and we need to wrestle control of the game sometimes with a little more uncontested attack

Just so I am clear with ur strategy for swans football......are u saying we simply stick to what we are doing but execute better ?

[Nico]

Liz and nico i agree with ur comments as contributing factors

how would u remedy the dominant uncontested style of football that hawthorn play or the other teams that beat us playing a higher tweaking of uncontested footy

I'm saying we lean to much the way of contested and we need to wrestle control of the game sometimes with a little more uncontested attack

Just so I am clear with ur strategy for swans football......are u saying we simply stick to what we are doing but execute better ?

The way we play, both under Roos and Longmire has always been seen as "finals footy", and has proved so. Even the scribes that don't like us acknowledge that. As I said in another post it has worked for us for many years. You got it right from my viewpoint....we have to execute better. At the start of the season they were crowing about high scores, but as the season has progressed we have seen a lot more low scoring close contests, more akin to finals footy where defence rules. We executed poorly last week.

If it happens that we need to adjust how we play given changes in the game, it is probably a bit late to try to do that at this point in the season.

[Ludwig]

Winning is overrated.

Losing builds character.

This season will be a character-building experience for the the coaches, the players and the fans.

It's been a real adventure this year. We've visited places on the ladder never seen before. Like deep sea diving to 300 metres or visiting Antarctica in the winter. (Gee, it's dark and gloomy down here ).

Let's not forget that the cream always rises to the top.

cropped-pollution.jpg

[Hotpotato]

That's a thoroughly depressing image .

[Auntie.Gerald]

Wow Ludwig

Vivid

[Auntie.Gerald]

more akin to finals footy where defence rules.

Nico that's where u and I don't agree

I have watched hawthorn closely over the years and they recognise that holding the ball via uncontested football is their " best defence "

Your defence starts with not giving the ball to the opposition

Your alluding to that your defence starts when u don't have the ball ?

That's wrong and just about every team sport in the world knows that when u have the ball that is ur best way to stop the opposition scoring

That is the benefit of using uncontested when appropriate to maintain possession

My whole arguement is that using "when appropriate" uncontested football as ur defence to slow the momentum of the opposition is a very sound way to play football. Many teams have been flexible with this style of play and or using it in parts of the game when needed

We don't appreciate this enough at the swans and I feel as we are not seeing the flexibility on a weekend of adapting to the contest before us

I also want to restate I love contested football

I love that we have been awesome at getting the most out of this style and it is a style needed for finals as you said but hawthorn have shown time after time u can use both in a single game to win finals

I also think it is an error of strategy to not think that every team is trying to evolve their styles of football to create a better mouse trap

Little things that we might not always notice at first glance start to become patterns for us to all see

Ie Gws and the Dogs have invested heavily in making sure they have brilliant counter attack players from their back line and it works

We have been behind the times on this and it shows as we have minimal flexibility in this area and no greater example was when Lloyd went down our "go to guy" for our the backline transitions and then the hawks pinned us down

[Auntie.Gerald]

Ps a good example of our lack of backline vision is Callum Mills playing in our backline right now from an execution standpoint

I only agree he is there for a development reason for our future

He would not make the GWS or Bulldogs backline

[crackedactor]

Sydney have chosen who is more important to them. Sam Reid or Kurt Tippett. One is getting offloaded for the other.
The decision has been made at Sydney to do everything it can to move Kurt Tippett on at the end of this year, even though they are resigned to the fact they?ll need to pay some of his huge contract next season.

And even a huge turnaround in form is unlikely to change the Swans? minds.

Sydney needs to free up salary cap space if they?re any chance to keep hold of Sam Reid and Zak Jones, so they?re scrounging for dollars wherever they can find them, effectively moving the sofa cushions hoping to find loose change.

Whether they can find anyone interested in the soon-to-be 30-year-old is another thing altogether.

From Sporting News

Thank You Annew for posting that news. It has confirmed my suspicions. How a team play like champions one week and could not care less the following week. I laugh when people talk about Plan B etc and how the short game is the easy way to beat us. Just look at the St Kilda game and yes they attempted the short game also, but could not handle our pressure. People are joking talking about finals this year. If one of the smartest footballers (alas Paul Roos) said on radio " Every side knows that Sydney's best is very good" But if they pull out 10 straight wins and make finals, he believes there will be no gas left in the tank. Time for Darcy Cameron's debut!!!

[Meg]

Anything 'reported' in Sporting News should be treated with a truckload of salt. Comments written anonymously without confirmed, named sources, and nearly always undermining players/coaches/clubs. And then their stories gain momentum on the internet and become 'fact'.

[annew]

Anything 'reported' in Sporting News should be treated with a truckload of salt. Comments written anonymously without confirmed, named sources, and nearly always undermining players/coaches/clubs. And then their stories gain momentum on the internet and become 'fact'.

Yeah while I posted it I was not convinced of it - most things posted are rubbish from most media outlets especially about swans, like the players we lost cos of Buddy, why we had trade bans, how one week we have great youngsters the next week no depth etc etc ec