Rd 3 vs Western Bulldogs @ Marvel - Match Thread

[Adelaide Swan]

‘Mind-boggling’: Fuming AFL fans are ‘livid’:

https://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/livid-afl-fans-fume-at-mindboggling-umpiring-in-dogs-vs-swans/news-story/7d6f06c269f737b9c9f1a60a5d3d9d85

Sent from my SM-G781B using Tapatalk

[i'm-uninformed2]

Even Barrett pointed out how bad the officiating was in his weekly sliding doors post

IF ...
the lopsided free kick count wasn't the reason the Swans lost to the Dogs on Thursday ...

THEN ...
it certainly didn't help. And John Longmire rarely gets through even one day without recalling, in his eyes, the highly questionable officiating in the 2016 Grand Final against the same team.

[KTigers]

Indeed, and as I always say in these discussions, I don't believe that that free kicks have no effect. The question is, how much effect do they have, especially when compared with the effect of all the other things that happen during a game. That's a really interesting question to me and I don't think it's addressed by a simple focus on counts.

If an umpire made a terrible decision, 30 seconds to go, gifting a goal to a team less than a goal down, I agree there'd be just cause for outrage! But I think that's a rare event, and a different kind of outrage to the kind generated by free kick counts and differentials.

Don't you think though that it is significant when a team effectively doesn't get pinged for free kicks for an entire half of footy and
the other does (the count was 18-3 in second & third quarters)? For that period the teams were basically being judged by different rules.
Three infringements by the Dogs in an hour of footy! We all know that is not humanely possible. And yet the umpires saw it that way.

[KSAS]

Our first loss donning the red V for Vic games since last season. Apologies if this has already been answered, what was the reason for team wearing black arm bands last evening? (could find anything on the Club website).

[neilfws]

Don't you think though that it is significant when a team effectively doesn't get pinged for free kicks for an entire half of footy and
the other does (the count was 18-3 in second & third quarters)?

Significant in what sense? If it leads to significantly more scoring for the favoured team, then yes. Was that the case? I don't know yet, but we will be able to figure it out when Josh updates his match data after Round 3.

It's good to see people thinking about the phases of the match and when/where free kicks are happening. It's just the focus solely on the count differential that I find unhelpful.

[Nico]

I just looked at the first quarter replay. The frees were fairly even. There was a free to English for "over" the shoulder. If it was there it was a brush, but the call was quite late. Weightman got one on the HFF for whatever in what looked like a clean spoil by Cunningham. McRae got a free in the middle for a trip when hands of the tackler slipped down. Then Rowbottom was tackled near he boundary and it was so obvious that he was tripped in the same circumstances. No free. Wicks broke from a pack and got pinged for HTB when he either didn't have control of the pill or it was knocked out. Instant whistle.

Noticed McLean was playing from behind on every occasion and very slow to follow up. Amartey is far quicker and agile.

The Dogs do a lot of blocking and holding when the ball comes in deep to their forward line. So far Buddy has been held at every contest.

From early in the quarter we started the old stodgy style of short kicks around the boundary to poor effect. The Dogs were flooding the centre area but we didn't have the nous to kick over the top even when well clear. We wanted to short kick to keep control and our kicking was ordinary.

[Adelaide Swan]

Sons of the Umps,
Red, White and Blue
We come out ducking
Bullumps through and through
Bullumps duck and Bullumps push
We can get away with it because we're Westies
But you can't beat the boys of the Bullump breed
Unless if you're Melbourne in the Grand Final.......

Sent from my SM-G781B using Tapatalk

[Industrial Fan]

I just looked at the first quarter replay. The frees were fairly even. There was a free to English for "over" the shoulder. If it was there it was a brush, but the call was quite late. Weightman got one on the HFF for whatever in what looked like a clean spoil by Cunningham. McRae got a free in the middle for a trip when hands of the tackler slipped down. Then Rowbottom was tackled near he boundary and it was so obvious that he was tripped in the same circumstances. No free. Wicks broke from a pack and got pinged for HTB when he either didn't have control of the pill or it was knocked out. Instant whistle.

Noticed McLean was playing from behind on every occasion and very slow to follow up. Amartey is far quicker and agile.

The Dogs do a lot of blocking and holding when the ball comes in deep to their forward line. So far Buddy has been held at every contest.

From early in the quarter we started the old stodgy style of short kicks around the boundary to poor effect. The Dogs were flooding the centre area but we didn't have the nous to kick over the top even when well clear. We wanted to short kick to keep control and our kicking was ordinary.

the kick from Heeney to Hayward over the top of the congestion in the 3rd qtr was sublime. I didn’t mind the short chip kicks to slow the play in the first but our decision making when we approached our f50 was lamentable more or less the whole game.

[liz]

Good post match from Horse click here

I found myself cringing through that press conference. Nothing to do with Longmire, but with the journalists repeatedly asking questions that John had already answered "I don't know" to, or asking questions that they knew he wasn't able to answer (re umpiring).

[Adelaide Swan]

I found myself cringing through that press conference. Nothing to do with Longmire, but with the journalists repeatedly asking questions that John had already answered "I don't know" to, or asking questions that they knew he wasn't able to answer (re umpiring).

They were trying to goad him into unleashing on the merkins with the whistle so he could be fined.

Sent from my SM-G781B using Tapatalk

[gumby_bolts]

They have all game to formulate questions and then they ask him three times about Hickey’s knee like he will give them a medical assessment.
They never seem to ask about strategy, like the Bulldogs flooded back all night, what was the direction given to the players etc?

[i'm-uninformed2]

I thought the backline held up fairly well given what was thrown at them last night, but we do need to be alert to the blocking strategy on T McCartin a few sides have used now.

We first saw it used effectively in the Hawks game last year. The same method: a huddle of talls at the top of the goal square, the intended target starting at the back of the pack, others circling into position and then at the right time, use a block on Tom to free his man.

It can be done legitimately, which we'll need to counter. What we'll also need to be ready for is how hard it is to get the umpires to pay frees for when it isn't done legitimately. There was one instant (I think halfway through the first quarter when Naughton marked but then missed from close range), where Cordy moves into the space (which is ok), but then turns, has his eyes solely facing McCartin, adjusts his line and directly drops a shoulder into him. That's not legitimate, but they got away with it anyway, and in the mad scramble down there, often will.

Our other defenders are going to need to be alert to the line the intended target wants to run, and then position themselves on the inside of their opponent to hold space for Tom to follow through. Including in the Cordy instance, our blokes were often positioned outside their opponent, which made the execution of a block far easier.

[Ludwig]

For an interesting comparison, the Swans were beaten by Hawthorn last year in round 13. In that game we were also coming off back to back 6 day breaks, we lost the free kick count 26-10, and we fumbled a lot and looked lethargic.

The AFL have put the Bulldogs in the box seat with their starting fixture, giving them a Wednesday followed by consecutive Thursdays, so they still have extra rest days in the bag. They have 3 more Friday games through round 9. So that makes 6 prime fixture spots in 9 weeks. The AFL can't let them fall out of contention so early in the season. We were destined to lose this game no matter what If we had managed to win, despite all the help from the fixture and the umps, the AFL would have slapped a trading ban on us, so we should be happy to take only the loss of one game.

The AFL seem upset that we were able to rebuild on the run and have come back into flag contention after only 2 years out of the finals, while so many Melbourne clubs spend more than a decade in the wilderness before rebounding up the ladder.

[Sandridge]

We played shocking, had 16 less free kicks and almost beat one of 2021's Grand Finalists who were given a free ride....so we are in this season up to our necks.

As I said earlier, very proud of our team. 2022 roll on!

PS: I love Titus!

Spot on, Stevo! Played poorly, got shafted by the umps and were a goal away from winning with a minute to go. Our team is going to give us more highs than lows this season.

GO BLOODS!

[Sandridge]

Even Barrett pointed out how bad the officiating was in his weekly sliding doors post

Not the first time he's mentioned it, either. He knows we were shafted!