The Grand Final. The season is dead: long live the season!

[stevoswan]

The way they have up in the last quarter shows a sign of a club with no soul*.


(* They sold it to the devil in 2016)

You're on fire Barry!

[stevoswan]

As much as Parker is admired by everyone in the competition, I don’t think he’s quite at Bont’s level. Parker probably matches Bont for strength, toughness, football intelligence, tackling, speed, endurance, overhead capabilitiy and leadership. Where Bont has Parker beat is distribution. He’s a better kick than Parker. The left foot of Bont is beautiful.

Those two contested marks in the 2 quarter were elite. The 3rd goal was good as well.

If Bont wanted to ever come to Sydney, it would be met with huge joy by Swans supporters.

Agree with all of this.....he is certainly a better kick.....and I would also welcome him to the Swans. However, if Petracca ever came to us, I would be delirious.

[giant]

The Dees won their finals with a combined margin of 200 points (exactly!). I haven't gone back to compare, but imagine there would be very few premiers that have won as convincingly as that over the course of an entire finals series. They have become a very good team, and might yet become better.

EDIT: Quick look at some recent possible suspects shows the Dons 2000 team won their finals by a combined 230 points! Mostly helped by a 20 goals walloping of the Roos in week 1.

[Steve]

The only reason we don't like the Dogs is because we got screwed out of a premiership in 2016. But it wasn't their fault that the umps gave them the game and Vic-centred media wanted them to win. If not for that game, I wouldn't have anything against the Dogs. I like their coach and I think their players are pretty much like any other team.

Dates back to 5 April 1997 for me.

And I was wrong earlier - the way it panned out was perfect. Combination of them thinking they were on their way to winning and still getting thumped.

[Faunac8]

Agree with all of this.....he is certainly a better kick.....and I would also welcome him to the Swans. However, if Petracca ever came to us, I would be delirious.

I would also be extremely happy with Oliver if he wanted to escape the fishbowl.

[i'm-uninformed2]

Coaches are paid to be rational and 'let it go' Ludwig.

I think it is part of being a footy fan that sometimes we don't let go, even if we should. And when its a clear 'outlier' that is beyond reasonable explanation, as 2016 was (well at least many consider it was), then it will live on in the minds of many for a long time.

The biggest issue for the Dogs is that, when they get a reasonable run of it from the middle, they are unstoppable, when they don't, they can be exposed very quickly - as that run at the end of the 3Q showed yesterday. Part of that stems from the fact they were badly exposed in the ruck contest - while many overplay its importance, Gawn and Jackson (who is a superb young ruckman for mine) in total towelled Martin and English (Who simply isn't that good) pretty comprehensively. Made a huge difference in the moments that mattered.

Jackson is pretty unique isn't he. Interesting he was in the ruck for a good chunk of the period where the Dees exploded in the third quarter.. Reading some of the post match coverage today, even Gawn spoke of how he told Goodwin to leave Jackson in there, as Martin kinda knew how to work against a 'traditional' ruckman like Gawn, but couldn't manage Jackson's athleticism.

As for English, two years ago I thought he was gonna develop into one of the special players in the comp. Now, I'm not sure whether he is just average, or he's being coached badly, but he certainly has flatlined.

[Blood Fever]

Jackson is pretty unique isn't he. Interesting he was in the ruck for a good chunk of the period where the Dees exploded in the third quarter.. Reading some of the post match coverage today, even Gawn spoke of how he told Goodwin to leave Jackson in there, as Martin kinda knew how to work against a 'traditional' ruckman like Gawn, but couldn't manage Jackson's athleticism.

As for English, two years ago I thought he was gonna develop into one of the special players in the comp. Now, I'm not sure whether he is just average, or he's being coached badly, but he certainly has flatlined.

English lacks aggression for someone that big. Looks more suited to basketball.

[KTigers]

Petracca, Gawn, Oliver, Jackson, Bontempelli.... at this rate if they all come to Sydney we are going to have some massive salary cap issues !

[Markwebbos]

Petracca, Gawn, Oliver, Jackson, Bontempelli.... at this rate if they all come to Sydney we are going to have some massive salary cap issues !

Gawn’s too old.

[dejavoodoo44]

I agree with your account of what's transpired and that it seems more than coincidental. Blocking in marking contests is another of those ploys that get scrutinized from time to time, and the Swans were often accused as being lead perpetrators of blocking out illegally, but doing it well enough to escape penalty. I don't think anyone on RWO suggested that we should stop the practice because doing it well was gaming the system, so to speak.

The rules of the game are so difficult to umpire that it's open to exploitation, especially with constant changes in rule interpretation. Every team is trying to get away with as much as possible. Just some do it better than others and it would seem that the Dogs have been the best at it the past 5 years.

Just from reading the game time comments on here shows how annoyed everyone gets about the level of influence umpiring and 'cheating' have on the game. If by some miracle all this could be cleaned up, AFL would be such an incredible spectacle, free from the blight of so many wrong umpiring decisions.

Maybe the belting the Bulldogs got yesterday shows that they should be practicing other aspects of the game instead of how to make a throw look like a handball. Richmond were a dominant team for the previous 4 years, and never got a good run from the umps.

I know it's hard to do, but maybe it's best to simply accept that all of this is just part of the game and not get angered by it. Longmire is one proponent of focusing on what you can control and letting the rest go.

After many years of watching AFL, blocking in the marking contest, is one of many rules that I'm not sure that I understand any more: if I ever did. I used to think it was something like; if you head towards a marking contest, you are no obligation to fly for the mark, and if your not flying helps your team mate take a mark, then that's okay, however, if you change your path to block an opponent, then that's a free. Now it seems that the interpretation varies between, looking at your opponent with ill intent is a free, to, what's okay in UFC is okay with us.

I remember in our loss to Hawthorn this year, that the Channel 7 commentators were highlighting how well Hawthorn were doing, in grappling with our players and preventing them from flying. I was constantly thinking that they should have been frees, but apparently not?

Though on the rules, one rule that I'd like to see changed, is the one where if the ball is knocked out in the tackle, then it's not holding the ball. I think that adds an extra degree of difficulty, to an already hard to interpret set of rules. It seems to me, that if a player has prior opportunity and doesn't get away a legal disposal, then it should be a free: whether the tackler makes contact with the ball or not. I certainly think it would lessen the pained cries of, "If that was a free, then why wasn't that!"

And perhaps a slightly out there point. While I would love to see more consistent and better umpiring, I also think that the maddeningly inconsistent interpretation of rules, does help us fans bond with our teams. In that, with any loss under twenty points or so, we can generally blame it on umpiring decisions that didn't go our way. In a game that wasn't so difficult to officiate, we would be more likely to blame our players or coach. But in a code where every match will have decisions that us fans can interpret as incorrect, we will vent over Stevic, Nicholls, Chamberlain, etc, and then get back to viewing the next game with optimism: if only we get a fair go.

[KTigers]

Gawn’s too old.

But he has the best beard. We haven't had a beard like that since Mal (like Gawn, a premiership player) left.

[Sandridge]

Dates back to 5 April 1997 for me.

Yes, the date a Bulldog who sullied the Brownlow Medal scratched and mauled a Swan who epitomised what the Brownlow really stands for.

[KTigers]

Re blocking ; the thing that stands out to me is the number of times a high kick goes into the forward 50, a pack of six to eight players forms
around where the ball is expected to land and one player takes what basically amounts to an uncontested mark. I just don't remember this
happening as much a few years ago as it does now. Having said that, if a lot of the "pack" are doing it (blocking) then it will be very hard for
the umps to adjudicate on. And it would follow that there are very few frees paid for it. Which is what is happening.

[Sandridge]

Re blocking ; the thing that stands out to me is the number of times a high kick goes into the forward 50, a pack of six to eight players forms
around where the ball is expected to land and one player takes what basically amounts to an uncontested mark. I just don't remember this
happening as much a few years ago as it does now. Having said that, if a lot of the "pack" are doing it (blocking) then it will be very hard for
the umps to adjudicate on. And it would follow that there are very few frees paid for it. Which is what is happening.

I noticed Gary Rohan doing it a few times for Geelong this year. He went into a pack with the express purpose of bumping an opponent out of the way. He had no intention of going for the mark himself.

[mcs]

I noticed Gary Rohan doing it a few times for Geelong this year. He went into a pack with the express purpose of bumping an opponent out of the way. He had no intention of going for the mark himself.

Isn't that just Gary being Gary? I.e. looking more often than not like he has no idea of what he is actually meant to be do on the football field (i.e. get the ball?)