#AFL Round 15 Richmond v Sydney Etihad 7.20 pm EST 28 June 2018 #SydneySwans #SwansTigers

[Nico]

Excellent points. I can help you out with the rest;
- Aliir is a one trick pony. It's lose backman or nothing. Too slow to play on leading forwards. Not strong enough to play on marking forwards. Too scared to put his head over the ball robe a tough defender. His kicking is below par. We really need Melican to come back.
- Rohan doesn't get involved in the game. He does brilliant things occasionally and I acknowledge that that is his role but he needs to get more touches. He's being carried by the team.
- Jack is finished and has been so for the last two seasons.
- Hannebery. Don't know what to say, appears to be playing injured which is affecting his entire game.
- Aliir and Rohan should be traded at the end of the year whilst they still have some currency. Jack needs to retire.

Rohan is an absolute liability. He brings nothing to the team and Towers is a way better 2nd ruck option. While the media still rates him he should be traded.
Hanners; he's finished. He had 9 kicks of which the forst 8 went directly to an opponent for marks. No half measure with Hanners on that one. He is slow and now doesn't chase. In the last quarter in the back pocket a Richmond player beat 2 Swans players for a snap goal, one of which was Hannaberry. He was unable to put in a tackle. If you watch him closely when he stuffs up he puts his hands on his hips and feigns injury or exhaustion, and doesn't run to the next contest like in the past. The sign of a player who is in denial of his error. At 27 he is over the hill. They say players never lose their talent, but they all have a use by date. His has come early unless there is something very wrong with him. Lets see if Longmire and the selection committee have the balls to drop him to oblivion like they did to Ryan O'Keefe.

How long do we go carrying these blokes if we are serious about being contenders.

I thought Rose tried hard but he doesn't keep his feet. Certainly gave more than the above 2.

[0918330512]

- Aliir is a one trick pony. It's lose backman or nothing. Too slow to play on leading forwards. Not strong enough to play on marking forwards. Too scared to put his head over the ball robe a tough defender. His kicking is below par. We really need Melican to come back.
- Aliir should be traded at the end of the year whilst [he] still have some currency.

Your first point is at odds with your second point

I think many on here rate him more highly than he should currently be rated.

Other clubs might throw big coin at him to lure him away, but I doubt they would throw much at us to get him

- Aliir and Rohan should be traded at the end of the year whilst they still have some currency.

I love Rohan. But based on his current form and output/stats, his genuine trade value is probably 3 potatoes and half a can of Coke.

[Nico]

Uncontested possessions 241-189
Marks 109-66
Intercept possessions 85-71

Really really really disappointing that the Swans didn?t try and shorten up their game last night with marks

The stats above are just like looking at Hawthorn vs us

Hawthorn notoriously beat us with uncontested footy and Richmond did the same

We had plenty of opportunities to take easier short passes and marks to win back possessionand momentum but didn?t take the game oninthis way

It puzzles me and I just can?t understand why we dont respect a very good opposition and mirror the game plan

Auntie; I reckon we did try to shorten it up but we missed our targets by 10 to 20 metres. Some of the hospital kicks were hard to watch and they gave the Richmond players plenty of time to pounce on our marking player.

[0918330512]

I thought Rose tried hard but he doesn't keep his feet. Certainly gave more than the above 2.

Good NEAFL player but little impact at senior level.

Disposals average (when he actually wins them), can?t stick a tackle, and spends more time running around like a floppy headless chook bouncing off opposition players than winning the ball. Maybe an ok 21-24th player, but not when players 15-20 are having a horrid night

[rb4x]

I have come to the conclusion that Rohan is tall, fast, fearless, a great mark and a very good kick. In other words has all the tools to be superstar except for the fact that he has a very small football brain. He could be absolutely brilliant based on the occasional, in fact very occasional cameo but he just does not know how to be more involved. Very sorry but he has too learn how to play football in the NEAFL. We can not carry pretty passengers in the AFL.

[Nico]

What was obvious to me sitting high above the game was that Richmond always had a loose player sitting off the pack on the defensive side, be that at a boundary throw in or marking contest or win the ball on the ground contest. They got the ball and there was always a player running off wide to comfortably receive. We had 3 to 4 players flying for a mark and no one down. It was particularly obvious when the ball went into our forward line. Was very frustrating to watch.

[barry]

The only thing that gives me comfort is it was a game off the bye. Our form is never good. Let see how next few weeks pan out.

[0918330512]

Bud seemed frustrated much of the night with the attention he was receiving ... & reacting inappropriately. We miss a Ben McGlynn type player who can be at Bud?s side to dish out some retribution on Bud?s behalf and leave Bud to play like Bud does

[RogueSwan]

I wonder if Clarko was watching that game. The tigers defence seems built around playing the man you are marking whilst a third comes in for the mark spoil ie: blocking the oppositions forward. I don't have a problem with this if its in the rules but no journo would be game to point it out.
I'm not too down on the result. The Tigers are clearly the best team at the moment and we aren't ... but we have the potential.
ps: I can't stand Rance. Overrated (good as floating, very ordinary one one one) and constantly flailing about for free kicks.
pss: Ling should not be allowed to call any Swans games, mainly so I don't have to listen to him.

[Agent 86]

Your first point is at odds with your second point

I think many on here rate him more highly than he should currently be rated.

Other clubs might throw big coin at him to lure him away, but I doubt they would throw much at us to get him



I love Rohan. But based on his current form and output/stats, his genuine trade value is probably 3 potatoes and half a can of Coke.

Harsh - but fair. No one is gonna pay much for an injury prone speedster who gets 5 touches a game. He needs to change the way he plays if any hope of continuing (at any team). Get more touches and look for a better option before trying to be a hero.

[mattybloods]

I think Rohan has looked the best playing as the second Ruckman the last 2 weeks. He can break lines and loves to tackle. I think we need to try him in a different role.

A good plan for him would be to play a few games in the NEAFL in the midfield, see if he has the stamina to play there. Could be a turning point for him. If it doesn't work out we're not losing out on anything, we've got some excellent forwards coming through in Hayward, Ronke, McCartin (better if he starts kicking goals) and Papley so I'm pretty comfortable with Rohan not playing in the forward line

[liz]

David King likes to say that when a team comes up against the Swans, they "get an audit" - they find out exactly where they are.

I reckon that's what we got last night. There's a huge amount to be learned from that game. The Tigers are currently a very impressive team and are playing with supreme confidence. We may not have the cattle this season to bridge the gap but at the least the team now knows exactly what it needs to do to try and bridge the gap.

A lot of it is mental. One of the less irritating things spouted by the commentary team last night was that Tigers players don't panic when they are under pressure. They back themselves to get a handball or kick off regardless. Part of that is having a lot of faith in the team structures, believing there will be a team mate in the right spot. And part is just not panicking. We have some players like that but last night, not enough.

Another obvious thing (also commented upon by the commentary team) was the difference in the way the ball was delivered into the forward line. The Tigers always took it in with menace while the Swans were "long bomb and hope". Being prepared to run and carry through the middle was the obvious difference. The team knows this. Against Geelong, when we reeled in a three-quarter time deficit, the team clearly changed up the way they moved the ball in that final quarter and moved it far shorter through the middle third of the ground. It's a different matter against the Tigers, who put on far more forward pressure than the Cats, but at least they know what they need to try and do.

The other clear difference was that we got nothing out of our bottom handful of players. Rose is a tough one to assess. He's not in our best 22 and I suspect he's not quite good enough, not against a team like Richmond. But it's incredibly tough to step up directly from NEAFL to a game against the best team in the AFL.

I don't believe Hanners is cooked in a permanent sense. His age suggests he should have plenty of good football left in him. Clearly his running at training is telling the coaches he's fit enough but, physically, he's a long way off where he has been most of his career. Has the time come to give him a couple of weeks to run around in the NEAFL under less pressure and try to re-find his touch and timing?

Jack I think probably is close to finished. He's a shade of the player he used to be but, unlike Hanners, his age suggests it's likely permanent. If there's a discussion around whether the team can carry veterans on the list next year, I'd rather hold onto Grundy and/or McVeigh for another year and lose Jack. However Jack is still contracted for next year.

It's hard to assess any of the forwards yesterday because of how poorly the ball was delivered, but Rohan was ordinary on any measure. As someone above posted, with all his attributes, he really should be a good player so I'm not sure what is missing. If Dawson hadn't been injured all year he might be a player who could provide the marking and kicking of Rohan, without his extreme speed. Dawson's probably not quite ready yet after just two weeks of limited game time at NEAFL level under his belt. Maybe in another couple of weeks.


Otherwise, there were some things to be pleased with. After the early fumbles, our defence actually did reasonably well to restrict Richmond's scoring, given just how threatening they were. Clearly they weren't able to stop Riewoldt, and they did make some mistakes, but held out OK.

Florent and Ronke did some fantastic things. Hayward was quiet in the first half but contributed well in the second. I thought Aliir looked solid. McCartin shows a lot of promise.

That was JPK's best game for the season by far. He was back to his absolute best. It would have been a BOG performance had it not been for Riewoldt being "possessed" in the Tigers' forward line. He's been hampered by something early in the season (knee soreness) but he reminded us of the kind of player he still is. Parker wasn't far behind.

We have a lot of the pieces in place. It comes down to whether the team can a) find more from it's bottom handful of players (with different personnel if necessary. Is Longmire prepared to take a risk that a Fox or O'Riordan or Dawson can provide more than the current incumbents did last night?) b) can the team adhere to the discipline to run and carry more through the middle part of the ground, rather than release long panic kicks from half back?

[Go Swannies]

Liz, I'd just add to that that we should be strengthened by the return of Melican and Sam Reid will take some of the pressure off Buddy. But, finally, I agree re Jack and Rohan. I thought Allir was pretty solid but sometimes has to run a bit harder to get there for the spoil. Rose wasn't far of the pace in a hectic game.

[Sandrevan]

I really dislike Rance. I've always thought he was good but overrated and I think he's sneaky/dirty. That elbow to Buddy's throat and then an academy award when he cops one back.

I'm almost disturbed by Alex Rance(d). He's a very good player but such a d@#&head. He was clearly staging when Buddy hit him in the neck - and the stupid umpire got sucked in big time. Rance(d) is a good looking guy - when he finishes with football he could get a job as an actor; he's already pretty good at it. It's so blatant - I don't know how his coach can say that allegations of staging are farcical.

[liz]

Liz, I'd just add to that that we should be strengthened by the return of Melican and Sam Reid will take some of the pressure off Buddy.

Agree, but they won't affect the areas where we most needed to improve on yesterday's performance. When they are ready to return, Aliir and McCartin are the two obvious players to make way, and neither of them was the major issue yesterday.