#AFL Round 12, Swans vs Saints, 7:25pm, Etihad #AFLSaintsSwans @sydneyswans

[goswannies]

4pts, a percentage boost and no injuries. A 6 day break then the Eagles coming off their bye at the SCG. I'm really looking forward to next friday. Go Swannies!

Yes?

[Ludwig]

Very good game by Jones; his punch off halfback was important in helping us move it quickly out of defence. Also cleaner with it, kicked well, made good decisions - he's working on his game. Speaking of clean - another good game by Florent, whose confidence is starting to match his skills with impressive results. Kennedy, Heeney, Sinclair and Franklin all good as well.

I agree with 707 - Robinson and Marsh are not senior standard. Both are ponderous with the ball, Marsh trails the ball - gives up too many forward 50 marks, and Robinson just doesn't go at the ball hard enough. I'd much rather Towers over Robinson - he's quicker, cleaner, faster, and more dangerous. I can see why they choose Marsh over Aliir - he's more dependable - but he's not as good a defender. I think it's time to put Aliir in.

I agree with all of this. I thought Jones was perhaps in our top 3. He often gets our offense heading the right way with pace.

I was thinking the same thing as you and 707 that we would have a team that was more in tune with how the rest are playing if we had Towers and Aliir in the side instead of Robbo and Marsh. Whether Robbo and Marsh are of AFL standard is debatable, but I don't think they should be playing senior footy when better options are available. Cameron and O'Riordon are another 2 who should be playing before them.

[Hotpotato]

Poor Hanners, he?s given so much, had more hits than the Rolling Stones, is picked on past glories and always looks sore in several places. The game must eventually wear you out unless you are a rubber man like Boomer Harvey.
Room must be made for the young guns, did we miss Kieran a great deal?
The mystery omission is Towers, he ramped up his game , his skills and goal sense . He?s surely a bigger contributor than some of the other bottom four.

[Auntie.Gerald]

The development of Ollie for our team has been crucial

Our transitions via Jones , lloyd, macca and Ollie are making us a very tricky match up

There was massive debate pre season but Ollie and our team selection persisted with what we needed for the future

Ollie was supported and our team is reaping the dividends

[Auntie.Gerald]

I?m on the fence re hannes

Ablett Jnr last few years looked gone

He is back barring any injuries

Hannes with the systemic OP issue we are playing him back in via Snrs which is interesting but the thought process must be we need him and he is not over the hill

OP is a @@@@ of a thing and u can?t do much running so im remaining patient because he may find his feet in the next few weeks with more running and sprint training during the week

What are our other options?

Who else would we want come finals in the 22 to replace hannes ?

[barry]

I think hammers has to be dropped. He's better off resting, or limited time in the 2's.

Sinkers is amazing. I saw the port v rich game and nankevis did nothing. Great trading swans.

[lwjoyner]

Sure the first qrt was par excellence, But what about the last three qrts . we shoud have won that one by over 100 pts. It looked to me that out players had stopped running which is why our firt qrt was so great. For the last 3 we were not as adventurous and just stopped running. Taking too long to dispose of the ball after marking. Rampe in front of me in final qrt took a mark and pondered what to do with ball eventually turned over. An opportunity lost for %.

[lwjoyner]

Forgot to add, agree Robbo not up to AFL (try someone else) reserve watchers say irish is primed, and Marsh not far behind, pity Melican is injured.

[Matty10]

Sure the first qrt was par excellence, But what about the last three qrts . we shoud have won that one by over 100 pts. It looked to me that out players had stopped running which is why our firt qrt was so great. For the last 3 we were not as adventurous and just stopped running. Taking too long to dispose of the ball after marking. Rampe in front of me in final qrt took a mark and pondered what to do with ball eventually turned over. An opportunity lost for %.

It is pretty hard to keep pounding a team for a whole game - and 71 points is a thrashing whichever way you look at it.

I started feeling sorry for the Saints and found myself cheering (in a somewhat muted hush) for any piece of good play that they put forward. Maybe the players lost their killer edge also (the Saints were an undermanned team last night).

I always get worried that our players will develop bad habits in the lead up to a hard contest. Hopefully it was just our equivalent of a playing bye and we will meet the Eagles on Level terms.

[Bill Posters]

Poor Hanners, he?s given so much, had more hits than the Rolling Stones, is picked on past glories and always looks sore in several places. The game must eventually wear you out unless you are a rubber man like Boomer Harvey.
Room must be made for the young guns, did we miss Kieran a great deal?
The mystery omission is Towers, he ramped up his game , his skills and goal sense . He?s surely a bigger contributor than some of the other bottom four.

Agree with this. Towers was having a great year before he was dropped.

[Wazza]

Wow Florent had a great game how fast is he improving, but Marsh wasnt great - Allir very strong game in res.

[707]

To add to the Robbo standard debate - last trade period he put up his hand and was free to a good home but no one took him. That means 17 other clubs, several with list holes were not prepared to add him to their list.

I think Robbo is one of those players, like VFL, SANFL, WAFL players who are very good at that level but the increased pace, skill, footy brains at AFL level finds them out.

I wanted us to try players like O'Riordan whilst we were playing "lesser" sides to see what he brings rather than continuing to prove that Robbo can't cut it at AFL level. Watch a replay of games so you can concentrate on things without worrying about the result, I do it often. You can then watch guys like Robbo and Marsh closely, their skill level and speed of decision making is not up to the level. Too many fumbles and poor decisions. Let's try other options please.

[Markwebbos]

Sure the first qrt was par excellence, But what about the last three qrts . we shoud have won that one by over 100 pts. It looked to me that out players had stopped running which is why our firt qrt was so great. For the last 3 we were not as adventurous and just stopped running. Taking too long to dispose of the ball after marking. Rampe in front of me in final qrt took a mark and pondered what to do with ball eventually turned over. An opportunity lost for %.

I agree to an extent. But I?d also imagine we?d be thinking ahead to next week?s BLOCKBUSTER and not wanting to kill ourselves if we don?t have to. Think the cue went in the rack pretty early.

We still improved our percentage significantly. Surely beating WCE and the Tigers would be more important than an extra couple of % against the Saints?

Don?t think we can carry Hanners on that form v Weagles, and not convinced by Robinson or Marsh. Will they finally give Cameron a go vs the 2 pronged ruck attack?

[bloodspirit]

To add to the Robbo standard debate - last trade period he put up his hand and was free to a good home but no one took him. That means 17 other clubs, several with list holes were not prepared to add him to their list.

I think Robbo is one of those players, like VFL, SANFL, WAFL players who are very good at that level but the increased pace, skill, footy brains at AFL level finds them out.

I wanted us to try players like O'Riordan whilst we were playing "lesser" sides to see what he brings rather than continuing to prove that Robbo can't cut it at AFL level. Watch a replay of games so you can concentrate on things without worrying about the result, I do it often. You can then watch guys like Robbo and Marsh closely, their skill level and speed of decision making is not up to the level. Too many fumbles and poor decisions. Let's try other options please.

I find this quite persuasive. But what I find even more persuasive is that a match committee with better qualifications and judgment than us and, more especially, with access to much more detailed information and with even more time to think about these issues, thinks otherwise.

This is not to say that the match committee can't be wrong (despite their generally good track record) or we can't disagree. Unfortunately it's difficult to dispute (as opposed to comment on) their decisions when we don't know their reasons for making them.

I think we would mostly agree that the match committee doesn't always look to pick our best 22 every week. Sometimes they want to get development into young players. Sometimes they want to give senior players more time to rehab an injury even if they might offer more than the player who takes their place. Sometimes they want to give a player an opportunity to rediscover their form and show faith in them or to encourage a younger player. Possibly they sometimes even give players like Robbo a game to help decide whether they think he will ever cut it at the level or whether we should de-list him. I think Brandon Jack may have been given a game for this reason last year. Possibly they sometimes give a player a game when they have had really good form in the Reserves just to let them know they are not forgotten, not for sentimental reasons but rather to keep up the player's morale and help retain them at the club - or maybe not. Then of course there are the match ups and the game plan and the role that will be asked of a player (which often may be difficult to measure with stats - as in Rohan's case). It all makes it very difficult to predict or even to evaluate team selection (or even an individual player's game without close review).

Earlier this year some here were criticising the selection of Hayward (who seemed out of form) and Florent (who possibly hadn't yet quite reached the level) ahead of others like Newman or Fox or Aliir or Dawson (despite his injury which was not well publicised) or whoever. Yet I suspect everyone would now say we made the right move playing them as the continuity of selection has allowed them to build some great form and we are reaping the rewards and will continue to do so.

Robbo isn't best 22. May never be. Real chance he will be delisted this year and wind up playing for the Students. But he is also a versatile, hard working, selfless, courageous and dedicated depth player and I will trust him to play his role if the match committee trusts him enough to select him. Same goes for Marsh who, in my opinion, has definitely shown himself to be capable at AFL level. That said, I would now like us to select someone else for next match.

[Industrial Fan]

Good post ????????