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

[mcs]

Dunno if I’m just getting old and cotchety, The Swans are not much fun to watch lately.
Maybe it’s actually the whole game, the way the protected zone is adjudicated , 36 players crowding one part of the ground.
The Swans using the same method of thoughtlessly bombing to a crowd of 7-8 players.
We’ve been soundly audited two weeks in a row.
There’s a lot on here calling for the resting of this bloke Jack Hanners.
Looks like he is done now for awhile .
Bring on more youth .

I hear you Hot Potato. I've loved watching our younger guys this season and the way they are progressing, but I find I am watching less footy than ever as well.

That protected zone is just a joke, and the quality of the play is so very ordinary more often than not. We need a tactical refresh imho as a club - that should not be seen as having a go at Longmire, as he has been a great coach. But our game plan is predictable, same old same old - and we need to find a way to break the shackles. We are building a new Swans team with some talented younger Cygnets, and this is the opportunity imho to tweak how we play the game.

[mcs]

I feel sick that was so @@@@.

Playing the man and not the ball: How many times did I see the ball just stop on the ground, and the swans players were too busy playing the man and not the ball... in strolls some ugly Ablett, and whooshka... goal (or behind - very lucky for us the ugly beard kicked five behinds). Basic Auskick stuff.

Gosh Annie that nailed a bugbear of mine all season long on the head! There is looking after your man, but if the @@@@ing ball is there to get, go and get the ball occasionally boys! You can't kick goals if your team doesn't have possession of the ball...

[lwjoyner]

too many b graders. Robbo,towers ,fox to name a few. Injuries has hurt Hanners give him a rest. Our disposal is poor, we get exited by LLoyd but his disposal his shocking, continues to miss targets and how many times does he kick out of bounds on the full. Gets a lot of possessions but its what you do with the ball that counts.

[mcs]

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.

Aliir did well in the second half. Some of his decision making in the first half left plenty to be desired imho, but the kid does good stuff every time he gets a chance. Surely he will get the rest of the season to continue to develop and learn on the job now with Melican done and dusted.

[707]

I've cooled down now :-) but did I mention we've had 26 scoring shots in our last 8 quarters, that's just 3 scoring shots per quarter!

Last week we were only beaten by 4 goals but miraculously kicked 11.1, would have been a thrashing if it was say 6.6

Last night we were only beaten by two goals but what if Geelong kicked 23.8 or 15.16, would of been the thrashing that play indicated it should have been.

We have serious problems, mostly in the midfield I reckon, we are running out of troops and could even miss the eight. I'm only giving us Gold Coast as a win, North & Essendon at Etihad? Pies, GWS on their heap, Hawks, Melbourne at the MCG. If we fell into the finals we're not doing damage.

Part of me thinks this year is done, too many injuries and under done players, so we're better off with an early finish to the season and prepare for a tilt next year with hopefully a full and healthy list and another year of experience into the young players. Get better draft picks as well!

[neilfws]

I'm only giving us Gold Coast as a win

I mentioned a tipster in another thread who gave us 2 more wins for the year (before last night). I'm starting to think that was not unrealistic, especially with the new injuries.

[Sandrevan]

Hannaberry looks like he has completely lost interest. Maybe he is already going elsewhere next year.

Where's elsewhere?

The NEAFL. No other AFL team would touch him.

[CureTheSane]

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.

To be fair, I'd say that most of the comments here have generally been critical of many different aspects of the team.

Can't hide from the fact that some players are still well under performing and there is no reason for everyone to pretend that this isn't happening.
I get the loyalty to the club and being positive etc, but I'd say that most here have presented fair and well considered comments on those players who are down.

[CureTheSane]

I've cooled down now :-) but did I mention we've had 26 scoring shots in our last 8 quarters, that's just 3 scoring shots per quarter!

Last week we were only beaten by 4 goals but miraculously kicked 11.1, would have been a thrashing if it was say 6.6

Last night we were only beaten by two goals but what if Geelong kicked 23.8 or 15.16, would of been the thrashing that play indicated it should have been.

We have serious problems, mostly in the midfield I reckon, we are running out of troops and could even miss the eight. I'm only giving us Gold Coast as a win, North & Essendon at Etihad? Pies, GWS on their heap, Hawks, Melbourne at the MCG. If we fell into the finals we're not doing damage.

Part of me thinks this year is done, too many injuries and under done players, so we're better off with an early finish to the season and prepare for a tilt next year with hopefully a full and healthy list and another year of experience into the young players. Get better draft picks as well!

But that logic makes little sense.
Can't go with the what if's?
So many permutations.
eg: If Geelong were kicking straighter and drawing away faster, how would the Swans respond?
Maybe they'd get their backs up or whatever and pull their fingers out and play with massive passion and we'd have won?
There were a few easy misses from the Cats, but many of the others were always 50/50 at best.

[Ludwig]

The problem we have had through the midfield this year is the loss of our left-wing attack through the ineffectiveness of both Hannebery and Jack, who have been the mainstay of our attack from the left going back to the Malceski days. Dropping Newman has further depleted our ability to move the ball on the left wing. I've noticed that Buddy is now getting more of his marks on the right side now, which is a change from previous years.

So now we are mostly dependent on moving the ball down the Cunningham Wing (formerly the Jetta Wing). It's easier for the opposition to defend this when the Hannebery Wing has gone missing. We are pretty well stuffed this year with both Hanners and Jack not likely to do much, even if they get back on the park. Ling and Stoddart were recruited to carry the left side load in the next generation of players, but will not have much impact for a few years.

We will have to play Buddy as a genuine left wing midfielder the rest of the year to compensate for the loss of Hanners and Jack. We should try to get Newman and Dawson into to the senior side ASAP, but form has to take precedence as I wouldn't expect them to replace Hanners and Jack. Only Buddy can make enough of an impact there to worry opposition sides.

I'm not sure when we can make this happen, but over the next few games:

• Reid comes back to form our key forward combo with McCartin.
• O'Riordan comes in to replace McVeigh.
• Rohan is trialed in defence to help release Jones for more midfield time.
• Dawson gets a go in the seniors.
• Newman gets a reprieve.
• Heeney and Papley back when fit.

Let's see how the reserves go for an update on player availability.

[Sandrevan]

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?

exactly, lots of short hand passes to a team mate with no room to move.

[Markwebbos]

It’s an aside but I had a thought about Longmire’s dogged insistence on playing out of form golden oldies with runs on the board.

Which is, I think he’s got a magic formula somewhere for what the age composition of the team should be and a belief that if you play too many young / inexperienced players the team falls apart.

So I think he’s been reluctant to drop DH, KJ etc primarily for that reason.

[Sandrevan]

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.

My thoughts exactly Barry. Last nights game was a replica of last weeks against Richmond - Geelong would have watched that with interest. What stopped us getting smashed was Geelong's poor kicking for goal.

[Hotpotato]

The problem we have had through the midfield this year is the loss of our left-wing attack through the ineffectiveness of both Hannebery and Jack, who have been the mainstay of our attack from the left going back to the Malceski days. Dropping Newman has further depleted our ability to move the ball on the left wing. I've noticed that Buddy is now getting more of his marks on the right side now, which is a change from previous years.

So now we are mostly dependent on moving the ball down the Cunningham Wing (formerly the Jetta Wing). It's easier for the opposition to defend this when the Hannebery Wing has gone missing. We are pretty well stuffed this year with both Hanners and Jack not likely to do much, even if they get back on the park. Ling and Stoddart were recruited to carry the left side load in the next generation of players, but will not have much impact for a few years.

We will have to play Buddy as a genuine left wing midfielder the rest of the year to compensate for the loss of Hanners and Jack. We should try to get Newman and Dawson into to the senior side ASAP, but form has to take precedence as I wouldn't expect them to replace Hanners and Jack. Only Buddy can make enough of an impact there to worry opposition sides.

I'm not sure when we can make this happen, but over the next few games:

• Reid comes back to form our key forward combo with McCartin.
• O'Riordan comes in to replace McVeigh.
• Rohan is trialed in defence to help release Jones for more midfield time.
• Dawson gets a go in the seniors.
• Newman gets a reprieve.
• Heeney and Papley back when fit.

Let's see how the reserves go for an update on player availability.

Thanks Luddy, I’ve been thinking about this left and right side specialists as well and you have documented it well .

So we have the Cunningham right wing (old Jetta wing), so the left wing is now a house with no name?

What will it be christened ?

The Ling Wing ?

[MattW]

I understand the pessimism, but I think it is worth noting that the injuries we have are affecting our structures and contributing to the poor play.

Longmire emphasised in the press conference that we were smashed out of the centre, particularly in the first half. The clearance stats from last night are stark. Kennedy had 12, then Parker (who played forward a lot) had 5, Sinclair and Lloyd with 4, then Fox and McVeigh had 2, and several had 1 (including Hewett, whose average is 4). That's a pretty shallow midfield. Heeney back will help with that, both through his own play (he averages over 3) and by allowing Parker to move into the centre. Dawson (7) topped the clearance count for the reserves last weekend and if he plays well on Saturday he should be a smoky for next week. It is clear he will have an important role winning the ball in the future.

Longmire commented in the presser that he was forced to play Parker forward more given the lack of target up forward. That lack of target was noticeable during the game. Aside from Parker, we only really had Buddy and at times McCartin (who played mostly up the wings) to kick to. Reid, Heeney and Papley back will help provide marking targets and allow Parker to play in the middle more.

Longmire also noted that we didn't force enough repeat entires last night, and our forward 50 pressure did look noticeably down. Hayward and Ronke both picked up the majority of their possessions in the defensive half last night, I think due to us not being able to win the ball in midfield, and we need to get them playing forward more, where they contribute important forward 50 pressure. Hannebery playing forward with his injured calf and Towers failing to chase, didn't help. Papley and Rohan returning will also assist with that, provided they are fully fit. Papley's chase has been poor for a lot of the year as he has battled with injury and fitness - his tackle count is well down on his career average.

Longmire acknowledged Aliir's good form in the press conference, and he also noted Fox did some good things. I like that Fox goes hard at the ball and moves well with it. He has a good leap and takes players on. There is adventurism to his play. He's better than Towers playing a similar role. His heat map is interesting - he played all over the ground, which I think suits him and us.

A Sunday game next week is handy. It maximises the chances that Heeney and Papley will return and that Reid will be able to play reserves and have time to recover.