Autopsy Swans vs Eagles

[Roger Rogerson]

Geez Hayward looked class last night.

 

[momentbymoment]

Defence is a shambles.
There is no flow and no run in the midfield.
Forwards are trying to help the midfield which leaves us without a forward line.

We also need a little luck.
The footy gods are not helping us right now.

 

[melbournehammer]

It isn't just this game I was referring to though.

We wouldn't play Kennedy in defence. Not sure why we play Mills there is all.

Wines etc seemed to start playing where it suited from the get go.

Just to be clear I think he is a beast and rate him higher than Heeney personally (not by a mile mind you).

Just another decision I find strange particularly after he has had a season to acclimatize or whatever.

I have this whacky out of date theory that playing forwards as forwards, backs as backs and mids as mids is a fairly good default way to pick a side.

I'm still not certain at all that mills will be a gun midfielder. The love for him that arose before he was drafted has been justified by his work off half back where the time to deliver is greater than in the midfield. But I agree that he gets beaten in the one on ones more often than you'd like. But the issue remains - how do we get the ball out of the backline if mills isn't there ? I know this much - grundy and smith aren't the ones you want kicking it back into the middle and mills is slowly heading in that direction unfortunately

 

[Mick Oxlong]

IMO, Mills isn't a HBF. He needs midfield as he doesn't have the polish to play anywhere else.

 

[mcs095]

IMO, Mills isn't a HBF. He needs midfield as he doesn't have the polish to play anywhere else.

Yep, I think we should abandon ship and get him into midfield. He is a midfielder, who just happened to have a great year in a well functioning backline last year. It is his long term home in the team, and we need to get him in there pronto in my book.

 

[Zaky]

We tend to latch on to a few nice things some of the youngsters do early on in their careers and then hold them to that standard for the rest of their careers. All footy fans do this and thats just not fair on them. Mills is still young and is going through the classic 2nd year blues. And most likely an injury.

 

[Number37]

IMO, Mills isn't a HBF. He needs midfield as he doesn't have the polish to play anywhere else.

Don't know how you can say he isn't a HBF when he was for the whole 2016 & won the Rising Star.

Our defence as a unit is shot.

 

[Banyo Bloods]

Positives

Sinclair held his own and put in a decent effort. He still doesn't inspire confidence around the ground but you would not say he was beaten. His taps were too strong to our midfield but he was given a massive job and you would have to say he stood up.

Reid was ineffective but hampered by our turnovers. He was getting badly beaten but never gave up and worked his way into the match. When we were firing at the end he was a big contributor down the wing. Franklin didn't help Reid's game was incredible to see them standing together up the wing. Franklin was clearly hampered and it was for Reid to take the run up role. I give him a pass because once again he is asked to be a strong marking forward target but also ruck which is not his strength.

Cunningham easy to say pea heart but after reading Tony Armstrong's article I have so much respect for what these players give up and sometimes you have to just accept that some players will only ever be so good but he certainly responded to getting selected and had a dip.

Marsh is probably going to be that fringe player that might go out when everyone is available but showed glimpses of his attributes and potential. Worth pursuing as he may be closing the gap on others who are in on past performances.

Hayward clearly the pick of the new crop. Would like to see both him and Rohan in our team at full flight they would make the opposition very nervous with their speed and suddenly we are a dangerous team again. He will have some quiet ones but he's earning his spot and will take something to replace him.

Papley he is a crafty hot tempered asset. Was a good pick and he will be better for the run than no run. Good to have him back he is the first of many to come and is a welcome sign to see him.

Lloyd not really impressed with him last night and don'[t think he should be given kick out duties but he gets a positive from me for kicking what was likely his best goal of his career. I gave him no chance and expected him to pass off but it was a pearler of a kick.

Aliir keep taking it on it will come together

We have been in every game we have not had a belting once the monkey if off the back we are still going to be watching some solid performances this year


Unpopular positive - Parker - Thought that he turned his game around tonight not to his elite level but at least to a point where I'm not thinking he's cooked. May not really be a guy that can afford a limited pre season.

 

[db swannie]

Didn't bother reading past page one.


Seriously, people need to get a grip sometimes. We've lost four games on the trot, yes, but we also have to be realistic about the players who are out.

Hayward and Florent were really good. Allir made a couple of poor mistakes, but he did so taking the game on. That's why we love him. I don't understand the hate for Grundy. He was good down back. Parker is seriously down on form, but good players don't stay out of form forever.

Heeney will be back soon, along with about 5 or 6 others.

Re last night, big problem was converting pressure around the ball into scoring opportunities. Our pressure in the first half was great but it didn't translate into goals, and that hurt us. Not sure what the remedy is for that.

 

[MarkP]

i rekon we start a change.org petition to get all of the coaches sacked, start a gofundme campaign and we replace them with a few geniuses around here. MarkP can be senior coach.

I have always wondered how good arm chair coaches can be, lets find out.

Signed.

Happy to have a go.

How much worse could it be?

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

We looked slow, small and unskilled. There is not a lot of positives coming out of any of our games this season.

No positives? Not the fact that we have been competitive in every single game so far, despite missing some major names?

 

[MarkP]

Didn't bother reading past page one.


Seriously, people need to get a grip sometimes. We've lost four games on the trot, yes, but we also have to be realistic about the players who are out.

Hayward and Florent were really good. Allir made a couple of poor mistakes, but he did so taking the game on. That's why we love him. I don't understand the hate for Grundy. He was good down back. Parker is seriously down on form, but good players don't stay out of form forever.

Heeney will be back soon, along with about 5 or 6 others.

Re last night, big problem was converting pressure around the ball into scoring opportunities. Our pressure in the first half was great but it didn't translate into goals, and that hurt us. Not sure what the remedy is for that.

Yeh. That first quarter was a vast improvement on the pies game and we got no reward. 2errors, 2 goals against.

So frustrating. We were so close to playing well.

 

[Blacky]

Consistent success has spoiled us

The calls to burn the building down are bewildering

 

[db swannie]

Yeh. That first quarter was a vast improvement on the pies game and we got no reward. 2errors, 2 goals against.

So frustrating. We were so close to playing well.

Yep, they got two soft goals on turnovers, yet we seemed to be dominating around the ball with pressure.

And I forgot to mention previously, but Sinclair had one of his best games for us. He's copped a lot of flak round here (me included) and he responded well. Good on him.

 

[skipper kelly]

Signed.

Happy to have a go.

How much worse could it be?

Much worse for you, especially when players don't do what they are supposed to. Imagine the frustration.

 

[Mick Oxlong]

Don't know how you can say he isn't a HBF when he was for the whole 2016 & won the Rising Star.

Our defence as a unit is shot.

Easy, I said it. Just because he was the rising star doesn't necessarily mean he's a good HBF, it just means, in the eyes of the rising star committee that he was the best young player for 2016. He also played alongside a talented group who generally help each other out and this year, he's being found out and IMO, singled out!

 

[bedford]

Didn't bother reading past page one.


Seriously, people need to get a grip sometimes. We've lost four games on the trot, yes, but we also have to be realistic about the players who are out.

Hayward and Florent were really good. Allir made a couple of poor mistakes, but he did so taking the game on. That's why we love him. I don't understand the hate for Grundy. He was good down back. Parker is seriously down on form, but good players don't stay out of form forever.

Heeney will be back soon, along with about 5 or 6 others.

Re last night, big problem was converting pressure around the ball into scoring opportunities. Our pressure in the first half was great but it didn't translate into goals, and that hurt us. Not sure what the remedy is for that.

Same here, we had a crack. As I said last week the positive will be that we are blooding depth. I thought Marsh should have played in the GF instead of the selfish McHack.

 

[The King!]

Josh Kennedy would miles ahead in the best and fairest right now, he is such a fantastic consistent player, never lets us down

 

[Superstar swan]

I'm so glad I took the punt of asking my boss for an early finish tonight to see this game live...

There needs to be some calm here, from all sides. We have been utterly diabolical, illogical and a complete shambles to start this year. Yet we have been right in each game into the last quarter of all four games. That means even though we're off the mark, we're not that far off the mark. Imagine the possibilities if we actually played well... However, everyone on here keeps saying fair-weather supporters and how spoilt we are. Maybe that's true, but pointing out what is going wrong with this club, complaining about it, and having opinions on the team does not make you a bad supporter. You can feel however you want to feel about our team. You can even say we played shit in 2012 and got lucky and it would still make you a good supporter. At the end of the day we all want the same thing here and unless we're burning Swans memorabilia in Moore Park, I think we can all say we're pretty ******* good supporters.

If you want evidence of bad supporters, just take a look at West Coast fans. Now I live to the south of Perth, which means I frequent more Freo supporters than Eagles, and the Dockers are ******** horrid at the best of times. But the Eagles fans have taken the cake. I heard multiple racist and horrible remarks made by West Coast fans tonight, aimed at both the players and the supporters, and I only saw half the game. When your team is struggling to put away what is basically the Swans reserves team on your home deck, why the **** would you be acting like the kings of the world? Absolute morons.

Onto the actual game, we are just so so so bad. I saw it coming, but I also somewhere in my mind expected and hoped that there would be a lift. If anything, this was a huge backwards step. Parker may have had 27 touches, but from what I saw at the ground he did FA, looked lazy and lethargic, and is having no impact. I love K. Jack as much as anyone but he looks cooked. Maybe he is, maybe he isn't. Doesn't matter, go to the NEAFL, let him get some fine-tuning. He's earned enough trust and respect to go to the reserves, and have a spot saved for him when he comes back. Same for Parker, same for Hannebery, same for Grundy and same for Smith. I don't care if they're All Australians, 200-gamers or flat-out guns. You can't justify having four poor games in a row. It sounds unreal to even say aloud, but 4 crap games from those blokes in a row! It's unheard of, but if tonight's game and last week's game - when there was so much riding on them and so much potential for them to make an impact - couldn't get them to switch on, nothing will.

There's a distinct lack of character and leadership, and I hate to quote David King, but we don't have an identity right now. There's no logic or intent, it's just madness with no method. I mean, Foote - the 183cm midfielder - was caught playing one-on-one with Josh Kennedy, a ******* multiple Coleman Medalist a few times in the back-line. That is not Foote's fault. Heck, it might not even be any of the senior defenders fault. But it's just evidence that all over the ground, we are a shambles. Grundy and Smith don't even look like they're trying, and i echo everyone's sentiments on here that Marsh was our best defender tonight. Aliir is taking the game on and playing with flair. Honestly, at this point, I don't care if he makes a few mistakes. He's a risky player and he's trying to be creative - I will take it because it's precisely what we are missing. Sometimes his efforts will work and produce something quality, other times they won't. Same as Zak Jones' running it out. We need this sort of dynamic playing because guys like Hannebery and Parker and Grundy look capable of doing nothing except kicking and marking (and even then their skills are putrid.)

Our forward line is also a shambles. Reid was out of form to start the year, but he's back in form now - folding like a paper swan in contests and playing like a first-gamer scared of aggression. Buddy has really had a shit year. Yeah he kicked 4 goals in each of the first two games, but last week he was mortifying and even against the Bulldogs only a few moments of Buddy magic made his night seem better than it was. His awareness has been horrible and his field-kicking is even poor (that's when you know something is wrong.) Florent, Hayward, Foote and Fox have all been good and had their really quality moments, but these games aren't giving them any sort of chance of flourishing. How can we expect them to produce little quality moments up forward when they're being worn like gloves by their opposition? Forwards generally rely on the other players up the ground to make their jobs easier - we have a very inexperienced forward line so their reliance on senior quality is amplified, and they're being ripped off. The shame of this all is that guys like Fox and Foote and Florent will get the chop once some stars start coming back from injury, even though they've performed reasonably well at the level you'd expect of youngsters, while guys like Jack and Hannebery and Parker and Smith and Grundy seem content to put in shit effort after shit effort because their spots in the team are cemented.

If the season really is over - I think it is - I would start putting some of these senior guys on notice and keep on getting games into the kids. Improve guys like Florent, Hayward, Fox, Foote, Newman, Marsh etc. and even get some games into Edwards, Cameron, Melican etc. I remember a few years ago when Jarryd Roughead was absolutely stinking it up in the seniors, and Clarkson sent him to the reserves. Everyone thought he was mad, but it was the boost up the ass Roughead needed. If ROK and ******* Adam 'the God' Goodes were poor enough to be playing in the NEAFL, surely guys like Jack and co are as well?

I don't even want to think about who comes in and who goes out of this team right now. They're in such a mess that I can't see how getting rid of Fox and Foote and bringing in Heeney and Rohan is going to improve just how many senior guys are playing like horse-shit right now. Regardless, I'm weirdly at peace with whatever happens this year. I almost want Horse to just put up the white flag right now and just put an eye to 2018 so at least something worthy comes out of this year.

wce fans at the game were hilarious..jones cut in front of a kennedy lead amd spoiled the ball ....they went apeshit wanting deliberate

 

[S120]

Josh Kennedy would miles ahead in the best and fairest right now, he is such a fantastic consistent player, never lets us down

I reckon it'd be Kennedy easily 1st followed by Lloyd, Franklin, Reid and Jones for the top 5. Maybe Marsh at 5.

 

[db swannie]

Same here, we had a crack. As I said last week the positive will be that we are blooding depth. I thought Marsh should have played in the GF instead of the selfish McHack.

I agree re Marsh. He's good down back for us.

 

[The King!]

I reckon it'd be Kennedy easily 1st followed by Lloyd, Franklin, Reid and Jones for the top 5. Maybe Marsh at 5.

I think Buddys been ordinary this year

 

[Punts]

I think Buddys been ordinary this year

Yep horse is slowly ruining the best player of the modern era

 

[S120]

I think Buddys been ordinary this year

Well he was great in round 1 and almost dragged us over the line in round 2 and while I agree and he hasn't been great the last two weeks...how many others have actually been better?

 

[Superstar swan]

not getting all the criticism on aliir. ye he is making mistakes by playing off his man too much but hel learn that with exp...he has only played 15 games ffs! takes the game on better than anyone on the team and gets his fist to the ball a hell of alot...love the kid