Rnd 15 Pre-Match Thread, vs St Kilda

[waswan]

If Hawkins and Cameron can play in the same fwd line we can have others play alongside Buddy. Carltons fwd line the same.

Logan was able to be an option during the Carlton game alongside Buddy. Logan just needs time and confidence.

Wicks was 0 goals and 0 tackles against Melb, so Buddy not having an impact on his game.

[KTigers]

We can add McLean to the list, although he's looking more a depth player at this point, but not a bad depth player. Otherwise, I agree with you and am happy to keep them all. I would also be looking to add at least 1 KPP from this year's draft.

My point is that I don't think we should go into 2023 led by a 36 year old forward, however great his career has been. We are a young side than needs to concentrate our talent in this youth demographic as we enter a period where we hope to seriously compete for a premiership.

True that the jury is still out on Amartey, but the jury should come in on Amartey. He's playing well and the time is right to see if he is indeed a key part of our best side going forward. I would like know by the end of this season if McDonald and Amartey are the ones for the next decade, or we need to continue to look for another combo. Buddy and Reid won't be around forever, so this issue needs settling sooner rather than later.

Buddy is game winner, for sure, but do we want to enter next season banking on Buddy to win us a premiership?

I don't think anyone really sees Buddy as bringing us a flag at this point. His presence in the forward line provides a psychological boost to
whichever combination of talls (McDonald, McLean, Amartey, Reid) are down there with him as long as the guys up field don't
become too Buddy conscious. I think generally these days there is less Buddy conciousness than there used to be. Bud loves a goal but
he can read the room, knows his limitations as an older statesman of the game and will readily pass off to guys in a better spot.
His field kicking is still ridiculously good if you ask me. Most of us over the age of 35 are not so good at picking stuff up off the floor
anymore either. McDonald is coming along really nicely. He is getting some consistency into his game and he doesn't seem to mind
throwing whatever weight he has around. He is a long term project who will help bring us a flag or two in the future.

[Maltopia]

The six teams above us are playing each other this round. So if we win, we gain four points/percentage on three of them (assuming no draws), get back to 5th on the ladder (assuming Geelong wins vs Richmond and Freo beats Carlton) and be outside of the top four by percentage only in a best case scenario.

If we lose, we could drop to as far as 11th, with the Pies, Bulldogs and Suns favourites in their matches.

Without wanting to be dramatic, it does seem our season is on the line here.

[NeonBible]

Hi all,

A few pieces from around the interwebs, hopefully some find illuminating!

- I read on Twitter today Rowbottom has the =2nd highest rate of scores from his kicks inside 50 in the competition.
- SEN names The Chad our most improved player (hard to argue with that one!!)
- Herald Sun also has revealed our players who have the biggest swing between performances against top 8 sides vs performances against bottom 10 sides (Paddy McCartin's goes from 84 ranking points against top 8 sides down to 65.8 against bottom 10 sides, while Juzzy's goes from 62 against top 8 sides up to 80 against bottom 10 sides - something for him to work on)

Fantastic also to see Millsy, Tommy Mac and the Lizard at the Rainbow Swans function on IG, ahead of our pride match this weekend!!

CHEER CHEER

[Ludwig]

- SEN names The Chad our most improved player (hard to argue with that one!!)

He was already perfect, wasn't he, so how could he improve on perfection?

[Aprilbr]

Good to see the Chad is a big improver but still has more to learn in my view eg Dusty fend offs don't always work. Looking at the rest of our team, I guess those who have shown improvement include McDonald, Paddy McCartin (compared to last year's reserves form), Reid, Rowbottom and Mills. A lot of others have been about the same as last season or up/down eg Buddy, Papps, Heeney, McInerney, Lizard, Parker. I think its a high likelihood we won't have any All Australian selections this season (Mills our only chance). This is a developing team and we can look to further improvement from the youngsters next season. We can push towards top 4 and better but we still have a big gap in our midfield in my view. The contested possessions, clearance numbers show this deficiency consistently. Which high possession, skilful, tough ball extractor can we add to this team internally or from a trade?

[dejavoodoo44]

He was already perfect, wasn't he, so how could he improve on perfection?

New haircut?

[Roadrunner]

New haircut?

Goodness no- his ability to break lines comes from his hair!????

[Ruck'n'Roll]

His presence in the forward line provides a psychological boost to whichever combination of talls (McDonald, McLean, Amartey, Reid) are down there.

Possible, although the other talls behavior looks a bit more circumspect and deferential to me, and unduly so - given the effect on team performance.

. . . . as long as the guys up field don't become too Buddy conscious.

Might as well hope the sun will stop setting in the west.

It's a bit like the wish that he'd play further up the ground, and put his field kicking to effect. We keep hearing it'll happen, but somehow Bud ends up deep in the forward 50 trying to take overhead marks. Whether it's because he's not got the wind to play up the ground, or just a result of the magnetic attraction of those 4 big sticks I have no idea - but some old dog's simply can't be taught new tricks.

Glamour Forwards
Aussie rules is a team sport, yet people often behave/comment as if it's an individual game. Sometimes we talk about team performance, but more often we focus/fixate on individuals, especially glamour forwards (The word 'glamour' used to mean something akin to 'illusion' btw).
Big name forwards hold the public's imagination (thereby making Maketing's job easier), but in terms of the effect on team performance I think they're over rated. How many goals would Pratt have kicked if the ball never got into the forward line? It's not quite as stark as a goal shooter in netball, but esentially key forwards are all about putting the icing on the cake baked by the rest of the team.

Aussie rules is a team sport, yet people often behave/comment as if it's an individual game. Sometimes we talk about team performance, but more often we focus/fixate on individuals, especially glamour forwards (BTW the word 'glamour' used to mean something akin to 'illusion'). We talk about Buddy "winning" the game against Richmond for example. But was his presence essential, we'd need to play the game again in his absence, and look at the result, which is hard to arrange in the absence of easily accessed parrallel universes, to be certain.

But we can ask ourselves whether the icing for the cake baked by others have have been provided by someone (or preferably someone's) else? And it seems for some on RWO, the answer has become (or is becoming) "yes".

- - - Updated - - -

[Ruck'n'Roll]

Goodness no- his ability to break lines comes from his hair!????

We must make sure he avoids this place

Didn't I read his mum is a hairdresser?

[Markwebbos]

I agree that having Buddy around had tended to overawe Logan, but I feel that has already begun to change.

He did do some (a) wheel and go kicks into F50 that led to goals. And got the first two scoring shots of the game playing deeper.

Our woes going inside 50 are much deeper than being Buddy-centric

[Ruck'n'Roll]

I agree that having Buddy around had tended to overawe Logan

. . . one might almost wonder about Sams career?

[Markwebbos]

. . . one might almost wonder about Sams career?

He seems to be going ok now Ben Reid

[Ruck'n'Roll]

Ben?

[wolftone57]

Is big Tom ready to come back? Still would like Amartey in as well!

I have made the forward line very tall. But I want Bud to play wing/HF. Amartey to come in & play FF but lead up to the ball. That was what the reserves did very well. Kicking it in low and flat to a lead. The Townies had no solution. We need to lose the bombing into our forward line. Try hitting up players.

I want some things to happen. Our forwards bunch up but do not spread. They all compete for the same ball like kick to kick. Instead I would like to see forwards spreading to make space for a leading player. Will Hayward, if you go into the path of a leading Amartey again you go to Syberia for life. How many times has Amartey been spoiled by our own. We are our own worst enemy both forward and back. All up none down. Even bloody Papley up on the weekend. These players need to work out where they are going to lead and the others need to know through signals. Bud, Amartey, Mcdonald, Heeney & Will, you idiot.

We DO NOT Want Mills having to be a bandaid in defence. We need a player who can fill that role. Hello Will Gould. It's time Longmire. Give that boy a job and he will do it. Great work rate. Very good awareness. Has been organising a makeshift VFL backline all season. Give him a break Horse. Robby needs to come in. Ladhams stays in the reserves after his holiday. He was not just undisciplined, he was stupid to get sucked in by the Filthy Mouthed Port players.

Ins: Hickey, Amartey, Hall-Khan. Fox, Gould

Out: Ladhams, COR, Wicks, Lloyd, Ollie

Hall-Khan can play wing/HF swapping with Bud.

Lloyd has already left the building and is somewhere in Victoria, psychologically. There has been a rumour circulating that he wants out. Wants to go home. He needs to wake up and stop giving up 1-2 goals/ game. COR provides very little pressure. Wicks did nothing, hasn't for weeks. Ollie the,?same.?Although he is not a back. He played on the wing on the weekend though and he was absolutely killed by his opponent.

We need to send a message. You don't get gifted games at Swans. There are too many players who think their name is automatically on the gameday board. Time to send a message. If Horse does not do this after last week's dreadful performance then he is as weak as piss. I got the @@@@s with him making excuses ie;
5-2 in the last two months, they have been playing some really good footy. Crap. I have seen their games, scrappy is the word. Last weeks game was not a good game. I know, I was there. It was a scrappy affair. Players on both sides gave the ball up far too easily under very little pressure. The disposal was woeful. If they had delivered well in that third quarter they would have had a 10 goal won. Their bombing it up every time worked against prolific scoring just like I predicted. But we did exactly the same when we were making a comeback in the last. You'd think our coaches might learn something by the mistakes their opponents made. Obviously not.

Speaking of coaches. The so called experts in the coaching box have to get 2 things right this week.

1. Selection
3. Game plan.

If our game plan consists of bombing the ball in, with no real pack mark or too many of our players flying, then we will not win another game this season. Because opposition is ready and waiting to clear quickly. Papley, who has had a really interrupted season is match fit but struggling. I think it is a bit stupid to put him as the only player forward of centre anyway. He needs to feed off a tall. When McLean or Amartey? are there he gets to do that. But he was on a much taller opponent, sometimes two, our blokes just bombed it above his head anyway. STUPID. We need to have leading players like the reserves did on the weekend.

Our coaches also need to react faster when the opposition gets control of the game to wrestle it back. When Port were killing us in the stoppages their solution was move Mills back. He came off the bench. Not get him into the mids. You win the ball at the coalface you win the game. We can't continue to rely on our backs and bandaid to win games for us. We need to win contested possession. For that to happen we need to man up at all stoppages. No more leaving a nice free opposition player on their defensive side. They won the stoppages and that free player was incredibly damaging. We have done this all year and it is a huge bummer. It just does not work and every team we play gets really excited when they see they have a free player.



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