#AFL Round 18 Dockers v Swans Sat 20-Jul at Optus Stadium #AFLDockersSwans @sydneyswans

[barry]

Get to the SCG. I’ve got a good feeling an upset is coming!

I admire your optimism , but backing up from a Perth trip against the top team on a hard, slippery cricket wicket will be tough.

[Auntie.Gerald]

MCLean looked very composed for a debutant against an avalanche of ruckman opposition

Imagine if he was 202-205cm ?

Oh well

I was proud of the endeavour and effort

The lack of targets back in the centre when Papley ripped 4 or 5 round the corner kicks was seriously frustrating

Your trigger as a forward is always to lead to the centre of the arc when see ur fellow player with the ball jammed against the sideline and can only send it back in

For me that was disappointing that we didn’t work harder on our attacking opportunistic runs like the top teams do

For every movement in attack by your team mate u need to make an appropriate lead and I felt those kicks Papley pulled back into the centre were serious opportunities to create a contest at the very least - could have been another two goals at least just via pure effort not relying on skill

[Agent 86]

#AFL Round 18 Dockers v Swans Sat 20-Jul at Optus Stadium #AFLDockersSwans @sydneyswans

I admire your optimism , but backing up from a Perth trip against the top team on a hard, slippery cricket wicket will be tough.

Hence the “upset” bit.

We’ll have a extra day to recover. Hawks still have a tilt at finals - so today’s game is gonna be a bruising one (hopefully).

They haven’t been convincing the last month - after looking like shoo-ins earlier this year.

Forget tanking - our guys were devastated last night. They will be up for it.

[dejavoodoo44]

According to the match report on the AFL site, Rampe wasn't among our best six players last night. I'm not sure what game I watched then?

[MattW]

We lost clearances 46-22. We only had 2 centre clearances all night. Their rucks, Sandilands and Darcy, had 12 clearances between them. Mundy had 11. Our best was Parker 6, Jones 4 and then a bunch on 2. This is a product of not playing a genuine ruckman and isn't a knock on McLean, who tried hard. But it's hard to win a game with those numbers.

Yet our effort was really good - we tackled well, intercepted in defence, and I suspect won hard ball gets. Again, we butchered gettable scoring chances.

I thought Parker, Aliir, Rampe, Hewett and Reid were our best. O'Riordan and Clarke played well. Rowbottom's kicking and tackling were excellent. Fox played one of his best AFL games.

Florent's decision making under pressure needs to improve, but he kept running. We should give Stoddart another chance. Not a great game by McCartin.

[Blood Fever]

For the third week in a row our finishing cost us the game. Did someone say Hayward did some nice things. For mine he was our worst player and that is saying something when you have Melican in the side. Hayward gave us nothing and he doesn't like the hurley burley of the game. Florent was poor and his disposal was even worse. For most of the team you couldn't question the effort, inexperience is one thing but downright poor disposal cannot be forgiven. Papley centred the ball from the pocket 3 times directly to Freo players. No point centreing the ball if there is no one there.

Jake Lloyd had 42 possessions and no tackles. He refuses to move the ball on and rarely kicks more than 20 metres. Some of his piddling kicks were based on poor decisons and lack of accuracy. Mind you a lot of stats are from kick outs. And don't mention his sloppy kick for goal.

We outplayed Freo most of the game but it didn't show on the scoreboard. Our backline apart from Melican has been superb but delivery forward from the midfield is rubbish.

I thought Kennedy was very good and again Rampe shone in the backline.

If we get the finishing right, even 20% we will be an infinitely better team, given in all but 2 games we have been in the game at 3Q time. There was te time in the last quarter when Reid tried to pass to Papley with a much taller player on his tail and of course the ball was knocked away.

Don't get the animosity towards Melican..Solid player and is a good user of the ball. Key part of our future. Florent not the worst either.

[lwjoyner]

agree with everything said on LLoyd. Gets most of his kick when alone and still does not do anything with them. I will say it again how did he win the B&F last year, has to be the worst B&F winner of all time. Need someone else to take kick out as well Lloyd to slow to get it moving.

[MattW]

Don't get the animosity towards Melican..Solid player and is a good user of the ball. Key part of our future. Florent not the worst either.

Yes, Melican had one bad dinky kick, but otherwise disposed of the ball well under pressure, I thought.

[Cosmic Wizard]

Yes, Melican had one bad dinky kick, but otherwise disposed of the ball well under pressure, I thought.

He is not quick off the mark, has no leap and needs more upper body strength.

He has good footy nous, and gets into the right positions.

I am not sure a defender is the best spot for him.

He has only played 34 games, but he can't beat the best forwards in the games.

Another player who may turn out to be rather ordinary.

[Blood Fever]

He is not quick off the mark, has no leap and needs more upper body strength.

He has good footy nous, and gets into the right positions.

I am not sure a defender is the best spot for him.

He has only played 34 games, but he can't beat the best forwards in the games.

Another player who may turn out to be rather ordinary.

Freo kicked 52 points. Our clearances are the problem , not Melican and co.

[Blood Fever]

agree with everything said on LLoyd. Gets most of his kick when alone and still does not do anything with them. I will say it again how did he win the B&F last year, has to be the worst B&F winner of all time. Need someone else to take kick out as well Lloyd to slow to get it moving.

Thought Lloyd got a lot more penetration kicking in last night. We moved it quicker than normal, something Pavlich mentioned on the telecast. Like him as a commentator.

[Swanny40519]

agree with everything said on LLoyd. Gets most of his kick when alone and still does not do anything with them. I will say it again how did he win the B&F last year, has to be the worst B&F winner of all time. Need someone else to take kick out as well Lloyd to slow to get it moving.

Spot on. Lloyd is so overrated - cannot play on with any urgency, hangs on to the ball all the time and then his disposal is usually terrible. Should be moved onto the wing and learn how to fight for his disposals.

[MattW]

He is not quick off the mark, has no leap and needs more upper body strength.

He has good footy nous, and gets into the right positions.

I am not sure a defender is the best spot for him.

He has only played 34 games, but he can't beat the best forwards in the games.

Another player who may turn out to be rather ordinary.

Where else would he play?

Melican hasn't played as well as his debut year, 2017, where he did seem a bit quicker, in particular. I think it helped that he was on the third tall then too, whereas now he's often on the tallest player.

I think it's too soon to write him off. I'm not sure too many tall defenders are beating the best forwards in the game after 34 games. Hopefully he'll go a bit better next year after an injury-free year and a full preseason.

[Agent 86]

Don't get the animosity towards Melican..Solid player and is a good user of the ball. Key part of our future. Florent not the worst either.

I’m not sure. He just seems a bit dopey at times - and then he’ll stick out an arm to make it look an attempt to mark/collect the ball/tackle - and then he’ll seemingly lack some urgency when disposing.

Then again, sometimes he looks composed when all around him there is panic.

So, I’m a bit each way at the moment.

[dimelb]

MCLean looked very composed for a debutant against an avalanche of ruckman opposition

Imagine if he was 202-205cm ?

Oh well

I was proud of the endeavour and effort

The lack of targets back in the centre when Papley ripped 4 or 5 round the corner kicks was seriously frustrating

Your trigger as a forward is always to lead to the centre of the arc when see ur fellow player with the ball jammed against the sideline and can only send it back in

For me that was disappointing that we didn’t work harder on our attacking opportunistic runs like the top teams do

For every movement in attack by your team mate u need to make an appropriate lead and I felt those kicks Papley pulled back into the centre were serious opportunities to create a contest at the very least - could have been another two goals at least just via pure effort not relying on skill

Agree on your Papley comments AG. He knew what he should do and did it - but nobody was home. Why on earth not?

And while I agree that we could have won, I think the main reason why we didn't has been pointed out several times here: games are won and lost in the centre. As well, I think the Freos were just that bit tidier than we could manage, enough for them to sneak in.