GAME DAY - TIGES V SWANS

[mrposhman]

Swans weren't chipping around much. Often unmarked players right down the middle of the ground. Quick and decisive. It was scary how free and how often it hapoened.

Yep, when the game plan doesn't work it exposes us very badly just because our players push forward en mass trusting us to win the ball. It's happened a number of times in the past particularly early in the season. Just have to put faith in our coaches to tweak the game plan. It's far from panic stations.

Sorry but they chipped it around all day. Not sure how you can say they didn't, sometimes they went wide, sometimes they went through the middle, but they used the short kick repeatedly.

Whilst we were *smile* and probably would have lost regardless, I hated the style of footy. Its basically AFLX without the name., uncontested mark after uncontested mark. The contest is dead in footy if this is the blueprint for the future. The game I fell in love with when I moved here from the UK is not the footy that was played today. 117 uncontested marks show how easily they controlled the ball with those short kicks.

We were rubbish though, beaten in the midfield (I'll come back to centre clearances later) and our workrate was far far below what it should have been. It was why they always seemed to have free men, its was so clear at the ground how their workrate was above ours today.

I turned to my daughter at quarter time, and said how much of a lack of fluency we had going forward and the last 3 quarters didn't change that.

Lynch - PLAY IN FRONT, STOP TRYING TO PUSH DEFENDERS OUT OF THE CONTEST. FFS its not that hard. Sydney controlled the ball so well and by giving away frees like he did it was another impact on our lack of fluency. It was like Lynch was playing against a giant, not a guy he had at least 6cms on.

Aarts - Previously said he was too slow, stick by it. He's a trier but we need to move on

Caddy - Game has passed him by. Too slow and he killed our momentum going forward

Egg - Not sure why we put him back on the list, those same issues are still there ant not going away. Takes that extra bit too long before disposing inviting the pressure that then rushes the disposal. Poor defensively too. Just not a lot to like if we are going for the flag again.

I was surprised how many people bagged our Rioli today, thought he was ok.

On the umpires and this is a MASSIVE bug bear of mine, bouncing the ball in the centre. I would guess that out of 28 centre bounces at least 20 of them should have been recalled. We seemed to do well with the centre bounces when the bounce was good, but every time it was a poor bounce (more often than not) it seemed to fall to the advantage of the swans. If you can't bounce it, it should just be thrown up.

Some of the umpiring was flabbergasting. Kmac gets knocked out and despite the fact he was low trying to play the ball (and didn't seem to slide, was paid below the knees despite the fact he took a hip to the head (they kicked a goal from this when it went forward by the way).

Just to be clear we didn't lose due to the umpiring but I defo felt that the centre bounce dominance that Sydney seemed to get seemed to be from poor bounces which favoured them.

Rant over

 

[seven]

Yep. Chipped it around like Collingwood use to do to us.

 

[leon]

On the flip side, Swans have been very impressive. They're never down for long due to their generous academy concession and vast region.

Exactly. AFL is a stacked deck.

Also umpires used to reinforce priorities. We have usurped AFL plans for 3/4 prior years. Payback time via new rules + draw (now face PA away, Aints @Marvel, Dees @G, Dogs @G) + umpiring to ensure whatever losses can be created for us in close games.

 

[eZyT]

Yep. Chipped it around like Collingwood use to do to us.

can you pleeeasse change your avatar 7, its really disturbing

 

[Mr Brightside]

Too hot for footy, game should have been abandoned

 

[zippadeee]

Has anyone got the stat, how goals Sydney kicked were directly from the influence from an umpire.
Being at the ground it felt like every time they went inside 50 the umpires were plucking out free kicks.
Why wasn't lynch paid a 50 when the Sydney defender got to the contest late and then fell into his back.

 

[tha8ball]

Look we weren’t exactly switched on at any point... we were fumbly and the poor decision making and skill errors were for all to see. We were smashed around the ball. Smashed.

However my concern was the way the swans countered our normal game.

We rely on setting up behind the ball.

Swans refused to kick it to outnumbered contests. It was like they had 15 half fwds today. Small hit up passes... through the corridor especially. They zipped around and didn’t let us get our normal defensive structure. Then when they got it deep fwd they performed what’s been the symbolic Richmond fwd pressure on our defenders.

They are silky enough and quick enough to pull this game style off - plenty aren’t.

Credit to them - the swans executed to a tee.

They have some genuine jets in that side.

Personally I don’t feel this is a throw the tape in the bin and move on game. We have some genuine adjustments that need to be made. Need to blood some next gen midfielders stat. And we need more pace/line breaking on the wing - caddy is not the answer. We also need a plan against sides that will move the ball quick and are skilful enough to continually hit the 45 degree short kick - dogs, port etc. our backline was at sea not being able to set up.

Make no mistake these rule changes impact our game style more than any other side.

The positive is we got a look at it round 3 and as we know premierships aren’t won then - good learning curve.

 

[seven]

can you pleeeasse change your avatar 7, its really disturbing

Okay. But I doubt I can find a bigger douche bag photo then that one of Scott

 

[artball]

Okay. But I doubt I can find a bigger douche bag photo then that one of Scott

bound to be one of - Koch, Buckley, Fat Ed, Gary Lyon, Cornes! , etc etc..
not that I'm advocating the use of them 7 ..

 

[JimJessTorp]

Okay. But I doubt I can find a bigger douche bag photo then that one of Scott

Suggestion for you 77777 ...

 

[Tigers2011]

Look we weren’t exactly switched on at any point... we were fumbly and the poor decision making and skill errors were for all to see. We were smashed around the ball. Smashed.

However my concern was the way the swans countered our normal game.

We rely on setting up behind the ball.

Swans refused to kick it to outnumbered contests. It was like they had 15 half fwds today. Small hit up passes... through the corridor especially. They zipped around and didn’t let us get our normal defensive structure. Then when they got it deep fwd they performed what’s been the symbolic Richmond fwd pressure on our defenders.

They are silky enough and quick enough to pull this game style off - plenty aren’t.

Credit to them - the swans executed to a tee.

They have some genuine jets in that side.

Personally I don’t feel this is a throw the tape in the bin and move on game. We have some genuine adjustments that need to be made. Need to blood some next gen midfielders stat. And we need more pace/line breaking on the wing - caddy is not the answer. We also need a plan against sides that will move the ball quick and are skilful enough to continually hit the 45 degree short kick - dogs, port etc. our backline was at sea not being able to set up.

Make no mistake these rule changes impact our game style more than any other side.

The positive is we got a look at it round 3 and as we know premierships aren’t won then - good learning curve.

Priority one is becoming a better centre clearance team & give our forwards first look at it. Second priority is winning more contested ball. Third priority is making tackles stick.

 

[Mr Brightside]

I’ve been a fan of the Swans kids for a year , however geez they were impressive today , bit like a young Tiger side in 2017, we may have been a tad of , however they played all over us, so many numbers at the contest.

it’s April no stress , but kudos to Horse an co

 

[seven]

Suggestion for you 77777 ...

Gold

 

[leon]

Yep. Our system does not work with these rule changes that have created an uncontested game. Dimma will be a master coach if he can change our surge footy attack and inpenetrable zone defence to counter precision kicking. Hocking has done his job at last - he has finally stuffed us - with rule change #27...

Yes, I have been posting that this was Hocking's aim; no doubt advised by some anonymous, Salty C. Scott of Corio and co. Zone defence might have been killed off. I've always disliked guarding space instead of an opponent personally, but our defence was so good at making it work for us. Plus the chip/mark/freeze on the mark rule allows pressure release and foils defensive set-up because it allows an easy, fast play-on.

But teams have selected and trained players with sharp disposal skills who are prepped for it; like Swans academy injects. It favours strong marking teams too, which we are not. We are a strong spoiling team that wants to bring the ball to ground. We were exposed for being too short around the ground, especially down back with Baker and Short. Smart move by Horse playing the likes of Heeney on Bakes.

One striking stat is marks: we lost 79/124. We often lose total marks but not by such a margin, and win marks i50, but lost today 10/15 but just won CMs 9/7. So proof of how Swans were able to keep control of the ball and both evade pressure and create by advancing the ball forward into scoring positions.

Not sure if Dimma can make the changes required without the club having selected the type of players required: need really sharp kicking skills (and HB), more height and strong marking types. Grunt may not be enough any more.

 

[Legends of 2017]

We played very ordinary.
Umpires were diabolical.
Sydney played very well. Completely outclassed us.
Always an amusing read on the game day thread here when we lose, ( even the tongue in cheek posts ) The sky is falling every time we have a bad game.
The race to the premiership is a marathon, not a sprint.
For those with short memories,
- 2017: the crows thumped us early in the year, followed by 3 more consecutive losses by under a goal. Then there was the saints game soon after, drawing comparisons at half time to the cats 150+ points win against us a decade earlier.
Result: flag
-2018: 4 losses interstate . Red hot favourites for back to back.
Result: loss in the PF
-2019: 2 big losses in rounds 2 & 3, followed by another big loss to the dogs in round 7, then 3 more big consecutive losses when we were depleted by injuries.
Result: flag
-2020: 2 early big losses. No genuine home ground advantage all season. One weird season.
Result: flag

We have quite a few injuries after today. From what I’ve seen, Cotchin, Macintosh, Prestia, Vlastuin ( who have I missed?). Maybe the media haven’t written us off this early this time, although they are hyping up a few other teams as flag hopefuls.
We had a pretty crap game but I’m not worried yet. They always seem rusty early in the season, maybe as a result of starting preseason later than others.
If they play like this regularly, or later in the season, then I might start to worry

 

[leon]

I know that was just poor umpiring, no feel for the game at all.

No it's highly questionable umpiring. See this kind of push-and-shove stuff go on all the time after a F50 contest win. Hardly ever see a 50m paid for it except against us. He just shoved Reid for shoving him. How does that deserve a certain goal in elite professional sport?

Same with that double 50 paid against Caddy a year ago. Same happened in another game this year. Just a 50m.

Umps came out after 1/2 time; seem determined to ensure Swans retained ascendancy.

 

[Long Lost Hernaman]

OK, it wasn't good. But we'll take plently out of that. We're missing some and are probably less fit than Sydney. Over the next few weeks we're going to get a look at some soldiers like Ross and maybe Martyn, RCD, CCJ, Naish and Hugo, which is good. And as others have noted, we've had down games in all of the recent flag years.

The other thing is that I wonder if the rule changes are going to result in more blow outs this year. Look at STK today and the WCE game so far. Its a wait and see on that but there will almost always be unintended consequences.

Take away point - its early doors, no need to worry just for now.

 

[zgod]

Couldn't give a toss.
Wake me up when finals start.
We know how we roll when the whips are cracking.

 

[zgod]

I’ve been a fan of the Swans kids for a year , however geez they were impressive today , bit like a young Tiger side in 2017, we may have been a tad of , however they played all over us, so many numbers at the contest.

it’s April no stress , but kudos to Horse an co

Absolutely.
They reminded me of us in 2017 beating the eagles at the g.
It was the start of something.

 

[eZyT]

Couldn't give a toss.
Wake me up when finals start.
We know how we roll when the whips are cracking.

im very peaceful this evening