#AFL Round 5 Tigers v Swans Sat 20-Apr at Marvel Stadium #AFLTigersSwans @sydneyswans

[Ralph Dawg]

I'm not sure where the next win is coming from on this form? Brisbane at the Gabbatoir followed by North at home, we'd surely win one of those?

I'm actually happy to see the Swans try to play a more skilled game, even if they crashed and burned against the masters of the turnover last night. I would rather that than bombing long to a contest down the line.

Ralph Dawg all those comments from Horse were in our front third / going inside 50 (and he made similar comments after last week's game), that we weren't entering deep enough and they were rebounding from their defence and scoring. He referencing turning the ball over in "that" 40-70m range (from our goal). I didn't hear anything about how we moved the ball out of defence.

He also said we'd been good in the past at getting the mix of youth and experience right to remain competitive whilst blooding a ton of young players, which is true. That implies we are likely to see less youth and more experience in the side.

I'm just not sure where that injection of experience is going to come from unless he means the return of Smith, Grundy, McVeigh etc and I guess Menzel in a few weeks.

I thought KJack had a pretty terrible game and should be on the chopping block.

I stand to be corrected. It's amazing how when you think something, it ends up being what you hear!
I'll be going the Gabba with Ralph Pup. He has never seen the swans ever lose to the Lions - let's hope we can keep the record in check.

[waswan]

6-6-6
High possessions are a waste
Long and direct and ahead of the defense
Having 5 guys above 28 possessions means nothing
Give Buddy a chance

[Ludwig]

Macca, Reg and Smith are all injured. We might as well add KJ to that group of probable retirees and not play them the rest of the year.

Thurlow and Clarke were a bit better, maybe because the rest of the team came down to their level. We might as well leave them in and hope they improve. Thurlow can kick the ball, but needs to be more thoughtful. Clarke will never be a good kick, but if he can get the rest of his game to a high level, we might be able to live with it.

We need to get more movement in the team. Let's drop the ruckman. We're not winning the ruck contests anyway. Just play an extra midfielder to give us more advantage at ground level.

And stop corralling. Corralling is for Horses. Let's do what Richmond do: Just go hard at the ball and player with the ball. None of this waiting to see what happens with the man in possession. Don't give the opposition a chance to dispose of the ball. Yes, sometimes this can backfire and you get beaten over the back. There's more to be gained than lost, IMO.

Rotate Kennedy, Parker and Hewett between on-ball, forward and tagger. We can leave Cunningham in defence and bring both Mills and Lloyd into the midfield. Aliir, McCartin, Thurlow, Rampe, COR and Harry to play back 6 without extra cover. We need to stop the ball before it even gets into defence. Let's try to score. If we get blown out, so what. We need to change the way we play.

We can drop Sinclair, Jack and Ronke next week and bring in COR, Stoddart and Rose (or perhaps Blakey).

[Markwebbos]

I stand to be corrected. It's amazing how when you think something, it ends up being what you hear!
I'll be going the Gabba with Ralph Pup. He has never seen the swans ever lose to the Lions - let's hope we can keep the record in check.

I did go back and listen to his presser again. Just to be sure like.

[Kumarangk]

Absolutely agree. He is slow and his hands desert him at times under pressure.

[Markwebbos]

Macca, Reg and Smith are all injured. We might as well add KJ to that group of probable retirees and not play them the rest of the year.

Thurlow and Clarke were a bit better, maybe because the rest of the team came down to their level. We might as well leave them in and hope they improve. Thurlow can kick the ball, but needs to be more thoughtful. Clarke will never be a good kick, but if he can get the rest of his game to a high level, we might be able to live with it.

We need to get more movement in the team. Let's drop the ruckman. We're not winning the ruck contests anyway. Just play an extra midfielder to give us more advantage at ground level.

Rotate Kennedy, Parker and Hewett between on-ball, forward and tagger. We can leave Cunningham in defence and bring both Mills and Lloyd into the midfield. Aliir, McCartin, Thurlow, Rampe, COR and Harry to play back 6 without extra cover. We need to stop the ball before it even gets into defence. Let's try to score. If we get blown out, so what. We need to change the way we play.

We can drop Sinclair, Jack and Ronke next week and bring in COR, Stoddart and Rose (or perhaps Blakey).

Ludwig that's not completely bonkers against a side like Richmond. Not sure against a side with a dominant ruckman like Gawn, although having Sinkers didn't really help in the second half last week, did it? Aliir in the middle robs us in defence but offers more of that type of mobility. How tall is Blakey? Why not chuck him in there?

Thurlow looks like he's not that far away from settling himself in. I keep thinking of Clarke as a direct replacement for Hanners, so a disposal efficiency of 60% isn't a disaster.

[Ludwig]

Ludwig that's not completely bonkers against a side like Richmond. Not sure against a side with a dominant ruckman like Gawn, although having Sinkers didn't really help in the second half last week, did it? Aliir in the middle robs us in defence but offers more of that type of mobility. How tall is Blakey? Why not chuck him in there?

Not playing a ruckman against a dominant ruckman makes even more sense. If you're going to lose the ruck contest anyway, why even bother competing. It's wasting a player in a losing contest. With the 6-6-6, you can get an extra few seconds with another ground level player after the tap. We should try to turn that to our advantage. Get the ball to ground and win it. Make Kennedy our ruckman. He's no pushover.

[Scottee]

Macca, Reg and Smith are all injured. We might as well add KJ to that group of probable retirees and not play them the rest of the year.

Thurlow and Clarke were a bit better, maybe because the rest of the team came down to their level. We might as well leave them in and hope they improve. Thurlow can kick the ball, but needs to be more thoughtful. Clarke will never be a good kick, but if he can get the rest of his game to a high level, we might be able to live with it.

We need to get more movement in the team. Let's drop the ruckman. We're not winning the ruck contests anyway. Just play an extra midfielder to give us more advantage at ground level.

Rotate Kennedy, Parker and Hewett between on-ball, forward and tagger. We can leave Cunningham in defence and bring both Mills and Lloyd into the midfield. Aliir, McCartin, Thurlow, Rampe, COR and Harry to play back 6 without extra cover. We need to stop the ball before it even gets into defence. Let's try to score. If we get blown out, so what. We need to change the way we play.

We can drop Sinclair, Jack and Ronke next week and bring in COR, Stoddart and Rose (or perhaps Blakey).

Agree re KJ (I think that was his last senior game) and on keeping Clarke and Thurlow.

I also think that rather than play McCartin we need another quick medium sized mid ala Fox or Rose. CO'R has earned a recall but I'm not sure who he would replace because the backline was OK last night. Later in the year I think Amartey will be pressing for selection over Reid if he doesn't improve. Wicks and Bell show some promise and might also be in the running later on if we continue to muck up.Ling will be in the side in about 4 weeks I think.

[Ralph Dawg]

I did go back and listen to his presser again. Just to be sure like.

Webbos, my response reads with some ambiguity. Yes you are correct re presser and I am hoping Ralph Pup's run of never seeing swans loses to Lions continues. Need to stay off the Easter eggs!

[Markwebbos]

Webbos, my response reads with some ambiguity. Yes you are correct re presser and I am hoping Ralph Pup's run of never seeing swans loses to Lions continues. Need to stay off the Easter eggs!

I hope Swans can turn it around by then too. Pretty nervous about this week's trip to the SCG

[111431]

Jake Lloyd
700m gained
38 Possessions
20 Kicks down the line
0 marked
10 kicks questionably 15m
0 Lines broken
0 Players put into space

Put him on the wing and let him run like Gaff he is having 0 influence

I agree - let Dawson play his role - distributes the ball far better

[Sandrevan]

Swans were terrible last night. I didn’t expect to win and 23 points is no thrashing but it’s the way we lost that is the problem. Our players were so static- no one was moving into space. The opposition only has 18 players on the field so there is lots of open space.
Rowbotham looks a keeper - I hope he gets a few games. Dawson was pretty good - very good kicking skills.

If we can’t play with a bit more confidence then 2019 is a write off. The 2 year trade ban is really biting now; our senior player are injured or clapped out. KJ was terrible last night - that kick for goal that went OOB indicative where he is at.
Mike SchnitzPatrick is sitting on his chesterfield lounge in his Toorak mansion with a smug grin on his face. Finally, he has managed to bring the Swans down a peg or 2. Those upstarts from South Melbourne back where they belong - down the bottom of the ladder.
Well; at least we beat Carlton.

[Nico]

Not much mention of this, but Mills is not the player we expected him to be.

Yes he was injured last year, yes he is brave and yes he is possibly played out of position, however he is barely going.

This is a guy who was meant to be a 'gun' and was one of the players we wanted to keep over Mitchell.

A lot of heat needs to be put on Mills to stand up and go from a completely average player to something half decent.

Yes, Mills will rue the day he clowned around with a rugby ball. Seems he is unable to capture his stellar form since.

[Nico]

On the Channel 9 Footy Show this morning they showed a couple of clips when we went to Buddy who was manned up/double or triple teamed. In both clips Swans players were running free down the guts at the 50 metre line calling for the ball. In one, Florent kicked the ball right over Buddy's head, when it should have hit him flush on the chest. If he had any vision he only needed to chip it sideways to one of 2 players. Then again it probably would have gone over their heads.

[Markwebbos]

Robbos take on the Swans in this weeks tackle:

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/expert-opinion/mark-robinson/the-tackle-mark-robinsons-likes-and-dislikes-from-round-5/news-story/e38dd0b2b4a04b511fdde8d4a6838830

4. The Swans

YOU can lose pretty and you can lose ugly. The Swan were dog ugly against Richmond on Saturday night. They took 122 marks, so Richmond either applied the greatest pressure and defensive set-up we’ve seen this year or the Swans’ strategy was slow and controlled. Sydney’s era is over. Premiership player Jude Bolton said turnovers were crippling Sydney’s ball flow, there were handballs to teammates under pressure, and the team folded in the arm wrestle. He’s not wrong. Thank-you Swans for 15 years of willing football. We await the next wave.