Preview Round 13: The Sydney Swans vs. The Geelong Cats

[grimlock]

I find it ironic (in an Alanis Morissette way) that the umpire who called play on on Goodes was the same one that called play on on Dempsey 2 weeks earlier.

EDIT: I was about to give credit to Leg End for making a post not mentioning the umpiring at all but looks like I jumped the gun

 

[Dangas]

Wow, another great win.
I'm constantly amazed at the glass-half-empty types we have here - "why do we keep giving away big leads?". It just so happens that Essendon are a highly rated contender and Geelong are the premiers with a list of stars. For 5 out of 8 quarters, we smashed them. In teh ither 3, they fought back as quality teams do. Now, of course, if we were given half a dozen innocuous free kicks in front, we then we would turn these into 40 point wins. But, we know that never happens.

Frankly, the sign of a really good team is the deflating effect of a Geelong whittling away a huge lead and taking the lead with minutes to go. Most teams would find it impossible to dredge up that little bit of fightback. But, not our guys. Twice now, they have faced up and got the win. That speaks volumes to me. This mob is a tough, fast Bloods outfit - and I reckon we are genuine challengers.

Great Win!

Couldn't be a Leg End post without this but in all seriousness, good post

 

[Xarb]

What a game. Voice is still a bit Longmire (heh) from that last quarter. Personally I didn't find the umpiring that bad, except for that weak 50. The Goodes call was a play on any day of the week and was what saved us from a possible loss to the dons. I'm more worried about Goodes desicion to play on, very unlike him.

I hope the next two weeks are a bit more relaxing!

 

[Swanhotels]

well I was one who entered this forum and highlighted a certain poster earlier in the week for suggesting Geelong have gone past it and Sydney should win it and I stated how I really believed it wasn't the case and how the game was going to be won by us and blah, blah, blah!

I even put up a thread on Bay 13 trying to get everyone going and ready for a great clash tonight but at the end of the day....I am here to eat my own words and in all sincerity congratulate the Sydney Swans football club and most of the BF posters. They are a class outfit capable of doing damage this year and I underrated them to a slight degree but tonight convinced me that are the real deal and have everything capable of winning this years flag.

I know I come across as arrogant and two faced (to most I do) but I do believe I have the balls to stand up and concede defeat and am willing to face the music.
Feel free to bump that post I posted earlier as I stated and also give it to me on Bay 13 (just don't expect me hang around in there)


Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ******* guttered with the loss!! It's absolutely the worst feeling in the world right now knowing Cats could have had a shot at top 4 but now I am going to concede we are done in season 2012. Too old and not enough x-factor about us anymore.


Again kudos to Sydney and if there is one team I will be going for in the finals apart from ourselves...it's definitely the Bloods.

The crap you wrote on bay 13 was embarrassing, take you has been club and F*** off.

 

[vonn]

Pretty unnecessary.

 

[Achy Blakey Heart]

And yep, time for me to chime in with F*ING GRUNDY!! Absolutely horrible tonight, almost cost us the game. That late opporutnity for the over the top to Mattner could have had us away and up the ground and he muffed it.

I'm with you brother. Just sick of the lack of vision, he had Hanners in open space on the wing just needed a nice 45m kick over the head of his opponent, but no, he waited for Hanners to lead back towards him, in the process the entire Geelong side got behind the ball......ridiculous.

 

[J_Moore]

Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ******* guttered with the loss!! It's absolutely the worst feeling in the world right now knowing Cats could have had a shot at top 4 but now I am going to concede we are done in season 2012. Too old and not enough x-factor about us anymore.

If you learn one thing from this week, let it be that it is "gutted", not "guttered". As in "After that loss, which I publicly and repeatedly declared to be a certain win, I feel like my guts have been ripped out".

 

[J_Moore]

You just need to accept with Grundy that he's going to stuff up a couple of crucial pressure disposals every game. Thus it ever 'twas.

But he's a very solid defender, and we don't have anyone else in the side who can do what he does, so we're going to have to live with it.

Remember, Stat, anger is the feeling that results when reality doesn't match expectations. Since you have no power to alter the reality, it is time to adjust your expectations.

So sayeth the wise Brett Kirk.

 

[Achy Blakey Heart]

But he's a very solid defender, and we don't have anyone else in the side who can do what he does, so we're going to have to live with it.

I agree, we dont have anyone else who can allow so many easy marks inside 50, give away so many stupid free kicks and be such a sheep dog.

 

[grimlock]

I just watched the last few minutes of the TV broadcast for the first time, Grundy was immense in that last minute, not only steal from Wojo but a few plays before that he did all he could to shovel the ball out from a pack. Desperate play.

 

[AG]

Exactly. 3 match winning moments. Grundy was involved in two of them.

 

[GotTheGoodes]

In all honesty our backline would not be as good without Grundy. He's the kind of player that just goes about the routine week in week out and thus you only ever really notice the co*kups as opposed to the 'standard' work (which is pretty good). He had a bad game, I agree. I was filthy at him and swearing at him constantly and in the heat of the moment may have called him pathetic... which was wrong. He had a couple of pathetic disposals and made some bad choices at times. However, he is an often solid contributor and vital member of our highly effective back 6. Everyone (even the great man Goodesy) is entitled to a couple of bad plays every now and then. On a whole he does very well in situations where you'd often expect him not to. I also think Reg is our main man back there, general Reg just controls the others perfectly. Really impressed with his leadership development recently. Also impressed with AJ last night. The young tacker showed some good things and I'm sure he will replace Reg & Grundy and become our key backman and leader back there in the next couple of years.

We showed some great charater last night. Reminds me of the '03-06 days (just reversed... we are usually fighting to get back in it...). In the face of the reigning premiers and a list of superstars + some shocking umpiring I think the boys showed us they are top 4 material and I'm getting excited about this years finals series.

SHAKE DOWN THE THUNDER!! GO BLOODS!!

 

[Achy Blakey Heart]

The converse argument of course is that had he not been playing we may have won by 2 goals instead of a smaller margin, and his 1% steal of the ball would not have been required.

One match saving act does not rule out 3 quarters of sins.

 

[db swannie]

The crap you wrote on bay 13 was embarrassing, take you has been club and F*** off.

The stuff on Bay 13 was for the bay. At least he came here and recognized the quality of the win.

 

[grimlock]

3 quarters of sin is hyperbolic. Besides the fluffed kick to Mattner on the O'Reilly wing what else did he do wrong? Get outmarked by Hawkins who leads the comp in marks inside 50?

 

[db swannie]

Surely you can't disagree. I've actually praised Grundy in recent weeks because he's been good, but tonight he was back to his dismal worst.

I do not agree. Go watch the last quarter again.

 

[Achy Blakey Heart]

3 quarters of sin is hyperbolic. Besides the fluffed kick to Mattner on the O'Reilly wing what else did he do wrong? Get outmarked by Hawkins who leads the comp in marks inside 50?

The free he gave hawkins 20m out in the first qu? So amateur. Lucky Hawkins missed.

 

[grimlock]

I think that was the third quarter, the one where Hawkins hit the post? I don't think he did too much wrong there, it was classic blocking off the ball to allow Mattner to mark uncontested but the umpire happened to interpret his actions as not going for the ball. Plenty of defenders have gotten away with that over the course of the season.

 

[AG]

Some miserable people on this board. Top of the ladder, another good win and still complaining. What is the point in being a supporter if you're not going to enjoy the good moments?

 

[CAS79]

A player who is not having the best night but bobs up at the close finish rather than sulking about it has some ticker that's to be respected.

 

[grimlock]

Some miserable people on this board. Top of the ladder, another good win and still complaining. What is the point in being a supporter if you're not going to enjoy the good moments?

I'm glad that Goodes won the toss yesterday otherwise we'd have 20 more pages in this thread. If we don't beat GWS by at least 100 points next week, I'll also mark that down as a failure.

 

[Membling]

I think it is more of the disappointment at not being able to play a full 4 quarters. Full credit to geelong for getting back into the contest as they are a quality team. It seems we just stop playing after the lead i
S built and want to play defense the rest of the game.

To be honest until we have a really solid 4 quarter game i'll be a bit iffy on our finals aspirations..

Also the Geelong bf posters are a quality mob. One team i genuinely playing as you can have a chat to them

 

[Crackers27]

Some thoughts on the game:

• I thought overall we were poor after quarter time
• Our forward line was pretty poor tonight - not helped by the fact we went tall up forward, but couldn't take a contested mark. It seemed at times they were all getting in each others way. Perhaps in hindsight horse would have played TDL instead of LRT.
• Although Goodes didn't have much of an impact, he'll be much better for the run.
• Hopefully Mummy is alright - looks like he hurt his back? I thought Pyke was good last night, and mummy seemed a little off (due to coming back from injury probably)
• Good on Everitt for kicking the winning goal
• Our entire defence was excellent - especially given Geelong were on top for nearly 3 quarters.

 

[J_Moore]

Goodes could've been better if he hadn't kept second guessing himself. From memory, he had probably 4 or 5 passages of play where he looked hesitant or unsure in ways he doesn't usually do.

It turned what could have been a solid 2-3 goal cameo performance into a pretty poor outing.

We've been losing some crucial midfield battles recently, though. I reckon the area is more of a concern than has been talked about.

 

[bobbobbert]

I think that was the third quarter, the one where Hawkins hit the post? I don't think he did too much wrong there, it was classic blocking off the ball to allow Mattner to mark uncontested but the umpire happened to interpret his actions as not going for the ball. Plenty of defenders have gotten away with that over the course of the season.

the umpires have been all over that this year. it was very obvious and a poor decision. grundy did some poor things and some good things, as always. i assume you/re just trying to counter those that are 100% against him. that block annoyed me more than the missed kick to mattner. i felt both grundy and richards needed some help from their teammates at times as they were being consistently out marked.