Preview Match Preview: Sydney Swans v Hawthorn Hawks - Qualifying Final 1 - Friday September 6 @ 19:50, MCG

[Tedeski]

Just got home from the game......it was pretty apparent at half time we were in strife, you could see we were teetering....some really poor games from some of our experienced guys...Jarred McVeigh I'm looking at you..! However Hawthorn just seemed to decide to win the game and go to an extra gear. How many uncontested marks in Hawks forward 50...Grundy was very poor, Mal not much better. Rampe struggled and Mitchell missed a couple of opportunities in the second qtr that could've hurt the Hawks. Injuries have dealt us a really poor blow. I think we can really look to a few younger ones next week to gain something from the year. We have done really well all things considered, just the performance tonight was embarrassing.

Leave Tippett out for next week, not his fault, but we cannot resist bombing it to him, it reminds me of the Barry Hall days. We actually looked at a few different options early and I thought, great not bombing it long...but then...

Oh well, lets at least hope for some fight next week....

Stop the Grundy bashing. He saved us many times tonight. Don't blame defenders tonight.
Blame the midfield out put, due to injury .

Many sore boys out ther tonight..

 

[melbournehammer]

Stop the Grundy bashing. He saved us many times tonight. Don't blame defenders tonight.
Blame the midfield out put, due to injury .

Many sore boys out ther tonight..

Ordinarily I'd agree with you, but reg had an extremely poor night skills wise. To his credit he kept on fighting, but time after time he failed to hand pass the ball on the full to his team mate, or just simply fumbled it. He put more pressure on the rest of us rather than relieved it. Additionally the hawks often created the mismatch where it was breust or gunston on him and they just ran and doubled back to take uncontested marks.

In truth he was far from the only one, but his performance was really poor.

 

[melbournehammer]

What are our inside 50s the last month or so, they have dropped off big time. I think tippett has done a bloody good job to kick the goals he has.

I agree the balance was right for adelaide, but id take tippett over white anyday.

I imagine tippett and reid if both fire is a much more flexible set up, watching the grand final the other day reids work around the ground is missing big time for this side.

Tippett white pyke mumford is almost four ruckman i guess, it probably could work real well, but we dont have the precision against good teams to pull it off perhaps

Maybe Punts is right

This is part of the problem, but it stems from the same thing. We aren't getting any outside run from the midfield and when we are we are so bad at hitting the uncontested target that it is frightening our defenders because why would you run off if you are going to butcher the ball and hit roughhead on the fifty, or smith or not actually hit Grundy but make him wait with the ball below his knees.

Jesse looks like the only player in the team that can actually be a link up forward of the ball. Tippett is playing two kicks from the contest, Pyke is too immobile to be a lead up player and for whatever reason no one seems to want to kick it to Bolton, mcglynn or rohan.

We have to have white because he can provide something in the traditional half forward manner - which is more that can be said for our other talls.

 

[JMan5]

Not a good night for Sydney. Something needs to change next week.

 

[swansfan51]

Only one thing needs to be said about our season:

After 23 games we have 3 wins against top 8 opponents.

 

[Max Force]

No denying injuries have cruelled our run massively this year, but the question needs to be asked - why have we had so many injuries? Up until now we've had one of the best records in this respect. Have half our medical staff been poached by other clubs?

Perhaps your medical staff need a 9.8% pay rise to keep them there?

 

[bungee]

Perhaps your medical staff need a 9.8% pay rise to keep them there?

Off you wiggle back to your own board. Smarmy comments not welcome.

 

[bungee]

Ordinarily I'd agree with you, but reg had an extremely poor night skills wise. To his credit he kept on fighting, but time after time he failed to hand pass the ball on the full to his team mate, or just simply fumbled it. He put more pressure on the rest of us rather than relieved it. Additionally the hawks often created the mismatch where it was breust or gunston on him and they just ran and doubled back to take uncontested marks.

In truth he was far from the only one, but his performance was really poor.

Reg wasn't the problem. Our mids kept turning over the ball allowing Hawks to pick off targets inside 50 under no pressure. The defenders played their butts off.

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

Perhaps your medical staff need a 9.8% pay rise to keep them there?

Worth considering. They have to live in ultra-expensive Sydney, just like the players.

 

[The King!]

Perhaps your medical staff need a 9.8% pay rise to keep them there?

Perhaps you should win the flag before you carry on

Last night doesnt get the 2012 cup back

 

[The King!]

Only one thing needs to be said about our season:

After 23 games we have 3 wins against top 8 opponents.

Yup, not good enough

5 losses v the top 2

 

[Tedeski]

Ordinarily I'd agree with you, but reg had an extremely poor night skills wise. To his credit he kept on fighting, but time after time he failed to hand pass the ball on the full to his team mate, or just simply fumbled it. He put more pressure on the rest of us rather than relieved it. Additionally the hawks often created the mismatch where it was breust or gunston on him and they just ran and doubled back to take uncontested marks.

In truth he was far from the only one, but his performance was really poor.

Have a good look at his efficiency rating every week & you'll see that he tops our team consistently. Our defenders are under more pressure when our midfielders & forwards turn the ball over. They are the last line but Reg for some reason always gets the blame.

Just have a look at his stats over his career & they will tell you he has the best disposal efficiency in our team.

I doubt he'll be playing next week anyway! So all will be happy.

 

[grimlock]

Even though the scores were level at half time I could sense they were gradually pulling away in the last ten minutes of that second quarter. They wore us down with their constant running and movement and eventually we couldn't keep up any more

Last week we conceded our season high in marks inside 50. I haven't looked at the stats yet but wouldn't be surprised if that figure was comprehensively smashed last night

 

[Superstar swan]

Hawks were on tonight, we were not. They looked nothing short of amazing. Theyr'e kicking was first class, marking was exceptional . Would have been hard for any team to knock them off last night.... Including Geelong

 

[JustKickIt]

Blame the midfield out put, due to injury

I thought you won the clearances though?

 

[Tedeski]

I thought you won the clearances though?

We always win the clearances but when we are on, our midfield works very hard to get back & help out the defenders.
We had no run & the Hawks took advantage with efficiency.
I'm watching the 2012 GF again tonight.

 

[JustKickIt]

We always win the clearances but when we are on, our midfield works very hard to get back & help out the defenders.
We had no run & the Hawks took advantage with efficiency.
I'm watching the 2012 GF again tonight.

haha.... I'll watch the 2008 one..... I like that one better ;-)

 

[Punts]

Why did Rohan get caught out on Hale and how does Anderson out mark Everitt like FFS Everitt is 194 cm FFS noway would LRT or AJ let that happen

 

[Heeney2Franklin]

Anderson outmarked Rampe and Everitt together which was just appalling defending imo.

 

[Punts]

Anderson outmarked Rampe and Everitt together which was just appalling defending imo.

I would almost rather an underdone LRT than Everitt ATM 9 K 2 H and 1 mark for a bloke who sits at 194cm

 

[grimlock]

Everitt is soft we have known that for a long time. Some efforts when the ball was in dispute were especially cringeworthy

 

[S120]

It's hard to tell exactly what happened last night. Was it Hawthorn's skills being so good in that 2nd half that even our pressure (which was ok as 65 tackles would signify) was unable to slow them down at all or was our pressure just not good enough from the outset of the 2nd half to slow them down like we did for large periods in last year's GF?

I tend to think their skills were just that damn good and our pressure subsequently wasn't good enough to stop it. When Hawthorn is on like that, few teams could stop them from hitting targets.

That said, the whole team looked out on their feet in the 2nd half and completely unable to go with the Hawks.

Our outside run was beaten well yesterday and, as everyone has mentioned, our forward 50 was a real struggle. With McGlynn and Rohan unable to win much ball at all and not being able to lock the ball in, we really looked incapable of doing anything. The forward line indeed does look too tall against the top sides. Reid, Goodes and LRT are talls but they are much more agile than what we have their right now. Not that those first 3 would be in automatically over who we have now, but a combination of them would be ideal. But oh well, deal with it.

Thought it was one of Bird's best games for the year - he barely made a mistake as I saw it, stuck tackles, won hard ball, bit targets - and despite still making errors, Jack and Kennedy were OK. Our tradition of getting it out of the middle clearance area just by bombing blindly was starkly contrasted by the Hawks' skillful and quick clearance work that made us look very second rate at times.

McVeigh probably played his worst game of the year and got hurt just to add injury to shitness. Hopefully he's good to go next week though at least Malceski played a decent game

 

[Tedeski]

Anderson outmarked Rampe and Everitt together which was just appalling defending imo.

That must have been Grundy's fault too 'cos he should have been 6th man up to punch!

 

[Tedeski]

I would almost rather an underdone LRT than Everitt ATM 9 K 2 H and 1 mark for a bloke who sits at 194cm

Don't balme the defenders when the half forwards & midfielders consistently coughed the ball up & got turned inside out.
The flood gates were bound to open up in the last.

 

[Heeney2Franklin]

Don't balme the defenders when the half forwards & midfielders consistently coughed the ball up & got turned inside out.
The flood gates were bound to open up in the last.

Yer mate you could just feel during the second quarter we were just barely hanging on, what i don't understand is how can the team start to look good last week and last night go back to shitness