Review 2011 Season in Review

[Jack2Johnston]

Whilst I know there is a Toast thread, and yes I am happy with how the season panned out overall,
I believe it would be a good idea to have a Review thread, because despite a good last 4 weeks we played some very poor football in patches throughout the year and really should have finished higher with our draw and list. Top 4 would have been a realistic chance.

So lets look at Season 2011, what went right, what went wrong, what can we reasonably expect to improve on, apologise if this is TLDR, as it will go over a number of posts.

We started off the year by losing Craig Bolton and Daniel Bradshaw, but to be honest I think too much has been made of this,
as we played the year before almost entirely without them anyway.

I've done Rounds as Games ignore the Byes

Matches Review

Round One - was a bad start to our year, drawing with Melbourne, who would eventually finish 13th and sack their Coach.
Part of this was due to a coaching mistake in having Seaby as a sub and getting over run in the last.

Whilst we may focus on other games as poor later in the year, this is a big one for mine, we should have beaten Melbourne, a forward line consisting of White Reid and Bolton actually looked alright, White failing to impress

Round 2 and 3 we Beat Essendon and West Coast, Notably Alex Johnson debuting vs West Coast and looking like he'd been at the gig for years with his steady disposal. Andrejs Everitt was playing as a leading forward flanker, and kicked the sealer vs WC.

In both these games we had a leading HFF helping out the forward line, and it seemed to work

Round 4 and 5 we were comprehensively beaten by Geelong and Carlton in succession, with Keiran Jack injuring himself vs the Blues, both of these were wet weather games where we showed terrible disposal.

Whilst wet weather football has never really been our strong point despite the media hype, Against the blues we were very slow to adapt, late in the 2nd quarter we actually were playing very good wet weather football, however as it dried up we kept trying to play that style, and they completely destroyed us (with a little help from mr 3 votes having a blinder in the 3rd)

We then won Rounds 6 and 7 despite playing some very poor football, against the Bulldogs and Port, the port game being particularly bad

We can look back at the season and see we beat port by 70 odd points, what that doesnt show is that we played against port much like we played against Richmond, and then Hawthorn in the semi final, we did not show up for the first half, played terrible football with the 1/2 time score reading 5.6 - 4.3.

This could be seen a warning for us that we needed to address, as throughout the year we never really played a full 4qtr effort.

Round 8 we got demolished by Hawthorn, they beat us at the contested ball, they had strategies to combat our ruck, Buddy and Roughy had a field day, with the Hawks spread out of the middle too much for us to deal with, and silver service delivery to the forward line leaving our backs with no chance.

The worst thing about this game is that either we didnt learn from it, or we as a team CANNOT combat it, as Hawthorn go on to do exactly the same, using the same spread out of the middle to completely dominate our midfeild for much of the Semi Final

Round 9,10,11 we had wins over opposition we should beat, in North, Brisbane and Richmond, Ironically beating North by a point by being more accurate than them.

The most notable game here was our game against the Lions, we didnt let them touch the ball, Seaby played a brilliant game around the ground with physical presence it was close to a 4 qtr full team performance, unfortunately that form was a 1 week affair having struggled to beat North the week before by a solitary point, and struggling against Richmond the next week before running out 10 point winners

Round 12, 13 we had losses to Carlton and Collingwood, neither of which were good games for us, the Carlton game we didnt show up for, and were smashed around the ground early, and were never really in the game after the first quarter, the collingwood game we showed up for, and played some of our best football, and still fell 6 behinds short.

Assuming we still count Collingwood as the benchmark, we need to look carefully at this game, as we through everything at them and they easily accounted for us, nevermind the score being 6 points the difference, they were easily 40 points better than us that day, and was only their own wastefulness going forward that stopped it from being a belting.

Round 14 We lost to a team we should have beaten in Adelaide, once again our players simply didnt turn up to play

Terrible game, with very little effort, should have been a regulation win, Adelaide went on to finish 14th, we should be disgusted to have lost this

Round 15 Won over Gold Coast

Really nothing to take from this game, aside from Spangher's Debut and him looking very good assisting our forwardline

Round 16 Loss to Fremantle, Played poorly, but were absolutely robbed by the umps, most 1 sided umpiring performance I saw all year for us, probably second worst umpired game of the year after the QClash 1 match.

However despite umpiring we had a poor game at home and really should have won this game, was another case of not turning up to play for most of the game, then quickly knocking through 5 quick goals when we actually try

Round 17 Comfortable win against the dogs, played the sort of football we should have all year, had we played like this against a number of other teams would have a couple more wins.

Round 18,19 Losses to Both Essendon and Richmond, playing our worst game of the year against the tigers, once more not turning up to play, something that has been endemic in our season to date.

The loss to the Bombers due to in-accuracy was a culmination of a year of bad kicking that took much too long to address, And the Richmond loss another example of the team simply not turning up

Now we all know how the season panned out following this, with 4 Quarter efforts until todays final, and a streak of wins vs StKilda, Geelong and Brisbane.

The question is, why did it take till after the Richmond game for players to decide to actually play, The Adelaide game 5 rounds previously was an equally Dismal performance, the first loss to Hawthorn was an absolute belting did the players not see something wrong then?
Did the coaches not have questions after the Port game where it was within 2 goals at half time before we ran out 70 point winners?

And lastly having seen the results of their efforts in wins over Geelong, 2x Saints, and Brisbane, why did they seem to forget the lessons for the entire first half against the Hawks in the final?

 

[Jack2Johnston]

Luckily this section should be shorter than the previous section so yay less reading.

Players - Review

In 2011 we appear to have gone backwards, not just based on ladder position, but based on the evenness of our list. To make sure that this is one Step back before taking 2 steps forwards we need to look at why (I beleive) we went backwards.

It may hurt to be labeled a 1 man team, but on too many occasions this year we have had to rely on Goodes to get us over the line and there are a number of players who need to lift as he cannot continue to do this in the future.

White I feel like leaving this one for later in the list is ignoring the elephant in the room, so here it is White didnt kick on this year, and is fast running out of chances

Our Forward line struggled all year, and White appears to have the attributes of a dominant FF, except he seems to lack some footy smarts

K. Jack, had a down year this year, whether through injury or greater attention from the opposition with Bolton and Kirk no longer in the middle so much.

We Would be hoping Kizza is primed for a big 2012 and continues his ascent to becoming one of THE top few elite mids in the game that we know he can be

ROK O'Keefe had a good year in the midfield, our problem is that he plays a very similar role to players we have recuited to play this role.

O'Keefe Parker, Kennedy, Bird, Jude, and Hanners are not exactly what you would call quick midfielders, we saw this against Hawthorns spread, and with Jack struggling at times our slow midfield has been noticeable. Which also explains why Jetta was kept in the side for so long despite struggling for form.

It is my opinion that 4 pure inside mids is probably the most we can have in the team, we've already made a good move with Jude to the forward line for stretches, perhaps O'Keefe back to a HFF, as we really have missed his Nuance in the forward line

Jetta has struggled to improve on his first season, and is going to need to work hard to find his way back into the team. There is no doubt that a Jetta getting 20 touches and delivering the ball into the forward 50, after blazing down the wing could add a lot to this team.

Our forward line

The Reid, White, Spanger, with Goodes/Mumford/McGlynn/Bolton/O'Keefe floating through worked for us during the past few weeks, however against the Hawks it was completely in-effectual, and I know he is a whipping boy and I'd like to be saying someone else but I'd be very interested in seeing how Pyke went at full forward instead of White.

White still struggles with timing his leads, and I dont think its about him not getting it, but for a guy with a big body gosh some of his tackles today were paper thin.

Pyke has a great set of hands, isnt a terrible kick, and has a big body which he is fine with throwing around, Pyke as a ruckman also offers more than White. Kind of strange replacing a whipping boy with a cult figure but so be it.

and whilst Spangher has been very good would be interested in seeing Johnston move into the team at some stage, if he puts on enough bulk over the off season maybe as FF, however possibly as a leading HF


McGlynn Seems weird to be mentioning our leading goal kicker, however I believe he goes missing too often, and am honestly not sure of his long term place in the team.

Our Backline
I actually have nothing bad to say about our backs, I think they've stood up well under pressure, and whilst I'd like to see Campbell Heath get a run in there sometime in 2012 I'm fairly happy with the Smith/Teddy/Johnson/Grundy/Shaw/Malceski lineup

2012 Cross Roads

TDL After a great late entry to the side in 2010, the Sharpshooter TDL struggled to get back into the team this year, weather it was because we broke up the tandem that was White/TDL from 2010 or because of injury, players that can only play 1 position have been impacted by the sub rule and TDL will be looking to establish himself in our forward line next year.

WhiteIt seems like White has been at the Crossroads for the last 2 years, however I'd expect next year to really be his final chance to prove himself at the Swans, really need to take the next step or face a very uncertain future.

Johnston after struggling with injury in his first year which set back his development Johnston made his debut in 2011, will be looking to a big off season to try force his way into the side in 2012, if he bulks up enough will certainly get his chance.

Meredith Slipping down the list of mids behind new comers Parker and Rohan, will face even more pressure next year when Tom Mitchell arrives really needs to show something to justify his long term value to the team.

Jetta After struggling to improve on his debut seasons output Jetta faces competition from Rohan, and the likelihood that the Swans will be looking to trade in even more pace to the side, will want to show considerable improvement on this season.

Bird You get the feeling the Coaches have lots of time for Bird, and he seems like a hard worker, however there will be an increased competition for senior midfield spots next season, and bird will need to work on his fitness base after struggling in the late part of the year, or may find himself overtaken.


Wants/Needs

We should pay careful attention to a few games this year, in particular the games against top 4 sides + Essendon, one thing that stands out is how we were beaten against each of these sides, and that is SPEED.

Rohan will add some speed if he is played on the wing, and if Jetta becomes the player the coaches envision then he would too, however we should look to trade in some pace for our midfield. This will obviously come at the expense of one of our current midfeilders, and Bird may be the weakest link, so he needs a big off season, as his late season form was disappointing after a decent year.

If there is one available we should enquire about a big bodied FF, not a development player, we have those, one who can slot into our forward line now.
(no not Fev... ok well maybe Fev on some strict conditions)

Aside from that I think we need to Draft a project ruckman, as unlikely that our current strong 4 will all be there next year.

Anyone else got thoughts on this

 

[Jack2Johnston]

and Smallest of the lot for now
Gameplan Review

Defense

In 2011 we altered the gameplan, Swans are still not playing using a press in defense, instead preferring the 1 on 1 strategy that has served us for the past 6 years. We seem to be happy to use Rhyce Shaw fairly prominently to setup off the back line, however usually stick to kicking to the wings. The running handball out of defense has taken a back seat somewhat for the quick handball to long kick down the wing.

Attack
In attack we have attempted to kick long to marking contests, and for periods it has worked, at other times it simply appears wasteful. Unfortunately losing one of our best kicks off the backline in Malceski for various periods due to his knee may have adversely affected our ability to carry out this gameplan.

We also appear to have some issues with positioning at these contests which I really hope is worked on the in the off season, not having our smalls on the right side of a marking contest and watching the opposition's smalls get the ball and rebound it with no pressure was a frustrating feature all too often.

We appear very Reid focused at times, and this is understandable given our lack of forward options for most of the year, the question of whether our gameplan needs a leading full forward to function correctly, and what sort of difference that would make is an interesting one.

Midfield

We have a emphasis on contested football, however we really need to look at not getting everyone drawn into the contest, as often we'll get the ball only to have 4 swans within 2m of each other, and have no way to effectively move the ball forward, resulting in kick and hope bombs. This closeness of players also works in our advantage at the moment, due to the number of large bodied players we usually have around the contest, Mumford, Kennedy, O'Keefe, Bolton to start with we can typically keep a ball locked in until we are able to get a take away to our advantage. Whether it will be in our best interests to continue to do this after adding the expected injection of pace to our side in the off season is yet to be seen.

This above problem may be directly a result of players like Jetta not getting in the correct position, and may be corrected with better play from our outside mids and a full season of Rohan in the side.


Overall I am fairly happy with the current game plan, it seems suited to beat the press, however we may lack some pace across the ground which is preventing us from seeing the full benefit of the plan.


Overview

So there we have it, my take on Season 2011, our game plan, our matches, and some players, would love it if we could get some discussion as to what others thought of the season, as realistically whilst I'm not disappointed with a exit in 2nd week of finals, but I am disappointed with our ladder position at end of H&A season.

I'm also disappointed with a number of worrying things from the season, such as inability to run out matches, and players simply not turning up ready to play from the word go.

I am excited for season 2012 and certainly think we can challenge with some changes.

How about you guys?

 

[Dangas]

Well didn't take long, WELL DONE on that J2J

 

[sr20]

BAD GAMES

There was probably three games in the Home and Away season that I was really disappointed in, and they were all losses highlighted above.

Carlton the second time we played them at Etihad Stadium. As a Vic supporter of the Swans, it was one of the few matches I was able to go to, and we looked slow, and had no structure that day whatsoever. It's disappointing because we played so well against them earlier in the year, and really lost a bit of confidence it looked in that game.

Adelaide game over there. That was an absolutely horrid performance and we probably still should have won. Adelaide have had the wood over us for some time now, and its something that really needs to be addressed.

Richmond loss at MCG. Another game I went to, and it was much the same as the Carlton game. We kicked up the line on the wing a good 30 times coming out of defence and were simply wasteful all around the ground. The only positive that game out of it was that it kicked us into gear and we did so well after it.

POSSIBLE DELISTINGS/TRADE BAIT
Bevan- Trade Bait

White- Trade Bait

Moore- Trade Bait

Heath- Injuries have hurt him, and maybe his time has passed him by.

Meredith- Pace in the AFL seems to quick for him.

Currie- Surely someone will be interested in a highly rated ruckman who just isn't getting a chance in Sydney.

 

[dubber]

From an outsider view (hope you don't mind)

A bit harsh - no mention of Nick Smith ?? Seriously don't you love this guy. He is a tackling machine, the glove, not only a great shut down player but hurts you going the other way. Love love watching him and Rohan, the goal against the cats & the celebrations

I think you need more from Jesse, i rate him. He needs more game time in the seniors. He has a lot to offer me thinks, can pinch hit in the ruck, can play forward.

I loved watching you guys play against us, the cats & Saints. All the best for next year.

 

[CAS79]

From an outsider view (hope you don't mind)

A bit harsh - no mention of Nick Smith ?? Seriously don't you love this guy

Give it a few days. on BF with many your only as good as your last game and Smith, as good as he's been, had a bad game against the Hawks including getting caught watching when Richards beat Franklin on first effort giving time for Smith to support him and he failed to do so.

He'll be forgiven in a few days as he is an awesome ground level defensive monster.

I want to to touch on the coaching for a minute in 3 games where it seemed to be poor. The first was the very first game of the season when we jumped Melbourne and should have put them away. But Melbourne's plan of everyone in front of the ball and first use and run into space hurt us after half time. No solution even appeared to be offered even after it appeared to hurt us. This was also the game where Seaby was introduced as Ruck sub and did nothing.


Carlton game, no alternative game plan was offered after we were getting hit. Carton had all the tactics and cut out all the width. We were unable to spread back in and no stage did it seem instructions to attempt to do so were ever passed on. Jetta may have had an indifferent season but he was brought on as substitute in this game long after we were beaten for footspeed and hte game was lost. Pointless.

Adelaide. It was wet and the players were lackadaisical. But again watching from the TV it appeared as if our ability to get to the right positions for the scenario's of the game absolutely killed us. We know were not a skillful team so our spread has to be 100% Adelaide moved there pawns to ensure our players seemed to be out of position and we were far too reactionary to a team we should have taken it to.



Than 3 games when it was great.

Collingwood. So it seemed on more than one occasion that there middle would tear us apart and utilise their scarily brilliant forward line and so the final part of the match turned out to be true. But after half time our offensive plays avoided sections of our defensive ground where our stars where hiding and where there most effecitve press was going to be and they ran hard forward and we tried to direct it into space for them to counter on the rebound. It nearly came off.

Geelong. Speaks for itself. The team was up that day but so was Longmires plan. Switching sides at Geelong on the flanks took guts as a turnover would have had us slaughtered but the execution was great and Geelongs Skilled stadium rugby rows were breached with run. Geelongs plan changed to a physical one in an act of concern and this played into the hands of not only our game plan but the introduction of Bird as substitute fitted ecactly into turning into a grunt contest for the last 20 minutes

St Kilda at Ethiad. Shutting down there stars early and the lights were out. The third term come back was a mere rumble there lesser players are not up to finals standard and the fatigue factor had set in. The game plan that ensured that forward of the ball for St Kilda in the first half was never an option and the fact their foot skills are on a par with ours ensured Riewoldt never got a clear look at the ball inside 50 and had to come out of his kicking range to get his hands on it. Yet our clearance players breaking the space out wide like we playing the Sydney Cricket Ground was wonderful.

Longmires coaching seemed to improve as the season went on. The players gelling to his style and a confidence of Horse to implement it.

Lets hope the game day coaching to react to the changing circumstance is the real deal in 2012.

 

[Jack2Johnston]

From an outsider view (hope you don't mind)

A bit harsh - no mention of Nick Smith ?? Seriously don't you love this guy. He is a tackling machine, the glove, not only a great shut down player but hurts you going the other way. Love love watching him and Rohan, the goal against the cats & the celebrations

I think you need more from Jesse, i rate him. He needs more game time in the seniors. He has a lot to offer me thinks, can pinch hit in the ruck, can play forward.

Certainly don't mind, As I was looking at why we appeared to have taken a step backwards certainly don't think Smith needed a mention, he has been solid for us all year and was certainly a highlight.

If Rohan can put in a full year injury free, I can see him stunning a few sides next year. Looks like a jet.

I used to rate Jesse, the back end of his debut season when he got a RS nom, he looked like he was just 1 game away from exploding and absolutely monstering defenses with his speed and size. Unfortunately 3 years on and he doesn't appear to have improved as a player on his first season.

He has played some games this year where I thought he was reasonable, and 1 game where he was actually "good", and crashed packs, provided contests, and kept leading all day, if he played like that every week, we wouldn't have a problem. Unfortunately 1 game playing at high intensity per year for a player who will be 24 next year is not good enough.

I still have hopes for White, however I honestly no longer believe that he will make it at AFL level, and am simply hoping to be proved wrong by some big performances. If he watches his Round 22 game against the Saints, and does that every week then i'll be happy.

 

[Donners]

Great analysis.

I think it's a year to be reasonably satisfied with. Starting the year by losing our two bookends was a pretty difficult beginning, and we did well to finish where we did.

There were certainly some games where we underperformed, but we also overperformed on occasion, and on balance, it was a positive result.


As for players, there were a lot of bright spots. Hannebery continued his progress, and hopefully his shoulder issues will not be an ongoing issue. Reid and Johnson emerged, Jack came back from injury well, Mummy rose to an elite level...

There are certainly concerns, primarily over White, who just has not taken his chance. He has really gone backwards, and looks like trade bait at best. TDL is also a real concern. Being a mature-age recruit, he really should be able to play regularly in the seniors, and seeing him fail to break in was disheartening. I'm not convinced on Jetta yet, and it's disappointing that Johnston, Everitt, Curry and co haven't established a spot.


It's an important few years coming up. Probably one year left for Jude, 2-3 for O'Keefe, Shaw, LRT, Mattner, maybe a little more for Richards and Goodes - assuming we don't have anyone poached by GWS or under free agency.

With Hannebery, Kennedy, Smith, Jack and Mummy entering their prime, and Reid and Parker continuing to develop, the window is very much open, especially with Seaby and White as trade bait and the salary cap room from the departure of Bradshaw, Bolton and Kennelly.