Match Thread: Swans v Demons.

[NeonBible]

& 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 !

Yes TB this happened directly in front of me on the wing opposite the members reserve. I thought it looked like he was holding his lower arm more than his ribs and Clayton oliver came over and tried to claw at it ? Unsure. It was very perculiar though and did seem an unsportsmanlike thing to do. Reminded me of Carlisle slapping Rampe's gloved hand. RB seemed fine so maybe nothing in it though.

[bloodspirit]

FMD why would we move Hickey outbof the ruck ?? Best weve had since Jolly

Exactly. Although not sure what FMD stands for. Might be better that way.

[COB]

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

So can I assume if that if a free kick should have been paid to a Swans player but wasn't because the umpire couldn't see it you would be fine with that. Not likely.

[Aprilbr]

While I'm not a big fan of Sinclair he was there to help out the amazing Hickey given the latter's bravery in playing with a major knee injury. He did kick a great goal at one stage although he also missed other good opportunities. He may be our best bet until others are available? I'm not a big fan of playing the Lizard in the ruck.

I was at the game like others. My main observation is that our forward line looked stagnant at times and Melbourne was very effective in flooding back so that there were absolutely no options for the kicker going forward. We needed to take the game on more and get some quick ball in but that rarely happened. Rowbottom and Chad tried their best to get that going in the second half. We also lacked a lead-up forward like Heeney. Brown did that very well for the Dee's and also used his height advantage. Overall, I thought that we did well to get as close but we are not a contender this year. However, we may sneak into the top 8.

[stevoswan]

Mids smashed.....

Forget Florent. I think hes a good player but hes not an inside mids A hole.

We won the centre clearances 17 to 4 but lost the stoppage clearances by 11. Could you please supply some further evidence to back up the above assertion or is the stoppage clearance discrepancy your only evidence? If so, I wouldn't call it 'smashed', considering we won the clearances overall......and are statements like the Florent one really necessary? You may call it 'passion' or something, I call it downright rude and disrespectful.

[stevoswan]

i dont think much of him as a player but Rowbottom.....etc

He played better than Chad last night....not that Chad played bad, he just didn't play as well as RB....sore ribs and all. Credit where it's due TB instead of this stubborn and relentless doubling down on your stupidity on RB. I don't ever expect you to back down, it doesn't seem to be in your nature but some maturity on the subject would be refreshing.

[Kafka's Ghost]

Kudos to Cunningham for his incredibly disciplined job on Pickett, and also for the job on Fritsch. Was it Fox? I also dips me lid to Jake Lloyd, who played one of the best all-round games I’ve seen him play. Pity we weren’t able to do more with our centre square dominance, the dynamism of Heeney was greatly missed.

[stevoswan]

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

Are you actually serious??? Go back and check last weeks match thread! Sheese, what a weird statement. Are you and Bangalore Swans the umpires cheering squad?! FFS!

[stevoswan]

We have completely stopped hitting that short option inside 50 like we done so well the first few rounds

Possibly due to Melbourne's disciplined defensive set up? We don't always have a choice. The same applies to all those complaining about us 'bombing it in'.....we don't always have a choice. Sometimes the opposition has a say in this.

[Markwebbos]

We won the centre clearances 17 to 4 but lost the stoppage clearances by 11. Could you please supply some further evidence to back up the above assertion or is the stoppage clearance discrepancy your only evidence? If so, I wouldn't call it 'smashed', considering we won the clearances overall......and are statements like the Florent one really necessary? You may call it 'passion' or something, I call it downright rude and disrespectful.

We won pretty much every stat (P, CP, tackles, inside 50, clearances etc) except hitouts and on the scoreboard. We also had the top 4 players on AFL Fantasy (Mills, Lloyd, RB, Parker). Our mids were definitely not "smashed"

I agree re: Cunningham. He's taken over from Smith as lockdown defender on the best small forward. It's a bit unfair to look at his stats offensively. I also agree that Lloyd had a really good game.

[Ralph Dawg]

I'd play Naismith as the main ruck, Hickey at full forward/2nd ruck and Reid at CHB.

No way. Winning the tap is only a very small part of the modern day ruckman's job. Gawn smashed Hick and Sinclair 43-29 (Hick got 17) in the hitouts yet I would say the individual dual was a draw. This was due to Hick's work around the ground. He is like having another midfielder. We need Hick on ball as much as possible.
Naismith offers almost zero outside of the ruck contest. His stats say as much. He's not really a good contested mark, immobile and not a known goal kicker so can't park him up forward. He makes Sinclair look like a gazelle.
After last night, I'm convinced there is no value in pairing Hickey with either Sinclair or Naismith. Much better off going with Reid for the chop out and if he's not available, then get Amartey in (if McLean not suitable) or use Blakey. Blakey has actually looked pretty handy in the few ruck contests I've seen him in. Incredible leap.

[Mel_C]

Was thinking the same thing Barry. Often goes up one handed.

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Maybe he's confused and he thinks he is contesting the ruck ????.

[gloveski]

Possibly due to Melbourne's disciplined defensive set up? We don't always have a choice. The same applies to all those complaining about us 'bombing it in'.....we don't always have a choice. Sometimes the opposition has a say in this.

To a point that’s correct but when you play talks like McLean and Sinclair there more likely to stick there hands in the air and hail cabs . Buddy coming back from injury was a bit the same . It needs some dummy leads and multiple leads from forwards to clear the space . The last think you want to do against Melbourne is long down the line . May and lever are two of the best in the game and nullifying this type of play .
Melbourne are a super organised defence that’s why they are 8 and 0 .
Out forward line definitely a work in progress


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[rojo]

I like your observation Gloveski 're having McLean and Sinclair together in the forward line. As someone else has pointed out not having Heeney there made a difference. It shows though how important it will be to have a mobile key forward ie our Logan, trained up ready to come back in. At the moment though he may not have been able to do much better against Melbourne's very strong and effective backline clogging!

[giant]

Fabulous effort against the standard bearers of the competition - various times when we might have raised the white flag, but instead doubled down with effort. Swans footy is alive and well!

Rarely feel this positive after a loss, but can start to really believe that we belong in finals this year and our upside is tremendous. Pretty much our best 22 out there tonight bar Heeney & Reid (for I guess Sinclair and Hayward), so let's hope we can keep some continuity for next few weeks at least.

Clayton Oliver is a very very good young footballer - hope he's being paid good $.