Match thread. Swans v Suns.

[Mel_C]

I'm looking forward to watching my recording of the match (except the 2nd quarter!).

For those that saw the game, is Heeney a chance for more Brownlow votes? I heard his name a fair bit, as well as Grundy and Errol.

[i'm-uninformed2]

He doesn't have the breakaway burst he has had. Just an observation.

Fair enough and thanks. For me, it’d become a worry if he doesn’t have the speed and agility to track and beat a Cameron or Weightman etc. just haven’t seen that yet.

[Sandridge]

I'm looking forward to watching my recording of the match (except the 2nd quarter!).

For those that saw the game, is Heeney a chance for more Brownlow votes? I heard his name a fair bit, as well as Grundy and Errol.

Didn't see the game either but Triple MMM votes were:

3. Grundy
2. Heeney
1. Blakey

Jude Bolton one of the two who gave the votes

[i'm-uninformed2]

I'm looking forward to watching my recording of the match (except the 2nd quarter!).

For those that saw the game, is Heeney a chance for more Brownlow votes? I heard his name a fair bit, as well as Grundy and Errol.

I’d personally give him three, but Brundy would be a chance. At worst, you’d reckon he’d get a vote. My bet is still looking good.

[Hotpotato]

I could only listen to ABC 6.30 radio and the commentary was excellent with comments by Callum Sinclair and Eva someone.
They also promoted some AFL podcast that Roosey is on .

The team is often asleep after a bye, the coaches have done a good job keeping them sharp this time and switched on from the first bounce.
Yeah/nah wont watch the second Quarter. Only the second half. Thanks.

[Nico]

I could only listen to ABC 6.30 radio and the commentary was excellent with comments by Callum Sinclair and Eva someone.
They also promoted some AFL podcast that Roosey is on .

The team is often asleep after a bye, the coaches have done a good job keeping them sharp this time and switched on from the first bounce.
Yeah/nah wont watch the second Quarter. Only the second half. Thanks.

I think having the bye early was good for us. Early in the season, not too many players banged up looking for a rest, plenty of run in the legs, readjusted any early season team issues, retained pre season fitness and still fresh in the mind.

[i'm-uninformed2]

I think having the bye early was good for us. Early in the season, not too many players banged up looking for a rest, plenty of run in the legs, readjusted any early season team issues, retained pre season fitness and still fresh in the mind.

Yes though the downside is our two five days breaks will be fairly compressed in the back end

[Captain]

Good to see Amartey kick a few. Hopefully the voices calling for him to be dropped quieten down a little now.

[mcs]

Just back home after a very slow trip back. Mainly thanks to useless traffic wardens/traffic cops making things infinitely worse getting immediately out of the Moore Park area. More than an hour it took us to get out just to Anzac Parade. Very frustrating.

Was a funny sort of game - really thought with the 2nd quarter we could fall in a hole, but we got going nicely in the 3rd and early in the 4th and really put them away. I feel like we are still a bit vulnerable defensively (especially missing the marshalling of Rampe!) at times, and better sides than Gold Coast would have punished up significantly more today. But we had some good footy going the other way to counteract that. Heeney again very good (he does a lot of things easily that most other players simply couldn't dream of doing), Grundy toiled really hard, Adams had a real influence, Papley led from the front, Gulden was just Gulden (his ability to just keep running is something else - he really can rip teams apart later in contests, though even he hit a wall late with a couple of uncharacteristic errors). McInerney continued his strongly encouraging start to the season, and Matty Roberts continues to impress.

An enjoyable day out at the footy, even if the contest wasn't the highest quality you will ever see. Great crowd too - very, very few seats at all in the top of the unreserved Red Zone area (that full in fact that there were a few awkward cases of people trying to pinch seats during breaks when people had gone off to the toilet/get drinks etc - that didn't go down so well), and a great crowd for a Gold Coast game.

Log the win in the book, and move on to next week!

[Dow]

Good to see Amartey kick a few. Hopefully the voices calling for him to be dropped quieten down a little now.

I think he needed a performance like that - he reminds me of Riccardi from GWS inconsistent and always just does enough to hold his spot lol -let’s hope can play like this against a top 6 side

[mcs]

I liked how he was striking the ball today Amartey. I worry he doesn't offer enough around the ground when he can't mark it, but if he can kick as well as he did today on a regular basis, that is less of a worry.

I'm not entirely sold on the big 3 forward set up, but as I said earlier in the season - as long as we are getting regular contributions from each of them, it is worth persevering with.

[neilfws]

Was a funny sort of game - really thought with the 2nd quarter we could fall in a hole, but we got going nicely in the 3rd and early in the 4th and really put them away.

An enjoyable day out at the footy, even if the contest wasn't the highest quality you will ever see.

Yes, I enjoyed quarters 1, 3 and 4 immensely, 2 had me scratching my head. I like the Swans applying the pressure but they do have their wobbly moments when it's applied to them.

Great game from Grundy today, clearly wanting to make a statement in his milestone. Gulden was everywhere, another good performance from Heeney. I think McInerney has been good and very consistent all season. There was something from everyone today.

Hard to go past the flying Papley mark, boundary snap and celebration for moment of the game though!

Good crowd, great weather for footy and a romp home, definitely a great day out at the SCG. The GWS game in 2 weeks could be a cracker.

[mcs]

Was definitely a good day out - soured for us by the idiotic traffic management coming out - but have well and truly come to expect that by these days.

What I like about Grundy is even in the games he hasn't been dominant in, he continues to grind away, chip away, and constantly finds a way to influence the contest over the 4 quarters. Very few rucks are good enough to do that consistently, but he is one. Keeping him fit (along with a few other key cogs) will be critical to our chances at the pointy end of the season.

[waswan]

Good to see Amartey kick a few. Hopefully the voices calling for him to be dropped quieten down a little now.

Wont hear me complain about him playing a game like that, did very well...... hopefully its not a one off

[liz]

I was expecting Gold Coast to put up a bit more of a fight than that. Even in their best quarter they weren't especially dynamic with their ball movement and never looked like kicking a handful of quick goals to really put the pressure back on us. And so I question what Hardwick is doing with his selection policy. He's not putting out such a young team because he has to. They had over 1000 games of AFL experience running around in the curtain raiser. Yes, their kids are talented, but when you put that much inexperience in a side at the same time they are going to struggle. Many of them aren't really ready for AFL footy yet, but are probably good enough to get a few games of experience as part of a more cohesive, more experienced team. And they'd learn more playing in a more experienced team.

Are they "tanking" in the sense of not really wanting to make finals this year? Or is Hardwick too enamored with all his shiny new toys and arrogant enough to think that raw talent is going to get them far at the elite level where every player is decently talented and every side has a handful of players with just as much talent (and far more experience, hardness and endurance) than the best of his young players?