Autopsy 8 point win vs North

[Superstar swan]

Winning when you play poorly is always a good thing.

We are an extremely good side. Just hope we can continue to switch it on and rise to opponents level when the time comes.

 

[Superstar swan]

Warner’s form is extremely concerning.

 

[melbournehammer]

Being at the game, when I flew into Melbourne this morning it was extremely dewy when I landed around 10am. Visibility was quite low. Even though the roof was closed, I made this same comment to my old man during the game and my best guess was that the ground and ball were still a little dewy. Just enough to cause some trouble.

It rained quite a lot overnight. as someone who walks past a number of tennis courts on saturday morning most of the tennis courts were soaking and no tennis played

it was wet and the weather wasnt really conducive to drying either

 

[melbournehammer]

I don't buy that the game style doesn't suit him. It's not like we were slow in 2024, when Rowy was outstanding. And it's not like we were dynamic in 2025, when Rowy was underwhelming.

For me, I think his biggest issue is "the way he goes about it."

That saying used to be applied to him in a positive term but it's grim watching him these days. His reputation as a "competitive beast" precedes him, but is he that competitive anymore? He's ever-committed to doing his role, but has seemingly lost any desire to impact beyond that role. That's not really being a competitive beast, to me, because a competitive beast wants to do anything and everything he can to impact. Rowbottom's just become this well-programmed tackling machine who seems to actively avoid impacting and just waits for players to tackle and then get out of everyone's way.

I saw a highlights video of him on Youtube about a month ago and it struck me what a different player he is now to the player I saw in the video. He doesn't run anymore, doesn't take the game on anymore, doesn't attack contests at speed anymore, and doesn't put his body on the line to win hard balls all that much anymore. It was like watching two different players.

It's so depressing. You generally want players to gain confidence and intensity as they mature, not lose it.

although i wasnt certain it was him, if it was him he was playing hurt from the third quarter onwards

 

[momentbymoment]

Make no mistake, most Swans fans at the ground had their hearts in their throats for most of the game, it was tight.

It is my considered opinion the sole reason we won was due to our score being higher than theirs.

Brilliant.
But apologies son, you will never get a job in the AFL media.

 

[momentbymoment]

I felt like all three areas of the ground were kinda dysfunctional for us but the thing about having a stacked team is that you can still have a few winners on each line and that can make a huge difference. McDonald and McLean ahead of the ball, Rampe and Edwards behind the ball, all did their roles really well and individually helped to compensate for how the whole wasn't quite working.

The mids were the only area I don't think we had a single winner all day. Heeney maybe.

Honestly I would consider Cleary into the mids.
I haven’t watched the VFL this week, but his energy and pressure last week was amazing.

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

Horse gave a presser ?

Horse Cox.

 

[Jack Lord]

Just saw Konstanty’s hit on Papley.

Didn’t he lay a cheap shot on someone the last time we played too?

 

[Cadsky]

Just saw Konstanty’s hit on Papley.

Didn’t he lay a cheap shot on someone the last time we played too?

That boy has issues

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

A.Clarkson -remember talk of him as a potential Swans coach, back in the day. A bullet dodged by the Swans.

Dislike him intensely. Don’t know what it is.

 

[GoodesStuff]

Assuming all of Curnow, McCartin and Serong come back, who gets left out? For mine, it would be McLean, Melican and Cootee. Would keep Cunningham in over Cootee for now.

Yep, if all 3 are fit then those will be the changes I reckon

 

[swansfan200512]

Will Edward’s reading of the play really started to flourish as the game went on. If opposition teams bomb it in he will crash the pack. Great job on Larkey and there was one play where Curtis was unmanned and he almost stopped the mark and knocked the absolute snot out of him. Get that into ya!

 

[The King!]

I thought Melican improved as it went , not that he stayed on opponent of course.

I feel he should stay unless we want to shatter his confidence completely . I believe he Mccartin and Edwards can all
Play together with Rampe .

 

[dosser]

North drop the ball anytime they are tackled, they tackled before we get the ball and they throw their heads back for frees.

Can tell
Clarko is the coach

Surprised a club with bugger all fans impacted the second umpire to run in a few times , well done

This. It was very evident at the game. My friends and I kept saying "there's another one" whenever they threw their heads back. At one stage Larkey copped one on the chest and went down clutching his head. He should have been embarrassed by the replay.
Larkey is an absolute gun but to see him clutch his head a couple of times was really disappointing.
There was another time (i think Curtis?) where he was tackled below the armpits and his head went back. It is symptomatic of a team that isn't prepared to work hard for their kicks.

 

[DeathlyAccurate]

Clarko teams just seem grubby? At Hawthorn it was glossed over because they were so successful but at North it just looks so bad like they’re losers trying to look menacing.

His reputation really was made by a golden generation of players more than anything he implemented himself and it’s showing.

 

[Wheresbuddy]

I thought Melican improved as it went , not that he stayed on opponent of course.

I feel he should stay unless we want to shatter his confidence completely . I believe he Mccartin and Edwards can all
Play together with Rampe .

Would you suggest playing Rampe more as a running half back in place of Bice in this scenario?

 

[Dangas]

Winning when you play poorly is always a good thing.

We are an extremely good side. Just hope we can continue to switch it on and rise to opponents level when the time comes.

Lizard nailed it on the head in his comments post-game, win when matters most.

The tide will always turn, the matter of when. Maybe this is the year

 

[The King!]

Would you suggest playing Rampe more as a running half back in place of Bice in this scenario?

Just a thought , I still very much trust Rampe ball in hand and he can always switch to a tall.

 

[giantsully]

Really enjoyed being at Marvel for this game (well, mostly enjoyed anyway). Yeah, we weren't great at times, some of the kicking mind-boggling in those conditions. But there were also some dazzling passages. And North aren't the Roos of old, they've improved out of sight.

Felt like one of those nights where the highlights reel and the bloopers reel were the same length! Anyway, always felt we were mostly in control.

Kudos to Dosser, who I thought was very ordinary in the VFL last week, but absolutely came in and did his job.

Onwards and upwards.

 

[kickthething]

There re a couple who need to work on kicking skills…Papley was hitting them like a 27 handicapper at times, and Chad has been below standard as well.

Rewatching yesterday, aside from North being a good team , imo it was closer largely due to our skill errors, not giving the pill off early enough or just the errors we have due to the fast movement, we were always able to regain control which was a huge plus

 

[kickthething]

Really enjoyed being at Marvel for this game (well, mostly enjoyed anyway). Yeah, we weren't great at times, some of the kicking mind-boggling in those conditions. But there were also some dazzling passages. And North aren't the Roos of old, they've improved out of sight.

Felt like one of those nights where the highlights reel and the bloopers reel were the same length! Anyway, always felt we were mostly in control.

Kudos to Dosser, who I thought was very ordinary in the VFL last week, but absolutely came in and did his job.

Onwards and upwards.

The speed of our ball movement is very impressive live, particularly sitting a bit higher up in the stands.

 

[the hypnotoad]

I think the coverage of North is unsurprising - they’ve been so bad for so long, it’s fair enough that they get noticed for finally being competitive.

In Wardlaw, McKercher and O’Sullivan they’ve got 3 emerging guns. Not just good AFL players - guns. Sheezel and LDU are already recognised.

I know many don’t share my view, but I believe North are going to be very good in a couple of years.

The Swans continuing on our merry way is, to the neutral observers, a bit “meh”. Because we’re always good.

excellent post ... and everything in it is why we should be pleased to have escaped yesterday's sub-par performance with a win ... north will take some big scalps as this season rolls on, and will be even better in the next few years

 

[Citrus22]

The kind of game we would have dropped last year. North are only getting better every year and they have some very talented players. Happy with the result all in all particularly given the quality of the outs this week.

 

[Citrus22]

Rowbottom and Roberts extremely quiet games which was unexpected

 

[giantsully]

The speed of our ball movement is very impressive live, particularly sitting a bit higher up in the stands.

The Roos supporter next to me described it as "like ballet" at one point. I think he's spot on!

Maybe because I was in the VIP crowd, the vibe was mostly very respectful (though they don't seem to have a great grasp of the HTB rule).