#AFL Round 2, Sydney Swans v Port Adelaide, 01/04/18, SCG @sydneyswans

[waswan]

Fumbling cost us big time, only a few guys were clean today.

Setup around the contest was ordinary too, we were like the swans of old, 4 guys at the ball no one on the exists.

Why Hannas insists on being at the bottom of the pack at his size I don't know, he needs to get back to an outside gut running winger and leave the inside stuff to parks and kennedy

[Ludwig]

The defence was uniformly poor. Rampe was lackadaisical and gifted them 2-3. Melican kicked terribly, as did Smith. Mills won fewer contested possessions than usual, Grundy looked off-pace.

I think this has been more of a problem than we think and was bound to catch up with us. We weren't good last week either. It was just Buddy's magnificence that got us the win. As MattW says, we were uniformly poor. We are having serious problems clearing the ball out of our defensive zone.

It usually takes Reg 5 or 6 games to get going, but it's going to be excruciating waiting for it to happen. And maybe it won't. We know one day it won't happen. It could be this year, maybe next. That incident that Ugg mentioned with Reg, where he got out-muscled by a skinny Todd Marshall didn't look good. Sadly, Melican had his worst game in quite a while. Hopefully it's a one off. And so too for Rampe and Smith. What happened to our intercept marking?

I think we need some fresh blood in defence. For one, Aliir is a must inclusion once fit. I would also consider trying Rohan once again in defence. He doesn't do much in the forward line and will have even less of a role once Reid comes back. Hopefully he could give us some dash out of defence. I would seriously consider dropping Reg and going with Melican, Aliir, Rampe and Rohan as the core of our defence for this year.

Ollie would be good in defence if he could only handle the physical pressure. Even if Stoddart and Ling are given a go this year, we can't expect too much from 1st year players. I thought Fox was okay. I don't know if Newman would have done any better. I didn't think Fox was the problem.

It can be hard to analyse a game where our ball handling was so awful, which led to having to kick under pressure and to no one in particular.

I also thought that Buddy's 8 goal spectacle last week may have hurt us this week, because we didn't seem to have any plan other than kicking it to Buddy. I don't know what happened to the precise ball movement game plan we displayed in the JLT, but I guess if you can't pick up the ball without dropping it again, it's hard to execute that kind of a game plan.


PS: And McVeigh shouldn't do interviews anymore, especially ones like this: Swans want teams to fear playing at SCG - sydneyswans.com.au
Whenever he opens his mouth about this sort of stuff, it backfires.

[barry]

Better selection policy needed. I've been a mcveigh critic, but he was good today. I actually don't mind him playing at the SCG, where the lack of space suits his game style.
Other selections... Illogical.

[Nico]

How about we give Smooch more than one week then before we slag him off (not directed at you)

& while the umpiring wasn?t great, it is pretty tiresome reading about it incessantly pretty much every time we lose.

Smith was very good last week but usually takes a few games to blow out the cobwebs.

[Nico]

We dominated them in the first half but couldn't put enough space between them and us. They had their turn in the second half and capitalised. They are a contender but we fumbled a lot uncharacteristically. We also overused the ball when it became greasy. Game was umpired differently in that they let a lot go. They received more soft frees than us which was frustrating. Competition is a lot more even this year so not the end of the world.

Hewett gave them the momentum back when he was right in front but didn't have the balles to have a shot. Handpassed to a static player. Would have put us up by 3 goals and running. Definitely took the wind out of our sails when the went straight down the ground for a goal and then backed with another quick goal.

[Nico]

Ludwig. I didn't think they kicked to Buddy enough. Whenever we went long in the first half you could see the Kaos in the eyes of the Port defenders. It was the insipid little chip kicks to a 2 on 1 or someone with a player on his back. Why wouldn't you kick to the man that was the hope, even if he had 3 on him. How bad was Papley in the last quarter... gets the footy clear in the middle then goes sideways to a 2 on 1 that was always going to be turned over. Last time I looked the goals were straight ahead. Absolutely wasteful disposal.

[liz]

I thought we outplayed them in the contest in the first half by some margin. It's just that our basic ball handling was awful and our ball use, when we did manage to handle the ball cleanly, was even worse. It's really hard to explain why this was the case. It wasn't wet and it wasn't even slippery in the first half, while the sun was up. And it was a malaise that affected even our normally good ball handlers.

Port then ran out the game far better and, once they'd evened things up around the contest, used their share of the ball better than we did.

I'm just putting it down to "one of those nights". We know they can - and will - handle the ball far better in future games. I'd be much more concerned if we were beaten from the start around the contests but I saw nothing tonight to suggest we won't match it with Port if we play them again this year.

And even though Buddy came down somewhat from the exalted heights of last week, he still did some pretty special stuff. His control of the ball close to the boundary and that "that kick" to Towers was a sight to behold, and while I won't put myself through watching a replay of the game, I will seek out Buddy's final goal. There was an element of luck that it went through for a goal (in the sense that any kick like that needs some element of luck) but how many players in the game could come close to executing a kick like that?

[Papernick]

Can?t stand the ideas of reading all the comments but for mine:

* anyone who blames the umps for tonights this result needs their head read
* they were very good and were a bit off pretty much across the board with a few exceptions
* has Mills played a worse game for us? I doubt it?
* no need for over reaction here and we have a perfect chance to redeem ourselves next week and from what I?ve seen GWS are ripe for the picking

We lost to a team by 23 points that I think are the real deal this year. It?s disappinting but not the end of the world. I?m happy to take Liz?s advice and call it one of those nights

[Industrial Fan]

Frustrating game. Walking on the pitch afterwards the ground was very wet, not sure why that was the case, didn?t seem to be just surface dew. Don?t remember so many skill errors in clear conditions before.

In the second half at least Powell Pepper wasn?t even really playing the ball. Looked like he was trying to wear down Parker / Hanners and clear some space at centre bounces by wrestling them out of the way.

I50 count at half time was 35-14 and ended up square. We just didn?t take our chances up front.

With Dickson in the Ruck for long spells I thought we could have used Reg upfront as another marking target.

Anyone know what the downfield free kick was paid for in the third that lead to a free from the goal square? Looked like two swans went down and then a free was awarded to port downfield.

[Papernick]

Could the end be coming rather fast for Reg?

[Ludwig]

Ludwig. I didn't think they kicked to Buddy enough. Whenever we went long in the first half you could see the Kaos in the eyes of the Port defenders.

Because if Buddy is being double teamed, then someone else should be open. I like kicking to Buddy one on one anytime, but in general, we need to look for other players to spread to load. Buddy had another great game, but we can't expect him to kick 8 every week. We need to become less predictable.

It was good that Sinclair took that mark inside 50 in the 1st qtr, but he missed the easy set shot again. I don't understand it, because he's actually a good set shot for goal, yet seems to miss so often. I think it's best to keep him out of the forward line. Just not enough return for the effort.

Once I heard that Ryder was out, I had a bad feeling about the game. It's very hard for us to win both the game and the hitouts. We may just have to go with Towers as our #1 ruckman.

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Anyone know what the downfield free kick was paid for in the third that lead to a free from the goal square? Looked like two swans went down and then a free was awarded to port downfield.

It must have been for staging.

[AB Swannie]

Frustrating is the correct word. I kept waiting for our fumbling and disposals to sort themselves out but they just continued one after another all night. Hopefully, it just was one of those nights.

Our defence looked nervous and clumsy all night. Mills and Rampe were diabolical at times. I agree that Mills had his worst game in his relatively short career. Fox looked great until he went to kick the ball.

On the positive, Florent has progressed. He might take some more time to be consistent but he?ll be a good one. Kennedy and Parker were strong in the middle and Buddy?s 50 metre, one step snap was out of this world.

[bodgie]

Well that was a crapfull game of footy. All kudos to the players for the incredible intensity for attacking the ball and anyone who might get close to holding it for a few moments. But seriously there were 36 blokes within 50 to 75 meters just about all the time which really hurt us in the last half when our kicking became increasingly shambolic and hopeful. There were so many throws, holding the mans and pushes and half versions thereof that it would be impossible to umpire. Except for about 10 minutes when we started to get a run on there seemed to be soft frees given against us repeatedly.

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Why did the 3rd Q go for nearly 33 minutes. Its not as if many goals were scored. There seemed to be a lot of throw ins?

[AB Swannie]

I just read that our kicking efficiency was 51%. Enough said.

[Ludwig]

Just reviewing the replay and one play early in the 2nd quarter typified the game for me. After Hayward's goal we were up 22-8. On the restart, Heeney was pulled down without the ball, no call, Port gets possession. The kick goes to Boak. Mills gets called for a very soft push in the back. Boak kicks the ball OOBTF, but Rampe sticks up his hand so it's touched for a throw in instead of a free kick for us. On the subsequent throw in Ollie Wines is unmarked and kicks a goal. Stuff like that happened all game.