Match Day Thread Rnd 17 GWS V Sydney. Spotless Stadium 19.25 pm.

[Swansinger]

Agree on Naismith, many of Mummy's HOs would have been vs Towers or Parker (or indeed no one at all!).

What's people's views on the one ruckman policy? Is it working? Is it sustainable? I feel uncomfortable about it but we do keep winning.

There are several less-experienced players I would not want to lose. Naismith is one of them.
If he picks up an injury , that's a real problem for us : we can cover the loss of Parker or Hannerbery or Heeney more easily.
Tippett will have to come back in when he's fit , but he should be second-fiddle to Sam.

And while I'm here - Happy Birthday , Sam !

[Billericay]

What is that supposed to mean?

Apparently he only has one ankle as he hurt his groin on Saturday. Nervous wait for Sydney Swans ruckman Kurt Tippett after injury scare

"Tippett has been troubled by an ankle issue for much of the year but this time it was groin tightness which brought an early finish to his night... Last year's grand finalists do not believe Tippett's injury is significant but it was enough of a concern for them to pull the pin on his game shortly into the second half. Tippett had been slated to play 80 minutes ? the equivalent of close to three quarters ? in his first game at any level in nearly a month."

[Bloods05]

A Herald Sun poll also demonstrated that Rance was the "GOAT" fullback. He led the poll with 32% of the vote ahead of modern day greats Scarlett and Silvagni.

As our Canberra residents would understand, newspaper opinion polls are the only truth and Rance won the "GOAT" fullback poll.

Is that true, or did you read it in the Herald-Sun?

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I heard from someone well connected that the AFL have officially given us "fairy tail" status (seriously) and the umpiring reflected that.

Play this right and we could go all the way.

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Giants have a flawed game plan. They win almost all stats except tackling, yet were never in the game. It's not just injuries, although having to play musungu is telling. They are wasting there list at the moment.

Come on Barry, come clean. Your real name is Cliff and you're from Clematis. Am I right or am I right?

[Beerman]

That was an incredibly frustrating game to watch on TV.

When I saw Brereton, I thought the unthinkable - "I wish BT was doing this game". Brereton really is terrible. I had to mute the whole game. Add to that the fact they had the work experience kids doing the camera work bizarre cuts to close-up shots, terrible angles, not even following the ball at one point!

And the cherry on top was the umpiring. They were incredibly whistle-happy in this game (and from what I've seen all round). Fortunately we came off very much the better out of it - I'm jumping on board Barry's "fairytale" theory.

I'm not surprised to hear reports of injuries - it was like Reid wasn't on the ground and although Hannebery had a direct hand in a couple of goals, they were GWS goals.

What's the obsession with keeping the ball in play in our defensive half? A couple of times Swans hit it back into play when there was no-one there except GWS players. Rampe(?) handballed it directly to Johnson who scored a great goal from the pocket. He would have been far better just letting it go out.

Also, I was surprised Robinson kept his spot, but he did ok - much better than I expected. I wouldn't mind him getting another game against the Saints to see if he can play himself into better form.

[Industrial Fan]

Not sure I'd say it was frustrating.
A lot of gws' goals came from crazy angles that they'd be unlikely to hit again. At least 5 of their goals came from very tough shots.

You could make the same case for the one Buddy kicked from the boundary but he had a few other shots that missed too.

The margin flattered them I thought as we had the game in control with the exception of 10-15mins.

Agree there was too much umpiring.

[AnnieH]

Wow.
Really wasn't expecting that win.
Solid performance by all and sundry. Even Towers.

The commentators get Melican and Newman confused a lot.

[royboy42]

That was an incredibly frustrating game to watch on TV.

When I saw Brereton, I thought the unthinkable - "I wish BT was doing this game". Brereton really is terrible. I had to mute the whole game. Add to that the fact they had the work experience kids doing the camera work bizarre cuts to close-up shots, terrible angles, not even following the ball at one point!

And the cherry on top was the umpiring. They were incredibly whistle-happy in this game (and from what I've seen all round). Fortunately we came off very much the better out of it - I'm jumping on board Barry's "fairytale" theory.

I'm not surprised to hear reports of injuries - it was like Reid wasn't on the ground and although Hannebery had a direct hand in a couple of goals, they were GWS goals.

What's the obsession with keeping the ball in play in our defensive half? A couple of times Swans hit it back into play when there was no-one there except GWS players. Rampe(?) handballed it directly to Johnson who scored a great goal from the pocket. He would have been far better just letting it go out.

Also, I was surprised Robinson kept his spot, but he did ok - much better than I expected. I wouldn't mind him getting another game against the Saints to see if he can play himself into better form.

I agree on the tv coverage the other night. They seemed to be at least one camera short of normal, or else the director didn't know how to best use his/her resources. So many shots too far from the play.
I thought you were a bit tough on Robinson getting back into the side. When he was injured, he was playing excellent football, and I had him comfortably in the best 22. Almost automatic inclusion when he had run into fitness again.

[Maltopia]

Yes if you go to Big Footy. The Replay reference Centre is a post there that gives links to the replay. In fact it has replays of every game from 2000 onward. This game is up now.

Thanks heaps.

Just watching now. That first scoring shot by GWS of a paid mark - that wasn't 15 metres, you can see the kick is on the 50 metre line halfway through a dark green strip of grass and Toby Greene marks the ball just over 2.5 strips away.

[jono2707]

I thought Naismith did a pretty good job matching Mummy physically and curbing his influence. He's providing a pretty good presence out there. Our issues with clearances etc were due to our setups and the quality of some of the GWS mids, and not so much to his tapwork, which is a strength of his.

[Auntie.Gerald]

I noticed on clearances etc we played on the outside as a midfielder

Ie our midfielders were allowing them to go for the ball and make GWS direct it backwards initially and then when GWS tri d to play direct from that phase of play we were set up very well

A little like how we used to set up at clearances against Sandilands freeo

Hence lesser number of disposals for our midfield then usual and more for them

I like the way we tended to channel their attack thru the middle but set up perfectly with numbers and counter attack

Smart when one on one outside on outside player is just to much to handle all game long

[Hotpotato]

I thought Naismith did a pretty good job matching Mummy physically and curbing his influence. He's providing a pretty good presence out there. Our issues with clearances etc were due to our setups and the quality of some of the GWS mids, and not so much to his tapwork, which is a strength of his.

Yes , what an excellent job he's doing , must be so exhausting .

[Billericay]

Remember all that funny business with Sinclair replacing Florent as an emergency. Turns out there WAS something behind it! Buddy was injured.

No Cookies | Herald Sun

REVELATIONS have emerged that Lance Franklin?s premiership-shaping performance against GWS was almost grounded by injury.

Franklin had been close to being ruled out of Sydney?s momentous victory over GWS last Saturday night, only for him to rise from the canvas and deliver the epic four-goal knockout that has reshaped the entire landscape for the AFL finals...

Franklin damaged his knee at the Swans? main Thursday training session last week and it?s understood there was initial advice from medical staff to keep him on ice for the derby. However ... the influential forward convinced coach John Longmire to give him until match day to prove his fitness.

[Mel_C]

Don't like these injuries at training. Need our players covered in bubble wrap!!

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[Wardy]

I don't like it being reported -did it really need to be reported in the media?? so whilst the opposition will target him as usual they will go for the knees - you can see it coming when we play Hawthorn !! Who is the reporter Ben Horne anyway - thanks for nuthin pal!!