Dane Swan

[FAIRANDBALANCED]

Lov the guy and what he has done for our club, BUT,
Does he play like he believes his own publicity now? He became much more of a frontrunner last year and I noticed it at the games because in the past I couldn't remember him being so lazy defensively.
He is still very good at winning his own ball, but he needs a rocket. He plays like he doesn't want to get injured and I don't think it's the best example for his team mates. Short steps, missed tackles, smothers, lazy manning up, it just seems like all he wants to do is get the ball 35 times and kick 3 goals. Granted he has the ability to do that a lot, and I am not questioning he is a superstar of the team, but I think the team would be better off if he was just as enthusiastic about running down an opposition player as he is moving into space to get an easy run onto the ball goal.
Offensively his efforts are great, defensively he seems poor. This is just what I've noticed, and I don't want to be too negative, just wondering if others have noticed this drop off as well.

 

[Ant85]

Bloody hell.

We lose one game, gallantly, to a fellow contender, despite being grossly undermanned, and a bunch of threads pop up about all these long-hidden faults in our team.

We were the best side last year, there's not too many cracks you're going to find by analyzing 2011.

We lost out because of fitness and injured players. That is it. And even then we almost snatched the grand final.

Clearly we've fallen back into the pack, which was expected.

But can we at least wait until round 5 before the negative threads start popping up?

 

[PieNSauce]

Bloody hell.

We lose one game, gallantly, to a fellow contender, despite being grossly undermanned, and a bunch of threads pop up about all these long-hidden faults in our team.

We were the best side last year, there's not too many cracks you're going to find by analyzing 2011.

We lost out because of fitness and injured players. That is it. And even then we almost snatched the grand final.

Clearly we've fallen back into the pack, which was expected.

But can we at least wait until round 5 before the negative threads start popping up?

Hear Hear! I'm dumbfounded by all these negative posts after a game from which neither coach believed you could take much in regard to the result. Some people are looking for every little flaw from a side which contained a mountain of players who would never get close to top 22. Sheesh!

 

[Pera]

OP has a point to an extent and it's more than a worthwhile discussion, negative or not.

I too have noticed Danes efforts defensively, and this isn't because we have lost two games in a row. It was there for the majority of last year, but it was covered up by just how talented the side is. It seems as if he is happy to get plenty of touches on his direct opponent and his job is done.

Defensively, his game is sound but he just doesnt seem to work hard enough when he doesnt have the ball. Not bashing him, just noticing a small fault, with which all players are likely to have. The man is a champion!

 

[DrEvil]

Lov the guy and what he has done for our club, BUT,
Does he play like he believes his own publicity now? He became much more of a frontrunner last year and I noticed it at the games because in the past I couldn't remember him being so lazy defensively.
He is still very good at winning his own ball, but he needs a rocket. He plays like he doesn't want to get injured and I don't think it's the best example for his team mates. Short steps, missed tackles, smothers, lazy manning up, it just seems like all he wants to do is get the ball 35 times and kick 3 goals. Granted he has the ability to do that a lot, and I am not questioning he is a superstar of the team, but I think the team would be better off if he was just as enthusiastic about running down an opposition player as he is moving into space to get an easy run onto the ball goal.
Offensively his efforts are great, defensively he seems poor. This is just what I've noticed, and I don't want to be too negative, just wondering if others have noticed this drop off as well.

Give him a break, the guy just won a brownlow.

 

[FAIRANDBALANCED]

[QUOTE

Give him a break, the guy just won a brownlow.

This is actually my point, everyone thinks he must be doing his job because he wins awards, but I've never had a problem with Swanny's offensive game, just defensive. And this was a problem last year that I was noticing and have posted here in match threads once or twice.
I am not part of the negative by the way, i thought our effort against the Hawks was great and with a few more guys coming in we will be fine. Also I don't think Harry O and Ben Reid deserved the bashings they got, I thought they were mostly fine against great opponents, as was Swanny, he played a good solid attacking game, I'm just worried about him running forward of the ball now, and I really do think he is uninterested in the defensive side of the game.

Once again to make it clear, I'm not saying he is ordinary, I am not saying he is in decline, I am just saying I have noticed a drop in intensity on the defensive side of the ball, and I was wondering if other pie supporters had noticed it as well.

 

[Taco]

Had an average pre-season and it looks like he has carried that form into the season proper.

In saying that, he has never worked particularly hard the other way. Always has concerned himself solely with his own game and never his opponents.

 

[micksolo]

wow, this thread...

 

[Go Pies!!!!!]

wow, this thread...

i 2nd this

 

[loki04]

He did appear to be going through the motions a bit vs the Hawks, looked un swan like showed no intensity either way imo.

But sometimes people have a poor one despite his 31 disposals because he didn't actually use them well, also seemed to be in 3rd gear all night looked like he was in NAB mode still.

He is a star so I reckon we will see him bounce back next week vs Tigers.

 

[4#Didak#4]

Pendles & Swan seem to have swapped roles a bit. Against the Hawks it looks as though Pendles has gone more inside & Swan more outside. He also seems to be playng more in front of the ball than behind - he used to start behind the ball & push hard all the way up the field. Now he pre-empts more and goes forward to get on the end of it. Pendles seemed to be behind the ball and follow it all the way on Friday.

I think Bucks is positioning Pendles to be the lynch pin of the side (and rightly so). Pendles will be in the middle of everything this year and feed all the runners - one of which will be Swan. This should allow us to be more offensive, particularly with Wellingham & Beams back in the mix.

I think we didn't have a good balance of offence & defence in the midfield on Friday - an over correction maybe. The Hawks the same. It seemed whoever won the ball had a scoring opportunity as both sides had runners in front of the ball & no one trying to stop them. A bit of Russian roulette. Having said that Geelong plays this way - they just back themselves to win more ball than the opposition and use it better, which they usually do!

Swan has a lot of strengths, its just a matter of how they are used. I would love to see him being matched up on a Dustin Martin or Judd. Take them on at the stoppages and hurt them running forward. He can take out a key player as well as being productive.

 

[Cousin of Daicos]

Eh, he didn't have a great game, but I wouldn't look too far into it.

I can think of at least 3 or 4 senior players who were legitimately exposed when they were relied on and didn't perform when they didn't have the normal level of support.

Pendlebury though is just scary. With basically no midfield help, he still managed to most likely get 3 brownlow votes. Or at least 2.

 

[mattys123]

Trade Swan.

Trade Harry.

Trade Dawes.

Trade Shaw.

Trade Blair.

Trade Reid.

Trade Clarke.

DID I MISS ANYONE?

Seriously, settle the **** down, we lost by 22 points to the premiership favourites with 9 of our best 22 out.

Settle down, after Saturday Night when we win by 40+ points the negativity will disappear (for a week at least).

 

[FAIRANDBALANCED]

Trade Swan.

Trade Harry.

Trade Dawes.

Trade Shaw.

Trade Blair.

Trade Reid.

Trade Clarke.

DID I MISS ANYONE?

Seriously, settle the **** down, we lost by 22 points to the premiership favourites with 9 of our best 22 out.

Settle down, after Saturday Night when we win by 40+ points the negativity will disappear (for a week at least).

Did you read what I wrote or are you just being extremely defensive? WOuld love it if people actually replied with an opinion instead of an emotional wtf response spurred by their love of Swannie. I never wrote anything about being worried about our side, and I certainly didn't mention trading anyone. It seems this board really is black and white, either you're blindly positive or pathetically negative. I prefer to sway somewhere in the middle, and if I see something I don't particularly like with one of our stars I thought this would be the place to bring it up. Guess I was wrong.

 

[mattys123]

Did you read what I wrote or are you just being extremely defensive? WOuld love it if people actually replied with an opinion instead of an emotional wtf response spurred by their love of Swannie. I never wrote anything about being worried about our side, and I certainly didn't mention trading anyone. It seems this board really is black and white, either you're blindly positive or pathetically negative. I prefer to sway somewhere in the middle, and if I see something I don't particularly like with one of our stars I thought this would be the place to bring it up. Guess I was wrong.

It wasn't really a response aimed at you, more at all the negative posters after just one match.

As for Swan, he was always going to start slightly slower then others, just based on his rather lackluster pre season.

But last year Swan was physically ****ed by the mid season break, so much so he needed a rest/trip to Arizona to recuperate.

Swan plays the game at an intensity unmatched by very few in the AFL, and because of the sub rule he can't last all season at that absolute flat out pace.

He will need to be part of our rotation policy, but also he was fairly heavily tagged on Friday Night at times, especially in the 2nd quarter.

Swan will be right, like our team it might take time for him to reach his full potential, but once we get our full midfield rotation back (round 3 - Wellingham, Beams, Didak, Johnson etc) Swan will be able to rotate more also.

He had 31 possessions, it's not like he was terrible.

 

[Jedi01]

Swan is pretty poor defensively these days, that is a fact as much as people want to turn a blind eye.

LOL at all the muppets foaming at the mouth because OP wrote a different point of view.

 

[jonesy86]

Swannie definitely wasn't at his best, he has far too many runs on the board to get too concerned at the moment.

If we are 6 rounds in and he hasn't stepped it up from Friday night's performance, then we should be more worried.

 

[lgarth80]

Swan is pretty poor defensively these days, that is a fact as much as people want to turn a blind eye.

LOL at all the muppets foaming at the mouth because OP wrote a different point of view.

Swan is decent at the contested ball, which is what I think the most important area of the game is. He gets long ball deep into a forward line - more of this early and we could have been 7.2 instead of 2.7.

Winning the ball is more important than what you do when you don't have it.

That said yeah sure Swan's not the best tackler. Never will be. Thing is what I know is that every opposition supporter would give their left nut to have him in their starting midfield rotation for the drive he gives forward of centre. End of story.

Ed - re no midfield help for Pendles, honestly I thought Swan and Ball played all right. But yeah, he's the best player in the league (oh sorry Mike Sheahan) the 7th best player in the league for a reason.

 

[Bay Pie]

I think F&B has a fair point. I love Swanny but even Bucks mentioned it on SEN. Swanny is a gun offensive player but needs to be mindful he doesn't get burnt the other way.
That is where we miss Didak as he can run ahead of the ball and be very damaging and we'd still have Pendles, Swanny and Bally at the coalface.

In saying that, do you think Judd and Ablett are particularly good going the other way?

Murphy is the same but not in the class of Ablett or Judd offensively.

Wellers, Beams, Johnno and Didak will mean Swanny can stay more at home. Daisy will also spend more time on a wing instead of forward due to our lack of numbers.

 

[Matz]

Crap post...sorry just my opinion.

 

[dayna36]

look people I know we are talking about Swanny and I am not disagreeing about his defensive side but I suppose I am hoping that as our team slowly becomes almost whole again our performances will improve..I have no doubt.... & maybe alot of seniors stepped outside their usual game inorder to cover for the youngsters and were put off their own game a bit
let's face it even if we were to play hawks in rnd 10 say I would never tick it off as a WIN like I would Richmond..so I'd rather lose to them with a heap of players out ..we could've played PA with this team & possibly lose in round 1 any thing can happen.. tipping bucks has a bit to work with this week

 

[Pera]

Trade Swan.

Trade Harry.

Trade Dawes.

Trade Shaw.

Trade Blair.

Trade Reid.

Trade Clarke.

DID I MISS ANYONE?

Seriously, settle the **** down, we lost by 22 points to the premiership favourites with 9 of our best 22 out.

Settle down, after Saturday Night when we win by 40+ points the negativity will disappear (for a week at least).

I have seen sensible discussion and no real negativity until I hit this post. And you want people with a contrary opinion to settle down?

 

[mattys123]

I have seen sensible discussion and no real negativity until I hit this post. And you want people with a contrary opinion to settle down?

I guess I just finally lost my shit.

DANE SWAN HAS WON 3 OF THE LAST 4 COPELAND TROPHIES.

DANE SWAN WON LAST YEARS BROWNLOW MEDAL.

Now how the hell can anyone question his worth to our side? REALLY?

There are 4 untouchables at our club, Jolly, Swan, Pendlebury and Cloke, are they perfect? NO. Are they critically important to the success of this side? YES. If anyone criticizes their effort or output because of one game, I'll lose my "shit" again.

That's enough, I give up on any thread that questions his worth to our side.

 

[Pera]

No one is questioning his worth to the side. Anyone with a peanut of a brain would know Swan is in the top 5 players in the competition and probably top two at Collingwood.

But certain people pick up on things at the game and they are entitled to their opinion. The OP constructed his post well I thought and has never once wrote Dane Swan off in the entirety of this thread.

 

[hellfire]

In fairness to Swanny, if all of our midfielders work as hard as Dale Thomas or Luke Ball defensively, we won't have anyone to burn the opposition with forward bursts. Every team has role players, and Swanny is at his most damaging exploding from congestion and driving the ball forward, and continuing to run forward to provide an option. With the sub rule, he can't rotate like he used to, so if he works as hard as Ball does defensively, he will be too spent to utilise the best aspect of his game.

Guys like Pendlebury and Ball are at their best in traffic, which isn't quite as taxing as running your arse of like Swanny does, so they can afford to work that little bit harder defensively. Thomas simply knows no other way, he is an exception. Wellingham is similar to Swan, although that's partially attributed to laziness at times I think. But he definitely has the same explosive game that requires large reserves of energy. Chris Judd and Marc Murphy are the same.

He was definitely below his best on Friday, but he will lift. He is a champion player, and champions don't stay down for long.