Preview Rd 23: Sydney Swans vs Gold Coast Suns, Saturday 1:45pm Marvel Stadium

[Jack Lord]

A battle weary Swans outfit limp into the final round of the home and away season against the suns, one of those second tier teams that have an inexplicably good record against us.

And Stewie Dew will be licking his lips at the opportunity to take on his old club who will likely be without Blakey (who was really starting to come good) and JPK! Goddammit! Let’s hope the injuries aren’t too bad and the boys are back to play finals.

Interesting decisions need to be made with buddy,Mills and the Chad ready for the call up. Does Campbell hold his place? Does Horse finally send Reid out to pasture? I’m rarely right on this stuff but if the name Warner is missing from Thursday’s team sheet I swear I’m going to fill this place with upper cuts.

Swans by 11.

 

[caesar88]

I would like to see:
IN - Mills, Lloyd, Franklin, Warner
OUT - JPK (managed), Blakey (sad emoji), Reid (McLean signed his papers), and Florent (just tired of being disappointed by him)

If Horse drops McLean, Rowbottom or Campbell then that would be absolutely shocking by him IMO.

Hope JPK's injury isn't bad and he'll be right to go for finals. Have just loved his form over the past two months.

 

[scaryness]

We always lose to Gold Coast.

They dominate outside against us and carve through us every time.

 

[McRobie]

We will win this, the ins are really strong.

 

[S120]

If Kennedy and Blakey are not able to play, I'd go:

In: Mills, Franklin, Lloyd
Out: Campbell, Kennedy, Blakey

It actually leaves us with a really well-balanced side funnily enough. Two key defenders in Melican and McCartin, allowing Rampe to play smaller, Fox still in with the three smalls/rebounders. 4 genuine inside midfielders in Rowbottom, Parker, Hewett and Mills with three wingmen in Florent, Dawson and Gulden. Then three talls in McLean, Franklin, Reid (2nd ruck), with Heeney and our smalls.

Campbell is the unlucky one but I cannot wait to see him play more, he's gonna be excellent, you can just see that he plays at such a quick and powerful pace of game. He'd be my injury sub for this game.

Cunningham - Melican - Rampe
Lloyd - McCartin - McInerney
Florent - Mills - Dawson
Hayward - Franklin - Gulden
Papley - Reid - Heeney
Hickey - Parker - Hewett

Rowbottom - Wicks - Fox - McLean

Campbell - O'Riordan - Sinclair - Stephens

 

[The King!]

We have been kissed on the dick with injuries most of the year so can’t really complain

Reid out for buddy

Mills Lloyd obvious ins

Blakey and I guess Campbell

Melican is lucky

 

[BruceFromBalnarring]

If Kennedy and Blakey are not able to play, I'd go:

In: Mills, Franklin, Lloyd
Out: Campbell, Kennedy, Blakey

It actually leaves us with a really well-balanced side funnily enough. Two key defenders in Melican and McCartin, allowing Rampe to play smaller, Fox still in with the three smalls/rebounders. 4 genuine inside midfielders in Rowbottom, Parker, Hewett and Mills with three wingmen in Florent, Dawson and Gulden. Then three talls in McLean, Franklin, Reid (2nd ruck), with Heeney and our smalls.

Campbell is the unlucky one but I cannot wait to see him play more, he's gonna be excellent, you can just see that he plays at such a quick and powerful pace of game. He'd be my injury sub for this game.

Cunningham - Melican - Rampe
Lloyd - McCartin - McInerney
Florent - Mills - Dawson
Hayward - Franklin - Gulden
Papley - Reid - Heeney
Hickey - Parker - Hewett

Rowbottom - Wicks - Fox - McLean

Campbell - O'Riordan - Sinclair - Stephens

In a very un-Brucelike opinion, I’d switch Campbell for Florent.

 

[Banyo Bloods]

Limping in to finals is not ideal but after seeing the Blakey injury I'm changing my tune about momentum and saying rest Hickey so we make sure we have that position a certainty come finals.

Many years ago Micky O injury against Melbourne in the last round and last quarter before finals was devastating.

 

[Punts]

Presume with Blakey out for the season melican will stay in

Florent I’d drop , absolute butcher and now getting caught to often. Only gonna go up once finals start

 

[Dubai Quacker]

Chad.

That is all.

 

[dosser]

Chad.

That is all.

I admire consistency

 

[Grand Uncle Horace]

From the Horse presser, he was confident about Buddy and Lloyd but less so about Mills.

Ins: The Chad, Buddy, Lloyd, Sinkers
Outs: JPK (inj), Blakey (Inj), Hickey (mgd), Melican,

Inj sub: COR

Reid to play for his contract in defence.

 

[Kapers]

Honestly, with Florent, it's not that he was bad, it's that we've seen him when he's on.

He has the potential to really be a great player, and if dropping him does what it did to Hayward or Blakey, do it.

It unbelievable how successful dropping out of form players is.

 

[Punts]

Time to omit Reid

Can horse do it

 

[S120]

I'm not sure I see what others see with Florent. To be clear, he can hack it up by foot and get physically pressured badly particularly because he doesn't have a left foot. But I just don't think he's playing as badly as what a lot of people think he is. He's not about to be BOG in current form but to me he's just tracking along at an acceptable level, not our worst, not our best, in the middle of the pack. Does a lot of unrewarded running on the wing (I'd like to see his GPS numbers personally) and I often see him supporting the defence well.

I get people want Warner in but I wouldn't be destabilising the team more than I have to. Florent has played all year on the wing and done a good job imo, I'm not dropping him whatsoever.

I get the calls to drop Reid more - I doubt it'll happen but he's been out for ages, isn't playing particularly well, and we're right on finals time so leaving him out for a McLean/Amartey who can ruck makes sense to me. I think Longmire will stick with him though.

 

[caesar88]

I will be ******* filthy if Horse drops Campbell or Rowbottom instead of Florent.

Our strength this year is that Horse hasn't been afraid to make some tough calls, and our best 22 hasn't been a fixed thing so much as a rolling 22 based on whoever's in form and playing well. Florent and Reid have produced multiple shockers now and that's been enough to get many others dropped this year. If we stray from that now just because it's a few of Horse's favourites and we keep guys in who just aren't playing well, then we will rue it.

 

[Superstar swan]

I think the more likely scenario is that buddy comes in and horse goes with buddy , Reid and McLean

 

[Bloods86]

If it looks like the bye will go, it's an opportunity to rest a couple of players. Shouldn't go full management though, for stuffed players only.

For me, rests aside, ideal changes are:

In - Buddy, Mills, Lloyd, Warner
Out - Reid, Blakey, Melican, Wicks/Campbell

With McLean having a good game, it's Reid that has to go. Dawson will have to go back a bit more to fill in for Blakey. I'd rather lose Melican than Fox. If Warner is right to go, I think I'd prefer a game under his belt over Wicks or Campbell. Both would be stiff, though I'd lean to keeping Campbell in. Wicks was better than recent weeks, but still on the cusp.

I can see us keeping Melican though and just not bringing Warner back. Also wouldn't surprise if Buddy and/or Mills missed again.

 

[BloodySwan]

IN: Buddy, Lloyd, Mills (honestly how good are those ins? )
Out: Reid, Blakey, Kennedy (rested)

 

[Olian]

Time to omit Reid

Can horse do it

No probably will escape omission but needs to find some form.

 

[Heeney2Franklin]

If we win this we will finish with 15 wins triple the amount of wins from 2020 and just 2 short from our 2014 and 2016 GF years albeit with a much less percentage.

Pretty stiff to finish 6th with 15 wins but will be a remarkable season.

 

[fallenbear]

Wicks goal kicking is poor. he needs to start kicking all these simple shots he keeps missing or i'd be looking at dropping him and giving his role to campbell

 

[RUNVS]

Rest anyone that needs the rest. Ideally we would have done it yesterday given that means the players could come back this week, have one run before finals but we were conservative with who we rested yesterday. Need to be less conservative this time as this is our only shot given the pre-finals bye is gone and we need to set ourselves up for winning 4 games in a row.

Rest the young guys who have all been playing quite a lot of games recently as we do not want them to burn out in the finals.

 

[DST]

We always lose to Gold Coast.

They dominate outside against us and carve through us every time.

It’s 9 wins to us out of 12 games and we were the last team out of the 17 other to lose to them since they joined.

Not sure that constitutes always losing.


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[DST]

I do find the comment ‘limping’ into finals rather funny.

We were 38 points up and cruising and that is how we played mentally until we had to extract the digit.

That is not limping, that is getting a head of yourselves.


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