Match thread. THE GRAND FINAL!!! Swans v Cats.

[neilfws]

Very mixed feelings this morning.

I have really enjoyed this season. There were some terrific games at the SCG, notably both of the Collingwood games. Good crowds, great atmosphere. Buddy 1000 of course. Even this old supporter found himself bounding down to the fence like a kid to high-five passing players a few times.

I've enjoyed watching our younger players a lot, particularly Gulden and Warner. It was good too to see players making the most of opportunity and grow in confidence: Clarke, Fox and especially Stephens. The renaissance of Reid was great too.

I went to my first ever MCG game and whilst it was disappointing (the Bombers loss), it was in a way good to witness the "turning point" game that set them up, in terms of attitude, for the rest of the season. And it's always good to visit Melbourne.

I was thrilled when they made the Grand Final. I did wonder if it had come a year or two too soon but - they were good enough to make it, so why not? I wondered if youth and inexperience might show. I thought their best could beat the Cats, but it would be a big ask. For some reason, I didn't give much if any thought to the possibility of an absolute smashing.

The manner of the loss - meek with so little fight - is very disappointing. I'd hoped they could at least give it a crack. But I think it's just one of those games where one team was completely "on" and everything went right for them, and the other was "off" and not one thing went right for them. Such games invariably end up as one-sided dominance that doesn't really reflect the losing side's capabilities. It's just a shame that our side was on the end of it, and it was the Grand Final.

Nothing else to do but go around again next season! I'm looking forward to seeing those youngsters again, and watching their continued development. I'm sure they'll bounce back and be competitive next year.

[Aprilbr]

I was at the game amongst a big bunch of Swans members, mostly down from Sydney. Prior to the game starting, I was talking to some of these people who I found to be very engaging and knowledgeable of the team. I told them some of my stories about the old South Melbourne days and how hard it was to barrack for a team that always seemed to be battling. We all agreed the last couple of decades have been wonderful and we were hopeful of a victory against the odds like 2012.

As the game started we all pretty quickly could see we were under siege and in big trouble - more like 2014 than 2012. Geelong were ruthless in their execution and our game plan disintegrated under their pressure. Nothing went our way but we were also the architects of our own destruction at times with indecisive play and poor skills. Collectively, we had few who could say they performed to an acceptable level on the day.

2022 has been a very memorable season for the Club and this should not be lost from memory because of the GF. There have been some incredible highlights such as Buddy's 1000 goal game, the comeback win against Richmond and the finals wins against Melbourne and Collingwood. We have a bunch of young players equal to anyone else and most of them showed great improvement this year. There are no guarantees of future success but the signs are promising.

I will finish with a quote from Dangerfield from a TV interview last week which he gave in response to the Cats' mixed finals performances of the past decade and continual drive for success: "You have to have the courage to keep on going and still do everything you can to get to that grand final knowing that anything can happen on that day - glorious victory or crushing defeat". I think we would do well to take those comments on board when we reflect on the season that was and the challenges ahead.

[crackedactor 01]

I think we have a cultural mental issue that needs addressing in the off season. The story of the Bloods culture is B/S. In front of 100.000 thousand people and you don't run hard, you don't put your body of the line, you don't tackle hard. There has to be a mental cultural issue going on. People say look what we have achieved. If you going to put that effort on GF day I would prefer we got eliminated in the first final. It was embarrassing admitting you are a Swan Supporter yesterday. This is one day of the year were excuses are not good enough. I think they should change their name to the LAMBS.

[Blood Fever]

I think we have a cultural mental issue that needs addressing in the off season. The story of the Bloods culture is B/S. In front of 100.000 thousand people and you don't run hard, you don't put your body of the line, you don't tackle hard. There has to be a mental cultural issue going on. People say look what we have achieved. If you going to put that effort on GF day I would prefer we got eliminated in the first final. It was embarrassing admitting you are a Swan Supporter yesterday. This is one day of the year were excuses are not good enough. I think they should change their name to the LAMBS.

Another who comes alive after a loss

[dejavoodoo44]

I was at the game amongst a big bunch of Swans members, mostly down from Sydney. Prior to the game starting, I was talking to some of these people who I found to be very engaging and knowledgeable of the team. I told them some of my stories about the old South Melbourne days and how hard it was to barrack for a team that always seemed to be battling. We all agreed the last couple of decades have been wonderful and we were hopeful of a victory against the odds like 2012.

As the game started we all pretty quickly could see we were under siege and in big trouble - more like 2014 than 2012. Geelong were ruthless in their execution and our game plan disintegrated under their pressure. Nothing went our way but we were also the architects of our own destruction at times with indecisive play and poor skills. Collectively, we had few who could say they performed to an acceptable level on the day.

2022 has been a very memorable season for the Club and this should not be lost from memory because of the GF. There have been some incredible highlights such as Buddy's 1000 goal game, the comeback win against Richmond and the finals wins against Melbourne and Collingwood. We have a bunch of young players equal to anyone else and most of them showed great improvement this year. There are no guarantees of future success but the signs are promising.

I will finish with a quote from Dangerfield from a TV interview last week which he gave in response to the Cats' mixed finals performances of the past decade and continual drive for success: "You have to have the courage to keep on going and still do everything you can to get to that grand final knowing that anything can happen on that day - glorious victory or crushing defeat". I think we would do well to take those comments on board when we reflect on the season that was and the challenges ahead.

Yes, and to accentuate that final paragraph, it's probably worth pointing out, that 19 of the 23 Geelong players from yesterday went around in last year's preliminary final. Which they lost by 83 points after being smashed in the contested possessions. So, things can obviously improve markedly over 12 months. And if we went back to that loss, I suspect that there would have been a lot of comments (possibly including myself), saying that with Geelong's age profile, they're unlikely to improve and that loss to Melbourne was probably the closing of their premiership window. Conversely, with our age profile, the large majority of our team should improve next year. And if we improve on our second place finish...

[707]

It's never as good as it seems, it's never as bad as it seems, look at Geelong 2021, as highlighted in the post above.

Two seasons ago we finished 15th, it looked a long way back up the hill but within two seasons we have got be there for the last step up.

Yesterday was dreadful but we are not dead, just wounded. There will be thorough analysis, there will be decisions made, there will be tweaking but we are a young team, there is plenty of time to correct the wrongs of yesterday.

Only one team in 18 wins the flag each season, we had a shot, we failed but let's not go into hysterics, look back at the pleasure this season has given us, we are a wonderful professional club, I'm proud to be a supporter.

For those that think it's the end of the world (let's forget about the spectre of Putin and his nukes right now eh?) would your future this morning look better, given their various problems, if you were a supporter of -

Norf!? WCE? GWS? Essendon!? Cows? Hawthorn!!? GC? Port? Saints? Carlton? or those that failed early in the finals - Dogs? Richmond? Freo?

A lot needs to go right to win a flag, we got close, we will reload. I have faith in this club and players, maybe those with damning posts earlier can tell us who they would rather be supporting next year and why?

[Mark26]

I was at the game amongst a big bunch of Swans members, mostly down from Sydney. Prior to the game starting, I was talking to some of these people who I found to be very engaging and knowledgeable of the team. I told them some of my stories about the old South Melbourne days and how hard it was to barrack for a team that always seemed to be battling. We all agreed the last couple of decades have been wonderful and we were hopeful of a victory against the odds like 2012.

As the game started we all pretty quickly could see we were under siege and in big trouble - more like 2014 than 2012. Geelong were ruthless in their execution and our game plan disintegrated under their pressure. Nothing went our way but we were also the architects of our own destruction at times with indecisive play and poor skills. Collectively, we had few who could say they performed to an acceptable level on the day.

2022 has been a very memorable season for the Club and this should not be lost from memory because of the GF. There have been some incredible highlights such as Buddy's 1000 goal game, the comeback win against Richmond and the finals wins against Melbourne and Collingwood. We have a bunch of young players equal to anyone else and most of them showed great improvement this year. There are no guarantees of future success but the signs are promising.

I will finish with a quote from Dangerfield from a TV interview last week which he gave in response to the Cats' mixed finals performances of the past decade and continual drive for success: "You have to have the courage to keep on going and still do everything you can to get to that grand final knowing that anything can happen on that day - glorious victory or crushing defeat". I think we would do well to take those comments on board when we reflect on the season that was and the challenges ahead.

+1 Thanks for your post. Wise words.

[Swanny40519]

I have had a lot of time to reflect on what happened yesterday and guess what - the sun will still rise in the east and set in the west.

Yes we were outplayed by a desperate, older and stronger side. But what we have is a great team of young players, scattered with a few older ones, that will take this bad loss and use it in the next season and ones to follow, to drive the team to the ultimate success.
We did make a few mistakes yesterday in selection, Reid should not have played and Mclean with 4 possessions was not up to it. We have now lost all 3 of the last GF appearances (2014, 2016, 2022) and I seriously think that we need to look at how we prepare the team and coaching staff for the big game - when/if we get to a GF again. These games are played between the players heads, mental strength drives winners. They were older and more experienced and we were younger and probably in a GF before we expected to be.

I cannot wait for 2023 to see how we bounce back from this game.

[Nico]

It will be good if we get an honest post mortem from Horse as to why we capitulated as we did. Were a number of players banged up last week, did we run out of our season's legs etc. It appeared that only a handful of players turned up.

[TheBloods]

What hurts the most is how these other clubs are all getting their fairytales . Danger and Selwood flag , that Pickett debut for Tigers , Bulldogs back in 16, and we keep missing out . We deserve it as much as any of them , but they still have to be won and they dont win themselves

[barry]

2016 is what hurts. Longmire is now 1 out of 4 wins in grand finals. If we had rightly won 2016, it would be 2 / 4

[troyjones2525]

What hurts the most is how these other clubs are all getting their fairytales . Danger and Selwood flag , that Pickett debut for Tigers , Bulldogs back in 16, and we keep missing out . We deserve it as much as any of them , but they still have to be won and they dont win themselves

We are lucky enough to have seen 2 in the last 20 years. Our time will come again, we just need to have faith that the great leaders at our club with get us there again.

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[troyjones2525]

2016 is what hurts. Longmire is now 1 out of 4 wins in grand finals. If we had rightly won 2016, it would be 2 / 4

I said to a Bulldogs supporting friend of mine during the week that I'd move on from 2016 if we won yesterday... I really want to let go of my unhealthy hatred of the Bulldogs that stems from that day but I don't know if I'm ready yet! Will it only take another flag to get us there???

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[dejavoodoo44]

We are lucky enough to have seen 2 in the last 20 years. Our time will come again, we just need to have faith that the great leaders at our club with get us there again.

Sent from my SM-G998B using Tapatalk

Yes, despite the recent, hard to take, grand final losses, if you look at the club's history, the last twenty years or so, have actually been the Swans golden age and we're the lucky supporters living through that.

[royboy42]

Not interested in talking about him, hes not worth it. I want Gus and Roberts in , have you seen these two in the reserves ? They have all of that hardness but they are clean. The difference between the two teams yesterday was how clean they were . Geelong player gets the ball and grabs it in one go . Swans player gets the ball and they double grab it or fumble or trip over their own feet ! We need good clean skills and those 2 young lads will bring it, some tough calls will need to be made on how to bring them in , but clearly as yesterday we are not up to it in the mids just yet , so this is exactly what we drafted those two for

First line is as expected. Otherwise I think your post reflects the kid in the toy shop who sees only the bright, shiny new look toys. Great hopes for the fun they’re going to bring. But dismisses, because they’re only kids, the burnished, much loved ones at home who continue to provide what is required. Fine for the new guys to earn their slots. Not fine to dismiss the valued, efficient guys who got us here. Time and effort will sort all this; it’s not a matter of discarding old for shiny untried new. And shows little respect for the incumbents.