#AFL Round 3: Blues v Swans Sat 6-Apr at Marvel Stadium #AFLBluesSwans @sydneyswans

[Blood Fever]

Didn’t think the umpiring was too bad, certainly not compared to last week.

But how Papley didn’t get a free kick for either contact below the knees or high contact in the same tackle I have no idea.

Inconsistency infuriating.

[stevoswan]

Yes, speaking of umpiring, if Carlton had managed to overrun us in the final quarter, I think that we'd all be pointing to the ridiculous fifty payed against Sinclair as the turning point. Seemed about five metres wide of the Carlton player, who didn't even register his presence.

I knew that was going to happen today....last night I saw at least two examples of this where the umpire just let it go and I thought, 'if we did that it would be fifty'.....and so it was.

[neilfws]

Every win over Carlton feels like "well, a win is a win." Given that they can barely put together two quarters, that in itself should be concerning. But a win is a win

I thought there were some encouraging signs, better than last week which was better than the week before, so progressing at least.

Liked Jones a lot today, Heeney obviously! also Sinclair, Kennedy and Hayward before his unfortunate premature exit. I hope it is not too serious.

The big bloke carrying Papley upside down was funny too.

Guess there may be forced changes with the injuries, which will keep things interesting for next week, but I feel more optimistic than I did at the first outing.

[The Big Cat]

Trying to watch videos of highlights, interviews and Longmire press conference on Swans website or AFL site. Have both a very new iPad and laptop. Videos won’t come up and not the first time!

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Inconsistency infuriating.

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Inconsistency infuriating.

I'm the same. I was at the game and wanted to see close ups of the action, plus horse's comments.

[Nico]

Boy that was hard work. The big plus for me was Reid on the ball. Much better value than his woeful wasting up forward. Just wish he would hold those easy marks.

[Auntie.Gerald]

Macca’s injury looked like a hip flexor strain or tear to me

[Hotpotato]

Haven’t seen the game, so thanks RWO for all the word pictures of the win against the Blues.

[Sandridge]

Boy that was hard work. The big plus for me was Reid on the ball. Much better value than his woeful wasting up forward. Just wish he would hold those easy marks.

Yes, he fluffed a few easy marks but was still influential. An injury free season for Sammy, please!

[mcs]

Regarding the umpiring:
I'll start off by saying we got a couple of softies.
I'll also say I felt most of the free against us were there.

HOWEVER, it's the things we DON'T get that are galling
I don't think we got any 50 metre penalties. (Was at the game so emotion might have led to me missing one.) The Sinclair 50 was mystifying!
There was one kicking in danger paid. To Carlton. There were two others that should have gone our way but didn't. For goodness sake, Nic Newman nearly kicked Buddy's head off but "play on." If Buddy got the frees that Carlton players got, he'd have kicked 5 or 6.
And another important decision came in the third quarter when, on our forward line, we tackled a Carlton player, the ball dropped to ground, Ronke (I think) picked it up and snapped a goal. The umpire disallowed the goal and gave a free kick to the Carlton player who was tackled. Replays at the ground showed no high tackle, no in the back - the only transgression was that the Carlton player dropped it! The goal would have put us 29 points up.

Anyway, I feel a bit better after that rant!

GO THE MIGHTY BLOODS!!!

Lovely to AGAIN beat the vultures who waited for us to die in the 90s!

Yep its the ones we don't get that are frustrating. Feels like sometimes there are two sets of rules (Of course I know there are not). We've seen it before, we will see it again...

[Ralph Dawg]

Only saw the last quarter but McCartain looked good in defence. Very pleasing as we need more tall options down back. Dawson looked competitive in the one on ones and Thurlow was composed. Jones dynamic on ball which most probably means more time forward and in defence for Heeney and Mills respectively. JPK finding form but Parker looked off his usual form.

[Blood Fever]

Only saw the last quarter but McCartain looked good in defence. Very pleasing as we need more tall options down back. Dawson looked competitive in the one on ones and Thurlow was composed. Jones dynamic on ball which most probably means more time forward and in defence for Heeney and Mills respectively. JPK finding form but Parker looked off his usual form.

Happy for Parker to have some support with Jones, Heeney Florent etc helping out. Gives him some breathing space. Thought he was pretty good.

[MattW]

Anonymous.

I'd prefer COR

He had it 19 times, that's four more than O'Riordan last week. I thought Thurlow used it better and was more influential up the ground - delivered well into the forward line a couple of times. Thurlow 2 I50s, 4R50s, 4 score involvements; COR 0, 1, 2 respectively.

[MattW]

Zac Jones best for mine. Sinclair, Heeney and Paps all had very good games. I liked Thurlow and it'll be good experience for McCartin. Jakey Lloyd just keeps on keeping on.

Still a bit too Buddy centric- I think he needs more stints further up the ground.

I'm happy with that win - I'll take it.

Agree with all of that. It will be very helpful Jones keep playing like that. He provides breakaway speed from the centre and his kicking has improved. It frees Heeney up to play forward and Mills to play back, where they both looked good today.

You can see Papley's development - he is making smart and mature decisions, as well as being reliably hard at it. No longer a pest; a leader.

A mention for Rampe too, who I thought was colossal back.

[Beerman]

I can't believe people are complaining about the umpires - we got a very favourable run. Sure, there were some questionable decisions, (eg. in the back against Papley should have been HTB against Carlton), but overall a lot of soft frees called our way, I thought. For example, that last free to Heeney was called when earlier that quarter a similar situation down the other end was called play on. The free to Buddy for his first goal was very soft too - ridiculous that that's being paid these days, even if it was flagged during the week as something they were cracking down on.

I'm not getting too excited about that performance - it's only Carlton, but there were some encouraging signs. It's particularly pleasing that Kennedy & Jones did so well since Cripps is probably the best contested ball winner in the game. Reid looked very rusty, but perhaps with a few more games he'll start to come good. McCartin looked good down back too.

As for Heeney, it's clear that he reads the afl website...
Screen Shot 2019-04-07 at 8.42.44 am.jpg

(Courtesy of "Sliding doors", afl.com.au)

[longmile]

He had it 19 times, that's four more than O'Riordan last week. I thought Thurlow used it better and was more influential up the ground - delivered well into the forward line a couple of times. Thurlow 2 I50s, 4R50s, 4 score involvements; COR 0, 1, 2 respectively.

I did post this around 3 quarter time and thought he was very good and composed in the final quarter when Carlton were pressing