John Longmire

[disgruntled goat]

HAVING been critical of Longmire all season, it's time I ate humble pie and paid him huge credit for what he's managed to do since the Richmond debacle.

I was mostly measuring his performance against our 2010 season, which ended after one finals win. Longmire has now matched that, so I have to dips me lid to him. And the reinvention of Matt Spangher has been a major key.

I do also want to say I believe we've been a better side with White, Reid and Spangher up forward, and White also seems to have learned a bit more about his ruck role.

However he's managed to do it, Longmire has us poised to at least give Hawthorn a nasty fright, and he's given Swans fans another week of finals footy.

Cheers.

 

[legend166]

Yep, I've got to give him credit.

I do wonder what would have happened if we'd actually decided to play with a forward line for the first 21 rounds, though.

 

[SM]

I'll take a nibble of the pie. I'll still maintain Longmire has made some terrible decisions with the sub rule this year, and a lot of decisions he's made could have resulted in better results for us. Maybe not Top 4, but, a higher position. I will give him massive props for tonight though, and the wins against the Saints and Cats over the last few rounds of the season.

 

[doingthangs]

I love his bread and butter approach to footy. Appreciates the inside mid. We all know the inside mid gets the ball inside so he acknowledges that and appreciates that hard ball. A club brand is a good footy brand as we all know and i bet you all agree. The man who plays the hard ball will not only win the contested footy but will take pressure off the outside mid. What a brand.

 

[Danair]

The one thing I like most is he isn't averse to playing our new draftees, I didn't think Johnson or Parker would play as many games as they have at the start of the year.

And he plays Moore and Bevan where they should be.... the reserves.

 

[Mick Oxlong]

I'll take a nibble of the pie. I'll still maintain Longmire has made some terrible decisions with the sub rule this year, and a lot of decisions he's made could have resulted in better results for us. Maybe not Top 4, but, a higher position. I will give him massive props for tonight though, and the wins against the Saints and Cats over the last few rounds of the season.

I believe he did f*** up tonight though when we decided to lose the man on man game style in the 3rd and Longmire has to be at fault for that (maybe a gamble to exploit Saints further that backfired). I will however, give him credit for the turnaround (along with that of the players). Our attack on the footy is nothing short of astounding and when you look at the Richmond game you will see a massive difference. Longmire's personality is actually quite refreshing though...

 

[disgruntled goat]

I'll take a nibble of the pie. I'll still maintain Longmire has made some terrible decisions with the sub rule this year, and a lot of decisions he's made could have resulted in better results for us. Maybe not Top 4, but, a higher position. I will give him massive props for tonight though, and the wins against the Saints and Cats over the last few rounds of the season.

But surely you can acknowledge he's learnt as the season's gone on. At least, that's how I've seen it.

No one really knew how the new rules, particularly the sub rule, would affect the competition. Yeah, like you, I still maintain he made mistakes and did some really dumb things, but whether it was by design all along, or it's just clicked the past month or so, there's no doubt we've looked much better as a team, to the extent we're now into the second week of finals with at least a shot at a vulnerable Hawthorn next week.

Also, as has been pointed out, he's given Sam Reid a season as CHF and left him alone to develop, and also given Parker and Rohan, and even Jetta, plenty of game time. He's given White the chance to salvage his career at the Swans, Richards has developed into a genuine defender, not just a utility and he's even worked out a way to keep Mumford playing at the intensity he does without (apparently) overloading him.

I'm sure this is not all John Longmire's doing but I'm prepared to concede he's done a much better job than I thought he could manage.

Heh heh, and to think, the first-season coach about to win a premiership might not be Chris Scott ... heh heh ... just kidding.

 

[Arwib]

He's kept us where we were last year, blooding our future stars, even minus Bradshaw, Kirk and Bolton. Stellar effort. He's made mistakes and has been outcoached, but you expect that from a first year coach. Looking forward to good things next year and seeing how far we can go this year.

 

[TheGoatBaron]

Yep, all credit to Longmire, had faith in him all along.

Love the Spanger, Reid and White combination up forward. It gives us fire power up forward finally, which has released Goodes in his rightful position in the midfield.

And I agree with Danir, the most impressive thing I like about Longmire is, that he isn't too afraid to play the youngsters. Been impressed with Alex Johnson all year, to name one.

I also like some of his moves like Jarrad McVeigh to the half-back flank. That position suits McVeigh to a tee, with his skills.

Kudos to Longmire. Good stuff Horse!

 

[disgruntled goat]

But surely you can acknowledge he's learnt as the season's gone on. At least, that's how I've seen it.

No one really knew how the new rules, particularly the sub rule, would affect the competition. Yeah, like you, I still maintain he made mistakes and did some really dumb things, but whether it was by design all along, or it's just clicked the past month or so, there's no doubt we've looked much better as a team, to the extent we're now into the second week of finals with at least a shot at a vulnerable Hawthorn next week.

Also, as has been pointed out, he's given Sam Reid a season as CHF and left him alone to develop, and also given Parker and Rohan, and even Jetta, plenty of game time. He's given White the chance to salvage his career at the Swans, Richards has developed into a genuine defender, not just a utility and he's even worked out a way to keep Mumford playing at the intensity he does without (apparently) overloading him.

I'm sure this is not all John Longmire's doing but I'm prepared to concede he's done a much better job than I thought he could manage.

Heh heh, and to think, the first-season coach about to win a premiership might not be Chris Scott ... heh heh ... just kidding.

In praising Longmire's persistence with our younger players, I completely overlooked Alex Johnson, and I think it's because the kid's so settled and composed I just forget the fact he's a rookie. And he was superb the other night.

 

[S120]

Horse deserves credit for changing the side around over the last 2 months of the year (some of his changes were forced, others weren't). And for getting the players to perform their roles so well. We now have a forward line, midfield and defence that all function well and perform their roles perfectly.

Still not ready to pass judgement on him as there still hasn't been enough time to form a proper opinion of him IMO, but things are really looking good.

 

[Tish]

There was a part of last nights game was inexperienced, and some parts I just found a bit amateurish. How was buddy given so much space to push back to the goal square one on one?

Hawks turn the ball over at half back and the swans get the ball further to the centre, The bloke with the ball was the only guy forward of centre. Has to stop, prop and pass backwards and by the time this happens hawks have flooded back. Was not one hawks pushing back hard, to expose a turn over, would have been an easy goal.

All that being said, I was the same with Ratten Early on, thinking... what is this bloke thinking.

 

[Tedeski]

There was a part of last nights game was inexperienced, and some parts I just found a bit amateurish. How was buddy given so much space to push back to the goal square one on one?

Hawks turn the ball over at half back and the swans get the ball further to the centre, The bloke with the ball was the only guy forward of centre. Has to stop, prop and pass backwards and by the time this happens hawks have flooded back. Was not one hawks pushing back hard, to expose a turn over, would have been an easy goal.

All that being said, I was the same with Ratten Early on, thinking... what is this bloke thinking.

Our guys were stuffed after the 3 Q effort. In fact they looked lethargic from the first bounce.
Perhaps having to travel to Geelong, Etihad (St Kilda) & back to MCG(Hawks) in 4 weeks couldn't have been advantageous to our chances of progressing.

When the legs can't pump anymore, they can't pump!
Hence why we looked slow & were opened up on a number of occassions in our backline!

 

[SM]

I'll give him a 6/10.

 

[kickthething]

I'll give him a 6/10.

Pretty close to the mark for the season. I thought he was outcoached last night, could not figure out why we didnt make Gibson accountable for someone it was clear early on this was causing us a problem.

Overall, we havent seen any distinctive Longmire style appearing which is a bit disappointing hence why I think a 6 is fair enough. Having said that, I am looking for ward to see how we attack the postseason and off season, and am really confident that we will be a formidable side next season.

Any news on the coaching situation with our assistants? Are they remaining as they are in 2011?

 

[myyakhasfleas]

A pass grade would probably be my assessment of Horse in his first year as head coach. He didn't really get the hang of the sub rule early in the season (ie not picking the right player as sub or making the substitution too late in the game) and some of his and the coaching staff's gameday tactics were found wanting (ie foward line entries and how we played Buddy last night). However he has improved during the season all while giving games to our youngsters. He was able to finally form a decent foward line a couple of months or so ago and we seem to have a team that can fight for a top 4 spot next year.

A proper asssement of Horse's coaching ability will be dependent on if the Swans can challenge the top 4 or continue to tread water.