Round 7 v Giants at the SCG, 2.10pm Saturday 29 April (pre-game thread)

[stevoswan]

P.S: Anyone know if JPK is keeping himself fit, so we can have someone who can win the bloody ball at the coalface?

Funny you say that....when I was at the ground on Saturday night I was thinking of JPK.....while watching our midfield getting smashed and Mills languishing down in the backline trying to fill the gaping holes.

[MattW]

Who knows who's coming back from injury??

This is not a knock on Hickey per se, but I'd be loathe to play two rucks right now. I reckon one of our woes is the lack of forward pressure compared to last year, when we were manic at holding the ball inside 50 or our getting repeat entries. People on here (rightly) remark on McLean's lack of defensive pressure; well, Hickey or Ladhams ain't gonna be any quicker.

It 'may' be that we can play Ladhams in the role McLean currently has, once Hickey returns to full fitness and resumes his role in the ruck. Ladhams did occasionally play that second ruck role at Port. The other argument for this arrangement is Logan is not yet a stand-your-ground pack mark inside 50, and works better roaming around; so there's a case for a big body closer to the goal square.

But I'd rather play a smaller, quicker forward line built around Logan, Heeney and Paps until we get the cavalry back after the bye. It also reinforces for me the value a good small forward like Konstanty will hopefully bring in time. Clarke is an excellent tagger, but he doesn't do the scrambling defensive work (the role Wicks had in '21) and as others have noted, his disposal is slow and a weakness.

If Franklin doesn't play, I think Ladhams and Hickey offer more than one of those two and McLean.

[Maltopia]

We wouldn’t need to delist McCartin, just move him to the inactive list. That would be a concession he’s not going to play again this year but wouldn’t put a final line under his career.

Thanks for the correction, Liz!

[Roadrunner]

We wouldn’t need to delist McCartin, just move him to the inactive list. That would be a concession he’s not going to play again this year but wouldn’t put a final line under his career.

I think this should be done Liz.
It is too risky to play him for quite a long time, and it should be his decision and based on the advice of the medicos whether he continues way down the track. Feel for him and the club!

[gloveski]

Reserves have the bye so they might as well play Hickey if they think he is ready .

Mid season we need either a ready made key defender/ forward or 190cm plus midfielder. Basically anyone with height and not stick thin


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[liz]

I think this should be done Liz.
It is too risky to play him for quite a long time, and it should be his decision and based on the advice of the medicos whether he continues way down the track. Feel for him and the club!

My guess is that it will happen so long as the club has identified a mid-season draft prospect that can come in and help us now, given we are so exposed for talls. (Reid MAY be back in the second half of the season but there are no guarantees given his history; who knows if Amartey will make it back into good form after his latest setback; Franklin is a wait and see; Melican is perpetually injured; and of course, Paddy's own situation). We really need someone who can make a difference right now, rather than the speculative / long term picks we've made ever since the MSD was introduced).

Whether we'll have access to someone decent will depend on how the next few weeks go - ie how far down the ladder we are by the start of the mid-season byes. Still a month to go.

[liz]

Reserves have the bye so they might as well play Hickey if they think he is ready .

Mid season we need either a ready made key defender/ forward or 190cm plus midfielder. Basically anyone with height and not stick thin


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The frequency of byes in the VFL is frustrating. Given there are over 20 clubs and not everyone gets to play everyone else, it can't be down to lack of opponents. It feels like every three weeks or so there is another bye.

[707]

Now Fox and Roberts. It's feeling like The Little Bighorn, numbers dwindling and no reinforcements in sight.

Not sure how we are such hot favourites against GWS

[Roadrunner]

My guess is that it will happen so long as the club has identified a mid-season draft prospect that can come in and help us now, given we are so exposed for talls. (Reid MAY be back in the second half of the season but there are no guarantees given his history; who knows if Amartey will make it back into good form after his latest setback; Franklin is a wait and see; Melican is perpetually injured; and of course, Paddy's own situation). We really need someone who can make a difference right now, rather than the speculative / long term picks we've made ever since the MSD was introduced).

Whether we'll have access to someone decent will depend on how the next few weeks go - ie how far down the ladder we are by the start of the mid-season byes. Still a month to go.

We are sitting 10th and on current form I can see us drifting lower, unfortunately. The lads need to really reach deep inside and find consistency for 4 quarters if we are to improve. Tactics need to change and avoid bombing up forward, for goodness sakes, how silly is that when we are so undersized! Surely this is up to the players as I can’t imagine our coaches telling them to play like this…….. so frustrating to watch game after game.
Let’s see who we can pick up in the MSD as we need more than 1 tall!

[crackedactor 01]

Sitting on 10th place and not looking good as we have Collingwood in a fortnight. I hope they can at least put in competitive effort over the next 2 weeks.

[Ludwig]

Longmire looked forlorn in his press conference. It's only April and the season is already done. He detests the options he has available so much, he can barely bring himself around to mention their names. And if some magic pill doesn't emerge later this year, the bleeding could well spill into the next season and beyond. And just when things were looking so bright.

The only thing that might work is for the same injury curse that has befallen the Swans will spread like Covid across the competition. It seems to be happening. Now we can measure which team is sickest rather than which team is the best.

Can our players overcome the despondency that oozes from every pore of the head coach and play the game as if everything is just fine?

Just when we thought the rebuild was over, it's back on again. Will we have a team that is a legitimate challenger that we can cheer on from round to round or will we be reduced to complaining about the umpiring?

Two sick teams from Sydney will fight it out on Saturday in a game that will prove nothing for either, regardless of the result.

So it goes.

[liz]

Longmire looked forlorn in his press conference. It's only April and the season is already done. He detests the options he has available so much, he can barely bring himself around to mention their names. And if some magic pill doesn't emerge later this year, the bleeding could well spill into the next season and beyond. And just when things were looking so bright.

And only a week earlier he was positively beaming with fatherlike pride after the Richmond win.

Things are never as good (in football, maybe in life) as they may seem but nor are they never as bad.

[Roadrunner]

And only a week earlier he was positively beaming with fatherlike pride after the Richmond win.

Things are never as good (in football, maybe in life) as they may seem but nor are they never as bad.

Spot on Liz- let’s stay positive as we can turn this around by better team selections and more consistency from our boys, which should be possible. Positives are that we should get Sammy and Amartey back in 6-8 weeks????

I should also mention lowering the eyes and forwards to lead and avoid bombing to them- which has been the dumbest thing in our current circumstances!

[Ludwig]

Things are never as good (in football, maybe in life) as they may seem but nor are they never as bad.

Indeed! The worse things look for September, the better they look for November.

[H2F]

Longmire looked forlorn in his press conference. It's only April and the season is already done. He detests the options he has available so much, he can barely bring himself around to mention their names. And if some magic pill doesn't emerge later this year, the bleeding could well spill into the next season and beyond. And just when things were looking so bright.

The only thing that might work is for the same injury curse that has befallen the Swans will spread like Covid across the competition. It seems to be happening. Now we can measure which team is sickest rather than which team is the best.

Can our players overcome the despondency that oozes from every pore of the head coach and play the game as if everything is just fine?

Just when we thought the rebuild was over, it's back on again. Will we have a team that is a legitimate challenger that we can cheer on from round to round or will we be reduced to complaining about the umpiring?

Two sick teams from Sydney will fight it out on Saturday in a game that will prove nothing for either, regardless of the result.

So it goes.

The issue is deeper than just "missing talls" its the midfield that is wanting we had Rampe and Tom and Amartey against Melbourne and we conceded 6 goals in the 1st followed by 7 in the 4th QTR.

Unless the midfield turns it around we will continue to struggle Giants are more than capable of kicking a winning score this week if midfield slacks off again.