Autopsy Game is long over, Swans were putrid

[TheMase]

Plenty of egos in the team. I do wonder whether a couple may have gotten wind of some of the offers going around and it’s driven a wedge between a few?

For example, say we offered Chad $1.2m to extend and Heeney is on $900k. Or McDonald got a big contract but others see him as overpaid as not delivering. Some may have taken less and found others didn’t have to?

Might be nothing… just musing.

 

[GoulburnSwan]

Yeah massive overreaction. I will blame horse and club for everything else but not going to blame them for making an early change that they thought could turn that shit show around.

I very much doubt any of the internal messaging to Corey was that it was his fault. He would be well aware that he is on the fringes of the best 22 and therefore one of the first out in that situation for a tactical change. It's hardly the career ending trauma some are making out to be.

Yeah I thought as much, we all get carried away with the emotional investment in footy, but I found the comments that he’d been thrown under the bus were odd. But I’m of the belief that when mills & Parker came back in the dynamic changed dramatically. I was shouted down by others here to suggest that Parker might be too slow. Mills, I don’t believe , is captain material. Rampe has that over him in spades.

But I do believe that our players are tired. Has the flu gone through the team? They were so lethargic it was crazy. As much as we’d all like to read something huge into what’s caused this, such as upheaval at the club, player factions etc , I thinks it’s fatigue.

Whilst this loss was the worst, the media attention as a result of it will be off the charts. Will not be watching 360 this week, their Melbourne centric commentators will be beside themselves with glee that we’ve stumbled in such a dramatic way.

Let’s hope that we beat Collingwood in a thriller on Friday night.

 

[MF]

Getting angry again better log off

Yeah, I avoided most football media last week. This week I think I'll move to a monastery

 

[GreyGooseGuy88]

We are a real confidence team, imagine if we started the game kicking 2-3 goals on our opposition, I think things would turn out differently for us. We cannot win a midfield battle to save our life. Our backline is constantly under threat in qtr 1 and it gives the opposition forwards confidence for the game kicking easy goals to start the game.

Horse and Crew - forget all the other crap, we never beat Port anyway, just focus 100% on mixing things up for qtr 1 starts. We need to start well to lift our confidence. Horse reckons he's tried different things with pre-game routine etc- how about trying something new with personnel, move the magnets around, shake things up. I haven't seen anything new from the coaches in the past 6 weeks to start the game. It couldn't be any worse than the Port game. Was over in the first qtr. We have to try something new. His inability to be flexible is killing us

 

[Dubai Quacker]

Agreed. Not to mention subbing out a regular senior player on a night where they'd all been horrid is far more of a scapegoat than it is to sub out the kid who was probably aware he'd be getting the vest at some point anyway.

I can’t agree with this.

I do understand Horse brining Parker on early to inject some hardness & mongrel.

It didn’t work, but I understood it.

But Corey had fought all year in the VFL to get elevated. He was running hard & his effort can’t be questioned.

Conversely, some of the senior players were standing off opponents, only half-competing, weak arm-tackling & not bothering to chase. Blakey’s efforts in Q1 typified the team malaise.

By the time you’re 70 points down, hooking a more senior player would have been a wake-up call. Hooking Corey was the sign of a one-dimensional coach just looking for an easy answer.

 

[MF]

Plenty of egos in the team. I do wonder whether a couple may have gotten wind of some of the offers going around and it’s driven a wedge between a few?

For example, say we offered Chad $1.2m to extend and Heeney is on $900k. Or McDonald got a big contract but others see him as overpaid as not delivering. Some may have taken less and found others didn’t have to?

Might be nothing… just musing.

Who knows?

I think the dogs game we could chalk up to the better team blowing us off the park. We were decent against Brisbane and actually fought on against the dogs after a bad start.

There has to be something else behind what happened last night though. There's no reason to go from the form we were in early in the season (and even against Brisbane 2 weeks ago) to that.

 

[Swans22]

We are quite clearly a confidence team. Perhaps the core group have a lot of confidence in each other but perhaps they don’t have confidence in the replacements?

When confidence is up they run for each other, overlap, create and back themselves in.

Suddenly no Rampe and Melican and the players feel they need to be more defensive as no confidence in the defensive unit. Then they don’t run for each other and overlap. They second guess themselves, more worried about their opponent etc. At times you even see them skipping an option (for what might be lack of trust).

McInerney out and those left think they need to do more, so they overdo it.

Papley out and we appear to have no similar forward to give energy to the forward line.

We saw this a bit in the first half last year when the players went into their shells when we had a lot of KPP injuries earlier in the year.

So much of it is confidence and intent. The lack of confidence and intensity particularly in the mids is permeating through the group. Doesnt appear that the mids are running 2 ways effectively and when the ball is being moved out of the midfield so easily, our weakened defence is totally exposed.
Gulden's decision making and execution is poor
Warner looks lost
Heeney looks battered
Blakey clearly isnt a lock down defender on a KPD. If we can bring back Melican and Rampe i;m confident he can get back to his best
Florent is totally devoid of any confidence. I'd be tempted to play Mills as a permanent defender for the rest of the year replacing Florent. I love Ollie but some of his turnovers are proving so costly and he is providing no run. Florent could be a useful bench player. Can play wing, run through the mids.
But for me the biggest issue is speed, we both look tired and slow. The lack of energy i attribute to our form slump and confidence. But we are genuiinely looking slow with all of Mills, Parker, Adams and Jordan. We can't play all of them quite simply. The balance appears out of whack.
If we can bring back McInerney and Papley the capability is 100% there, just somehow need to regain their mojo and confidence which aint gonna be easy.

 

[Nuggetz]

Imo the 4 most notable and impactful areas on our poor performances are:

1. Lack of contest to contest work rate. We're a step behind & aren't winning consecutive contested ball or loose balls.
2. Tackles aren't effective. Too often opposition players are still disposing the ball effectively.
3. Lack of run & carry from the backhalf. This is forcing us to play slow which doesn't suit our style.
4. Lack of forward line wins 1v1. Not talking about in our fwd 50 solely but even when our defence is kicking it out, our fwds who have come up to the wing are unable to win or create a stoppage regularly.

 

[The King!]

 

[Swans22]

Who knows?

I think the dogs game we could chalk up to the better team blowing us off the park. We were decent against Brisbane and actually fought on against the dogs after a bad start.

There has to be something else behind what happened last night though. There's no reason to go from the form we were in early in the season (and even against Brisbane 2 weeks ago) to that.

Maybe there is. I feel its been a constant slide over the last 6 weeks, not wirthstanding the Lions and Roos games.
There was definitely some complacency in the losses to the Saints and Dockers.
Buut i feel the issue was that we lost the hunger being so far ahead on the table and this has messed with our forms, throw in some close losses and key injuries and we have totally lost our way and confidence.
Some people are saying we are done which is totally understandable. However if we can somehow regain our mojo coupled with key players coming back over before finals, who is to say we can still give it a shake. We just one good win to instill the confidence again.

 

[Mister B]

View attachment 2068244

I’d laugh but it’s a bit too close to the truth to find amusing right now.

 

[Swans22]

Imo the 4 most notable and impactful areas on our poor performances are:

1. Lack of contest to contest work rate. We're a step behind & aren't winning consecutive contested ball or loose balls.
2. Tackles aren't effective. Too often opposition players are still disposing the ball effectively.
3. Lack of run & carry from the backhalf. This is forcing us to play slow which doesn't suit our style.
4. Lack of forward line wins 1v1. Not talking about in our fwd 50 solely but even when our defence is kicking it out, our fwds who have come up to the wing are unable to win or create a stoppage regularly.

yep the 2 way running aint good enough.
lost all of our run from defence - doesnt help that Blakey has been plaaying on KPD's.. he needs to playy on a small so he can rebound. what has happened to Florents dash?
i agree to an extend around our forwards but the quality of delivery has been poor and there was little to no supply.

 

[Donza]

It's my fault.

2022 GF. I wanted to watch the UCI Women's Road Race.
Last night I wanted to watch the Men's Road Race.

Swans just making it easy to turn the TV over.

 

[Mister B]

Couple of things.

A night of free booze does not eliminate memories of that shit show. A shame really.

I woke up to the realisation that we have at least 5 more years of this core group of players dialing it in.

I have a single image of last night burned into my brain. 50-50 ball on the wing Heeney v 2 Port. Held them up tackled one but the free player got the ball and ran away. Heeney left wringing his clearly broken hand/finger out while he watches the opposition waltz away with not a single teammate near them, near him or near their opponent in Ports forward line. I feel sorry for the bloke that he is clearly injured and being made to play while his injury free teammates run around like a bunch of ****ing peacocks knowing their spot in the side is safe as houses because the coach is too ****ing soft to make a statement and drop them.

 

[Mister B]

It's my fault.

2022 GF. I wanted to watch the UCI Women's Road Race.
Last night I wanted to watch the Men's Road Race.

Swans just making it easy to turn the TV over.

I only saw the last 70k by the time I got back to the hotel. Was a so so race for me.

 

[Tedeski]

Plenty of egos in the team. I do wonder whether a couple may have gotten wind of some of the offers going around and it’s driven a wedge between a few?

For example, say we offered Chad $1.2m to extend and Heeney is on $900k. Or McDonald got a big contract but others see him as overpaid as not delivering. Some may have taken less and found others didn’t have to?

Might be nothing… just musing.

You are spot on Masey.
It causes problems.
Ratogalea to Port.
Kelly to West Coast.

Cats tell them to F off.
Let someone else pay you that.
They are human. Jealousy gets the best of them when the finger pointing starts.
No doubt the closeness has deteriorated.
List to Tigers over the Wicks issue.
Tigers are clear bottom.

 

[melbournehammer]

I want to log off but I keep thinking that Gold Coast when they were a new team and gws when they were a new team had better matches by some distance than this.

 

[RedBloodBlackSwan]

I’m not sure what has happened - either it’s just a loss of confidence, or something more sinister has occurred & the players aren’t united.

It’s weird because in Reid’s retirement speech he noted he had never played with such a tight knit group.

Therefore, I reckon it is either lack of confidence and/or too much collegiality (ie. players and coaches are not calling each other out enough, leading to lower standards). How much of either, I have no idea.

Then again, I also think that rushing Mills back and Reid retiring may have triggered some underlying sore points. Longmire fought to keep Reid one more year, and Reid again succumbed to injury again (like the 2022 GF) - that meant another team mate the players loved was cut. And Mills was rushed back when clearly not ready (at the expense of Campbell / Cleary / Parker) and was also rushed back for a previous GF (2016 or 2014?) when he was wasn’t ready. I wouldn’t be surprised if there is some resentment in the playing group around different standards for different players.

Hamling may also be annoyed that Ladhams was picked over him with McLean remaining in the side. It’s not like we needed three rucks…

Hmmm… I am convincing myself now that things are not right in the plaint group! Hope I am wrong / the club can confront the issues and iron them out once and for all.

 

[RedBloodBlackSwan]

Plenty of egos in the team. I do wonder whether a couple may have gotten wind of some of the offers going around and it’s driven a wedge between a few?

For example, say we offered Chad $1.2m to extend and Heeney is on $900k. Or McDonald got a big contract but others see him as overpaid as not delivering. Some may have taken less and found others didn’t have to?

Might be nothing… just musing.

Another spin, maybe more positive, is they were all playing their guys out so that the remaining players would resign. And now the air is releasing from the ballon, followed by a confidence drop that is now hard to turn around.

If there is an issue here, I reckon it might be with Warner, and all the other players feeling like they signed for unders, and now he is holding out for a kings ransom and breaking the trust. Pure speculation of course… and I still think the positive spin version may be more likely (hopefully!).

 

[tombomb]

Players, coaches, and more than a few supporters got way ahead of themselves.

 

[GoulburnSwan]

I’ve just received a message from my niece who’s arrived in the athletes village in Paris yesterday. The Australian enclave is great but teams come and go. Gone are the days when the athletes stayed the full two weeks. The swimmers leave tomorrow, the artistic gymnasts go as well. Yes the cardboard beds are a thing, they are rock hard and uncomfortable. She saw the score from last night wondering if her mad Aunty was ok - god love her!! Whilst her gymnast who she coaches (in rhythmic ) won’t win gold if she makes top 20 that’s a big thing considering ryhtmic gymnastics is so huge in the northern hemisphere.

 

[TheMase]

Another spin, maybe more positive, is they were all playing their guys out so that the remaining players would resign. And now the air is releasing from the ballon, followed by a confidence drop that is now hard to turn around.

If there is an issue here, I reckon it might be with Warner, and all the other players feeling like they signed for unders, and now he is holding out for a kings ransom and breaking the trust. Pure speculation of course… and I still think the positive spin version may be more likely (hopefully!).

Yeah if I were guessing it would be Warner (exact to your point) or McDonald (output).

 

[Heeney2Franklin]

It's my fault.

2022 GF. I wanted to watch the UCI Women's Road Race.
Last night I wanted to watch the Men's Road Race.

Swans just making it easy to turn the TV over.

damnit Donza just stick to the weather reports.

 

[Swan_Lifer]

To think you could have got Port at 1.88 the win at Sportsbet.

The thing about leadership is, send the right messages.
I say: go unchanged next week, save that a spot can be found for Hamling. And Corey W. starts again.

We're not taking it out on fringe players who come in cold.
Give us some effort, and let's see who wants to play finals.

 

[The King!]

In all honesty if contracts and money affect them then they are in the wrong job.

Always different deals and money well in any business just about , but especially in a salary cap league where things are known like length and who has signed and who wont.