Match thread: Swans v Bulldogs.

[Mel_C]

And I reckon that if the umpires had pinged Bontempelli for dropping the ball/holding the ball/incorrect disposal when he was tackled by Isaac in the second quarter, Naughton wouldn't have been injured in the tackle that happened straight afterwards.

The tackle of Naughton should have been HTB too.

[Mel_C]

Yes, it was definitely HTB, since the highest contact made was to the upper arm. The other high contact free that annoyed me, was when Heeney tackled Bontempelli and instead of trying to get rid of the ball when on the ground, Bontempelli asked nicely for a free. The umpire then had a quick think and decided to give him one. Heeney then had a quick think and decided not to give the umpire one.

Oh wow, I didn't see this at the ground, but I've read several posts on here and on Big Footy about Bont asking for the free. It definitely wasn't high and I was yelling for the HTB.

[Mel_C]

what was the free kick count

14-13 our way. It's the frees that weren't paid that was the issue, specifically HTB.

[Mel_C]

Watched both coaches' post game press conferences. JL was typically measured in his comments, complimenting the Bulldogs and observing that we had a number of areas to work on for our game against the Cats after the bye. Luke Beveridge'e press conference resembled a love in with the Melbourne football press. He was spoon fed questions about the bad luck his team had suffered and there was not one syllable offered about the Swans. Quite extraordinary but not surprising.

Well based on the comment by Beveridge at the start of the press conference, there was only 1 reporter there!

[MattW]

Yes, it was definitely HTB, since the highest contact made was to the upper arm. The other high contact free that annoyed me, was when Heeney tackled Bontempelli and instead of trying to get rid of the ball when on the ground, Bontempelli asked nicely for a free. The umpire then had a quick think and decided to give him one. Heeney then had a quick think and decided not to give the umpire one.

You've described the latter incident perfectly.

[Sandridge]

14-13 our way. It's the frees that weren't paid that was the issue, specifically HTB.

So right! As you pointed out in post 91, they missed 2 in the space of 5 seconds that should've gone our way. Not to mention the throws that the Poodles STILL get away with!

[Auntie.Gerald]

Ps I think the snapshot of the first 2mins of the third qtr sums up in action how flexible we are with our attack

1st goal Paps in the centre square links to mids and Hayward scores

1min later Grundy to Warner to McDonald 40m out goal !!!

[Mel_C]

Horse was getting as mad as a bull there for awhile.

On Friday morning I turned on the radio to SEN to listen to the commentary about our game. The talkback was all about how Longmire was yelling down the phone and going off his nut. One caller even compared it to domestic violence!!!! Thankfully there were some sane callers who talked sense about the topic. I was at the game so didn't see the footage, but he is not directing his anger to the player's face. It's either to other coaches in the box, or to someone on the bench like Kirk/Mills/Cameron.

To be fair to the host Sam Edmund, he said the talk about Longmire was absolute rubbish. And he did declare it King Chad day ????.

[Auntie.Gerald]

I must admit

When a coaching is yelling they are minimum 50% in their fight , flight brain which is not particularly tactical

Not too many of the elite coaches these days in any sport stay too long in this mode due to the opportunity cost of not being in the strategic brain.

Or is that actually not true?

Soccer
NRL
Union
Basketball
Baseball
AFL
Tennis
Golf

??

[i'm-uninformed2]

Hey Dasi,

What a night hey !

I must admit I feel a little different re our talls up front and how we are structuring our attack.

They are young and very youthful re games played our tall forwards.

So it has made sense not to give the “Pagan’s Paddock” to our emerging young talls up front like u might with a Wayne Carey or a Tom Hawkins etc

We have actually reversed this strategy and played them as more posting at the 50 / 60 and 70m out range minimum to be a “marking” target for our fast moving backline. While sneaking our Hayward, Paps, Wicks and Warner into the wide open space of our forward line.

For me this makes a lot of sense.

Paps, Hayward, Warner, Heeney are fairly accurate kicks and can kick a goal in many different ways.

Our young tall forwards then have less pressure, can loop back around for a 40m mark if we got held up and the opportunity awaits.

I’m liking this flexibility up so many goal scorers in many different ways. It creates chaos for very good defending teams with strong talls like Melbourne and GWS etc who can be very hard to break down tall on tall.

A good post and good observations, and part of why I think it’s the best Horse (and the coaching unit) has coached for a little while and I say that as someone who digs him.

He’s recast our midfield and centre square set up and mix to be more offensively minded, he’s got our forward line playing to structure not position and he’s getting a lot right within games.

Even the way he’s used Wilbur which is to keep him doing a lot of the defensive stuff he does so well but not flog him senseless and instead roll him inside 50 more regularly to hit the scoreboard.

[Kafka's Ghost]

No team I like beating more than the Dogs, don't have a single redeeming feature. Created some carnage to them as well.

A scrappy win but gives the coaches a lot to work with in their review in a weeks time. This is the kind of win that top sides pull off.

Third quarter is worth a re watch. Chad is starting to hurt Heeney's Brownlow chances. Big shout out to our supporters who turned up in big numbers it seemed (on TV) Take the win, have a break, move on. It's a long way to end of September.

As much as I’d love to see Isaac or Chad win the Brownlow, I have no issue with them taking votes from each other if it results in a great team performance and winning the flag.
In general, I thought the cumulative effects of multiple short weeks plus a trip to Perth started to show in the last 10 minutes of the match, but in reality we were the dominant side after halftime. Fortunately the Dogs did nothing much with their periods of control in the first half. As for the umpiring, I am firmly of the belief that 4 umpires is WAAAAY too many officials on the field and has led to more inconsistency and confusion, with an almost total abandonment of HTB. Never thought I’d agree with Hardwick and Voss, but they’re right on the money here. Giving players 15 seconds or more to dispose of the ball is a recipe for injury.
Finally, yet again the AFL’s own site cannot bring itself to actually discuss the Swans. Since our statement game against the Giants it’s been consistently about our opposition. No longer mildly aggrieved by this, in fact, it’s rather amusing. I’m now wondering how long they’ll maintain the dogged ignoring of the team sitting on top of the ladder by 1.5 games and a heap of percentage. However, there’s plenty of Swans love elsewhere, The Mongrel Punt a personal favourite.

[KTigers]

Well based on the comment by Beveridge at the start of the press conference, there was only 1 reporter there!

That's the way I read Beveridge's somewhat sarcastic comment at the start of the press conference too, that only one
reporter showed up. Pretty poor effort by the Melbourne footy media people for only one person to show up. The guy
is hard to love I get that, but his team did make a game of it. I'm from the "bad kicking is bad football" school and
when a team kicks 16.6 like we did it's usually because they are making A grade entries into the forward 50 which
comes from dominant play further down the field.
I just saw a story on the Fox Sports site quote Leigh Montagna as saying we are on track to having one of the best
H & A seasons in the modern era. No team in the 2000s has had a percentage 30% ahead of its nearest rival, and
we are 5-and-0 against other top 8 teams this year with a percentage of 156% against them.

[KSAS]

The irony is Montagna tipped us to miss the top 8 at the beginning of the season!

[KTigers]

Miss the top 8. That's harsh. That would be quite an "achievement" from here. The challenge for us is basically to secure a
home final, win it, and then win a home prelim. Then.... the obvious. Anyway, right now it's a good time to be a Swans fan.

[i'm-uninformed2]

That's the way I read Beveridge's somewhat sarcastic comment at the start of the press conference too, that only one
reporter showed up. Pretty poor effort by the Melbourne footy media people for only one person to show up. The guy
is hard to love I get that, but his team did make a game of it. I'm from the "bad kicking is bad football" school and
when a team kicks 16.6 like we did it's usually because they are making A grade entries into the forward 50 which
comes from dominant play further down the field.
I just saw a story on the Fox Sports site quote Leigh Montagna as saying we are on track to having one of the best
H & A seasons in the modern era. No team in the 2000s has had a percentage 30% ahead of its nearest rival, and
we are 5-and-0 against other top 8 teams this year with a percentage of 156% against them.

The amazing thing about our percentage is how we've constructed it - with a loss to Richmond, and a close run call against the Weagles. Imagine what it'd be if we'd done the buffering other sides have playing them.