#AFL Round 2 Swans vs Crows Fri 29-Mar at SCG #AFLSwansCrows @sydneyswans

[aardvark]

Is it finally time to say “rebuild”?

If that's the case then Jack, Macca and Grundy should see out the year in the NEAFL.

[Ludwig]

Is it finally time to say “rebuild”?

I think the rebuild is done now,in that the players to take us into contention through the next decade are already on our list. A lot of work from KB and his staff went into recruiting these players and we have a pretty good record on player development. We just need to give time to see if we got it right.

[0918330512]

I'm calling it now, worst recruit this century.

I presume you mean recruited from other AFL clubs?

Based on his 2 games (where much of the team was ordinary)? Reserve judgement ‘til he’s had a career at the Swans the length and quality of Derickx, Chambers, Daffy, Aaron Rogers, Talia, Shaun Edwards, Chris Obst, Stephen Tingay

[Markwebbos]

We’ve never been so dependent on the young players as we are this year. I think the Hanners, Mitchell situation stuffed our plans. Also wonder if Hewett was meant to be an onballer by now rather than a tagger/defensive forward?

[wolftone57]

Totally agree here. Problem is that he'll no doubt be the first to go as is horse's way similar to Dawson last week who is another who will be good if we just persist.

Yet guys like Florent, Jones, Hayward and now it seems Clarke, who all have talent no doubt, keep getting gifted games week after week after doing basically stuff all.

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Clarke is hopeless

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[wolftone57]

I presume you mean recruited from other AFL clubs?

Based on his 2 games (where much of the team was ordinary)? Reserve judgement ‘til he’s had a career at the Swans the length and quality of Derickx, Chambers, Daffy, Aaron Rogers, Talia, Shaun Edwards, Chris Obst, Stephen Tingay

Talia only played one game

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[troyjones2525]

Horse as expected did not go anywhere near hard enough as he should have. We'll never win a free kick count with weak leadership like this!

Check out @7AFL’s Tweet: 7AFL on Twitter: "John Longmire comments on the umpires.

#AFLSwansCrows… "

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[Bexl]

I don't understand the love for Aliir. He dropped an absolute sitter of a mark and was very quiet. Similarly, Florent and Hayward were very poor tonight. They had little impact and made a few fumbles. On the other hand Blakey will be a gun for us once he gains more experience.

Aliir had 17 possessions including 7 marks but he also did a number of good spoils.
While I think Blakey will be good he only had 7 touches. I think McCartin will come in for him soon.

[dejavoodoo44]

I presume you mean recruited from other AFL clubs?

Based on his 2 games (where much of the team was ordinary)? Reserve judgement ‘til he’s had a career at the Swans the length and quality of Derickx, Chambers, Daffy, Aaron Rogers, Talia, Shaun Edwards, Chris Obst, Stephen Tingay

Yes, Clarke has already done more than Chambers. At least Clarke can get the ball. Me and a couple of football friends used to refer to Chambers as Binary. Due to the fact that his stats sheet, was usually a collection of 0s, with the occasional 1.

[707]

Seriously, we need to put together a tape of all the soft frees the Crows got, the wrong calls against us and the non calls for us and demand the Umpiring Dept say if they are correct or not. HTB was played to two sets off interpretations, one for the Cows, another for us.

I'm usually neutral about umpiring, but I was livid at the 2016 GF and tonight is in the same class IMO. You can't have that much ineptness in three umpires, but we did! Just momentum sapping.

[Meg]

Aliir was magnificent, without him we cop a far more comprehensive bashing up.

- - - Updated - - -

The binoculars were a waste of carbon .

Yep. And yep!

[707]

If that's the case then Jack, Macca and Grundy should see out the year in the NEAFL.

If Jack gets injury free and returns to form then he plays. Macca has a great footy brain, vision and skill but this is definitely his last year. Grundy may only be depth now with Aliir and Melican filling the key defensive posts.

But three retirements locked in I'd reckon.

If we do languish towards the bottom, it's a better draft picks at the mid season draft, better picks at the ND and a soft draw for 2020 :-)

[liz]

Yes, can't make too many panicky team changes. As I tend to think that we have the basis of a good team, but we're just missing a bit of cohesion and confidence. A win or two, and we may get on a roll. Tonight, whenever the momentum started to swing towards us, a confidence sapping umpiring decision reared its ugly head.

Pretty much this. We were just a tiny bit less clean with our ball handling skills than the Crows, just slightly slower at reacting to the drop of the ball, just slightly poorer at getting players to contests, and just slightly worse at missing tackles (or better at missing tackles). It all adds up and saps the confidence somewhat, but we only need a handful of players to improve by a small margin and better football will follow.

The umpiring was frustrating as. It was signalled with a free to Walker in the first quarter for being out of position in a marking contest and flailing in the air, and carried on all night. I have no idea what some of the decisions against us were for but I am sure others will provide an autopsy over the next few days. However, I did just want to comment on a couple of acts by our two oldest and most experienced players out there this evening. They were both among our better contributors tonight, so my criticisms are specific to a few instances.

Firstly, the 100m penalty rule is dumb, but players trying to milk a 100m penalty by veering off course and deliberately running into an opposition player is not on for me. The umpires fell for it in a JLT game but weren't going to fall for McVeigh's attempt tonight. I expect better from him. (It wasn't helped by the fact his mind was clearly not on the next passage of play, given he then proceeded to kick the ball 15m to an unmarked Crows player.

Secondly, I know a lot of players play for frees, and appeal for frees, particularly when they get frustrated. And I'm sure Buddy was as frustrated by the umpiring tonight as we were, sitting in the stands. But twice (at least) he just fell over with minimal contact from an opponent and voraciously appealed for a free kick. You're better than that Lance. Leave that for the mere mortals. (I also don't think I've seen him blatantly duck into a tackle as he did once this evening - and actually fooled the umpire and kicked a wonderful goal from it. Another thing I hope doesn't become a regular part of his game. He's too good to resort to that).

Not only do I not like the poor sportsmanship of incidents like these, it also sends a poor message to the younger players. Team do get shafted by the umpiring from time to time, and sometimes possibly perceive they are getting shafted even when they're not. But there's little they can do to control that. The players just need to move on from decisions that go against them, and play the next passage of the game. A lot has been said about the 2016 GF umpiring but the 2012 umpiring was almost as bad. Yet the team still won the game because they didn't let it affect them. If the leaders of the team don't ignore it, and just keep their concentration on what they can control, how can we expect the younger players to do so.

Having said that, it was wonderful to see Buddy starting to get some touch back. He showed tonight that he's got a lot of quality football left in him yet. He's not quite up to full speed yet, but a few of his plays tonight were exquisite.

[U.S. Swan]

As disappointed as I am with the result, I was encouraged by tonight's game. The team was much better than last week and will continue to improve. The Swans have a bunch of youngsters on the team and I was impressed with the energy of Ronke and Blakey, in particular. The mid-field came together in the middle of the game and really took command. Unfortunately, the officiating (again) was uninspired. I do get frustrated at the last few years of the AFL and NRL treating the umpiring like special flowers when they are criticized. They are supposed to be the best in the world at what they do and they were ordinary...they should be held to account. If the Swans continue to progress, I would expect them to have a solid win next week.

I chuckled when I saw the chart of the last six times the Swans went 0-2. Made Finals every time. If this list stays healthy, it will be competitive... there are 20 games to go!

[S.S. Bleeder]

If that's the case then Jack, Macca and Grundy should see out the year in the NEAFL.

Yep. Provided we retain enough experience and leadership in the seniors to assist in the development of the youngsters.