Swans vs Eagles - match day thread

[Nico]

Liking the new stadium, I don?t remember ever getting favourable umpiring at Subi.

Good solid game for rnd 1, especially with Reid?s late withdrawal who was an even more important cog with Rohan out as well.

I thought the umpiring was good all night. We probably got frees we don't normally get. I reckon the umpiring across the weekend was a pretty good standard.

[undy]

oh FFS it was just a rhyme! It?s going to be a long season????

Fluke Parker - can see him as an ott playboy space Pirate or smuggler

[Foreign Legion]

Great win by The Swans. I reckon 14-15 other teams would have lost so it is a good start. Towers did well and all of our usuals were good - especially Buddy!

[Nico]

I am seeing more evidence of the style of play that we are moving to and then encroachment rule promoting fast running HBFs .... some of our defenders in our top 22 on the big field are struggling a little

I realise this does not matter as much on the small scg but we want to win at the mcg come the finals

I still think we need a greater balance in the backline rotation then we have right now especially against the top teams

Good to win game 1 with no
Hannebery
Reid
Rohan
Naismith
Tippett
Etc

But harsh AG. First round always finds players out on fitness. It looked like they might run over us but we dug deep and guttsed it out. Grundy looked short of a run but was solid.

[Blue Sun]

Got the monkey off the back from last year, the boys knew they had to start this year well.

[Sandridge]

First round win
Win in Perth
Big road trip out of the way early

Big tick!!

Spot on! Go the mighty Bloods!!

[Ludwig]

Any chance us getting a centre clearance.

Yup, when we get a ruckman

Our rucks are doing their best and the mids are working hard under the circumstances

We won the centre clearances 19-13 and 47-38 overall. We should have done better considering we lost the hitouts 66-17.

It was probably Sinclair's best game. He had 7 clearances on his own. I've been a critic, but he'll win me over if he keeps playing like this.

Buddy is too good for words, but we're going to have to spread the load in weeks to come. Parker is a man on a mission this year.

We really need to sharpen up our ball movement for next week and tighten up on our defensive coverage when the ball comes over the back.

A nice win to start the season, but a reality check as well.

[707]

Buddy was well Buddy. Hayward awoke from his preseason slumber.

Always tough in Perth with travel and crowd so a good slogging win, particularly with the outs. Off to watch the replay now with a bottle of McLaren Vale Shiraz.

I'd never barracked for Hawks before the Pies game and tonight for the first time ever I'm hoping we don't win the cricket, ashamed our team has cheated :-(

[AB Swannie]

It?s great to have the footy back! Swans weren?t at their best but I?m not sure many teams will be travelling to Perth. I?ll definitely take a 29 point win with heaps of improvement left.

Buddy was magnificent. I reckon Heeney gets Brownlow votes too. I?m excited to see him go to a new level this year. Hayward keeps his position. I think Fox does too. Cunningham, Florent, Newman, and McVeigh under the most pressure to be replaced by Hanners and Rohan for next week (and possibly Reid).

The umps made a few mistakes but overall they were pretty fair. Any early negative talk about Longmire is ludicrous. Buddy kicked 8 firstly because he is a legend but secondly because the other forwards were all told to get up the ground creating space for the big man.

Well done Swans. I can?t wait to see them live again next Sunday. Should be a cracker against Port.

[Hotpotato]

Could have gone Eagles way , Swans were awesome closing down their momentum every time they got within two kicks.
Nic Nat was outstanding considering his long abscence. Hope he keeps his hair do, surely it impairs his hearing and his peripheral vision.
What a gritty win .

[Mark26]

Great to get a win first up after last year. I was pleased with Fox in the backline. Smooch was unbelievable back there.

[Beerman]

I'll have to go back and read this thread, but just wanted to comment that according to Champion Data, Buddy scored 39-40 points this week.

That's a pretty good score. The next best players this week were scoring about 26 or 27.

It's amazing to watch him. I am concerned about how much we rely on him. Didn't seem that long ago that we were saying "what will the Swans do with all their tall forwards", and now we don't seem to have enough.

[neilfws]

All good in the end. Led most of the night, dug deep when challenged, some nice highlights. Very hard to win in Perth. I'm happy with that.

[dejavoodoo44]

Well, 100% winning rate at Optus stadium. Higher than any other team. Greatest winning margin at Optus Stadium. Highest score ever at Optus Stadium. Buddy the most goals at this ground. So many records in a single game. Well done boys

And the most pleasing and surprising stat: most free kicks at Optus Stadium. We won the frees 28-20. I feel sure that didn't use to happen when we played the weagles at Subi.

[mcs]

And the most pleasing and surprising stat: most free kicks at Optus Stadium. We won the frees 28-20. I feel sure that didn't use to happen when we played the weagles at Subi.

I have been told the reason that the ground wasnt a sell out is because they are yet to fully migrate all memberships across from subiaco correctly yet. Perhaps they havent migrated the home town umpiring across either.

We got a bit of the rub of the green, but some appaling calls that were costly too. That florent unrewarded tackle could easily have been the moment to really switch the game - had it been paid we may wall moved it on to kick a goal - instead it went up the other end and momentum swung big time. Thankfully at the end of the day it didnt matter.