JLT2 - Swans v Giants @ Blacktown

[stevoswan]

Here's an interesting stat.....free kicks 19-9 our way at this point. ....but in the space of 4 minutes, our handy lead is gone.

[Foreign Legion]

Very ordinary finish to that 1/4. We look tired. Why is Newman trying to do dinky 20-25mtr kicks when he is one of our best long kicks? He takes the short option every time - bloody frustrating.

[Foreign Legion]

Papley hardly sighted but I don't know how many minutes he has played. Rohan running around but thats about it from him

[stevoswan]

Now we're behind. For those watching, is there a wind advantage like in the NEAFL game.......I'm guessing if there is, GWS are kicking with it in this last quarter?

[stevoswan]

Well there you go, we won. After a GWS period of dominance, a good comeback in the end.....Parker, Newman and Cunningham the main possession winners for us, Paps and Will quiet, Darcy Cameron 6 hit outs where we lost the hit outs 37-11 for the night.......interesting. Practicing for our year without decent ruck stocks.......

[stevoswan]

Won the free kick count 26-11 which is weird....but 13 of our frees were for high contact, according to the AFL live feed. Fu**ing Giant headhunters!

[MattW]

Enjoyed that. Mills was strong - he's a winner. Jones came into it well and his direct running was important again. Parker was classy at important moments. As others have said, Florent is much improved and should play round 1. Not a great fan of him playing defence, but we'll see. Fox is promising, composed - a first-teamer. Kieren is still an important contributor. It was great to see Buddy play again. Marsh tries hard and is decent depth.

Rohan looked down on confidence. Papley and Hayward trailed the game a bit, but they'll come on. Cameron had a couple of nice touches, but was well beaten in the ruck. He has a long way to go.

[707]

Newman was just foxing last week, back to his best tonight, ink him in for R1.

I like the footy smarts and composure of Fox, must be a strong contender.

Cunningham had a heap of the ball albeit many were those cheap backline kicks but given the love Horse has for him that's another inked in.

Cameron looks ok but still a long way to go, hopefully sinkers is fit.

Reg had a run in the NEAFL so he'll be there R1 holding it all together as he always does. Be fascinating to see our first team for the year.

Hayward worries me, just a shadow of what we saw last year.

[Auntie.Gerald]

I?m liking the tweaks and our adjustment to switch to uncontested when need be but our run forward off our short marked passes is really exciting

I?m liking the responsibility and load put on our emerging backs Newman, marshy, Melican, Fox , Stoddart etc

Marsh, Cunningham and Fox running straight past at full speed busting lines open was great to see

Overall big effort to stop Patton, Greene and Cameron and overall we nullified their dominance with a small backline

I realise the sprinting from deep in our backline doesn?t work easily on the SCG as u run out of room and send the ball into defenders in a cluster but it is just so good seeing us be flexible and have a style take on teams on the big grounds like the mcg

[AB Swannie]

I managed to watch the game from the second quarter. My observations:

* Parker is still a star.

* Stoddart will be super in a year or two.

* Melican is ready now to take over from Reg.

* Zak Jones played limited minutes but was outstanding when he was on. He?s not in focus as much this year but I reckon he will step up again.

* Darcy Cameron did a couple of nice things but is still a bit off best 22. 6 hitouts is not good enough and I doubt any were to advantage.

* Harry Marsh is great depth but I?d be concerned if he is responsible for filling a key defensive position.

* I?m not a big fan of Harry C but he looked good tonight.

* Hayward might need to start in the 2s

* GWS will finish top 4 but we will finish above them.

[ugg]

Jones didn?t play first quarter. Cameron and Lloyd rested for the last quarter. Robinson played a few minutes of the first then rested till the last where he became a ruckman!

Towers ended up contesting more ruck contests than Cameron.

[mcs]

Hayward worries me, just a shadow of what we saw last year.

Second year blues often catches up even with the best players out there.

I enjoyed that for a pre-season encounter. We got belted in the ruck (something we will soon get used to I'm sure), but ultimately fought really hard at the end and got a deserved win. Lots of rust still to work through, but some good signs as well.

- - - Updated - - -

I managed to watch the game from the second quarter. My observations:

* Stoddart will be super in a year or two.

.

He has really impressed me this pre-season - thought he had some really good moments again tonight, especially one early on where some excellent vision really helped cut open GWS for a really good goal. I like what I see with him.

[Ludwig]

I like what I see so far this preseason.

Cunningham has had a very good preseason and he brought his kicking boots today. Lock for round 1.
Our undersized defenders played very well against a tall and high quality forward line. Melican was great. He's heading for an AA playing level in the not too distant future.

Prefer Florent to Hayward so far this preseason, but I think Hayward had some interruption to his training. He still has trouble sticking tackles. I'm sure he'll come along fine.

Agree that Cameron still has a way to go to be an AFL ruckman. We got smashed in the hitouts, but nonetheless won the centre clearances. It was not at all evident that we were being hurt by losing the ruck contests. I think Towers is our best ruckman and should be given the round 1 job with big minutes from Aliir to help out. He doesn't win the hitouts, but his second efforts are good and we seem to come out of the ruck contests doing alright. I'm pretty sure Sinclair will be given first crack if his ankle is okay.

[dejavoodoo44]

Won the free kick count 26-11 which is weird....but 13 of our frees were for high contact, according to the AFL live feed. Fu**ing Giant headhunters!

26-11!? Well, personally, I think that GWS were lucky to get 11.

[dimelb]

... We got smashed in the hitouts, but nonetheless won the centre clearances. It was not at all evident that we were being hurt by losing the ruck contests. I think Towers is our best ruckman and should be given the round 1 job with big minutes from Aliir to help out. He doesn't win the hitouts, but his second efforts are good and we seem to come out of the ruck contests doing alright. I'm pretty sure Sinclair will be given first crack if his ankle is okay.

In bold, perhaps the most important outcome of the night. We will see a lot more of this, and I think we have the midfield to handle it, both regulars and others having a chop at it.