JLT1 Swans v GWS @ Blacktown Saturday 2nd March

[Foreign Legion]

A really good small forward will read the play and adjust accordingly - but maybe modern players are a bit too 'programmed' for that.

I think Reid will need 4-5 weeks to get back to the top level.

[jono2707]

I didn't see anything much to indicate that we spent the off season addressing our major concern from last year - delivery into the forward 50. It was pretty poor.
Otherwise it was ok as far as a first hit out and a decent cobweb-clearing exercise I suppose.

[Go Swannies]

I thought the Swans looked as rusty as if they'd played in the Grand Final last year and had a short pre-season. And our game plan seemed unchanged. Even Parker said in his interview "we managed to slow them down and gained control" or the like - it'd be nice if we backed the players and played on occasionally. I found it quite depressing.

[Foreign Legion]

The new kick out rule did not seem to benefit us. I'd be surprised if we had more than 1 or 2 instances where it was kicked out after a behind and marked by us outside 50 metres. Lots of 20M chips to the back pocket. We need to adapt to this change quickly as other clubs seem to have run with it. Maybe have Dawson handle the kick ins?

[ugg]

When asked who might be back next week Longmire mentioned McVeigh Jones and Jack trained well today but added for Jack that he wasn’t sure he would play

[Melbourne_Blood]

JLT I know but serious lack of much to be excited about tonight. Allir looked good at times , Pink showed a little. Heeney ok, Lloyd and Rampe solid ish. Mills looked pretty average and I don’t know what to say about the rest , Cunningham was good. Foot skills atrocious , centre clearance work poor, around the ground clearance work poor, spread poor . Worried slightly


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[Markwebbos]

Swans never go well in the pre-season comp. And senior players don’t play anywhere near 100%.

Don’t panic just yet.

[Aprilbr]

My take on the game was that I was looking for evidence that the injection of players like Mills and Papley into the midfield would revitalize it. Sadly there was no evidence that this was the case. Ball movement was lacklustre. Our passing going forward was also abysmal. There were few stand out performers for us on the night (plenty for GWS). We can only go up from here!

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[aguy]

My worry is for Kennedy. He looked slow in the midfield and I fear that the modern game has changed sufficiently that his style is no longer helpful to us. He is mostly very good at getting the ball from a stoppage and then dump kicking it Forward quickly without looking for a target so hopefully another stoppage ensues and the same happens again. Contrast that to Mitchell at the hawks ( admittedly not this year). But Mitchell extracts the ball elitetely. Then he handballs to an outside player who has time to hit up a target forward.

This is not a comment that we should have kept Mitchell at all costs but more that our style is not effective anymore and sadly our Kennedy is made for our old ineffective style.

I’ve actually wondered if we need to start swapping Parker and Kennedy. Play Kennedy more forward and play Parker more midfield instead of the other way around. I know Parker currently plays midfield but he does spend a decent amount of time in the forward half. I think he was starting there last night but maybe that was just to give the new guys some experience in the centre. Kennedy across half forward has been quite good in the past and it could be good for him as he gets older

[tasswan]

Apart from the first quarter, I thought there were some good things to take out of the game.

Considering how young the team is, I thought they did well to get back into the game rather than it be a blow out and to me it looked like our players were trying to get used to playing in their new positions and this will take time to gel and get used to.

Heeney was outstanding and there were some good cameos from others such as Cunningham and COR who I thought gave plenty to be considered for a round 1 spot, Mills got better as the game progressed as did Papley and Sinkers.

GWS' kicking is sublime and yet we were able to force enough errors to keep the game competitive and we out-scored them after 1/4 time.

[Ralph Dawg]

I know last night was only a trial, but a few of our defiencies, which will hold us back this year were highlighted.
1) Inability to win contested ball cleanly. Coniglio and Taranto dominated inside and their first year draftees, Hately and Caldwell more then held their own against more experienced players.
2) Lack of pace across the park. If you were to rank the top 10 runners from last night, we would be lucky to have one player there. This lack of pace translated into a lack of time to execute skills.
3) Poor skill execution. See above
On the plus side, Sinclair looked pretty good in the ruck. Heeney was great, especially when forward and I thought young McInerney looked composed off half back. I think as a matter of priority, we need to get time into him, Ling, Stoddart and Rowbottom as we desperately need these guys to come on.

[Auntie.Gerald]

In summary

1. The GWS list is extremely deep and they have some seriously exciting young strong athletic bodied players to call upon this season when injuries strike

2. Secondly the GWS game plan with their exits via HBF are seriously exciting and clean. They had us moving around like sheep. In comparison our exits looked terrible

3. Our entries only started looking better when the Giants better players left the ground which was quite disturbing.

Long season I think especially given two of our three new recruits looked average in particular Clumsy Clarke and our youth looked a level down compared to the youth of GWS

[troyjones2525]

In summary

1. The GWS list is extremely deep and they have some seriously exciting young strong athletic bodied players to call upon this season when injuries strike

2. Secondly the GWS game plan with their exits via HBF are seriously exciting and clean. They had us moving around like sheep. In comparison our exits looked terrible

3. Our entries only started looking better when the Giants better players left the ground which was quite disturbing.

Long season I think especially given two of our three new recruits looked average in particular Clumsy Clarke and our youth looked a level down compared to the youth of GWS

Unfortunately this is a spot on assessment from last night. Hoping for a better showing next week...

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[Ralph Dawg]

In summary

1. The GWS list is extremely deep and they have some seriously exciting young strong athletic bodied players to call upon this season when injuries strike

2. Secondly the GWS game plan with their exits via HBF are seriously exciting and clean. They had us moving around like sheep. In comparison our exits looked terrible

3. Our entries only started looking better when the Giants better players left the ground which was quite disturbing.

Long season I think especially given two of our three new recruits looked average in particular Clumsy Clarke and our youth looked a level down compared to the youth of GWS

Agree 100%. Clarke certainly did not look too flash. This is the year to get some game time into the likes of McInerney, Ling, Stoddart, Rowbottom and Foot and not persist with average older players who have already had their chance.

[wolftone57]

What was most disappointing was the disposal under perceived pressure not real pressure. The players were rushing everything, not composed. But the most disappointing aspect was that it was our most experienced players who were doing this. Kennedy, Cunningham, Parker, Hewett, Heeney, Mills, Rampe, Papley. I thought Aliir, COR, young McInnerney, Ronke, Dawson the most composed. Even Pink who is seen as a development player had more composure than Kennedy & Co.

This falling apart under pressure and then rushing when you don't need to has become a mainstay of our play of recent times. Jude Bolton must grit and grind his teeth in anger and disbelief at the lack of composure of our senior squad.

Clark gets plenty of ball but jesus his ball use is deplorable. Yes Hannas ball use was bad but I don't think I saw him do three underground grubbas in a row with only one having pressure on. The kid just hacks the @@@@ out of the ball. Very disappointing.

Thurlow's disposal was not as bad but he also butchered the ball on several occasions and put players under extreme pressure. If Fox is to take hold of the back pocket position while Smooch is away he had better do two things; tighten up and toughen up.

Sinclair was good around the ground. Yes he got hit outs. But rarely did one go to advantage. His hit outs tend to fall straight to ground or to the side where the opposition set up two players. That gives them a better chance of getting the spill. The other thing is what's all this about not manning up at centre bounces and other stoppages. There were many times the majority of our players were on one side of the contest and their players on the other. That spells disaster when you don't even man up Coniglio and Taranto. I get that we were backing our Ruck in but Sinclair rarely hits to advantage so it is not a good thing. On the other hand his opponents hit to advantage almost every time. If you want to know why they were so strong in the midfield you might like to start there.

The forward line was a mess. They were getting in each other's way, Reid and Blakey were going for the same ball, they were running way out of position and away from the incoming player constantly. At times of they had approached the player with the ball they may have gotten a good contest but they seemed to be getting caught out of position and doubling back all the time. The timing of leads was way off and all the players were getting in each other's way. It would have been comical if it weren't so sad. Reid wasn't just rusty he was comical. He ran to the wrong spots, doubled back so badly at times, the player with the ball was far too far from him to hit him up. He also led to the pockets too often. There is more but...

As for the delivery onto the forward line. It was not helped by a chaotic forward set up but really, can our players stop hitting the opposition backs on the chest with passes and high kicks. Bloody hell that's so frustrating. My school footy team could hit up targets why can't our blokes. The difference in field kicking was so noticeable. Theirs, was superb, ours atrocious.

I think it was amazing we were able to get so close. I really thought we always looked on the edge of a blowout. But there was one thing I had in my mind every time we even got close. They will step it up here and they did everytime. They had our measure, they knew it and we knew it.

Who to persevere with? Dawson used the ball well with his 15. He didn't get enough of the ball but that may have been because Longmire insisted on leaving him at FF one out on three Giants and getting the boys to kick to him. Boy that really works. What about the two boys who were free? What about kicking to them? Oh they couldn't that's right, they were the ones kicking to him and they were too far up to provide forward pressure and punish the opposition.

McInnerney did not get involved enough in my opinion. But then again the backs were in chaos. Nobody seemed to be leading and Rampe was missing for most of the match. He seemed disinterested. He was not giving feedback, giving directions to his teammates and being a backs general. We missed Reg terribly as he controls the backs. Reg & Smithy. Rampe showed no evidence he is going to take that next step. He was thoroughly murdered by every opponent last night and was silent when it came to helping his young backs. Pathetic Ramps. You're supposed to be a captain, then be one. You could have given Melican some tips about playing on Cameron.

Why do we when we get a clearance, one of the rare ones, just bomb the ball in, no direction, no lifting the eyes to see who's available, no composure at all. Even Ollie did it and I was a bit shocked as he is normally pretty composed, even under heavy pressure. George did it too. Bugger. When George is just bombing the ball forward you know you're in trouble.

It was not a very good hit out. Our footy at times would have embarrassed a school footy team. Our disposal was substandard. Our set ups a mess. Our backs confused and loose. The mids were loose and lazy. We can't take this sort of footy into the H&A season. We will get slaughtered on the rebound every time. Hopefully we won't take this style into a real game.

As for the coaching. Again Longmire's response to getting killed in the mids and the opposition getting a run on is to flood the back line. This is so negative. We should have been on top in the second because we had momentum. But as soon as the bit back he goes the full flood and we had nobody ro kick to. The ball kept coming back in again and again. How many times have we seen this and thought I never want to see this again? The problem is nothing much has changed. Still slow movement. Still terrible stoppage set ups. Still terrible forward structure. Still not hitting out to advantage. Still relying on the strong back six and mids to get back and flood. All players to flood. We are not playing modern footy by a long shot. It is same old, same old. If we don't do something to remedy this by round one even the Bullies will blow us away. Stewie Dew gave them the blueprint on how to beat us and every coach will use that if Longmire does not change.

I realise this is not an important match. It is really a scratch match. A Pre season match. But we really didn't show much. In the last few years there have been good signs. Players to be excited about. I'm not seeing this here. In fact several of our blokes have gone backward. Very frustrating. I'm hoping it is just an illusion and everything will come good by the season opener.

But if the coaching does not change nothing will come good. Longmire needs to pull his head in and realise he is the major problem and if he can't change, give someone else a go.









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