Swans Fans - get Real

Leg End

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Thread starter #1
We all know that the boys got jumped and belted - something we're not used to. But, let's be realistic about expectations.

There has been a massive turnover of our best payers from the last 5 years. BBBH and Jolly are exceling at other clubs. We have had a huge injury toll wit key players - yet, the Swans are in the 8 with 5 games to go - in a huge transition year.

2 years from now, we will be singing the praises of Hanneberry, Rohan, JetStar, Mummy etc - but in 2010, they are first year players with a big reponsibility.

These are not excuses - they're facts.

I can't believe so many are prepared to write them off after one game. This club is built on sterner stuff than fairweather friends who scarper at the first sign of trouble.
 

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AG

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#2
I agree but most seem to share your views so it's not an issue imo. It's just the natural reaction for some after a bad loss to be all doom and gloom.
 

Leg End

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I agree but most seem to share your views so it's not an issue imo. It's just the natural reaction for some after a bad loss to be all doom and gloom.
Note one thing - see the run home that Adelaide and North Melbourne have. Chances are, neither of them may win another game this year.

this means - we have 5 weeks to get injured players back plus another 5 games for some of the young blokes before the finals. Sounds positive to me. A big loss is sometimes a good kick up the backside to know where we really are - underdogs who can surprise.

Personally - I'm looking forward to them doing well.
 
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We all know that the boys got jumped and belted - something we're not used to. But, let's be realistic about expectations.
Realistic about expectations? I think I am. Here are some of my expectations about my team:

1) My team will try. They'll put in an effort you expect from professional athletes.
2) My team are proud to play for each other.
3) When one of the most senior and respected players in the entire competition celebrates his 250th game, they will play to a level that such an occasion deserves.
4) When they promise 3 separate times during the season to lift their intensity after a massive loss, they will live up to their word.

They completely, utterly and miserably failed those expectations on the weekend. I don't think I set the bar too high.
 

Swans120

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#5
I agree with much of what Leg End says. That was the worst loss i can remember and our seniors players (aside from Goodes) really got shown up badly.

Regarding what players say in the media (swansfan51's 4th point), if you don't take everything they say with a grain of salt when they talk about "wanting to be intense at the ball", "getting up for the game" and "coming to play" and those cliched pieces of horseshit that every athlete comes up with then you're bound for disappointment. They all talk the same now and it is all dross which you cannot take seriously when looking at how they will play on the weekend.
 

Leg End

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I agree with much of what Leg End says. That was the worst loss i can remember and our seniors players (aside from Goodes) really got shown up badly.

Regarding what players say in the media (swansfan51's 4th point), if you don't take everything they say with a grain of salt when they talk about "wanting to be intense at the ball", "getting up for the game" and "coming to play" and those cliched pieces of horseshit that every athlete comes up with then you're bound for disappointment. They all talk the same now and it is all dross which you cannot take seriously when looking at how they will play on the weekend.
Another point - Melbourne showed on Sunday that they have an abundance of speed whilst some of our guys, though tough, got shown up in the wide open spaces.

Also, if there is one team that never gives up, it is Sydney. They got nailed on sunday. When they attempted to fight back, Melbourne had all the answers. To say they gave up is crap. they were simply outplayed completely, in all factes. even Mummy was made to look third rate. But McGlynn, goodes, malceski, Kirk - they never gave up, even at the end.

If anyone honestly believes these guys gave up, well, simple - you should follow another club.
 
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#7
they certainly didnt give up as such, but they certainly had that look of: WTF do I do now :eek:, geez I wish I was on a beach in Bali :(

They'll bounce back. What choice do they have. Serve that shyte up again and we will all pay for their flights to Bali and play ourselves :p, how hard can it be. Catch, run, kick, score... :D
 

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#10
2010 is dead, we have to move on with this. Even if we make the finals now, we dont deserve to be there... 2011 and 12 will be good years, I've said the same thing Leg End said that we will be a strong force next year and the year following... It's a meshing of the team together, in a sucsessful AFL team everybody needs to know everyones weakness and strengths. How they lead, how the kid and what they normally do close around the ball... Its this stuff that wins Cups.

2012 YEAR OF THE SWAN!
 

Leg End

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2010 is dead, we have to move on with this. Even if we make the finals now, we dont deserve to be there... 2011 and 12 will be good years, I've said the same thing Leg End said that we will be a strong force next year and the year following... It's a meshing of the team together, in a sucsessful AFL team everybody needs to know everyones weakness and strengths. How they lead, how the kid and what they normally do close around the ball... Its this stuff that wins Cups.

2012 YEAR OF THE SWAN!
If we don't deserve to be there, then the fans of all clubs below us should go and shoot themselves? Of course we deserve to be there - if we win more games than Adelaide and North.

If you compare this side to 2005, then there's a massive gap. But the gap will narrow over the next 2 years.
 

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bigswan

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#12
Like everyone, I was shattered last sunday. But three days later we move on. We have talented young players coming on. It is now their time. The older players don't have the leg speed required to keep us at the top but they still have their experience. At the start of this season I thought we would finish 8th-10th. We had a big thrill to find ourselves so high on the ladder after round 6. Injuries then done us in. But the potential is still there. I hope we can see Rohan, Heath, Johnston, Reid, Bird in the firsts before the end of the season. That may give us somethimg to hold on to over the summer.
 

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#13
If we don't deserve to be there, then the fans of all clubs below us should go and shoot themselves? Of course we deserve to be there - if we win more games than Adelaide and North.

If you compare this side to 2005, then there's a massive gap. But the gap will narrow over the next 2 years.
What you fail to understand or comprehend is just because a team gets in the finals it doesn't mean it deserves to be there. There is a thing called team gap, this years field has been spread largely. How many teams you heard of making the finals on 9 wins?

I'd love them to make the finals as it will be a confidence booster for 11 and 12' seasons but they... dont... deserve... to be there...
 

GoTheSwannies

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#14
you're posing a different question altogether...it's an 8 team finals system, so all you need to do is finish higher than the bottom 8 sides and you're in... whether we're a genuine flag contender is a different story...if we finish in the 8, we get rewarded with finals...what happens from there doesn't matter

i think we deserve to make finals moreso than those below us...and even if we didn't "deserve" it...if that's the outcome after 22 rounds of footy then you take it...

every team has 22 rounds to qualify for finals...if you don't make it, THEN you don't deserve to be there
 

disgruntled goat

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#15
What you fail to understand or comprehend is just because a team gets in the finals it doesn't mean it deserves to be there. There is a thing called team gap, this years field has been spread largely. How many teams you heard of making the finals on 9 wins?

I'd love them to make the finals as it will be a confidence booster for 11 and 12' seasons but they... dont... deserve... to be there...
If, against all odds and most expectations, Sydney manages to win its next five games, every one of them up to the finals, we will make the top eight and well and truly deserve to be there.

What you're saying makes as little sense as all the arrogant rubbish before the Richmond and Melbourne games about them being certain wins, take the points, don't bother turning up blah blah blah.

It is ridiculous to say now, five rounds out, that Sydney doesn't deserve a spot in the finals.
 

J_Moore

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#16
Jesus, a lot of bizarrely positive crystal ball gazing in here.

I love the tail end of the season at bigfooty. 500 supporters of teams that won't win flags all posting how awesome their team is going to be in 2 years time. They can't all be right.
 

Swans120

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#17
Rather than concerning what we're doing on BF at the end of the year, you should concentrate on getting fit to take a spot in the midfield and stop bludging in the forward line!
 

disgruntled goat

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#18
Jesus, a lot of bizarrely positive crystal ball gazing in here.

I love the tail end of the season at bigfooty. 500 supporters of teams that won't win flags all posting how awesome their team is going to be in 2 years time. They can't all be right.
It's not a matter of crystal balling, positive or otherwise. It's a matter of making ridiculous claims/statements.

I'm not denying we were fcking rubbish against Melbourne, but even the pigshite-thickest BF poster knows that one bad game is gone, move on to the next, see what happens.

Of course I don't expect to win all five remaining games; if we get two I'll be pleasantly surprised, but it is just dumb to say Sydney doesn't deserve to play finals after one bad loss in round 17.

This time last week people were posting excitedly about our top four chances ... that's exactly the point.

Things change from week to week. Most people would've given Port no chance against Adelaide based on recent form ... bloody hell, most people gave the Demons no chance against us.

Some of the overreactions on this board have been quite juvenile, like grade 6 kids squabbling and sooking in the playground.
 

db swannie

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#21
Get a kick and lose weight !
He could claim workplace harrassment against you Bedford;)

Now back on topic...Getting real. We have had some good wins this year against teams who are in a similar phase as us, and we have decent losses against sides considered contenders (St Kilda and Hawks games spring to mind), and we've been belted a few times (Pies, as usual, Bulldogs and Geelong once, soon to be twice)...I think the win we had against Carlton was a great win, and gave us some idea of where we want to be in the next year or so...The Melbourne loss was terrible, but we need to remember that they've been tanking/rebuilding for about 3-4 years, and we're seeing the fruits of that approach. They have talent and will be a serious threat in the years to come.

To be honest I have no idea where we're at, and rarely do. Go and look at the Norf board and all their "five year plans" garbage being talked there by the likes of Bwad Roo et al. It's all just crystal balls and a bit of luck. You have a list, you train and condition them, you cross your fingers, and if you're lucky they get good and win more than they lose. Gotta keep in mind our list was being rubbished back in 03-05 era as well, and we all know what happened then.

We've got some exciting kids and I really love watching them play, and we have some great servants of the club who, on the whole, have done wonderful things for our club. We have some injuries, which are hampering our chances at doing well in the last stages of the season, but that happens.
 

Leg End

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He could claim workplace harrassment against you Bedford;)

Now back on topic...Getting real. We have had some good wins this year against teams who are in a similar phase as us, and we have decent losses against sides considered contenders (St Kilda and Hawks games spring to mind), and we've been belted a few times (Pies, as usual, Bulldogs and Geelong once, soon to be twice)...I think the win we had against Carlton was a great win, and gave us some idea of where we want to be in the next year or so...The Melbourne loss was terrible, but we need to remember that they've been tanking/rebuilding for about 3-4 years, and we're seeing the fruits of that approach. They have talent and will be a serious threat in the years to come.

To be honest I have no idea where we're at, and rarely do. Go and look at the Norf board and all their "five year plans" garbage being talked there by the likes of Bwad Roo et al. It's all just crystal balls and a bit of luck. You have a list, you train and condition them, you cross your fingers, and if you're lucky they get good and win more than they lose. Gotta keep in mind our list was being rubbished back in 03-05 era as well, and we all know what happened then.

We've got some exciting kids and I really love watching them play, and we have some great servants of the club who, on the whole, have done wonderful things for our club. We have some injuries, which are hampering our chances at doing well in the last stages of the season, but that happens.
If we play every game like the Carlton game, we will win one, maybe two games - and we're in the finals.

The experience for young blokes will be priceless.
 

Tas

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#23
Note one thing - see the run home that Adelaide and North Melbourne have. Chances are, neither of them may win another game this year.

this means - we have 5 weeks to get injured players back plus another 5 games for some of the young blokes before the finals. Sounds positive to me. A big loss is sometimes a good kick up the backside to know where we really are - underdogs who can surprise.

Personally - I'm looking forward to them doing well.
I never like to look at the run home and think how few games do we need to win to hang on to make up the numbers in the eight, if things are that bad then you have to ask does it really matter if we represent in the finals this year for the one match before evicted or not.

The way I see it is, we play some good sides in the next couple of months and if we can knock off some of these sides we would be a good chance of making the finals, if not then if we can't beat these sorts of teams it is better we are not there.

In saying that, we have at present too many of our best 25 currently unavailable and that is not the most ideal situation to be in coming into the pointy end of the season.

I'm looking forward to the Dogs this week, in theory they should account for us pretty easily, but if we play well enough I think we can roll them, if I don't see the kind of desire that is required to pull it off then we aren't ready for finals yet.
 

Leg End

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The way I see it is, we play some good sides in the next couple of months and if we can knock off some of these sides we would be a good chance of making the finals, if not then if we can't beat these sorts of teams it is better we are not there.
I disagree.

In first few finals, on any day, anything can happen.

What ab gerat experience it will be for Rohan and the boys to get a taste of finals footy. Every flag team usually has a build up over 2-3 years.
 

MF

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#25
I completely agree with Leg End and that handsome beast Plugg3r. Finals experience (even losing finals) is invaluable for young players. The earlier you can get that experience under the belt, the better.
 
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