#AFL Rd 16 Sydney v Geelong, SCG, 05 July 2018 @SydneySwans #SwansCats

[stevoswan]

Longmire saying Hanners did calf early in the game and was played forward with Jack already out of the game

Well that makes it easy to drop both then.....let's see what the selectors come up with.

[stevoswan]

cant agree with that - at the ground he covered so much territory he played really well - he took marks unlike the rest of the team - he is so composed, which at a distance looks like he’s very casual about it all, I thought he was very good tonight.

Agree Wardy.....on tonights game, Aliir stays in and with Melican out for longer, they have little choice anyway. It's a chance for him to learn at the highest level, I hope it's his making as an AFL player. Back in 2016, when he had strung many games together, he looked like the future and we bemoaned his injury going into the finals.....no reason to think he won't get there again.

[CureTheSane]

Fox was good.
Robinson was ok.
With the way we play, if all is going well, it's all good.
When things aren't going so well, it's on the edge of your seat stuff, and not in a good way.
More hoping that the sideways passes come off.
We seem to be allergic to the middle of the ground.
The closest the ball comes to the middle is when it's being passed over it from side to side.

An argument could me made that the Swans are not playing with nay real confidence.
The other frustrating thing is the instant pass off when a player receives the ball.
It's like they're playing hot potato. "Oh crap, the ball is in my hands, better instantly get rid of it. There's a R&W jumper, I'll pass to him. I'm sure the opposition player right beside him won't give too much trouble"
Seriously, how many times did a player receive the ball, only to instantly pass it to another player who was under way more pressure than the first one?

[Legs Akimbo]

The other frustrating thing is the instant pass off when a player receives the ball.
It's like they're playing hot potato. "Oh crap, the ball is in my hands, better instantly get rid of it. There's a R&W jumper, I'll pass to him. I'm sure the opposition player right beside him won't give too much trouble"
Seriously, how many times did a player receive the ball, only to instantly pass it to another player who was under way more pressure than the first one?

This.

I think it is mental and lack of effort. Almost like they've been coached to keep the ball moving at all costs except no one is moving. The players are static so it becomes a game of hot potato in a half back line.

Richmond are in a place where you see their players working really hard for each other. I don't see that at the moment with us. Our movement is often lateral because players down the field are not leading hard and having 2nd and 3rd efforts.

The heatmap of our % play i saw on the other site proves this. Was pretty disturbing actually.

I have a feeling that somed new (new new not new old) faces in the team could be the spark needed.

[Auntie.Gerald]

If i was coaching against the Swans and I had a top8 team and the Swans had 8 significant players out i would back my players to push ahead of the ball like Richmond and Geelong did last two weeks.

Both opposition teams the last two weeks, at the contest pushed away from our slow midfield and made us pay. Watch a large percentage of contests and Geelong decided to break and put seperation on our midfield and we were not fast enough to close the gap.

The result being we could not contain the cats flooding at us in numbers.

6 significant Swans missing:
Heeney
Papley
Reid
Melican
Mills
Rohan

2 gone for season or retired:
Naismith
Tippett

That’s only 20 available of our best 28
Now only 18 if our best 28 available with macca and jack gone
Plus hannes is struggling making it almost only 17 of our best 28 available

Jack out most of the game last night
That’s too many injured to be a winning team
It’s just too many quality players out and no top 8 team can be successful with that many starting players missing

Geelong could not win if they had equivalent players out ie
Duncan
Kelly
Dangerfield
Tuohy
Menegola
Narkle
Plus say Ablett or Murdoch was out 3/4 qtrs of game thru injury

Not a chance
I was surprised we kept in the game

[Faunac8]

If i was coaching against the Swans and I had a top8 team and the Swans had 8 significant players out i would back my players to push ahead of the ball like Richmond and Geelong did last two weeks.

Both opposition teams the last two weeks, at the contest pushed away from our slow midfield and made us pay. Watch a large percentage of contests and Geelong decided to break and put seperation on our midfield and we were not fast enough to close the gap.

The result being we could not contain the cats flooding at us in numbers.

6 significant Swans missing:
Heeney
Papley
Reid
Melican
Mills
Rohan

2 gone for season or retired:
Naismith
Tippett

That’s only 20 available of our best 28
Now only 18 if our best 28 available with macca and jack gone

Jack out most of the game last night
That’s too many injured to be a winning team
It’s just too many quality players out

Geelong could not win if they had equivalent players out ie
Duncan
Kelly
Dangerfield
Tuohy
Menegola
Narkle
Plus say Ablett or Murdoch was out 3/4 qtrs of game thru injury

Not a chance
I was surprised we kept in the game

This is a far too rational post please stop assessing the facts without emotion ????
So many on this thread feel it would be more beneficial to seek scapegoats and look to blame all and sundry.

[barry]

Richmond exposed the swans last week, and Geelong followed the same plan.

I thought allir was good. Towers will be better for the run, and Robinson was ok.

Our mini slump is either :
- we are carrying a lot of injuries
Or
- we have upped the fitness training for a few weeks in prep for finals, and it's impacting game day.

[Wardy]

But it needs to be said Danger was kept pretty quiet by George Hewitt - he didn’t dominate like he normally does - George is an asset!!

[MattW]

Richmond exposed the swans last week, and Geelong followed the same plan.

I thought allir was good. Towers will be better for the run, and Robinson was ok.

Our mini slump is either :
- we are carrying a lot of injuries
Or
- we have upped the fitness training for a few weeks in prep for finals, and it's impacting game day.

I'm not sure what run you're referring to here.

[KSAS]

Interesting hearing Jake Lever on Triple M (Melb) this morning with Paul Roos. Jake mentioned his family were Swans supporters growing up. He reckons McVeigh's broken collar bone is not good as it's a 8 - 10 week injury, giving impression he's a McVeigh admirer.

Roos mentioning he (Melb) procrastinated on selecting Jake witjh their No. 3 pick in the 2104 draft, as he was recovering from injury he copped at the AIS (another selection oversight looking back with hindsight).

[liz]

That was frustrating as hell to watch. Did someone water the pitch again before the game started? It didn't feel particularly dewy out and about before the game started, and the temperature never dropped, but both teams struggled to keep their feet or handle the ball cleanly in the first quarter. The Cats seemed to acclimatise by the second quarter. It took the Swans until the third quarter before they looked comfortable handling the ball.

Last week I thought the Tigers played very well, and had their key forward on fire. Despite close to no contribution from our bottom five or so players, a fantastic game from Kennedy and accurate goal conversion kept us in the match, at least on the scoreboard, until well into the final quarter. It seemed like a good learning experience. We just needed to get a bit more from the bottom handful of players and carry the ball a bit more through the midfield and we might be able to compete with the best team in the comp.

Yesterday, I thought the Cats were mediocre but we looked worse than we did against the Tigers. Kennedy not being allowed off the leash and in-game injuries didn't help but the ball movement was even less inspiring. It looked as if they had learned a lesson from last week and tried to use shorter kicks to move the ball. But no-one ran into dangerous positions and it all looked unadventurous and constipated.

Even before counting the injury toll from the game, I think it's clear we're a bit short of being a premiership contender this year. Right now it feels like it's hard to build a case for us winning another game (until we meet Gold Coast), though things usually feel worse than they are after a bad loss.

My highlight from the game was Jones. I know he made some mistakes but here was a player doing his darnedest to take the game on and provide some real rebound from defence. If we could clone one player from the team, right now I'd be voting for him. (OK, well probably Buddy, but Jones would be a close second). In addition to being our most effective player IMO, he provide a few moments of comedy as well - those "almost" moments, such as well he was running with the ball behind his back and couldn't quite get it under control, or when he ran the length of the field, and eventually too far, but was at least trying to make something happen.

I similarly enjoyed Florent breaking a couple of tackles and still having no-one available to pass to, and eventually losing possession. You could almost read his mind - "How on earth am I still in possession. WHAT do I do now."

And Buddy's third goal. In the 899 goals he's kicked, has there ever been another one quite like that. How he was allowed to regain the ball on the boundary line and run almost into the goal square after being hemmed in with nowhere to turn back closer to the 50m line, I have no idea.

[AnnieH]

I'm so upset.

[caj23]

Just on the fringe players bought in last night

Fox was excellent, provided run through the midfield and would have a good case for wondering why he hasn't been playing seniors all season

Robinson was good without being great. His selection caused a bit of angst on here but he always comes in and does his job without too much fuss. I wouldn't be confident going into a big finals game with him, but he's good depth when injuries hit. If he could up the quality of his game by another 10-15% (easier said than done I know), then he has the potential to be a permanent fixture, but its a pretty big if

Towers had a poor game but I don't necessarily believe that he needs to be banished to the NEAFL quite yet. He played predominately in the forward half which was a tough gig with our ball movement, and he looked rusty after not having a game last week. He tends to play better when he's had a few games on the trot.

[Swanny40519]

I have seen or watched every Swans game for over 30 years and I believe last nights performance was one of the most disappointing.

We had no idea how to get the ball out of defence and when we actually did, it came straight back to Geelong's forward line where it stayed for a very long time.

Our disposal last night was terrible, kicking was terrible, handball was most of the night terrible and we just bombed the ball long to our forwards where they were always outnumbered.

What happened to the short passing game we had a couple of weeks ago ?

I think Horse will be under some pressure again with his very slow transition and defensive game style.

We have to score more goals to beat the teams like Tigers, Crows, Magpies, and even North. I fear what may happen next week if we go into that game with the same approach and attitude.

[Ralph Dawg]

Pretty disappointing game for us last night. What struck me was the almost total inability to move the ball out of defence into attacking 50 with any fluency. It seemed the only option was to bomb it to half back flank and hope the ball went out to turn it into a ruck contest. This tactic was reliable in the past as we were so strong at the contest. However, I think those days are increasingly gone with Hanners and Jack in no form to speak of. The other issue with this is that the stoppage allows defence to flood back and double / triple team buddy. We really need to develop avenues out of defensive 50. I'm no expert (only have my U8 coaching certificate!) but maybe having Buddy and McCartain coming forward as targets on the wing / half back with an empty forward line for the likes of Ronke / Hayward / Papley, at least some of the times, would generate a bit more fluency. Remembering too that McCartain and especially Buddy are great kicks to targets. Having some players with more pace off half back and on the wings would also help. In that sense, the injuries to Hanners, Jack and McVeigh may actually be a blessing in disguise and allow faster guys like Ollie, Jones and Cunningham to play more of a role coming out of defence and just off the ball. On the ball, it seems like JPK is the only one at present who can win any contested stuff. Might be time to bring in some support for him from Dawson. Do people think Newman could be effective on ball too or does he lack the engine? If the swans handed over the reigns to an U8 coach, this would be my changes for next week ins: Heeney Papley Dawson Newman COR out: Jack Hanners Macca Towers Robinson
BTW Glad to be proven wrong about Aliir - was just about our best last night. And the flying fox was good too - he deserves another run.