#AFL Round 13, Swans vs Eagles, 7:50pm, SCG #AFLSwansEagles @sydneyswans

[Cosmic Wizard]

Hanners does look like an old man at times but I read somewhere that he was doing a stopping role on Shuey, who ended up with only 14 possessions to Hanners 24, albeit only 3 of those kicks, so from that point of view, he's done a good job. With the bye ahead, I can't see him being dropped now. KJ is under more pressure to keep his spot but again, the bye may save him too.

Hanners, from the TV, ran 14kms, but he reminds me of Benny McGlynn.

Trying his guts out but has loss that yard of pace which made him so effective.

We just have to accept that our mid field, Hanners and Parkers, have slip from the elite field.

They are still good players, but not the very best.

Kizzas also is looking really ordinary. We need to draft some young mid for in the next few years we are going to need them.

[MattW]

I still think people are being harsh on Hanners. He noticeably got more of it in exits around contests, where at his best he's dangerous with his release handballs. Some of his handballs were a bit askew, but he's getting his touch back. I also thought he got himself free more around the wing. 24 possessions (12 contested) is pretty good.

We need to keep in mind that he played with injury all last year and his fitness his been down for some time. He's getting his touch back; it's taking a little while, but I think there is progress. It was interesting listening to him interviewed after the game on ABC Grandstand (you can listen to it through Soundcloud). He was pretty knackered after, he says, running with Gaff. I must say I didn't really notice that on TV. Gaff was pretty good, but didn't break out.

[Ludwig]

I can understand why so many experts don't give us much of a chance this year. Most of our once all-Australian midfield are down on form, some quite considerably. We haven't really blown teams away, except for the Saints.

There's been a tendency to overlook the many small (and unexpected) improvements in the team, and it's taken most of us by surprise as well:

• Callum Sinclair is one of the most improved players in the AFL and has turned what looked to be a serious ruck deficiency into a better than a break-even position for us. We also have some good backup in Cameron and Amartey on the way.
• While some of our veterans have fallen away a bit, McVeigh has been playing some of the best footy of his career.
• We probably thought that Hayward and Florent would improve, but not nearly as much as they have. Both have gone from fringe inclusions to key components. They have kept solid players like Fox, Towers and Newman out of the side.
• Ben Ronke: Where did he come from? Looks like a star the making.
• Our second-tier midfield brigade in Heeney, Jones, Cunningham and Lloyd have all made solid improvement and have picked up the slack from down on form senior players.
• Our defence is working exceptionally well together as a unit.
• The footy commentators focus on star power. Other than Buddy, we have lost some star power lustre, but have made up for it with bigger contributions from lesser known players. That's why we fly under the radar. Even when one of our least experience players, like Ben Ronke and Tom McCartin, has the ball, I expect something good will happen.
• There aren't any standout teams this year, like Hawthorn and Geelong were in they heydays. So a balanced team playing well together can take the premiership this year if they can keep things rolling along going into finals.

I was surprised by the huge margin in possessions, 410-333 in our favour. We lost a few key categories, but had more marks and contested possessions as well. This is a good sign that the team is working well together and everyone wants to make a contribution.

How well Aliir integrates into our defence could be the key factor. He adds a new dimension to the side. He's not quite sure where to go at times in our well-oiled defence. I noticed that he was often ignored on our defensive outlets, mostly by Lloyd, probably not quite trusting what he would do with the ball. I think we just have to absorb his mistakes until everyone is comfortable with his playing style. It seemed to work okay in 2016 and hopefully he can pick it up from there. Having such an experienced defensive unit should help him adjust to the pace of AFL level footy.

I haven't felt that we were the best team this year from the start, but thought we would be around the mark. I still feel that way. Coming off the bye we enter the 2nd half of the season with a fit list, only losing Mills to injury from our best 22. Our depth is pretty good this year. We may even see Dawson get back to a level where he can challenge for a senior spot. If Hanners and Jack can't lift their games, I think we have alternatives.

[Industrial Fan]

I?ve felt that we?ve been building nicely this year. In 2014/16 we were smashing teams every week and then lost our composure come finals time.

It?s a bit of a cliche but I think the close games we?ve had so far build a confidence that?s hard to quantify.

I?m not worried about our percentage in the slightest and I think we?re served well by teams like Carlton lifting against us (they were plainly incompetent against Freo)

We still haven?t lost away from home which is no mean feat. Won?t surprise me at all if we make another GF this year.

[liz]

The premiership will go to the team that is able to incrementally improve from here on, and who has the best luck with injury. Richmond weren't playing the best football this time last year. They were going OK but got noticeably better as the year progressed. Same with the Dogs. And back to 2012, we weren't a stand out halfway through the year.

Apart from the 2014 debacle - where the team was reasonably fit come finals time - for most of the last four or five seasons we've had a pretty good injury run for most of the season, only for the bad luck to set in at the back end of the season. 2016 was the most costly - losing an in-form Allir altogether partway through the finals, but also carrying injured Tippett, Parker, Mills, Rohan and McVeigh in the grand final (and that was before Buddy hurt his ankle five minutes into the game and Hanners his knee at the start of the final quarter). We had very little depth in 2016 and were very dependent on the senior players playing well, so I understand why the coaches took a risk with so many not-quite-fit players in the finals, but it didn't pay off.

We have a far more even team this year and aren't anything like as dependent on the top ten or so players. The youngsters who contributed as well as could be expected in 2016 - Hewett, Heeney, Papley, Jones - are now far better and more experienced players and have become consistent, high quality contributors. The younger players who have funnelled into the bottom of the team - Florent, Hayward, Ronke, Melican (assuming he returns) - are playing at least as well as the 2016 crop of young players.

Reid and Melican might yet return and strengthen us further. Notwithstanding the very encouraging performance by Aliir on Friday, I think Melican might squeeze him out over the second half of the season if he can get his body right. His second half of last year and his start to this season were really very good. But if they don't come back, we have players who can play their roles.

But as with any team, injuries (or lack of) will still play a huge part in our fortunes for the rest of the season. Cameron's NEAFL form has been very encouraging, but an injury to Sinclair still threatens to derail our season. I noticed he had lots of strapping on his knees on Friday night, and after the game had ice packs on both knees. Ruckmen take a lot of physical punishment throughout a season so we'll need to keep all fingers and toes crossed that he can hold out.

The team's performance without Buddy was encouraging but we still need him fit and firing if we're going to win in September. And Rampe and Grundy are still critically important if our overworked defence is going keep holding up as it has been. Maybe if we lost one of them for a short period we'd survive, but I hope we don't find out. At least those two have proved to be very durable over their time with the club (Moore Park chains notwithstanding) so it's not unreasonable to hope they'll keep going.

[Bloods05]

Has been a fine coach but don't rate him as a modern day commentator and judge

"Has been" being the operative words.

[MattW]

Good analysis, Liz - I agree with all of that.

Particularly the contrast between the output of the younger players in 2016 compared to now. Of the 2016 crop, Hewett and Jones are now critical, reliable players and their current contribution is underestimated by commentators. Of the current crop, Florent and Hayward have become very important players. It will be interesting to see how they perform in really big away games, but there's reason to be optimistic about that. Hayward had a poor first quarter on Friday - gave the ball away repeatedly. But he kept presenting and took a typically strong mark and kicked a vital set shot on the angle in the third which steadied the ship - probably my highlight of the night.

[Hotpotato]

Aliir plays well in big games, proved it again Friday night, he?s really cool under pressure .
Hope he?s retained now.
He makes excellent descisions on most occasions , if he makes one blue or two like most players, he gets doubted .
Why is Aliir marked so hard ?

[Blue Sun]

No love for the Swans from Mick Malthouse despite our good recent form.


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Fine by me. Swannies perform best when they are dismissed by the media!

[Blue Sun]

Aliir plays well in big games, proved it again Friday night, he?s really cool under pressure .
Hope he?s retained now.
He makes excellent descisions on most occasions , if he makes one blue or two like most players, he gets doubted .
Why is Aliir marked so hard ?

He fell out of favour a year or two ago when he missed a training session for no good reason.

[ugg]

He isn?t being marked harshly. None of his NEAFL performances were to the same level of which he performed so impressively on Friday. Up until the last two NEAFL games, he wasn?t consistently in the best players. He seems to be in that rare group of players who play better in the AFL than in the reserves whereas most players find the jump in quality and speed very difficult to adjust to.

[KSAS]

Kane Cornes (SEN) is also not entirely convinced about the Swans even though he does have them in premiership contention. He sees us as a rung below West Coast, Richmond, Melbourne & even Collingwood! This is a strange deduction considering we've beaten WC twice (only team to have defeated them) & haven't played the others as yet. He also thought the Swans are vulnerable outside the SCG on bigger grounds where they can be exposed. This is also strange considering we've won against good teams on Optus stadium, MCG & Kardinia Park, the latter two without Buddy. Even more bizarre to his reasoning is all our 3 losses have been at the SCG!

Happy for Media commentators having opinions but they need to be pulled up when they're reasoning is contradictory to the fact. Glad Whately & Bob Murphy did so to an extant on Saturday morning when Kane made these comments (they both thought he was being harsh on the Swans).

[mcs]

Kane Cornes (SEN) is also not entirely convinced about the Swans even though he does have them in premiership contention. He sees us as a rung below West Coast, Richmond, Melbourne & even Collingwood! This is a strange deduction considering we've beaten WC twice (only team to have defeated them) & haven't played the others as yet. He also thought the Swans are vulnerable outside the SCG on bigger grounds where they can be exposed. This is also strange considering we've won against good teams on Optus stadium, MCG & Kardinia Park, the latter two without Buddy. Even more bizarre to his reasoning is all our 3 losses have been at the SCG!

Happy for Media commentators having opinions but they need to be pulled up when they're reasoning is contradictory to the fact. Glad Whately & Bob Murphy did so to an extant on Saturday morning when Kane made these comments (they both thought he was being harsh on the Swans).

Tired old cliches don't just extend to commentators calling games - they are repeated ad nausea by so called 'experts'.Hence comments from Kane Cornes and Mick Malthouse that clearly show they haven't been watching many swans games closely at all this year, and just rely on the 'same old, same old' dribble that they roll out time and time again.

Must be time again for someone to say the SCG is 'postage stamp sized'

[mcs]

Aliir plays well in big games, proved it again Friday night, he?s really cool under pressure .
Hope he?s retained now.
He makes excellent descisions on most occasions , if he makes one blue or two like most players, he gets doubted .
Why is Aliir marked so hard ?

I don't think he has been - its just his form, as Ugg said, until the last few weeks in NEAFL has been only so so. The selectors were patient and waited to see him running into some good form. All in all, our selectors get it right a lot more than they get it wrong - we should have more faith that they know that they are doing.

[Mel_C]

Jack needs to stop ducking to try to get out of the tackle. It's not working anymore.

The bye next week is going to be dangerous...can we stay out of trouble and not get injured!

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