Autopsy 2022 Grand Final

[DavyRed]

Just early before any goals all our play was nervy and rushed, resembled nothing we normally do. We just wanted the boundary a lot. Fox was the only one settled early.

Yep, as I watched the first centre bounce, then the first two minutes, then the first ten minutes I thought ‘Christ, we’re nowhere near it here, Geelong are absolutely all over us’. Shortly after I turned to my mate and said that even though we were terrible we were only about seven points down and could quickly turn things around - then the Cats banged on two or three quick goals and the game was gone.

From then on it quickly moved into humiliation territory

 

[BruceFromBalnarring]

Yeah, the cheer squad tried to get us going but the Cats took the wind out of it with that 3 goal burst at the start of the third. I was 3rd row from ths fence behind the goals and i swear you could hear a pin drop after that.

We won the first 2 centre clearances after half time only to slip over both times. Goals the other way. Just nothing went right.

 

[lazy77]

Happy for Mclean he can’t really be judged for anything today but in hindsight no real need to pull the rug out from Logan MCDonald. Hindsight is 20/20 of course.

McLean was going to play no matter what. I think he kicked 5 goals the last time we played them, so Longmire thought he was being clever by including him. And let’s be honest, McDonald hasn’t offered anything all season apart from some neat tap ons. I kinda worry about McDonald. What is this potential that everyone sees? He’s usually anonymous in general play, is a below average mark for a KPF and has a wayward set shot. He’s just nowhere near it.

So McLean was always coming in for him. Amartey’s the player who can feel hard done by with the Reid inclusion.

Anyway, I think a lot of the posts are overly dramatic. We got smashed by an excellent team. It happens. We just weren’t quite ready for the big stage yet. We’ll be back, hungrier and more hardened. There’s no need for all this torturous psychodrama. We really need to remember how well we did to get there in the first place.

 

[Grand Uncle Horace]

Next day, I am not as emotional as I used to be about these things. I think the fact I was dealing with the loss from about the 15 minute mark has helped. We were uncharacteristically flat, a number of reasons likely, but I do remember Isaac saying on the boat he felt overwhelmed. They played like it.

Boys will have a preseason to remember. We did finish as the second best team for a reason.

What a ride we got, not many would have predicted it. It’s a bit like playing your best round of golf then missing a 2 footer on the last. We always focus on the two footer.

We had plenty of terrific shots to relive through the off season. Another year on and I hope we put ourselves in the position again.

Don’t get too down about it all….we are in good shape.

I hope GUH is well also, haven’t heard from you in bit…

Go Swans

Spot on.

We were just overwhelmed by a better team. Playing injured players just does not work. but a healthy Reid, Heeney etc would not have made a jot of difference.

Kudos to Fox and Warner who I thought were our best.

It was the Cats'' year and day.

Still by my count we won 18 and lost 7 - a pretty handy year!

Plenty for the Club and all us. supporters to look forward to.

Gooooo BLOODS.

 

[J_Moore]

As swansfan51 observes, it’s ultimately all about winning premierships, and any season that doesn’t get you closer to winning a flag is a failure.

So elim final 2021 > grand final
2022 = a successful season. Kudos to all involved.

 

[Citrus22]

the match centre timeline on AFL.com summed up where the game was lost pretty nicely.


'Despite breaking even at the centre bounce with 12 clearances each, the Swans have only converted seven of these into inside 50's and only two into goals, both in the final term. By comparison, all 12 of Geelong's centre clearances have moved into their forward 50 and been converted to 4.2.26 on the scoreboard.'

'The stoppage contest was where this game was decided, with Geelong losing possession after just one of their 33 clearances, whereas the Swans lost possession from 17 of their 37 clearances. This allowed the Cats to outscore the Swans 65-15 from this source, the largest margin from this source recorded in a Grand Final.'

 

[Nice Swan Brother]

I had a chat to Heath Grundy

Heath Grundy

Age

38

Ht

192cm

Wt

105kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

16.6

4star

K

9.4

4star

HB

7.2

4star

M

5.2

5star

T

1.6

4star

MG

231.9

4star

No current season stats available

D

8.2

2star

K

6.4

3star

HB

1.8

2star

M

3.8

4star

T

0.8

3star

yesterday, he played in 3 winning 1 against Hawthorn where we were outsiders, 1 when we were favourites and the great robbery of 2016.

He said the effort is there, they're trying their guts out by some days things don't click you get behind and it feels impossible to recover, the harder you try the worse it gets.

The ball bounces early for the other team, early goals from quick snaps etc... you get behind and then have the balancing act of needing to score and also defend. Geelong have the luxury of continuing to attack and are settled tactically.

We needed an enormous 3rd quarter and tried to keep the ball moving at all costs and Geelong knew this and just picked us off and rebounded knowing it was pointless for us to have players behind the ball at that point.

You throw age, inexperience and the occasion into the mix.

The game was lost in the first quarter, we were better in the second but didn't close the gap. And then they jumped us in the first 5 minutes of the 3rd.

A better final 10 mins of the first quarter, and a better first 10 mins of the 3rd and it would have been much closer. Consecutive goals in the 2nd would have also helped, Franklins early behind hurt.

Geelong's goal bursts at the end of the first and start of the 3rd just hurt us too much.

 

[ErrolisGoldun]

McLean was going to play no matter what. I think he kicked 5 goals the last time we played them, so Longmire thought he was being clever by including him. And let’s be honest, McDonald hasn’t offered anything all season apart from some neat tap ons. I kinda worry about McDonald. What is this potential that everyone sees? He’s usually anonymous in general play, is a below average mark for a KPF and has a wayward set shot. He’s just nowhere near it.

So McLean was always coming in for him. Amartey’s the player who can feel hard done by with the Reid inclusion.

Anyway, I think a lot of the posts are overly dramatic. We got smashed by an excellent team. It happens. We just weren’t quite ready for the big stage yet. We’ll be back, hungrier and more hardened. There’s no need for all this torturous psychodrama. We really need to remember how well we did to get there in the first place.

Logan McDonald is a young key forward they take time to develop as their bodies mature.

You may not remember but Tom Hawkins too a good few years to hone his craft (he was already physically developed for a young KPF), wasn’t until 2011 GF that he actually started to realise his potential.

Logan has just finished his second year and I would bet that he won’t be reaching his potential until after he finishes his fourth year in 2024.

Logan will be an AAA grader, you pick up little things through his games, a mark under pressure, quicker hands for a KPF more like a midfielder and a huge work ethic. He is constantly learning and improving and is a super kick. For a big man, he is quick, athletic and puts on great pressure too.

The more games and experience we get in to him the better he will be.

Logan would not have changed the result yesterday but he should have been in the 22. If we are to reach our potential as a team we need to have AAA grade forwards to win a flag.

With the poor match committee decisions on Reid and Logan, I hope we haven’t put our next AAA grade KPF future at risk.

 

[J_Moore]

I had a chat to Heath Grundy yesterday, he played in 3 winning 1 against Hawthorn where we were outsiders, 1 when we were favourites and the great robbery of 2016.

He said the effort is there, they're trying their guts out by some days things don't click you get behind and it feels impossible to recover, the harder you try the worse it gets.

The ball bounces early for the other team, early goals from quick snaps etc... you get behind and then have the balancing act of needing to score and also defend. Geelong have the luxury of continuing to attack and are settled tactically.

We needed an enormous 3rd quarter and tried to keep the ball moving at all costs and Geelong knew this and just picked us off and rebounded knowing it was pointless for us to have players behind the ball at that point.

You throw age, inexperience and the occasion into the mix.

The game was lost in the first quarter, we were better in the second but didn't close the gap. And then they jumped us in the first 5 minutes of the 3rd.

A better final 10 mins of the first quarter, and a better first 10 mins of the 3rd and it would have been much closer. Consecutive goals in the 2nd would have also helped, Frankins early behind hurt.

Geelong's goal bursts just hurt us too much

Yeah - the regularity with which Geelong cleared the ball our of the centre says that there were problems on our end, both structural and effort related.

But there is still a huge amount of randomness in centre clearances -and once you’re behind the 6-6-6 rule makes it so hard to set up to stop the bloodletting.

 

[Citrus22]

Bursts of goals really have been our achilles heel this year. When we've had bad patches in games earlier in the year we weren't able to stem the tide quickly enough. I think that's something that will improve with maturity and as the younger players play more and more together.

I feel like we switched up a lot this year in terms of player roles, if they have another year to really settle into their positions (thinking about guys like Florent, Blakey, Clarke, Stephens, Paddy Mac..) there should be a lot of natural improvement next year.

 

[coylez]

Commiserations, you played a great season, I’m sure your young team will learn from that and come back more hungry and experienced next year. Also a credit to your supporters that went to the game, stayed until the end including the presentation.

 

[Nice Swan Brother]

Yeah - the regularity with which Geelong cleared the ball our of the centre says that there were problems on our end, both structural and effort related.

But there is still a huge amount of randomness in centre clearances -and once you’re behind the 6-6-6 rule makes it so hard to set up to stop the bloodletting.

Outside of underdone players who shouldn't have been playing, it's hard to accuse people of not trying hard enough.

Structurally there are plenty of questions. Fox on Cameron was a good move. Blakey shouldn't kick in when we are trying to wrestle the momentum back, we need him crumbing the kick ins and running off half back. Heeney should have gone into the middle earlier to get his hands on the footy

We did settle in the second, and perhaps needed to be patient earlier in the 3rd and get settled structurally before launching the offensive.

 

[Kapers]

I hope next year we don't go with such a defensive midfield. I wonder if we were too focused with stopping x player and y player that we just followed them around.

Geelong were first to every ball, and have too many player to stop. You can't stop Geelong, you have to beat them, and we looked like we wanted to stop them.

 

[kickthething]

Haha yes it was overkill!!

What’s the deal with the loudness on the speakers, was drowning out the crowd.

20 goals will do that!

 

[killablood]

I hope next year we don't go with such a defensive midfield. I wonder if we were too focused with stopping x player and y player that we just followed them around.

Geelong were first to every ball, and have too many player to stop. You can't stop Geelong, you have to beat them, and we looked like we wanted to stop them.

Exactly this, we should have seen this happening after team selection. Our coaches were spooked and I said as much after selecting McLean. It spread to our playing group and you end up with the train wreck that was yesterday. We were far too concerned about the opposition and forgot to play our game.

 

[Banyo Bloods]

McLean was going to play no matter what. I think he kicked 5 goals the last time we played them, so Longmire thought he was being clever by including him. And let’s be honest, McDonald hasn’t offered anything all season apart from some neat tap ons. I kinda worry about McDonald. What is this potential that everyone sees? He’s usually anonymous in general play, is a below average mark for a KPF and has a wayward set shot. He’s just nowhere near it.

So McLean was always coming in for him. Amartey’s the player who can feel hard done by with the Reid inclusion.

Anyway, I think a lot of the posts are overly dramatic. We got smashed by an excellent team. It happens. We just weren’t quite ready for the big stage yet. We’ll be back, hungrier and more hardened. There’s no need for all this torturous psychodrama. We really need to remember how well we did to get there in the first place.

Pretty lazy assessment

 

[stevie26]

At least we don 't have to put up with the Ch.7 Melb. news team Cats cheer squad anymore. Pretty ubprofessional I thought, Bec!

 

[ashep]

I've kinda joked about this before, but Heeney was slipping all over the place AGAIN yesterday.

What the hell is going on? Seems like it should be a simple issue to fix?

 

[ShireSwan]

They were too old last year, and thrashed by 80 in the prelim.
Oldest team in the comp this year.
Runaway competition winners, 15 in a row, their oldies all having career years, youngsters seeming bigger, faster than all the other teams by a some margin.

Anyone think they've visited Lance Armstrong's doctor in the offseason?

 

[Superstar swan]

It didn't even feel like a footy game yesterday . I've seen 100 point losses more competitive than that.

We never had momentum, it's was an absolute battle to get the ball past centre. Score line flattered us

 

[bedford]

Got it wrong in selection as we did in 16 , Horse and whoever F'd up again .
Terrible performance terrible match ups apart from Fox , totally outcoached . How many slipped over in the middle , how many loose balls just fell into their hands , how many shit frees against us that they got goals from and now i'm convinced that Meredith hates us more than Stevic and he was apart of the Bulldogs 25

 

[Swan4Life]

I was hoping someone could help me with this photo of my mates son from the city end bar area about an hour before the game:

a) does anybody know who the guy/player on the far right is?

b) any chance somebody can identify the photobomber?

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

 

[bedford]

Our 2 biggest loses under Horse are Grand Finals

 

[SwansProudly]

I was hoping someone could help me with this photo of my mates son from the city end bar area about an hour before the game:

a) does anybody know who the guy/player on the far right is?

b) any chance somebody can identify the photobomber?

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

a) Hugo Hall-Kahan

 

[killablood]

I was hoping someone could help me with this photo of my mates son from the city end bar area about an hour before the game:

a) does anybody know who the guy/player on the far right is?

b) any chance somebody can identify the photobomber?

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Hugo hall khan is the player