First preseason game v Giants in Albury

[MattW]

T thought that Campbell had a good night; stuck some good tackles, seemed to get a fair bit of the ball, and kicked well. Felt greater confidence when he took kickouts than Lloyd (or Blakey!).

Stephens did some good things and appeared to see more of the ball as the match progressed, but early on seemed to be missing. He was on the wing on the opposite side to the camera, so with the poor quality picture I may have missed some of his involvements.

Wicks missed a few shots at goal and his pressure was less obvious, but it is early days and the same could be said for others.

I thought both Warner and Rowbottom had good games; Rowbottom early and Warner throughout. Warner appears to have licence to take the game on and was caught a few times early in the game.

McLean's contribution was better than McDonald's in my opinion and it will be interesting to see who gets the 2nd / 3rd tall forward roll. Reid and Sinclair were off the pace. Ladhams popped up at the right place a few times, but his ruckwork was not an improvement on our 2nd ruck efforts last year. Plenty of time for further improvement though....

Of the new draftees, Roberts had a good game and both Sheldrick and Rankin found plenty of the ball. Its hard to see Taylor and Clarke getting games this year.

As others have said, Paddy McCartin had a good game and was the best of our defenders. His performance was the biggest positive of the match for me.

Thoughtful post.

I thought McDonald was good. He seemed to lead up very deep and was clean. His heat map would be interesting. Huge kick.

[MattW]

I have had a nagging thought in my mind that maybe Hickey's season last year was a fluke. He has plugged away as a number 2-3 ruck for so many years now at various clubs. Then almost from no where has become one of the premier rucks in the competition, on one leg for most of season 2021 no less!

Last night was reassuring. Hickey was clearly the best ruck on the park. He would have to be the best in the competition at taking the ball directly from the ruck and clearing it, using his body to out position his opponent. His work around the field is also top notch. Although Chad, Heeney and Rowbum had their moments, GWS's inside work was much cleaner. Hickey was the only one of our on ballers who won his contest. Judging by his work last night, I'm predicting another big season.

Speaking of the ruck, MacAndrew looks a long way off AFL standard. It's very obvious he is new to the game. At one point, he had an uncontested run at the ball and tapped it straight to his opposition ruck!

Sheldrick looks great as did Rankin and Roberts. All 3 will be ready to debut if required.

Agree re the three draftees - all look good picks .

I didn't have that doubt about Hickey. He's a gun, and he's had an off-season to rest and rehab that knee. He's one of our most important players.

[Bloods05]

OMG. Enough!

Amen.

[AB Swannie]

Interesting that JPK did not attend one centre bounce for the game.

These stats have been copied from twitter @aflstatsmate

CBA's - Preseason 1 Game 7 - Sydney 24 - Luke Parker 19, Chad Warner 15, Isaac Heeney 13, Tom Hickey 13, Oliver Florent 9, Pete Ladham 7, Errol Gulden 6, James Rowbottom 4, Dylan Stephens 4, Callum Sinclair 4 & Justin McInerney 2

* First 4 “quarters”

Parker, Warner, and Heeney make for a much more dynamic, powerful combination. However, it might take a little while against other opposition to build chemistry.

[Ralph Dawg]

Interesting that JPK did not attend one centre bounce for the game.

These stats have been copied from twitter @aflstatsmate

CBA's - Preseason 1 Game 7 - Sydney 24 - Luke Parker 19, Chad Warner 15, Isaac Heeney 13, Tom Hickey 13, Oliver Florent 9, Pete Ladham 7, Errol Gulden 6, James Rowbottom 4, Dylan Stephens 4, Callum Sinclair 4 & Justin McInerney 2

* First 4 “quarters”

Parker, Warner, and Heeney make for a much more dynamic, powerful combination. However, it might take a little while against other opposition to build chemistry.

I noticed Kennedy defending last night and I thought I spied him on the wing too. Having said that, I can't see him anywhere else other than on ball come season proper.

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Agree re the three draftees - all look good picks .

I didn't have that doubt about Hickey. He's a gun, and he's had an off-season to rest and rehab that knee. He's one of our most important players.

I'll go as far as saying he is our most important player.

[MattW]

I'll go as far as saying he is our most important player.

Yes, unless our most important player is out with a chronic achilles injury.

[rickmat]

Bullish about Matty Roberts, could be in our 22 with his footy skills, quality disposal and talent, before too long into season. Saw some of his talent last night's game, from what Kayo showed!!!!!

[Faunac8]

Just caught up , Chad best player by a street . Mccartin pretty good in the first half , Dyl , Jmac busy .Blakey primising

Campbel not ready , Florent slow , Mclean gets worked off too easy , Rowbottom embarassing , not a good sign if Reids only coming on now

It’s déjà vu all over again ????

[Nico]

Not interested in a bandwagon , i made one comment , mentioned about 10 different blokes , then 10 different posters reply having a go at me for mentioning 1 particular bloke .

1 comment about 10 blokes vs 10 comments about 1 bloke , but im the one devolving the discussion ?

Was only giving my thoughts on the game same as everyone else .Not hard for anyone to scroll past it if they dont like it . Believe it or not im not interested in having arguments about him and i take no pleasure in bagging him, but im also not going to give him a free pass when reviewing a game just to please everyone else who like him .

I agree. We're all entitled to our opinions. I got bagged unmercifully in 2007 for daring to question Jude Bolton's howler of a season, and was vindicated when he came out before 2008 and said he had slackened off at training and off field. He played the best, consistent footy of his career after that.

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I noticed Kennedy defending last night and I thought I spied him on the wing too. Having said that, I can't see him anywhere else other than on ball come season proper.

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I'll go as far as saying he is our most important player.

Kennedy was just running around getting fit. It was a scratch match with the only concern being Papley.

[mcs]

Bullish about Matty Roberts, could be in our 22 with his footy skills, quality disposal and talent, before too long into season. Saw some of his talent last night's game, from what Kayo showed!!!!!

Hope he gets a chance to run around in the 22 for the proper pre-season game next week, to see how he goes against the 'big boys' (and not the development players that largely made up the teams towards the end). Certainly liked some of what there was to see - good boot on him too!

[Number 14]

A few thoughts about this scratch game last night watched from the boundary fence about 15m from the Swans bench.
Firstly I am hoping Papley's hammie isn't too bad ,as he came to the benches (after a couple of @@@@@@@s) he indicated it was high up on the leg and appearances are it was more a ping than a decent rip. They didnt bother with much investigation ,straight to the rooms and apply ice. Looks more precautionary than anything. Something missed by most was towards the end of "quarter" 1 Hickey had a knee stability assessment done on his right knee ,seemed to be a patella issue but went straight back out and played strongly.

Early on Heeney played on ball and was quite useful ,combines well with Warner ,but the price is our forward line looks messy and too predictable without him and especially so when Ladhams goes into the ruck. Make no mistake though ........ Warner is an absolute gun. JPK started on a hbf but moved more and more on ball as the game went on. Paddie Mc looks decent down back but got caught in no mans land a couple of times ,he will improve as we go on but already looks to be in front of what Melican has offered so far. Ladhams looks quite useful up forward and is definitely a good 2nd ruck. I was impressed by Gulden and Campbell although the latter got caught out a couple of times defensively.
Ronke got a lot of game time and showed again he really isnt good enough for the level. Taylor and Clarke also failed to impress even against the VFL players. Reid looked slow and uncertain. Gould didnt get much of a crack at it so reserve judgement on him.
Angus Sheldrick looks a good player (already a decent body size with tree trunk legs ,reminds me of a Lachie Neal type of shape) with a couple of goals but more impressive was his use of strength to extract the ball from the contest. Roberts showed a bit as well.

Last 2 "quarters" were more like opposed training drills so cant really get a lot out of it although I got a smile out of Kirky ,Pike ,Coxy and Mummy "running" a boundary. Mummy is still a good bloke and shared a good with us while an injured player was attended to on the far side of the field.

[Auntie.Gerald]

robbo, Gus and Angrt combine quite well in the mids qtr 5 and 6

agree re robbo

a fair few have loved his composed decision making which fits well with senior footy.

not sure if he knocks out our current batch of mids but could easily play HFF in snrs in 2022

[Auntie.Gerald]

Gould really seemed off the pace and to get to snrs has to be able to nullify his opponents like a glove and rebound faster with his decision making

But to be fair we got stuck defending alot in qtrs 5 and 6

Did anyone else find that super strange?

Clarke
Robbo
Gus
Taylor
Angry Anderson

These 5 looked pretty sharp but we could slow the flow.

I can only imagine the 5 above will be fun to watch in the VFL this year along with Bell and a couple others rotating thru

I suppose the reality sunk I against GWS

When u line up the midfield GWS fleet vs the Swans midfield Amarda its fairly even in my opinion on any given day.....or is it ?

Kelly vs Florent
Conniglio vs Heeney
Whitfield vs McInerny
Hopper vs parker
Taranto vs Kennedy
T.Green vs Mills
Ward Vs Rowbottom
Stone vs Stephens
Callaghan vs roberts
Bruhn vs Gus


Ps
Parker went straight to robbo after the game and gave him a very excited congrats on his game

[Bloody Hell]

When u line up the midfield GWS fleet vs the Swans midfield Amarda its fairly even in my opinion on any given day.....or is it ?

Kelly vs Florent
Conniglio vs Heeney
Whitfield vs McInerny
Hopper vs parker
Taranto vs Kennedy
T.Green vs Mills
Ward Vs Rowbottom
Stone vs Stephens
Callaghan vs roberts
Bruhn vs Gus


Ps
Parker went straight to robbo after the game and gave him a very excited congrats on his game

I love the Swans as much as the next man, but you're dreaming if you think our midfield is on par with the Giants.

[Ocker]

Gould really seemed off the pace and to get to snrs has to be able to nullify his opponents like a glove and rebound faster with his decision making

But to be fair we got stuck defending alot in qtrs 5 and 6

Did anyone else find that super strange?

Clarke
Robbo
Gus
Taylor
Angry Anderson

These 5 looked pretty sharp but we could slow the flow.

I can only imagine the 5 above will be fun to watch in the VFL this year along with Bell and a couple others rotating thru

I suppose the reality sunk I against GWS

When u line up the midfield GWS fleet vs the Swans midfield Amarda its fairly even in my opinion on any given day.....or is it ?

Kelly vs Florent
Conniglio vs Heeney
Whitfield vs McInerny
Hopper vs parker
Taranto vs Kennedy
T.Green vs Mills
Ward Vs Rowbottom
Stone vs Stephens
Callaghan vs roberts
Bruhn vs Gus


Ps
Parker went straight to robbo after the game and gave him a very excited congrats on his game

Did you leave Warner out for any reason?