Game Day Sydney Swans vs Collingwood Sat 1:45pm SCG

[Ticky009]

After coming off a 9 point loss against the Dees, we return to the SCG this afternoon for 6th place Swans to play the Magpies (16th) on what promises to be a sunny but somewhat cool Saturday afternoon.

Ladder position would indicate the Swans go in as favourites but Collingwood seem to drag us down by some type of osmosis to their level of poor form and we always end up on the losing side of the ledger. So naturally the week before they play us they have a win and get their back up.. Its bloody annoying.

This game should be different. Magpies have lost two defenders (Roughhead & Murphy) to concussion & together with Howe their loss will be felt. Neither side have been able to settle on a best 22 for any reasonable run of weeks but Swans have managed to keep on the winning side of the ledger more times that not.

Hickey & Grundy will be an interesting battle. Hickey needs to hold his own and make Grundy work for it, while the Swans midfielders need to halt the Magpies taking advantage of the ruck dominance Grundy give them. Swans lack consistency in the middle this year, we played well against the Dees but we need to ensure we back it up again with our clearance work.

Moore v Buddy: Last week wasn't great for Buddy, not helped in any way by our no good horrible forward 50 entries Unfortunately the Magpie experiment of playing Moore forward has reached its expiration date and he's back to his best position. We need good separation in the forward line to let Buddy have some room to move, and depending on how his knee pulled up after the game, Buddy may play further up the ground and allow McLean to stay in the goal square.

The effort was there last week, but again we need to bring that consistency and back it up again at the SCG this afternoon.

Milestones: Congrats Jordan Dawson on his 50th game


Team Changes:
IN: Heeney, Hewett, Blakey

OUT: Gulden (foot), O'Riordan (omitted), Sinclair (omitted)

Some would call the inclusion of Blakey as questionable considering his form over the last few weeks has hardly knocked down the door for inclusion in best 22.

Gulden's stress fracture of the foot shows the price you pay for being one of our best kicks inside forward 50 - and I'm telling you right now after last week that's a skill we can not be without for long. It also means that all 3 draftees (Gulden, Campbell & McDonald) are now out of best 22, that's not entirely unexpected as its a long season and they're still young with a lot to learn and conditioning to get right.

Sinclair goes out as expected - we were too tall in our forward line in the game against Melbourne.

Heeney's return is much welcome and lets hope he can find that stellar form he was in at the beginning of the year. As for Hewett, well, that's another player currently polarising the board, too slow and not a defender is the main call out. I'll admit I'm not entirely comfortable with him playing in defence, maybe he'll turn that form around and make me eat my words, I hope so.


Match Day Details:

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[sataris]

Bring on the colliwobblers.

 

[scaryness]

Feels like a Buddy four goaler

 

[sataris]

Breakout game for Blakey?

 

[GotTheGoodes]

Great OP cheers Ticky009!

Swannies by 37!!

 

[bungee]

I have no issue with Blakey's selection. There's more to selection decisions than any of us are privy to and longer term Blakey has the potential to be one of our best. Heeney hasn't exactly knocked down the door either but ditto for him.

Swans win by 47 points after a huge 2nd quarter.

 

[bungee]

Great OP cheers Ticky009!

Swannies by 37!!

You're out by 10 points

 

[Punts]

Our in 50 ball use will be the difference for us , we bomb we put ourselves in a very big situation to drop this because IMO there mid group can beat ours and will get enough ball to there forwards

There hb are very good rebounders so we need stop there run but also they only have to bring the ball to ground so make sure we use it well going inside 50

2 goals either way imo at the scg , always in it will a good mid group on that ground

 

[Indie_]

Heeney to replace Sinclair in the forward line will be massive for the structure and the overall dangerousness of the forwards. It may also help that Collingwood can't defend like Melbourne can. Would be bitterly disappointed if we lost this game, but confident we should get the win.

 

[bungee]

A total of 61 tackles inside 50 for our first 7 rounds or an average of 8.7 per game. Last week we laid 35 tackles inside 50, led by 5 from Buddy. Mills, Papley, Hayward, Warner and Gulden 3 each. That is a fantastic stat and one we need to be bringing every week. Buddy and Hayward lead our inside 50 tackling. McLean, Blakey, Heeney and McInerney need to tackle more.

 

[bungee]

92 tackles last week too. We've really ramped up our tackling in the last few games, perhaps a sign that we're going back to basics more. It's good to see that when we can't get our short kick game going we can still find other ways to grind out the game.

I wonder if this game will be a slaughter or a grind. I'm hoping we slaughter them.

 

[Grand Uncle Horace]

I wonder if this game will be a slaughter or a grind. I'm hoping we slaughter them.

I vote we slaughter them!

Bloods by 3 sets of Barry Round shoulders, ie 75 points.

 

[momentbymoment]

One thing to note about the Stephen’s non pick is ... this is not a bad thing. A young player having to prove himself to get a run in the first team. Is is not a bad thing. This is how we used to do things at the swans when we were a consistent finals team.

 

[momentbymoment]

I vote we slaughter them!

Bloods by 3 sets of Barry Round shoulders, ie 75 points.

So roughly 2 Craig Birds?

 

[S120]

Got a bad feeling about this game. Collingwood have tended to be very good on the road the last few years and still have a number of very good to excellent players in their side - Pendlebury, Sidebottom, Moore, De Goey, Crisp, Mihocek, Grundy, Maynard, Quaynor, Noble, Daicos is a good enough core to trouble any team on their day. They won last week so confidence should be improved at least somewhat (even though it was only against North) and we've not been playing the best footy lately, not poor either but we're finding it hard to score.

Something I often look at is the last few weeks of scores against and for to get a sense of how a team is faring. Pies' last four scores were 94, 55, 85, 76 and against were 76, 79, 109, 103. In that time ours have been for 58, 90, 60, 69 and against 67, 88. 100, 71. Crude measure obviously but it suggests to me that our attacks have been about equal while our defence has been a little better than theirs. And we've certainly played better teams than the Pies have over the last month - they haven't played anyone near the quality of Geelong or Melbourne. I like our defence more now with McCartin, Rampe, Fox all in, although I don't love Hewett in defence. I really hope Fox or Rampe get De Goey and not Hewett. Personally I'd love to see Hayward played in defence, Hewett moved into the midfield, and Parker shifted forward but I doubt that'll happen unless we're down by a big margin at halftime or something.

Up forward, I'm hoping we see a better game from Bud after his first game back after his knee but I fear what might happen if we bomb it long and Moore cuts off everything. We haven't got a tall forward line as it is, presumably McLean is going to have to ruck at times to give Hickey a break (unless they chuck Blakey in there again) and if that's the case then it'll be Bud, Blakey, Heeney and Hayward competing in the air. Moore may have a field day.

I also look at our record (5-3) and theirs (2-6) and for some reason I see us being 5-4 and them being 3-6 after this round as a better reflection of how good each side is than us being 6-3 and then being 2-7. That's venturing into into "fate" kind of stuff which I don't really subscribe to, but I think we're more of a 5-4 team than a 6-3 team atm. Anyway, here's hoping my bad feeling is overly pessimistic.

 

[rustycrate]

Got a bad feeling about this game. Collingwood have tended to be very good on the road the last few years and still have a number of very good to excellent players in their side - Pendlebury, Sidebottom, Moore, De Goey, Crisp, Mihocek, Grundy, Maynard, Quaynor, Noble, Daicos is a good enough core to trouble any team on their day. They won last week so confidence should be improved at least somewhat (even though it was only against North) and we've not been playing the best footy lately, not poor either but we're finding it hard to score.

Something I often look at is the last few weeks of scores against and for to get a sense of how a team is faring. Pies' last four scores were 94, 55, 85, 76 and against were 76, 79, 109, 103. In that time ours have been for 58, 90, 60, 69 and against 67, 88. 100, 71. Crude measure obviously but it suggests to me that our attacks have been about equal while our defence has been a little better than theirs. And we've certainly played better teams than the Pies have over the last month - they haven't played anyone near the quality of Geelong or Melbourne. I like our defence more now with McCartin, Rampe, Fox all in, although I don't love Hewett in defence. I really hope Fox or Rampe get De Goey and not Hewett. Personally I'd love to see Hayward played in defence, Hewett moved into the midfield, and Parker shifted forward but I doubt that'll happen unless we're down by a big margin at halftime or something.

Up forward, I'm hoping we see a better game from Bud after his first game back after his knee but I fear what might happen if we bomb it long and Moore cuts off everything. We haven't got a tall forward line as it is, presumably McLean is going to have to ruck at times to give Hickey a break (unless they chuck Blakey in there again) and if that's the case then it'll be Bud, Blakey, Heeney and Hayward competing in the air. Moore may have a field day.

I also look at our record (5-3) and theirs (2-6) and for some reason I see us being 5-4 and them being 3-6 after this round as a better reflection of how good each side is than us being 6-3 and then being 2-7. That's venturing into into "fate" kind of stuff which I don't really subscribe to, but I think we're more of a 5-4 team than a 6-3 team atm. Anyway, here's hoping my bad feeling is overly pessimistic.

I would rather Buddy play the loose man in the forward line. Let the talls announce themselves and attract the best defenders. Let an under sized mid follow Buddy around upfield and have him giving great delivery inside 50 or kicking monster goals. He is not great overhead. Heeney and Haywood etc are better at that. We need to be more unpredictable.

 

[Punts]

Bomb we drop

If amd it will become a scrap inside we have to beat there mid group simple , not confident on that

 

[wilsonmatic]

Bucks might pull the same trick against us he did in 2017, basically played circle work and kept the ball from us for the whole first quarter.

 

[LukeParkerno1]

One thing to note about the Stephen’s non pick is ... this is not a bad thing. A young player having to prove himself to get a run in the first team. Is is not a bad thing. This is how we used to do things at the swans when we were a consistent finals team.

That is fine but then you have Blakey not having to do the same thing. Zero issue with Stephens having to prove it but what about the other one?

 

[mikey_san]

I think people complaining on Blakey inclusion have some cause on comparative form, but then we need that player with break-away pace that can turn the game.
Blakey can provide that burst of speed. Stephens looks handy at this stage, but does he add much different to the likes of Lloyd an Cunningham to the team moving the ball forward? He gets the ball and distributes it nicely enough. He's not damaging yet. I think we've got what Stephens brings already so the coaches are happy to see a player who will probably get it less, but potentially change a game with 3 of his possessions.

Blakey has missed a few good opportunities for break-away goals this year when bursting off HB and running to 50. Lets see if he can nail one or two today.

 

[rustycrate]

That is fine but then you have Blakey not having to do the same thing. Zero issue with Stephens having to prove it but what about the other one?

I reckon Stephens knows what he has to work on and is fine with where he is at ans what he has to do to make the team.

 

[SwansProudly]

Lance will emulate 1999 Tony Lockett by kicking 9 goals at today's SCG day game against Collingwood (PS. when Tony had kicked his 1300th goal)
I'm sure there were many of you were lucky to be at the ground

Bloods to win by 42 points

#GoBloods #bloods #ProudlySydney

 

[zyzzbruh]

That is fine but then you have Blakey not having to do the same thing. Zero issue with Stephens having to prove it but what about the other one?

Blakey puts his arse on the line, throws his body around, crashes packs, has breakaway speed and actually shows desperation. There's no comparison to Stephens what so ever as of yet. Blakey only cops it because his composure and final decision isn't the best. But I'll take all of his other attributes over Stephens any day.

 

[Jeffers]

Let's not come out completely flat after a hard game like we did against Gold Coast.

 

[Jeffers]

Hoping to see Buddy kick 45 goals today so we can run out on the SCG