Autopsy Round 23 vs Gold Coast - 3 things you learnt

[Sketi]

I wonder how Hanners fared in the coaches votes.. Thought Reid, Tippett and Mitchell all had better games but he was pretty important in lifting us in the last quarter, and coaches seem to like him.

 

[Superstar swan]

1. Tippett is in career best form

2. Reid is in career best form. Looked sensational tonight and has done for most of the year.

3. If we play well next week, we will dust freo. Seemed to pick and choose when we applied our selves tonight.

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

Buddy the most expensive decoy in AFL.

And worth every cent.

 

[Grongey]

1. Who are you, and what have you done with Dean Towers!

2. Sam Reid looks cherry ripe, shame about the kicking

3. Kurt Tippett, ditto Sam Reid

 

[The King!]

Tippetts kicking was good

Reid doesnt just miss they are floatin shanks

Then he nails the harder one which means its mental imo

He could be a match winner if he kicks straight

 

[Superstar swan]

Alot of people bag jetta but.....his kicking is sensational, cannot think of a better kick in the game

 

[The King!]

Alot of people bag jetta but.....his kicking is sensational, cannot think of a better kick in the game

Yep

Started sub yesterday has still had a good year we need him

Dropping or trading him must come from excessive alcohol consumption or a bump to the head

 

[Superstar swan]

Yep

Started sub yesterday has still had a good year we need him

Dropping or trading him must come from excessive alcohol consumption or a bump to the head

I will be greatly disappointed if we lose him. One of our most important players

 

[The King!]

I will be greatly disappointed if we lose him. One of our most important players

One of the few who can consistently hit a target

 

[Tuco]

Eade said he thought we would have rested players. And heard conflicting stories re: AFL response. That's about as clear as mud to me, and is backed up by zero fact- so far.
Can I just say I find his statement very strange from an opposition coach.
I find it less strange if it turns out to be true - and Eade is laying it out there for an ex club he coached

My take?

Swans spoke with Eade, suggesting there might be some changes and would GCS object. Swans then came back later in the week and said, actually we won't need GCS approval, we aren't allowed...

 

[Tomsagun]

If thats true then what more can be done? The AFL gets away with so much because the fans are deeply emotionally invested in their clubs.

I expect every single 50/50 free going against us during the finals and that the umps will pull out of their arse the most technical frees against us in our defensive 50.

This game is up to its knees with organised corruption but nothing will done as long as fans show up to every game or watch and consume AFL 24-7. What needs to happen is a nice 4corners expose, but again will it change much?

 

[S120]

Not a lot to learn here. That GCS team managed a bit of resistance but it only last for a quarter and a half. What we'll see next week is going to be unlike anything we've seen for quite a few weeks now. Some nice signs ahead of the finals but with two genuinely very good midfielders now out, we're going to be up against it against Fyfe (if fit), Mundy, Neale, Barlow. They'll be breathing fire.

Tippett and Reid are hitting peak form at the right time of the year. Their last 3 weeks have been very good and we desperately need them to continue. Could allow Franklin to push further up the ground for the good. Heighten our unpredictability. Cunningham kicking goals from all over the ground over the last month has been a nice addition too along with Heeney being good at everything.

Mitchell and Kennedy proving to be a difficult duo to contain around the stoppages. They'll need to win their fair share of ball this week. Hannebery still not playing at quite his level of earlier this year but he's still playing well. One underrated aspect of his game is his precision by hand. He's very, very clever and adept at firing out ball to his teammates and seems like he's as good off his left hand as he is off his right.

Not that it means a hell of a lot, but I'm not sure I've seen Jeremy Laidler play a worse game than last night. Seems like nearly every time he touched the ball or went near it, he gave away a free or turned the ball over. One-off I hope. He's been most solid this year so I'll chalk it up to a bad night out. Rampe had a very good game on the other hand.

Career best game from Towers, but I'm not willing to declare this is the start of something great. Even half-good. Against half-baked opposition, he did very well but I'd like to see him do it at least once more to be nearly convinced. I'm still skeptical of his defensive ability in a high-pressure situation, like next weekend for example. I would expect to see him slip off a few too many tackles like we've seen before unfortunately. Needs to be able to stick tackles to hold his spot imo.

 

[The King!]

We find out if beating witches hats 3 weeks in a row turned us around or not this week

 

[Parkerman]

1. Love the way B Jack plays, needs to stop giving away the enthusiastic high tackle free kicks if he gets picked for the finals.

2. Reid's set shot ball drop looks to be going to the right. All us blokes naturally favour one side or another, but Reid needs to straighten up somewhat.

3. I desperately want to see Heeney matched up with Fyfe next week. The kid can do it. Otherwise I still think a fit Bird is our best Fyfe matchup.

 

[DavyRed]

Not learnt but reinforced - when we are not 'on song', not giving 100% (e.g. quarters 2 and 3 yesterday) we are appalling, utterly terrible. This has been demonstrated throughout this season (not forgetting that game at the end of last season). We are not one of those teams that has the luxury of playing at, say, 80% and still comfortably beating the opposition.

It is essential that every player truly put in 100% effort, 100% of the time during the finals if we are to be any hope.

 

[Jack2Jack]

1. Injuries suck especially to key players like Jack & Parker, but with McVeigh, Smith and McGlynn all likely to be available the reality is we're only missing 2 players from our first choice 25-26 players which is pretty good all things considering (good thing the Midfield is the one area we do have good depth). All other teams are in similar or worse positions, so the comparisons to 2013 don't really apply...apart from Bud not looking absolutely 100% (an 80% Buddy still draws a good defender though and can have an impact), everyone else looks reasonably fit and firing and a lot of them in season best form..no excuses really.

2. Tippett and Reid could well be the key cogs in this finals campaign, how they play could dictate our fate more than anyone else (provided everyone else plays to decents standards obviously). If both continue marking as they do it will trouble any defence (with Bud still drawing the best defender), just need to tidy their kicking up though. Hopefully we don't see a regression (as in bombs to Buddy or Tippett 3 on 1) as the pressure ramps up next week.

3. Cunningham after being very ordinary early in the season is up and going and could be a real x factor in the finals with his pace and good goal sense.

4. This game against Freo is everything for us, seemingly too hard to get to the GF if we lose this one (not impossible but extremely unlikely).

 

[bungee]

Reid and Tippo are in great nick. Our forwardline is looking very potent, is the franklin injury a blessing in disguise?
Dean whipping boy towers had a good game and could play a role in the following weeks
Laids had a mare
Mitchell is going to be a great player over the next decade. Always gives 100%*

*Even if it's at 36%

 

[bungee]

Reid in form
Tippet in form
Towers in form

Pick the odd one out

 

[bungee]

1. Tippett is in career best form

2. Reid is in career best form. Looked sensational tonight and has done for most of the year.

3. If we play well next week, we will dust freo. Seemed to pick and choose when we applied our selves tonight.

After Q1 I suspect our players went into 'survival' mode, ready for finals. Get easy possessions and keep away from injury was the mindset. Early in Q3 they awoke to find they still had to earn fourth spot.

 

[The Swans Blog]

Really good to see Reid and Tippet hit form coming into the finals. Hopefully we can carry Franklin through the first final and give him a week off to get right if we win it.

Towers was very positive and I think we now see what his value to the team would be, like another midfielder really. His leading up the ground was reminiscent of Riewoldt and the turn and burn was great too.