#AFL Round 7 Lions v Swans Sat 4-May at The Gabba #AFLLionsSwans @sydneyswans

[caj23]

Cerebral stuff

Could say the same about your post

[Bexl]

Would be good to enter a game with Heeney Mills Jones and Hewett all chasing their own ball, make the opposition worry about us instead of always taking a defensive approach, might even change the whole teams attitude

yep.

[Melbourne_Blood]

Have changed my mindset , not expecting wins , just looking for positives . Dawson and Blakey in patches , mccartin too. Paps was huge , I honestly think he could win a Brownlow. Parker though is a negative . What has happened to him ? He was sub par last year and even worse this year ...


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[Blood Fever]

Some good signs from our second rung of players, especially Papley and Hewett. Both BOG for the Swans. Also a great game by Aliir.

Kennedy just keeps on giving, absolute champ.

Thurlow is starting to settle in nicely as well imo

However Heeney looked completely off. While I didn't think Mills was as bad as people said he was, there are also serious concerns over him too. Reid and Jack were absolutely useless again and I think our forward line is too tall. I'd be very tempted to drop both Reid and Blakey for Franklin and bring in another small (but not Ronke lol)

Fox anonymous, playing out of position maybe?



Shame about Cunningham, he was putting together a bunch of great games. COR surely gets a go now

In the end it was a strange game. Got dominated but had some amazing passages that give me hope for some upsets later this year. Knowing we can actually score quickly and heavily is exciting and reassuring

Considering the amount of inside 50s against us, backline did a fair job. Melican played better and kept Hipwood quiet. Allir is a master at getting his hand in for a spoil and Rampe is a total gun and kept pace with Cameron and that is saying something.

[Nico]

Ollie Florent; I reckon he used to run and hide when his mum said bath time. Same for Dawson; looked good until the rain came. Ditto Reid.
Pity the team didn't follow Papley's lead. Jack should gracefully go back to the 2's.

Certainly Thurlows best game but is a shallow kick, but looked to read the play a lot better. Big improvement by Allir.

Just a comment on Blakey and it is not meant to be a knock; he needs to take the ball cleanly first time instead of waiting for body contact. At least 3 times you could see him slowing down when he had the ball in front of him. Just looked to me he was waiting for body contact.

[Captain]

Mills was far from the worst player today. He made one terrible error that cost a goal but he wasn't alone there! The issue I have is that he has been played out of position his entire career and it appears like it's not going to change any time soon as horse seems oblivious or too stubborn to make a change...

FFS he had a 40 possession game as a 16 or 17 year old in the NEAFL against AFL opposition (Gold Coast). He is a natural midfielder, at least give him a chance to see if he is a bust or not!!!

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Mills is playing poorly and you need to stop making excuses for him.

A good player is a good player anywhere.

Yes we all want to see him in the midfield but I guarantee you he doesn’t deserve it at the moment.

[gazza]

time for the melican knockers to say sorry

[troyjones2525]

Have changed my mindset , not expecting wins , just looking for positives . Dawson and Blakey in patches , mccartin too. Paps was huge , I honestly think he could win a Brownlow. Parker though is a negative . What has happened to him ? He was sub par last year and even worse this year ...


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Paps was huge tonight no doubt but Brownlow is a big call! Unfortunately he does more things like fluffing up that last shot a goal on a more consistent basis than the spectacular stuff he displayed in patches tonight.

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[MattW]

For the second week in a row our best centre clearance player was Sinkers. When the ball hits the ground where are our mids. We had 14 centre clearances, I reckon Sinkers had 7. Just garbage. Our players set up behind their opponents and don't go for the footy. Occasionaly we get lucky and the ball falls our way.I think Heeney had the only open and clear centre clearance. The rest were scrappy around the corner kicks.

Sinclair had 2 clearances, 1 of which was a centre clearance. Agree he tried hard. Kennedy 9(3), Hewett 7(4), Parker 5(1).

[MattW]

Considering the amount of inside 50s against us, backline did a fair job. Melican played better and kept Hipwood quiet. Allir is a master at getting his hand in for a spoil and Rampe is a total gun and kept pace with Cameron and that is saying something.

Yeah, the backline was really good, which is something. Aliir, Thurlow and Melican all played their best game of the year. Kennedy, Aliir, Rampe, Hewett and Papley were our strongest players.

Kennedy 31 (14 contested), 9 tackles, 9 clearances.

Florent, Dawson, Jack, Fox, Reid, Blakey passengers.

Mills disappointing. Jones and Heeney were off.

It was very uneven - some really good; many off

[U.S. Swan]

Mills has definitely been the biggest disappointment for me this season. Now I recognize he is just barely out of his boyhood. But don’t forget he lost almost all of last year due to an immature injury playing gridiron with his mates...DURING the season. Absolutely inexcusable and the rust is showing. He was supposed to be moving into a team leadership role this year and his immaturity has set back his career...it will also likely cost him financially. I wouldn’t give up on him yet...but he needs to bust his tail and get back to the form that was expected of him!

[Velour&Ruffles]

Paps was huge tonight no doubt but Brownlow is a big call! Unfortunately he does more things like fluffing up that last shot a goal on a more consistent basis than the spectacular stuff he displayed in patches tonight.

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He kicked 4 absolutely brilliant goals and put his body on the line whenever required. He's incredibly courageous and I think he has the highest footy IQ in the entire team - he just understands where the ball will go, how it will bounce and how to position himself (see goal 3 as the best example). I wasn't surprised when he spoiled McInerny today despite giving him 30+ in both cm and kilos. I remember him outmarking Weitering in a pure body 1:1 in his second game. Sometimes his execution does let him down but I would be horrified if a coach tries to change the way he goes about things. You don't want to kill off the instinctive brilliance that was so evident today (and his goal last week in the last qtr). Once you start filling his head with bullcrap about structures and disciplines and set plays you'll snuff his spark and he'll just be some bog ordinary little guy who dithers for 30 seconds before passing it 11m every time. Yes he missed that last kick but part of that was indecision about whether to try to pass it off or kick it himself - credit to Luke Hodge for the canny way he positioned himself. I wish he'd just been more selfish and not thought twice. Papley is one of the very few we have who actually MOVES and takes responsibility on himself to DO SOMETHING. He and Jones are about the only ones we have who offer an alternative to our painfully constipated brand of football and back themselves in to get the ball and just go. We need more of that, not less. Of course, you get the whole package - a few slaughtered kicks - but they are the two we need the others to model themselves on, not for them to conform to become more like the other automatons.

[liz]

I haven't read anything of this thread other than the final page, so I might be repeating what others have said. But I think the issue is largely one of work rate across the team. There was one quarter when we matched the Lions' workrate - though I suspect a little of that was them slackening off slightly - and the team looked fine. But for the rest of the game we were beaten in every facet of the game - numbers around the contest, spread, manning our men when the Lions had possession, tackling and generally applying pressure in other ways, keeping the ball locked in the forward line.

Papley, Aliir, Rampe, Kennedy, Melican, Hewett and Cunningham (until he got injured) all had decent to good games. Sinclair worked hard to, with mixed results. McCartin was a pass mark for a young tall conditions that didn't suit his strengths, and Blakey got to more contests than in previous weeks, though isn't quite up to the pace yet.

Jones had his quietest game of the season but he's been one of the hardest working players up to this point so I'll cut him some slack.

Parker, Heeney, Florent, Dawson, Reid, Fox (and to an extent Hayward) each provided a couple of good moments, but we need far more out of this group if the team is to rediscover its mojo and come close to playing a four quarter game. I realise some of these players are pretty inexperienced but they are not teenage bodies anymore. You can forgive them not winning a contest, or muffing a disposal where their inexperience counts against them, but you don't need to be experienced to run and chase and tackle. Heeney is probably the most frustrating of this group because he tantalises with the spectacular. But for much of the rest of games, he just kinda meanders around the ground, standing off contests, before picking one here or there to lay a bone-crunching tackle. He was touted as the best runner during the pre-season, so I can't believe it's a fitness issue (though I am aware he's been crunched a few times, so maybe he's been playing sore).

[Wazza]

time for the melican knockers to say sorry

sure sorry Melican gave away 3 stupid free kicks in the first QTR was OK after that

Cheers

[Wazza]

This game just reinforced Jack is done no impact at all, what is the point playing him keeping COR, Robottom in the 2's ...Why?

cheers