Match Thread. Swans v Hawthorn

[Meg]

There were some awful umpiring decisions but I agree with BS that players should never abuse umpires. It has to be a fundamental principle of all sport that players on the field respect the umpires - otherwise games would be uncontrollable. Plus Papley hurt the Swans by giving away a a totally unnecessary 50 metre penalty.

And Chamberlain was right, the Hawthorn player did get away a small handball when Papley tackled. Papley probably didn’t see it because his view was almost certainly blocked by the Hawthorn player’s body.

[Bangalore Swans]

Seriously.....is there a 'yawn' emoji?

However, you're partly right.....time for the coaches to take a stand against the umpiring.....and you didn't answer my earlier question re: your own behaviour in such horrendously umpired circumstances.

I played in games where the umpiring was terrible. I didn’t get too many decisions against me. When I did get a decision against me, I just put my hands up and shut the ........ up. No amount of me arguing was going to change the outcome.

I think with Karma the umpires thus rewarded me because as I footballer I tried to do my job while I didn’t comment on how the umpires did their job.

I was always the 1st player to shake an umpires hand and say well done.

I think on the ledger that the umpires looked after me. Maybe I never thought about the ledger because as a very limited footballer all I had was the next contest. I was always on the edge of being dropped and had no option but to keep halving contests and doing my job. Giving away a 50m like Papley for umpire abuse would have guaranteed me being dropped. I didn’t have that luxury.

Maybe the umpires could sense that I was a limited footballer, who was polite, and kept endeavouring to do his job. Maybe I got the 50/50 in my favour because they could see I was a reasonable person who tried hard.

[SwanSand]

It was a stinker on all fronts - losing to the Hawks, getting bullied by the young Hawks including Jai in his first game and Tom, not moving the ball with any confidence, and Umpiring. But let’s move on.

We are starting to make many mistakes in a game now at mid way mark of the season and that is the biggest worry.

Too short in defence, Hawks blocked McCartin and then they had a free run at the ball - tactic that everyone is going to use. McEvoy and Ceglar absolutely murdered us. As we all thought - we were too short against their tall forward and we were poor in selection. Need to fix this on draft table next year.

Too easy to go through us. The number of uncontested marks they took in the corridor is alarming.

Drop in pressure on the ball carrier. This may have been due to the second 6 day break but it happened last week against Saints too.
Lack of depth in the midfield is a problem. Florent did nothing, RB made mistakes when carrying the ball or got swatted away by their ball carrier. Mcinerney even though was good in offence did not do any defensive work and I find that a big problem as they were running rampant in the middle.
We are unable to take any contested marks on the wing or in f50. Kept kicking to Buddy, when he had 2 players to beat. I did not see much leading work by any of our forwards. They were either trying to get one over the back or were flying to take pack marks.

The break was needed and we need to regroup and find a way to restructure our defensive work in the middle of the ground.

[Blood Fever]

I have no problem with an umpire paying a free kick for abuse, and this is something that Papley should work on. I also think that Razor is a reasonable umpire. The problem that he and other umpires sometimes have is their verbal engagement with players who are clearly frustrated.

In this instance, Papley has audibly shared his frustration, but instead of just continuing on with officiating, Ray has quipped back, “he handballed it, let it go” which is unnecessary, and with Papley’s further retort then led to the subsequent penalty for abuse. Had Razor just taken his own advice and ‘let it go’ would Papley have continued?

Not umpires job to verbally joust with players. Egomaniac who wants to be the centre of attention. His malicious non call of deliberately oob so he could make it all about him means he should be dropped from the panel.

[barracuda]

Meg, I need to say this... Wicks showed tonight he is not up to the top level. He deserves a week and hopefully someone comes in, plays well, and keeps him out of the side. He was also very undisciplined last week and until he can show that he has the ability to have more than few touches in a game, he may end up on the football scrap heap.

Don’t agree. One free he gave was a professional foul to stop an open run on. Others were crap. Had 16 touches all clean and numerous attacking shots. Was one of the only forwards who cracked in. You seem to ignore buddy, papley and heeney, all senior forwards who went completely missing for most of the game.wicks is young and frustrated, which is better than old and switched off. He also is the only young player to play every game this year and must be exhausted. To drive himself to try so hard shows exactly the drive you want. I should add he ran the furthest for the swans two weeks in a row and had the highest average speed. Those runs are blocking space up and down the ground. He might not be the most talented but he is the hardest working.

[Blood Fever]

I played in games where the umpiring was terrible. I didn’t get too many decisions against me. When I did get a decision against me, I just put my hands up and shut the ........ up. No amount of me arguing was going to change the outcome.

I think with Karma the umpires thus rewarded me because as I footballer I tried to do my job while I didn’t comment on how the umpires did their job.

I was always the 1st player to shake an umpires hand and say well done.

I think on the ledger that the umpires looked after me. Maybe I never thought about the ledger because as a very limited footballer all I had was the next contest. I was always on the edge of being dropped and had no option but to keep halving contests and doing my job. Giving away a 50m like Papley for umpire abuse would have guaranteed me being dropped. I didn’t have that luxury.

Maybe the umpires could sense that I was a limited footballer, who was polite, and kept endeavouring to do his job. Maybe I got the 50/50 in my favour because they could see I was a reasonable person who tried hard.

This is clearly fiction..embarrassingly contrived.

- - - Updated - - -

It was a stinker on all fronts - losing to the Hawks, getting bullied by the young Hawks including Jai in his first game and Tom, not moving the ball with any confidence, and Umpiring. But let’s move on.

We are starting to make many mistakes in a game now at mid way mark of the season and that is the biggest worry.

Too short in defence, Hawks blocked McCartin and then they had a free run at the ball - tactic that everyone is going to use. McEvoy and Ceglar absolutely murdered us. As we all thought - we were too short against their tall forward and we were poor in selection. Need to fix this on draft table next year.

Too easy to go through us. The number of uncontested marks they took in the corridor is alarming.

Drop in pressure on the ball carrier. This may have been due to the second 6 day break but it happened last week against Saints too.
Lack of depth in the midfield is a problem. Florent did nothing, RB made mistakes when carrying the ball or got swatted away by their ball carrier. Mcinerney even though was good in offence did not do any defensive work and I find that a big problem as they were running rampant in the middle.
We are unable to take any contested marks on the wing or in f50. Kept kicking to Buddy, when he had 2 players to beat. I did not see much leading work by any of our forwards. They were either trying to get one over the back or were flying to take pack marks.

The break was needed and we need to regroup and find a way to restructure our defensive work in the middle of the ground.

We are 8 and 5. They are 3 and 10. We had little energy and need a break. They were refreshed and desperate. Let's move on.

[Blood Fever]

Don’t agree. One free he gave was a professional foul to stop an open run on. Others were crap. Had 16 touches all clean and numerous attacking shots. Was one of the only forwards who cracked in. You seem to ignore buddy, papley and heeney, all senior forwards who went completely missing for most of the game.wicks is young and frustrated, which is better than old and switched off. He also is the only young player to play every game this year and must be exhausted. To drive himself to try so hard shows exactly the drive you want. I should add he ran the furthest for the swans two weeks in a row and had the highest average speed. Those runs are blocking space up and down the ground. He might not be the most talented but he is the hardest working.

Agree. Matched intensity of Hawks. May get a week however.

[Ralph Dawg]

The players were very flat. In that respect, it was very similar to the GC game. After that debacle, I felt we might be on our way down the ladder but somehow, we bounced back reasonably well. This time, we have the added bonus of a bye as well as Gulden and Campbell to come back and add some spark. I'm happy to write this game off and trust that we will attack the second half of the season with a bit more vigour.

[barracuda]

The players were very flat. In that respect, it was very similar to the GC game. After that debacle, I felt we might be on our way down the ladder but somehow, we bounced back reasonably well. This time, we have the added bonus of a bye as well as Gulden and Campbell to come back and add some spark. I'm happy to write this game off and trust that we will attack the second half of the season with a bit more vigour.

I agree, a few things conspired to create this loss
3 games in 13 days versus hawthorn fresh off a bye
Terrible umpiring
Hawthorn clearly targeting this game as winnable

[stellation]

The moment that summed the night up for me was a ruck contest in Hawthorn's forward pocket; we catch a break and nobody from Hawthorn nominates, Joel gets a free run at it on his own and somehow that ends up being the throw-in that falls the most comically short for the night. Joel makes and effort to get to it, fumbles the ball at his feet then whilst following the ball collects someone from Hawthorn high, who gets the free and kicks a good goal.

I was complacent as a fan- I think up until halfway through the third I just assumed we'd still come back comfortably and run over them in the end. I'm moderately concerned that the coaching and playing staff may have felt the same way.

[Bangalore Swans]

This is clearly fiction..embarrassingly contrived.

- - - Updated - - -



We are 8 and 5. They are 3 and 10. We had little energy and need a break. They were refreshed and desperate. Let's move on.

How would you know if what I said was contrived?

[stellation]

I agree, a few things conspired to create this loss
3 games in 13 days versus hawthorn fresh off a bye
Terrible umpiring
Hawthorn clearly targeting this game as winnable

I'd not twigged to that, a team playing 3 games in 13 days (even if they've not had to trouble) coming up against a team fresh off a bye is terrible scheduling (even with the need for a bit of dynamic scheduling this year). The players did look pretty flat out there.

[Roadrunner]

If Blakey and Stephens are not better than Wicks and Bell I'll bare my backside in Bourke Street. (one of the great old footy sayings)

Of course they are- but………..

We’re missing a tall defender: Brand should have played. Our defence was a shambles, couldn’t clear the ball time and time again and when a long ball came in, you knew that the Hawks would either mark it or create a great chance for goal.

With Pelican and Reid injured and McCartin out of form(he was awful last night) we’re in trouble down back.

I thought Bell tried hard but is limited, but Wicks played undisciplined footy and must be dropped.

Our marking is almost non existent and the coaches need to address this- we get badly beaten in the air far too often.

Sam Reid, we need you! We may have to bring back McLean……..we can’t play so short against better teams and expect to win.

Our midfield battled hard, and though beaten, they kept at it.

Very disappointed in our forwards, especially Paps. No system, no teamwork, no pressure, just awful to watch and soooo frustrating.

Haven’t felt this bad for a long time! Thought this type of display was in the past.

[Ralph Dawg]

We also need some pressure from our ressies on the guys in the AFL in the second half of the season.
Blakey Stephens, Ling and Gould in particular are high draft picks who are clearly not fulfilling their potential. We will be a much better side if they start playing better than less talented players such as Fox, Bell and Taylor who are currently preferred.

[Bangalore Swans]

There were some awful umpiring decisions but I agree with BS that players should never abuse umpires. It has to be a fundamental principle of all sport that players on the field respect the umpires - otherwise games would be uncontrollable. Plus Papley hurt the Swans by giving away a a totally unnecessary 50 metre penalty.

And Chamberlain was right, the Hawthorn player did get away a small handball when Papley tackled. Papley probably didn’t see it because his view was almost certainly blocked by the Hawthorn player’s body.

Brilliant post.