Review Dees v Swans - the Good, bad and Fugly

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I've seen a few complaints not on this forum about the size of the scg being a factor on how poor we were. To me that's a cop out, the dimensions of the SCG compared to the MCG isn't that great. We aren't suddenly going to play better footy because the mcg is 5 metres wider than the mcg. People in for a nasty surprise on Sunday if that's their thinking.
Seen a few blaming conditions as well. I must say that we seem to struggle if it's wet or slippery. But blaming the conditions and/or ground dimensions is crazy.
 

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What is actually the strength of our side anymore? we're a horrible clearance side, forward connection is terrible and we can't kick scores, defence is generally pretty tight but we leak goals in defensive stoppages.

Struggling to think of any area we excel at, all looks pretty grim.
Hard work. We have a lot of endurance runners so we can defend the ground ok and zone well. We have enough senior players that our tackling is normally pretty good
 
What is actually the strength of our side anymore? we're a horrible clearance side, forward connection is terrible and we can't kick scores, defence is generally pretty tight but we leak goals in defensive stoppages.

Struggling to think of any area we excel at, all looks pretty grim.

Having so many 'premier' mids in Trac, Viney and Oliver as well as the best ruck in the comp over the last 10 years but still being beaten in clearances is just woefully embarrassing.

What's the point of having a stack of inside mid bulls if they can't win the damn clearances?
 
I'm not the smartest footballer, but i would have thought a narrower ground would have perhaps forced you to try and come through the corridor more than once
 
I'm not the smartest footballer, but i would have thought a narrower ground would have perhaps forced you to try and come through the corridor more than once
No would actually make it harder because the zone is squished tighter together but it's also bullshit. An extra 10m on the wing makes * all difference
 
No.

Kick long down line. Rolling scrum. Kick to pocket or top of square. Rolling scrum. Have a wild, low percentage shot at goal.

Rinse and repeat.
Are ya cheering yet?
 
Having so many 'premier' mids in Trac, Viney and Oliver as well as the best ruck in the comp over the last 10 years but still being beaten in clearances is just woefully embarrassing.

What's the point of having a stack of inside mid bulls if they can't win the damn clearances?
after that Fritsch goal that put as up against Sydney in the 3rd, we lost the next 4-5 clearances in a row, just pathetic. We consistently have periods in games where the ball is stuck in our defensive half because we can't win a clearance or move the ball forward, how this hasn't been fixed since 21 is ridiculous.
 
It is a baad feeling for a defender when they do a great intercept and look up to see ... no targets.
That necessary pause by the defender causes all sorts of trouble.
 

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This is a known strategy since 2019. It's not always used, but players should be aware of this tactic by now, that includes Gawn himself
I also think it's deliberate from us to ignore it. Like we're trying to avoid getting sucked in. It isn't working though it just makes us look like we don't give a s**t about our captain getting roughed up.
 
I've seen a few complaints not on this forum about the size of the scg being a factor on how poor we were. To me that's a cop out, the dimensions of the SCG compared to the MCG isn't that great. We aren't suddenly going to play better footy because the mcg is 5 metres wider than the mcg. People in for a nasty surprise on Sunday if that's their thinking.
I always thought the SCG was significantly smaller than the MCG, but I've just read this article comparing all the ground sizes, and while the SCG is currently the smallest ground, as you say it's only by 5m width and 5m length compared to the MCG, which surprised me:


It says the SCG has been progressively lengthened since 2007. It seems it has been lengthened by around 15m. So if you watched footy on that ground through the 80's, 90's or 00's then the impression that the SCG was small was valid. I'm sure I remember hearing back then that the 50m line at the SCG was really 45m, but I never knew they had lengthened the ground. So my impression of it being small just continued. The article also says the camera positioning is quite different and makes the SCG appear smaller.

Regardless the article basically says because every player follows the ball so tightly in modern football, it really doesn't matter how big the ground is, it's always going to be congested.

I too was prepared to give us a bit of a cop out because of the "small" ground, but no, they can't have that now that I have been enlightened.
 
What is actually the strength of our side anymore? we're a horrible clearance side, forward connection is terrible and we can't kick scores, defence is generally pretty tight but we leak goals in defensive stoppages.

Struggling to think of any area we excel at, all looks pretty grim.
Off season.

It's what we all strive for.
 
Laughing thinking about Trac fumbling 3 times in 5 seconds under relatively no pressure on the wing. :gigglev1: FootyGuy13 should have used that gif as the banner for the votes thread.
I would, except I don't remember when that happened and I don't feel like watching the game again.
That's what I get for trying to watch the footy and a Twitch stream at the same time. :gigglev1:
But you know who does like going through footy games again? YouTube channel Holding The Bull.
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A11dAtP0w3R PerfectFooty

There's also this which I'm surprised no one has mentioned.
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Video can be find here, apparently Langdon ran in front of Laurie as he was kicking the ball causing it to deflect and go out-of-bounds.
 
Not sure if anyone has seen the Tom Sparrow article on the website or listened to his interview on SEN from the other day but he's also run with the same thing as Viney that we were happy with our first half and 'fell away' in the second half.

That we were happy with how much time was spent in our forward half earlier in the game.

The other curious thing is that Sparrow was saying he's hoping to play more midfield time this year and that Oliver coming back into the side altered his role a bit. Didn't sound particularly thrilled about that tbh.

So what exactly, if anything have we learned from the past two years?
 

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