Round 6 vs Geelong Cats @ GMHBA - Match Thread

[i'm-uninformed2]

I posted during the week that I wondered if we were Melbourne 2018, a young side that almost got there ahead of their time. I don’t think we will struggle as much as they did in 19 and 20, but it’s a fair analogy I think - a midfield that still needs to truly harden at the contest, the need for a couple of real power runners, and a KPP or two.

The differential in power running was notable tonight. We’ve got blokes that can run and others that have speed, but I’m talking players that do both. That takes a while to develop, and it’s even more noticeable right now given our wingers in JMac and Stephens are off their game.

One person I want to give a tick to tonight is Campbell. A lot of our blokes lost their composure or fight. He was on a bigger player in Henry, largely, but kept at it, largely made good decisions and evened a lot of contests. It’s a great sign of how far he’s progressed, and as players come back from injury, he deserves to keep his spot and push into the midfield mix.

[Agent 86]

Cats have beaten hawks eagles. Swans..‘Experts’ say that they are back to flag form [emoji1742]@[emoji3603]

Fair point, but they looked lazy at the start of the year & have/will turn it around. They’ll be thereabouts again this year with the cattle they’ve got. And they have player depth (salary cap is a grace farce). Ours has run dry already & we’ll be making up the numbers this season.

[Blood Fever]

Touche. Much as i love this forum, it can be a little elitist at times. As in: if you weren't watching them as south Melbourne in the 70s and can offer in depth opinions on the drafting strategy for next year, you tend to be ignored. Which is crap. So welcome! We're all Swans supporters and have just been flogged, so we should be nice to each other.

How do you know people are ignoring you?

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I was pleased by the way we played the 2nd half. We couldn't afford to lose any more players. I feel bad for Roberts, but he appears to be the only player injured from the game. If we would have upped our intensity it could have come back to hurt us badly. The game was already gone.

We discussed this in the pre-match thread. There was no way for us to be competitive with the personnel we had available. I disagree with sentiments that this was an embarrassment. It's better to face the situation realistically and look for ways to get through the year with a severe shortage of key position players, which may well have ramifications beyond this year.

Injuries have turned this into a development year for us and we should approach it that way. Hopefully we will get back some key players in July and August and close out the season well.

Good post. A few people on here quick to turn. And some ready to pounce after a loss.

[Hotpotato]

Ladhams must have come off completely exhausted, big load to carry.

A lot of the players must have realised it’s a quicker game again than they believed.

I agree with Ludwig, it was self preservation out there, the Cats have so many big units.

There will be a lot more posts (brickbats) this week than last week when we played so well which seems to be human nature.

Now get the heck out of there Swans.

[Agent 86]

Lets be real a 6-7 goal loss was probably the par given the circumstances.

But 15? held to 3 points after HT

wtf?

On the bright side, it could have been a 20 goal loss. Their kicking for goal got sloppy in the final qtr.

But our percentage goes from 132 to 105. Ouch.

[Mickeydee]

Thanks for your support Meg..at the end of the day we all are love the Swannies

[Hotpotato]

Who cares about the score Mr Wu, we were never going to get the four points in this contest .

[mcs]

I posted during the week that I wondered if we were Melbourne 2018, a young side that almost got there ahead of their time. I don’t think we will struggle as much as they did in 19 and 20, but it’s a fair analogy I think - a midfield that still needs to truly harden at the contest, the need for a couple of real power runners, and a KPP or two.

The differential in power running was notable tonight. We’ve got blokes that can run and others that have speed, but I’m talking players that do both. That takes a while to develop, and it’s even more noticeable right now given our wingers in JMac and Stephens are off their game.

One person I want to give a tick to tonight is Campbell. A lot of our blokes lost their composure or fight. He was on a bigger player in Henry, largely, but kept at it, largely made good decisions and evened a lot of contests. It’s a great sign of how far he’s progressed, and as players come back from injury, he deserves to keep his spot and push into the midfield mix.

I completely agree with your comment about getting there too early. It was an amazing effort last year to get to where we did.

But we remain a team with a good developing list, with plenty of gaps to fill.

The other interesting thoughts to throw into that mix is the strong criticism from some people in regards to our recruitment over the summer. Buddy decision aside (which chewed up what money we probably may have thought we might have) - I don't think anyone in planning the development of the squad thought by the end of 2022 we'd be at a point where 'topping up' to try and win the flag would be a live option.

It has been a gradual, but very planned exercise to build the list. I've said for a while I suspected it would be 2023 or even 2024 before we go to market looking to fill gaps.

The grand final appearance last year seems to have bought forward expectations that our list is 'close to a flag' and just needs a few minor adjustments to get there. We don't need major surgery - but we are still a few parts away - some will hopefully be solved through development over time, but some will need external recruitment.

Saying that, if we don't go hard for Himmelberg or a similar style of player later in the year, then we are stark raving mad. For all his faults and injuries, Reid is arguably our biggest out from the team - just for the style of role he can play for the team. One player won't fix all the issues we have to work on - but by gee how we need a mature decent sized player that is good enough to play at both ends of the ground, but is also good enough around the ground to influence the contest too.

[dejavoodoo44]

I posted during the week that I wondered if we were Melbourne 2018, a young side that almost got there ahead of their time. I don’t think we will struggle as much as they did in 19 and 20, but it’s a fair analogy I think - a midfield that still needs to truly harden at the contest, the need for a couple of real power runners, and a KPP or two.

The differential in power running was notable tonight. We’ve got blokes that can run and others that have speed, but I’m talking players that do both. That takes a while to develop, and it’s even more noticeable right now given our wingers in JMac and Stephens are off their game.

One person I want to give a tick to tonight is Campbell. A lot of our blokes lost their composure or fight. He was on a bigger player in Henry, largely, but kept at it, largely made good decisions and evened a lot of contests. It’s a great sign of how far he’s progressed, and as players come back from injury, he deserves to keep his spot and push into the midfield mix.

Yes, on running, the thing that surprised me in the GF, was how Geelong seemed to have more explosive pace than us. I knew that they were generally bigger and stronger, but I thought that if we could use our pace to make it a more outside game, then we could tire their larger bodies, as it's a general rule that more muscle mass, the less stamina. However, they consistently had more pace around the contest, which enabled them to both win the contested ball and stop us getting clean clearances to the advantage of our outside runners.

Tonight was the same. I don't think there was a lack of effort by our players. Instead, I think they were genuinely rattled by how quickly Geelong could shut them down when they had the ball, and how quicker they were to the loose ball. Another couple of factors didn't help. One thing that we're good at on larger grounds is switching the play and attacking from different angles. However, on the slim Cattery, we couldn't really do that and instead were often kicking into contested situations where we were being out-muscled. Being constantly shut down, lead to an increasing lack of confidence with the ball.

And I must admit that I'm now a bit curious about Geelong's training methods. I mean, when we played them early last season, they didn't appear to have that pace advantage. In fact, there was a fair bit of talk in AFL circles, on whether their aging list could make it through the rigours of the season. Instead, there seems to be a wide ranging improvement in strength, speed and possibly stamina. Even with their players over 30, when the general consensus is that those things start to decline.

[Nico]

That was very painful to watch. What really disappointed me was the number of turnovers by foot under no pressure. We had some genuine hacks out there tonight.
I can't get my head around how far McInerney has slipped. He is soft at what contests he gets to, and that's not many. When he has ball in hand he has got no idea.
Hayward was once again below his career average of 11 stats a game, with an earth shattering 8 stats. His career average is 1 tackle a game....1 bleedin' tackle. He might as well have been in the bar most of the game.
According to the AFL app Heeney was 4th best on the ground for fantasy points. We got slaughtered by 93 points so for mine these types of stats are meaningless.
Harry C is over the hill by a fair measure
Stephens. The few times he got the footy it was a hot potato. Very, very soft performance.
Rowbottom is way off the pace and has been all 6 games.
Once again our centre clearance work was horrible, yet the stats show we won 16/10. I must have been watching another game. Everytime our players stood behind their man at centre bounces.
We must be the worst side in the comp for missing set shots from dead in front from 30 metres.
We had 72 tackles to 59 but we didn't stick many.

I thought McLean tried hard in the 2nd half, Gulden worked hard but ruined his effort with some horrible disposals, Ladhams was ok but had his mandatory massive brain fade, Lloyd had a real dip and Fox, Blakey and Campbell played manfully in defence under extreme pressure.

[Nico]

Hopefully Duncan gets 2 weeks for "the bump" on Fox.

[mcs]

How do you know people are ignoring you?

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Good post. A few people on here quick to turn. And some ready to pounce after a loss.

Look - some of us will go hard after a loss.

But I do ask - if what should have been a 100 point drubbing is not a time to be critical, then when is?

Yes we were down on troops. But I've seen 18th placed teams give more of a whimper then we did tonight - it was pitiful.

We've been spoilt for a long time of having a succession of Swans teams, that even when they were poor, they rarely waved the flag as strongly as we did on Grand Final day and tonight.

In the modern era (i.e. 1995+ onwards), we have been lucky it rarely happens.

But the question of this squad's character will be strongly asked by the media, and we need to respond. Injuries aren't helping of course - but by gee it was meek viewing tonight.

Hopefully Duncan gets 2 weeks for "the bump" on Fox.

I expect Fox to get fined lol - that's how much faith I have in the AFL at the moment.

And I must admit that I'm now a bit curious about Geelong's training methods. I mean, when we played them early last season, they didn't appear to have that pace advantage. In fact, there was a fair bit of talk in AFL circles, on whether their aging list could make it through the rigours of the season. Instead, there seems to be a wide ranging improvement in strength, speed and possibly stamina. Even with their players over 30, when the general consensus is that those things start to decline.

Probably one of the deals for the players over the summer included a Pharmaceuticals company as a bonus, or one of the players wives is working at Chemist Warehouse.

That was very painful to watch. What really disappointed me was the number of turnovers by foot under no pressure. We had some genuine hacks out there tonight.
I can't get my head around how far McInerney has slipped. He is soft at what contests he gets to, and that's not many. When he has ball in hand he has got no idea.
Hayward was once again below his career average of 11 stats a game, with an earth shattering 8 stats. His career average is 1 tackle a game....1 bleedin' tackle. He might as well have been in the bar most of the game.
According to the AFL app Heeney was 4th best on the ground for fantasy points. We got slaughtered by 93 points so for mine these types of stats are meaningless.
Harry C is over the hill by a fair measure
Stephens. The few times he got the footy it was a hot potato. Very, very soft performance.
Rowbottom is way off the pace and has been all 6 games.
Once again our centre clearance work was horrible, yet the stats show we won 16/10. I must have been watching another game. Everytime our players stood behind their man at centre bounces.
We must be the worst side in the comp for missing set shots from dead in front from 30 metres.
We had 72 tackles to 59 but we didn't stick many.

I thought McLean tried hard in the 2nd half, Gulden worked hard but ruined his effort with some horrible disposals, Ladhams was ok but had his mandatory massive brain fade, Lloyd had a real dip and Fox, Blakey and Campbell played manfully in defence under extreme pressure.

JMac has been utterly woeful this season. Don't know what is going on - but his form is barely VFL standard at the moment, let alone AFL standard. We have no obvious replacements, but by gee he looks a long way off it.

Stephens seems to have reverted post grand final to the ultra nervous, poor decision making that plagued his earliest forays at AFL level. There is a very good footballer in there, but looking so lost again.

I think Rowy has been slightly better the last two weeks, and effort is up. But he is getting to the point now where he can't just be a 'follower' building off the good work of others in the middle. I still think part of it is tactics/coaching though. He just doesn't seem to be hitting packs with desperation for the ball like he has previously - almost waiting for the tackle instead of getting stuck in. I don't think we can use him in that way effectively long term.

[The Big Cat]

If a tackle doesn’t stick it’s not counted as a tackle.
Stephens covered the largest distance and at the highest average speed than anyone from either team, so there was no lack of effort. He was also smashed under packs so was having a red hot go.
Jury-rigging the team to cover players missing has wider implications for both the players moved and for team synergy as well.

[joeykanga]

The Chad was simply Chad tonight..he was playing touch football with his tackles. Bad choices with the ball, errant kicking, getting caught often. He had a shocker and Ladhams is soft and fumbly
I thought Campbell was the best.

[Doctor]

Andrew Wu on Twitter

https://twitter.com/wutube/status/16...VNVXHPOaQ&s=19

I was at that game

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