Rd 6 vs Hawthorn @ Launceston - Match Thread

[josho]

90% of time only one on the ground, rest of time on the bench. We are not using our rotation quota so that would work. It helps having a lot of high endurance players who stay on most of the time. Your key rucks stay fresher during the game and during the season, most important when you get to finals, you don't have just a single worn down ruckman. Both players look very influencial at this stage, albeit Hickey injured, and both surprisingly are doing plenty at ground level.

I agree with Bangalore Swans. I don't think you can play Hickey+Ladhams+McLean in the same team. But I like that we have 3 that can at least do a job. And Ladhams had his best game today, I reckon. That's great! I kinda think that Ladhams and McLean will battle for that 2nd ruck position over the next year or 2.

[707]

It could be argued that Ladhams at 22 is still a junior ruckman. His centre clearances in the last quarter were telling.

Only 32 games at Port, vast majority as a back up ruckman/forward. These few weeks as lead ruck could be the making of him

[rickmat]

Real indictment on Fox Footy and mainly their show AFL360 last night when the Herald Sun Chief Football Writer Robbo said he didn't watch the Hawthorn Swans game at all. Whately brought the "other game" up after they tediously discussed the Collingwood Essendon game and Robbo admitted he didn't watch. Just shows how Fox Footy is so Melb centric. Happy to hear Whatleys positive comments about Swans performance.

[Roadrunner]

Anyone concerned about Cunningham’s form? Chad W got a hold of him early.

Yes, I think his form has slipped. Not sure why- does he need a rest? Maybe move Lloyd there and bring Gould to HB.

[Ralph Dawg]

Yes, I think his form has slipped. Not sure why- does he need a rest? Maybe move Lloyd there and bring Gould to HB.

I'm more concerned with Lloyd's drop in form. In particular he is giving minimal drive out of defence, whether that be run or with kick. I'm literally holding my breath every time he has a kick in at the moment. If he doesn't return to his best, I can see either Campbell taking his distributing role or even Rampe, with both Macs and Reid/Gould/Melican being a tall defenders.

[Faunac8]

It would not surprise me at all if only one of Harry , Jake or Dane was on our list next year. I think only Dane still has one more year on contract but may be wrong.
Jake and Harry are in-line for a decent contract offer from teams who would value not only their on field ability but also what they could offer off the field coming from a strong well run club that other clubs seem to rate.
With both being 29 next season the timing is right for them and their is some nice synergy with their careers both starting with the Swans in the same year.
If we did retain one I would lean toward Harry as a cheaper more physical option since I think we have a few running rebound defenders showing great potential which should cover Jake.
I think we are already seeing some transition , maybe not as fast as some might wish , in how the ball comes out of defence although we did seem to persevere with Jake yesterday.

Of course a premiership would possibly change things completely and would be a nice problem to have.

[TheBloods]

Real indictment on Fox Footy and mainly their show AFL360 last night when the Herald Sun Chief Football Writer Robbo said he didn't watch the Hawthorn Swans game at all. Whately brought the "other game" up after they tediously discussed the Collingwood Essendon game and Robbo admitted he didn't watch. Just shows how Fox Footy is so Melb centric. Happy to hear Whatleys positive comments about Swans performance.

Watch the dill still talk about us like he knows the list inside out though !

[i'm-uninformed2]

Harry hasn't been great this year, though like a lot of defenders, he tends to get shown up most when the ball is pouring out of the middle like it did in the first quarter.

He gets Charlie Cameron this week, most likely. A big job that'll tell us where he is really at.

[Nico]

On Lloyd and Cunningham.

Hawthorn kicked 10.8. From my observation Rampe played on Bruest or Gunston at times. Bruest 2 goals and Gunston 1.

Their other forwards kicked: Moore 1, Wingard 1, Worpel 1, McDonald 1. I think our smaller defenders did a pretty good job.

I think it is a bit early to start talking about where Lloyd and Cunningham might be next year. Would clubs really offer 2 small defenders bigger bucks than we will, given their age?

[111431]

On Lloyd and Cunningham.

Hawthorn kicked 10.8. From my observation Rampe played on Bruest or Gunston at times. Bruest 2 goals and Gunston 1.

Their other forwards kicked: Moore 1, Wingard 1, Worpel 1, McDonald 1. I think our smaller defenders did a pretty good job.

I think it is a bit early to start talking about where Lloyd and Cunningham might be next year. Would clubs really offer 2 small defenders bigger bucks than we will, given their age?

Lloyd and Ramps have lost their way. Ramp's gives away far too many free kicks and the decision making of both Lloyd and Ramps seems to have slipped. I know they were under the pump in the first qtr but they didn't improve over the game. Yesterday was just a continuation of their below what we expect form from them

[TheBloods]

I like the next generation of matchwinners coming through . Used to be Kennedy/Parker in the mids , Rampe down back, Bud forward , that was the story . Now we have Mills , Heeney , Jmac showed it against the roos , Chad yesterday , Papley still to come back . They are big game big moment players we can turn to to pull us out of trouble in matches .

[ugg]

Coaches' votes

10 Mills
6 Warner
5 Franklin
4 Ladhams
3 Parker
1 Gulden
1 O'Meara

Mills 5-5
Warner 4-2
Franklin 3-2
Ladhams 4-0
Parker 3-0
Gulden, JOM 1-0 each

Takes Mills to equal 3rd in the overall leaderboard

Andrew Brayshaw - 37
Patrick Cripps - 35
Callum Mills - 31
Clayton Oliver - 31
Christain Petracca - 28

[bloodspirit]

Skill levels down a bit at this stage but still pretty confident we finish much stronger than the Hawks

Good call, early in the match when we weren't looking good. I felt pretty confident all match after we arrested the run of the Hawks' five first goals except for a few moments in the third quarter where I started to think maybe we wouldn't get our act together. We have shown a lot of resilience last season and this and seem to run out games really well. Once we started out-playing the Hawks later in the first quarter I also thought we would reel them in. Just took a lot longer than expected and finally we came with a rush and got a scoreboard that did us justice.

Coaches' votes

10 Mills
6 Warner
5 Franklin
4 Ladhams
3 Parker
1 Gulden
1 O'Meara

Mills 5-5
Warner 4-2
Franklin 3-2
Ladhams 4-0
Parker 3-0
Gulden, JOM 1-0 each

I'm really curious about which coach gave 4 votes to Ladhams and which gave 3 votes to Parker.

[Faunac8]

Good call, early in the match when we weren't looking good. I felt pretty confident all match after we arrested the run of the Hawks' five first goals except for a few moments in the third quarter where I started to think maybe we wouldn't get our act together. We have shown a lot of resilience last season and this and seem to run out games really well. Once we started out-playing the Hawks later in the first quarter I also thought we would reel them in. Just took a lot longer than expected and finally we came with a rush and got a scoreboard that did us justice.

Thanks Bloodspirit it was straight after Koschitszke scored his second goal and some had already called the game but to me it never looked like we were going to be outclassed.
We were beating ourselves with silly errors and just needed a reset especially in the centre.
No way we would keep playing that badly and I didn’t think the Hawks could keep that initial effort up and that class would prevail.

[Ludwig]

It would not surprise me at all if only one of Harry , Jake or Dane was on our list next year. I think only Dane still has one more year on contract but may be wrong.
Jake and Harry are in-line for a decent contract offer from teams who would value not only their on field ability but also what they could offer off the field coming from a strong well run club that other clubs seem to rate.
With both being 29 next season the timing is right for them and their is some nice synergy with their careers both starting with the Swans in the same year.
If we did retain one I would lean toward Harry as a cheaper more physical option since I think we have a few running rebound defenders showing great potential which should cover Jake.
I think we are already seeing some transition , maybe not as fast as some might wish , in how the ball comes out of defence although we did seem to persevere with Jake yesterday.

Of course a premiership would possibly change things completely and would be a nice problem to have.

I agree that Harry, Lloyd and Rampe are not looking at their best, but they are not all that far off it. In part, it may be getting better coordinated in defence with newcomers Blakey, Campbell and Paddy. It may take a while to get them working together well.

I would be looking to keep Lloyd and Cunningham in our side for a few more seasons. I don't think it helps to continually unsettle the defence, but rather introduce new players gradually. Gould is the one I would like to see come into consideration this year. I feel we still have backups for smaller defenders with Fox and O'Riordan, both of whom can do a solid enough job. Corey Warner and Rankin sill are works in progress and not ready for the big time.

I wouldn't underestimate how the loss of Dawson has shaken up our defence. It was a big loss for a premiership push this year and may take a year to recover from.