Autopsy Swans vs GWS Elimination Final

[Heeney2Franklin]

We had a reasonable run with injuries this year
It’s no excuse

Football is just to taxing to us scoring is to taxing winning 3 finals looks like a impossible feat.

 

[The King!]

Football is just to taxing to us scoring is to taxing winning 3 finals looks like a impossible feat.

Must be fun playin boring negative footy too

Wonder how Greene would be at Sydney , forget he is a dick, but yeah probably be off half back

 

[swanssince2002]

You can pretty much replace Longmire with Scott in Geelong's case or Longmire with Hinkley in Port Adelaide's case and the threads would be no different haha

 

[Heeney2Franklin]

You can pretty much replace Longmire with Scott in Geelong's case or Longmire with Hinkley in Port Adelaide's case and the threads would be no different haha

Geelong and Port dont have Lance Franklin running around for them.

 

[Kapanis]

Geelong and Port dont have Lance Franklin running around for them.

Would love Danger in our midfield. Ports list is better than ours.

 

[The King!]

Would love Danger in our midfield. Ports list is better than ours.

Dunno about port

Danger would be good, though he tries to do it all sometimes

 

[TheMase]

Geelong and Port dont have Lance Franklin running around for them.

Didn’t do a lot of running last night from what I saw.

From memory also went into the Geelong final last year with a badly corked thigh.

Hobbled around most of 2018 with who knows what, bruise heel apparently from round one, or at least that’s what it was early in the year

 

[MC Bad Genius]

Looking Dangerous and ****ing doing something are 2 completely things.

I used to wear red boots back in the 80's.

Gee ! At Least I Looked The Part !

As usual he floated in and out. He wasn't the problem he was a part of it.

Sorry, I should've been more careful with my words. What I meant was that Heeney was the only one that actually attacked the ball and got himself into space from the pack (i.e. dangerous for the opposition). We'll probably have to agree to disagree though, because I thought he was in out top handful of players and I'm guessing you didn't.

 

[Tedeski]

Sorry, I should've been more careful with my words. What I meant was that Heeney was the only one that actually attacked the ball and got himself into space from the pack (i.e. dangerous for the opposition). We'll probably have to agree to disagree though, because I thought he was in out top handful of players and I'm guessing you didn't.

Don't be sorry mate & don't be so polite either to posts with that tone.
Wearing red bootys in the 80s says plenty.

 

[melbournehammer]

Geelong and Port dont have Lance Franklin running around for them.

Geelong has plenty of very good players as does port.

Franklin is just one guy. He has a lot of no names running around next to him and delivering to him.

I've done this plenty of times but I encourage people to compare the 2012 premiership team with the 2018 side and ask yourself how many of the side who played on the weekend make a combined team. I posit one but think Heaney could just about edge Jude out. And of the ones who played in both years how many have improved. Given that one is franklin I really think we need to acknowledge just how ordinary the team is around him.

I don't really rate Lloyd but he did make the AA squad - so I've given him a lot of thought but I still can't get him into a best 22.

I'm in the camp along with a few others that the game plan is not great and it is frustrating to watch, but and here it comes, I don't think this team even with a coaching group of Clarkson, smith, barassi and Hafey, should be remotely challenging. I think the comp is very even currently because there are a lot of bog ordinary teams - of which we are one - and that if we had a month like the dogs did in 2016 we could jag a win.

But basically this side isn't good enough and they finished about where the talent lies.

 

[basilcampbell]

I think that TheMase is spot on with their observation regarding the Swans team being in a state of transition. I suspect that 2018 was the Swans equivalent of an over achieving, yet bottoming out year.

Major deficiencies are apparent in all lines of Swans list but none more so than in the middle of the ground. Swans have struggled all year long to win the ball cleanly in the midfield. Whilst there are players in the midfield that have earned All Australian guernseys in previous seasons they are not performing anywhere near that level in 2018. There have been very few occasions in 2018 when the Swans midfield have won clean possession. The Swans mids fumble the ball, routinely miss handball targets (e.g. to team mates feet or behind them) or bomb inside 50 where the forwards are generally playing behind their opponents and get outmarked. Watch our opponents and they get clean possession week in week out. Is this defensive gamestyle structures? I think it is more a weakness in the ruck division where Sinclair is unable to compete effectively with real ruckman or give hitouts to advantage. He gives his all however he is a forward/pinch ruck not a fulltime ruckman. Lobb has 7cm advantage over Sinclair in every contest yet people on here bag Callum for not beating a "3rd string ruckman". I am also a realist who can acknowledge that Sinclair is a 200cm forward who has competer unsuccesfully against >206cm 1st choice ruckman. I also have seen 1st hand what influence Gawn has had on Melbourne, Goldstein on North, Natanui on West Coast etc. A ruckman is a serious chance of winning a Brownlow medal this year. If only Swans had the possibility of 1st use in the midfield.

Defence is another area of weakness as <193cm defenders are unable to compete effectively with >200cm forwards especially since 2018 when Clarko's rule has been implemented by AFL hierarchy. It's hard enough as a defender when you get penalised for using your strength, kicking/handballing towards boundary line or rushing any behinds from outside the box. It also hasn't helped having tall defenders in Melican and AJ injured for most of 2018. Ideally Rampe would have lined up on Green today and could have matched him aerially, for speed and on the ground however he was playing undersized against Cameron.

Key defenders and quality midfielders are a must for Swans in the trade and draft period.

The kids have done an okay job in the forward line, however unrealistic expectations have been placed on them by some on here given the lack of key position players inside forward 50. The chaotic delivery forward they deal with week in week out would be nearly impossible to score from.

What will 2019 bring?
I expect more highs and lows for a team that I think is still in transition (even with the best FF in the competition in Franklin). I believe it will take more than one draft/trade period to rebuild the engine room and think 2020 is when Swans will genuinely contend again.

Do I appreciate making the 2018 finals despite Swans bowing out with barely a whimper today. YUP!

Will I still appreciate every game of next season win lose or draw? Absolutely! Because that is what all of us satisfied or dissatisfied fans of the Sydney Swans do in supporting our club.

Hope the offseason brings hope, expectation and excitement to you all and the possibility of what 2019 may bring.

To all the Swans players, coaches and fans thank you for all of the highs and lows of 2018. You all sacrifice a lot to provide weekend entertainment for us fans. The experience of supporting players whose bravery and skill we admire, a style some hate and a club we all love in our own passionaye individual ways is what makes me proud of being a part of the Swans family.

Go Swans!

Love this post


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[ashep]

Christ on a ******* bike we kicked 2 goals to 3/4 time.

I can still barely believe it.

 

[bungee]

One basic point that you are missing is the fact that our whole strategy is to score from defensive turnover. For years, Horse has deliberately played the game where we provide little, if any pressure whilst the opposition are in possession of the ball whilst in our forward line. I would suggest we would be one of the worst in the league at conceding inside 50's from kick ins. Idea was that we would then win the ball in our back half and deliver it to an open forward line as ALL the players have pushed up towards the play. That worked 5 years ago. Opposition teams now leave at least two players back in this scenario. So, we win the ball in the back half and then kick it into a hopelessly outnumbered forward line. No bloody wonder we can't score.
At the start of every game (no mater who we are playing against) we have 7 (that sometimes goes to 8) of our players in the defensive half. If we are to win a centre clearance - big deal - it comes straight back due to the lack of numbers. One of the very few times he actually went 6,6,6 was in the last 1/4 against Geelong when we then kicked 6-7 goals in that quarter. You'd think he would have learnt something from that quarter but NO. The next week against North we go straight back to a 7,6,5 set up. What happens? We kick 9 goals and lose again.
Even if the AFL introduce the 6,6,6 rule next year for centre bounces Horse will immediately send someone back as a spare defender and leave our forward line short again. At a time when we have had the best forward in the competition, it has been totally wasted due to this totally outdated game plan and a coach who is simply too pig headed to change or simply doesn't know how to. I'd like to think it is more the former rather than the latter.

I disagree. Our strategy is not simply to score from defensive turnovers. We normally get most of our scores from stoppages. Unfortunately that nullifies the rest of your argument. At least I admire you for putting forth an opinion.

 

[bungee]

That was embarrassing. It was insipid. It lacked any of the character that I love this club for.

So my simple question is why?

Why did we look so bad? Why did we not change things up? Why were our skills so poor? Why did we keep making shocking decisions? Why?!?

I think it's fairly clear Hanners is off.

It'll be great to have Mills, Reidy & Naisy back.

Wrap Buddy up & stop playing blokes injured through the season. Maybe (shock horror) they might be able to impact a final rather than just drag themselves to it.

As soon as the finals footy pressure lifted we crumbled. 2013. 2015. 2017. 2018. We dragged ourselves into finals. Same thing. Year, after year, after year. IT'S NOT WORKING HORSE.

I support Horse. I'm not jumping into the sack Horse stuff. But he needs to think about WHY. If he doesn't, & the same s**t happens YET AGAIN then there is no defending him. He's wasted the games best forward. He's run our best midfielder into the fckn ground. He's focused on MAKING finals. I want him focused on WINNING finals FFS.

I understand your frustration GTG but playing Buddy was probably the only option. He did rest him in Rd23 but this was the last dance and the last chance. Normally we'd have had Sinclair and Reid as forwards to spread the load. Wtih Naismith injured, Reid injured and Buddy limping what choice was there ? Play the limping guy and nurse him as best as possible. I don't think for a minute that all considerations weren't taken into account. We had a young forward line who didn't get much of anything in their first final. Only Papley had a crack. In the midfield we had an undersized forward Sinclair playing as a first ruck. I thought he played his best year yet but he was up against it from the start. How could we have predicted Naismith out for a year and Tippet retiring ?

And seriously, that lack of Tippet, Naismith and Reid was what killed our season. Everything else was just a symptom. We were damn plucky to make finals. So I'm counting the positives and there were quite a few.

 

[bungee]

I'm not 100% sure that Mitchell did want to leave but the Swans contract offer gave him little choice. It made it perfectly clear to him at the time that Longmire did not rate him and that he was quite happy for him to go. What would YOU do, given those circumstances.
Just another PLUS for Longmire.

Mitchell was rated but we didn't have a role for him as he's a duplicate of JPK. Besides, he very much wanted to move as he wanted to play more games and earn more cash than we could pay him.

 

[sataris]

30 points.

I'm sure the end of season review internally will be interesting.

If Harley and John aren't feeling pressure from above, then Carlton level's of irrelevance are just around the corner.

 

[Kirkswan]

In all my time following the club that is by far the worst I've seen us play. Completely outclassed, no effort for most of the night, no gameplan, no skills. Just absolutely insipid across the board.

Really? Were you around in the 70s, 80s and 90s? Because that's a pretty huge statement...

 

[Kirkswan]

Even if you want to make the argument that 2018 was a positive or consecutive finals is good etc

Surely after that game you can have a bit of a chat about how s**t it was

Yes, you should be able to and can as far as I'm aware... and let me tell you, it was doubly s**t when you had to drive for five hours to get there, sit in the rain for three hours, in seats that you had to pay $95 for where you couldn't see cause you were too low and looking into the glare, and then drive five hours to get home again!!!!! So I couldn't even have a beer to drown my bloody sorrows!!!!!!

But so should those that don't see it the same way should be allowed to voice their opinions too. Because even after all that, I still believe we over-achieved in making the finals, so I'm not interested in laying blame... except on ticketek!

 

[Grand Uncle Horace]

Disagree Kirky. The teams from 50s to 90s lacked the raw talent of the teams of 14-18. The 14 GF, 16 GF, Owen 6, including the loss to Filthton, the 18 dreadful efforts against Norf, a random SANFL team 38 v the Cats and 30 v GWS says it all to me.

 

[MarkP]

Christ on a ******* bike we kicked 2 goals to 3/4 time.

I can still barely believe it.

S'ok.

Horse has this. It's no one's fault.

Coach is perfectly fine - what more can he do?

Players are good. They are just picked a bit late in the draft and cant be accountable.

All's good


WE MADE FINALS

All is awesome sauce. Keep calm and carry on

 

[Banyo Bloods]

Couple of things that the coaches could have done better.

Reviewed the previous games through the season. Identified the number of Swans slipping over and demanded they wear different boots. Identifying that we keep playing night games and not handling the ball well and schedule training at night in the same conditions not sticking with training through the day with a nice dry ball.


Phil Davis dobbing Franklin in for a push means I will not be getting behind GWS for the remainder of the year what a class act. Leave it on the field.

Franklin falling over at marking contests looking for frees is something he needs to look at and drop a kilo or two and get on the training track as time is catching up.

 

[Kirkswan]

Disagree Kirky. The teams from 50s to 90s lacked the raw talent of the teams of 14-18. The 14 GF, 16 GF, Owen 6, including the loss to Filthton, the 18 dreadful efforts against Norf, a random SANFL team 38 v the Cats and 30 v GWS says it all to me.

Mate, your entitled to your opinion, but I'm pretty sure you're letting your revising history. The post was that that was the worst game ever played by the Swans, and truly, it wasn't (imo).

Comparing talent from generation to generation is a non-starter imo, it's just unrealistic.

 

[The King!]

Mate, your entitled to your opinion, but I'm pretty sure you're letting your revising history. The post was that that was the worst game ever played by the Swans, and truly, it wasn't (imo).

Comparing talent from generation to generation is a non-starter imo, it's just unrealistic.

It’s the worst finals effort by the club I would suggest and it’s up there considering the talent for just the worst ever

 

[TheMase]

It’s the worst finals effort by the club I would suggest and it’s up there considering the talent for just the worst ever

Playing against a team with 16 top 20 selections in it? With more sitting in their twos.

How does one rate talent exactly?

 

[Kirkswan]

It’s the worst finals effort by the club I would suggest and it’s up there considering the talent for just the worst ever

Possibly that's right, but really, we overachieved by making them imo. And I reckon a third of the talent on our list was injured, an other third is simply too young and the rest simply didn't play well (with a few exceptions: Parker & Cunningham come to mind).