Bloodstained Angel
Premiership Player
Well I guess Friday night's game was the first real opportunity most of us had of getting a look at the 2001 Swans - here are some early thoughts
THE GOODS
- Nice to see the team as a whole finish strongly late in the game. We must be pretty fit to run over a young fast team like Port Adelaide in the second half.
- An outstanding effort from Stephen Doyle as backup ruckman, hes coming along very nicely and will get alot of senior games this year.
- Paul Williams, with 4 goals, was fantastic. If he can keep up this level of intensity then he will more than pay for himself.
- Rowan Warfe played his best game in a long, long time.
- Other eye-catching individual performances included Schauble, Matthews, Crouch, Maxfield, O'Loughlin and Cresswell.
THE BADS
- Our general skill level was woeful. Ok I know it is only pre-season, but still the Swans appear to be well behind other teams in terms of general skills. Basic stuff like taking uncontested chest marks, picking a loose ball up off the ground, finding your target with a handball, and perhaps most frustratingly, staying on your feet and not falling on the ground all the time - theese were the areas that I felt The Swans were really hopeless at.
- Defence was terrible, especially early on in the game. Dunkley had a shocker and Luff was absolutely diabolical before being benched. As the game wore on, Seymour, Warfe and Matthews came into the game more but really, Matthew Nicks cannot get back to full fitness fast enough.
- We were slow and flat footed compared to the hard running Port boys. I think the Swans are going to find themselves down on pace generally this season. We must realise that against most opponents this year we cannot afford the luxury of two bounces, or two handballs - we are just not fast enough to play a 'slick' style of game. Keep it simple stupid I say and kick long and direct.
- Greg Stafford : I dunno about you other Swans fans but my patience with him is starting to run out. There are two Greg Staffords in this club, Greg Stattord the leading young ruckman in the AFL or Greg Stafford, the disinterested gumby. Unfortunately it was the latter who turned up on Friday. He was completely out-classed by Primus before twisting his ankle. Thank god we have the very promising Stephen Doyle to fall back on.
- Inaccuracy, we could have won the game if we had kicked better, not good enough.
Congradulations are in order for Port though. They hit us hard and early and we never fully recovered, Ports running and importantly their much improved goalkicking really made the difference, and when the game was there to be won, we kicked it away.
Must have been nice for the Port fans to see the boot on the other foot for a change !
cheers
THE GOODS
- Nice to see the team as a whole finish strongly late in the game. We must be pretty fit to run over a young fast team like Port Adelaide in the second half.
- An outstanding effort from Stephen Doyle as backup ruckman, hes coming along very nicely and will get alot of senior games this year.
- Paul Williams, with 4 goals, was fantastic. If he can keep up this level of intensity then he will more than pay for himself.
- Rowan Warfe played his best game in a long, long time.
- Other eye-catching individual performances included Schauble, Matthews, Crouch, Maxfield, O'Loughlin and Cresswell.
THE BADS
- Our general skill level was woeful. Ok I know it is only pre-season, but still the Swans appear to be well behind other teams in terms of general skills. Basic stuff like taking uncontested chest marks, picking a loose ball up off the ground, finding your target with a handball, and perhaps most frustratingly, staying on your feet and not falling on the ground all the time - theese were the areas that I felt The Swans were really hopeless at.
- Defence was terrible, especially early on in the game. Dunkley had a shocker and Luff was absolutely diabolical before being benched. As the game wore on, Seymour, Warfe and Matthews came into the game more but really, Matthew Nicks cannot get back to full fitness fast enough.
- We were slow and flat footed compared to the hard running Port boys. I think the Swans are going to find themselves down on pace generally this season. We must realise that against most opponents this year we cannot afford the luxury of two bounces, or two handballs - we are just not fast enough to play a 'slick' style of game. Keep it simple stupid I say and kick long and direct.
- Greg Stafford : I dunno about you other Swans fans but my patience with him is starting to run out. There are two Greg Staffords in this club, Greg Stattord the leading young ruckman in the AFL or Greg Stafford, the disinterested gumby. Unfortunately it was the latter who turned up on Friday. He was completely out-classed by Primus before twisting his ankle. Thank god we have the very promising Stephen Doyle to fall back on.
- Inaccuracy, we could have won the game if we had kicked better, not good enough.
Congradulations are in order for Port though. They hit us hard and early and we never fully recovered, Ports running and importantly their much improved goalkicking really made the difference, and when the game was there to be won, we kicked it away.
Must have been nice for the Port fans to see the boot on the other foot for a change !
cheers
