Match Thread: Swans v Demons.

[SwanSand]

Interestingly despite us playing three players coming off injuries, young ones supposedly needing rest, and the game played in greasy conditions we used only 65 interchanges. Seems like a low number

[Foreign Legion]

On Colin and Braeden:
- Braeden offers a better kick, ambition, counterpunch run. Probably not as strong, sure.
- unless we think it’s detrimental to play Braeden, his development is a comparative priority.

Warner is already our most powerful midfield runner. Nearest competition is Florent, but the latter is more evasive. Chad is power - in the hips, with speed, takes initiative. He’s going to be frighteningly good.

I really like Florent but I agree. Warner may very well win a Brownlow - he is going to be a champ.

EDIT

I guess I should say I think he is going to be better than Campbell, Gudlen and McDonald - which is a very good thing if I am correct.

[Velour&Ruffles]

Sick of people criticising the umps. It is a near impossible job. They don't get replays, have to see through a mass of bodies and often have to make subjective decisions re prior opportunity, genuine attempt to dispose of the ball, control of the ball in a mark, realistic attempt at a mark, distance run, distance ball travelled etc

If you can't see through the mass of bodies then don't make a call. One of my pet hatreds of umpires is the fact that they seem to believe that, like Clark Kent, they have x-ray vision and know exactly what was happening through an impenetrable sea of bodies. if you can't see it, don't pay it. It's pretty effing simple.

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+1

[stevoswan]

If you can't see through the mass of bodies then don't make a call. One of my pet hatreds of umpires is the fact that they seem to believe that, like Clark Kent, they have x-ray vision and know exactly what was happening through an impenetrable sea of bodies. if you can't see it, don't pay it. It's pretty effing simple.

Spot on.

[liz]

What umpiring decisions in this game are upsetting people?

[Foreign Legion]

I will go Liz

I reckon there were a lot of holding the ball decisions - especially early. Throws are getting REALLY bad imho

[TheBloods]

Mids smashed but all things considered it went as well as we could hope short of getting the win. Our midfield mix needs to be Jpk, Parker, Mills and Warner. Forget Florent. I think hes a good player but hes not an inside mids A hole. Better in space where he can use his toe. Very damaging player. Him on one wing, Jmac on the other - Mills and Chad our next gen bulls and captain&vice captain. By the time Kennedy is retired we would hope Gulden or Campbell or Stephens will be in there ??

Too many average footballers out there cost us tonight but all gave extraordinary effort. We have ways to go until we have a 22 of all quality players. One week at a time.

[TheBloods]

& i dont think much of him as a player but Rowbottom was crunched and came away winded clutching his ribs , then there was a pause in play and that rat Oliver went out of his way to charge at Rowbottom off the ball and to get at his ribs as he's @@@@@@@ obviously sore and clutching them ! Filthy , did anyone at the game see this it was clear as day on tellie and not a commentator or umpire did a thing about it !

[Legs Akimbo]

What umpiring decisions in this game are upsetting people?

I'll bite. Number 1 is tackles followed by incorrect disposal without being rewarded. The interpretation seems to have changed completely.

Some examples...

Just after Sinclair dropped his sitter, Melbourne player clearly has prior opprtunity, tackled and goes to ground HTB but not rewarded (around 4:45 to go) there are a sequence of head scratchers around that period. 5:02 to go Warner tackled high, no free (was it advantage?),

Last qtr 5:28 to go free against dawson. Melbourne player threw head back. There was nothing there.

15:01 mark final qtr swan driven into ground no free. At another time same event in reverse with free paid against.

I could go on.

Having said that there are examples the other way. Also we didn't lose because of the umpiring. Clayton Oliver was a beast and McDonald was really good. I'm amazed we got a close as we did.

[Bangalore Swans]

You have to earn respect mate. I cant say even 1 of them deserves respect atm.

There were decisions that went the Swans way as well. Umpires make mistakes like any human.

I think Papley’s behaviour towards the umpires is not good. It feels like his conduct towards umpires is petulant and bratish.

On the other hand I witnessed some incredibly positive conduct from Kysaiah Pickett from Melbourne:

- has a contest in the forward pocket. Offers both his hands to drag up both his team mate and the Swans opponent.

- has a contest with Cunningham where they both ended up on a table. Pickett and Cunningham both smile and help each other off the table.

- Pickett plays with joy and looks like he loves the game.

I would tell my son to watch Pickett play and take note on how he conducts himself. I would tell my son that Papley is a good footballer but don’t you ever behave towards umpires like he does.

[The Runner]

No one mentioned "the standard of umpiring" last week.

- Gulden: he's clearly playing for frees, and trying to do too much. When he just played footy he looked great. First time I've seen a big gap between his best and worst in a game
- Warner: does anyone else watch him and think his only issue is that he doesn't yet believe how good he is? He seems to surprise himself how easily he creates space for himself. Love his simplistic approach to just "get it, go as far as you can and kick it long"
- Hayward: depth player at the moment. Hurts us with decision making and goal kicking
- Mills: taking over the mantle more each week. Great game
- Rampe: every week does more than anyone else on ground
- Cunningham: his discipline in defence has gone unnoticed. Fantastic job on Kosi, shutting down a really difficult opponent
- Lloyd: again, do much footy for such little impact
- McLean: only forward to compete in the air
- Papley: similar to Gulden. Just play footy and shut up
- Jmac: really floats in and out of a game. Needs to start having a sustained impact out there
- Rowbottom: loved his multiple attempts to get us doing something different (short kicks inside 50, switches etc). We were too predictable

Overall, great effort. They had two noticeable injuries (Viney and Tomlinson) but covered them well. We had Heeney, Reid, Naismith and didn't cover them at all.

[dejavoodoo44]

Last qtr 5:28 to go free against dawson. Melbourne player threw head back. There was nothing there.

You're probably referring to Spargo, who jerked his back as if he had been whacked, prior to any contact being made. And when contact was made, it was minimal and largely of his own doing.

A few weeks ago, he did the same against Geelong. It was even more blatant and I commented at the time, that I hoped he would be fined for staging. However, he wasn't fined, and since he's still being rewarded, he'll probably keep doing it: until he is fined, or he cops a high degree of public shaming.

[i'm-uninformed2]

What umpiring decisions in this game are upsetting people?

Easy. The inconsistency on HTB. There were three of four occasions, our blokes applied a good tackle, and after a sustained period, Melbourne players simply were stripped of the ball, or dropped it.

[Blood Fever]

I was at the game and but for a couple of critical fumbles we could have won. I had a great view and Melbourne we very good at clogging up the area 30 metres from our goal. I think our forwards worked very hard at keeping the ball in our forward line. Not enough credit given to our backline who played with great desperation.

Just a point with Errol; there were a couple of times where he didn't pick up cleanly and it looked to me he was waiting for body contact to play for a free.

We had a lot of the play in the last quarter and just couldn't get that little bit of luck to go our way. At the game the umpiring didn't look too bad but then again sometimes at the game you can't pick some those holds on players as mentioned in previous posts.

That was a tough hard game of footy and we just kept coming.

I bet Melbourne supporters are whingeing just as much as Swans supporters, because at the game when a Swans got a finger nail on the footy it was, "ball".

That was a top of the table game and as others have said we are on the way.

On Chad Warner; he is a genuine gun but the stats only give him 9 kicks and 6 handballs. Could it be that Mills gets some of his stats. I just love Chads desperation and he has a super tank.

Spot on post

[gloveski]

Mids smashed but all things considered it went as well as we could hope short of getting the win. Our midfield mix needs to be Jpk, Parker, Mills and Warner. Forget Florent. I think hes a good player but hes not an inside mids A hole. Better in space where he can use his toe. Very damaging player. Him on one wing, Jmac on the other - Mills and Chad our next gen bulls and captain&vice captain. By the time Kennedy is retired we would hope Gulden or Campbell or Stephens will be in there ??

Too many average footballers out there cost us tonight but all gave extraordinary effort. We have ways to go until we have a 22 of all quality players. One week at a time.

I thought our midfield was pretty good , we won the clearances 17-4 . Our biggest issue was our run and dare off half back . It seemed non existent watching from the ground . We need some run and gun off half back like the early rounds .
Not sure what balance we can have there though as generally the back line was pretty good just stagnant bringing it out


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