Preview Round 9: The Sydney Swans vs. The St Kilda Saints

[GoTheSwannies]

I thought McVeigh tried hard and put in a decent performance under the circumstances. I do agree that he's not hard enough at it, always tries to finesse his way through but isn't silky enough to pull it off. If I was McVeigh I would've tried to put a bit more bulk on over the course of my career. He gets outmuscled too often. He was good tonight though.

Smith had a shocker.

To be honest, I wasn't terribly dissappointed with our performance, st Kilda were just hard at it. They applied a lot of pressure, they were cleaner with the ball and just beat us in most areas of the ground. It was just one of those games where we were just a little bit off our beat and our opposition really came to play. The ball kept bouncing in their favour, that's when you know the opposition is giving that little bit extra.

My main concern is our forward line, we just can't seem to het it right. I wanna see Morton come in. I wouldnt be sinking my boot into Walsh just yet, it was a learning experience for him and I think he'll be better for it.

As for using tdl as the sub, it was the right move under the circumstances imo. Who do use as sub instead of him? Bird? Parker? We needed all the help we could get in the midfield. I think horse factored in that Walsh would probably not have a great gane so a swap with tdl is a fair swap without impeding on our midfield rotation. The only alternative was to leave either Walsh or tdl out of the side. The move didn't work out, but when you factor in development, assessing our forward line, team structure etc, it was a fair call by horse. I think in future, you should have to state your choice of sub before the game and give justification before being able to bash horse's choice, hindsight is always 20/20. Besides, most people were calling for mcglynn as sub, now we know that would've been a tactical blunder for certain.

 

[Dangas]

As for were you wanted a drink Danz... playing hard to get are you

Home sweet home CAS, I am a sore loser then again maybe drown my sorrows

 

[1360]

Just another pathetic performance by the Swans in Melbourne. I am getting sick and tired of our insipid Melbourne performances. McGlynn and Jack about the only 2 who had a crack. TDL is not a sub. Rucks were ordinary, did not show Blake any respect. McVeigh does not have a position. Only posessions were lead up 15 metre marks when the Saints gave it up. They were too fast and too hard. We don't play Melbourne every week.

 

[bradmanstandguy]

Dont want to victimise individual performances. The whole team, let us, as fans
down! Whether its a mental thing or bad coaching,we are after a good season
start,back on the roller coaster of results!

 

[Tedeski]

Geez supporters can get nasty after a loss.

Hmm! They've come out in a big way. Never ceases to amaze me, the extreme range of players that 'supporters' want sacked or dropped after a loss.

Not a game we were ever likely to win against the Saints whilst all the Lenny Love Fest was on show, not to mention they have only lost 2 games there in the last 3 or so years.

Nasty all right. . . . . . . . like spoilt children.

 

[1360]

Hmm! They've come out in a big way. Never ceases to amaze me, the extreme range of players that 'supporters' want sacked or dropped after a loss.

Not a game we were ever likely to win against the Saints whilst all the Lenny Love Fest was on show, not to mention they have only lost 2 games there in the last 3 or so years.

Nasty all right. . . . . . . . like spoilt children.

Spoilt children???? Have you been in Melbourne lately for Swans games? My Nephew is yet to see a win live and my son has seen about 2. PATHETIC.

 

[Membling]

Spoilt children???? Have you been in Melbourne lately for Swans games? My Nephew is yet to see a win live and my son has seen about 2. PATHETIC.

I've yet to see on either so i can empathize. This include the draw against north.

 

[Tedeski]

Spoilt children???? Have you been in Melbourne lately for Swans games? My Nephew is yet to see a win live and my son has seen about 2. PATHETIC.

Yep! Spoilt children!

Yep! I live in Melbourne & have gone to nearly EVERY game we have played he since we got shoved to Sydney.

In my life time as a Swans supporter, there have been many, many losses.

What's another one? We got them in the one that mattered.

Last year's final.

Chins up. There are worse things in life.

Did you get the the 2006 GF?

1 point loss . . . . . . OUCH!

 

[Dangas]

If anyone has the chance, hop on afl and watch Horse's presser, very interesting his take on the game....different to some on here.

 

[legend166]

Geeze, now I'm happy I wasn't able to watch this. Guess I'll delete the recording.

Better or worse than the Richmond performance?

 

[Dangas]

^^^Good early 10 mins, got the jump by a couple of goals, then shite in the half in between, respectability on the "flattering" scoreboard in final...lets just say a "typical" Swans performance in Melbourne.....some go missing, some found, some no where to be seen.

 

[RUNVS]

Geeze, now I'm happy I wasn't able to watch this. Guess I'll delete the recording.

Better or worse than the Richmond performance?

Worse. Not only did we rarely get the ball (the midfield was smashed) but when we did get it our disposal was truly shocking.

 

[legend166]

Worse than the Richmond performance?

Ouch

 

[scottwade]

Just went back and had a read of what I wrote after our Richmond loss.
And it basically is applicable to yesterday as well. We can't keep repeating the same mistakes if we want to be competitive in the eight.

We cannot expect, as much as we would like it, for our midfield to be on top each week.
The problem is that if our midfield gets beaten, our structural flaws are magnified.
We have absolutely no run out of our back half, Malceski prior to today has basically had to do it solo.
Our forward line does not work hard enough and the lack of movement to the ball carrier and the subsequent lack of creation of space behind the 'leader' is highlighted week after week.

The stats today show that we had 180 kicks and 173 handballs. That is not our go. The handballs all tended to be in close, trying to create a spare man in the contest. We had no run from behind a pack or wide for an outlet.

The delivery into the fwd line can be criticised, but we rarely create time and space, either on ball or up fwd, to allow accurate delivery. Nearly everything is done under pressure.

IMO Longmire really needs to make a call down back.
Mattner has been used as our spare man most of this year. He is fine going 3rd man up to create a contest, but does not mark the ball enough (a two fisted punch direct to a Melbourne player for a goal last week is symptomatic) and he provides insufficient rebound run as a loose man should.

Mattner ran around after Milera & then Montagna today.
12 disposals @ 58% efficiency, no R50s or I50s & 2 tackles.
He is simply not getting the job done, either as a rebounder or as a one out defender or run with player.

Only Shaw, finally in the last qtr provided the run out of defence and it was when the team looked most fluid & dangerous. ROK when he went back as the loose man was also relatively effective.

The run out of the backline, the run from behind to space to provide options has been a hallmark, prior to this year, of our team for a long while. It has been extremely disappointing this season and it is unless it is fixed we will continue to struggle against the better teams.

Once again watching the game live I was really disappointed with Reid's workrate. He was played as the leading forward, but far far too often was prepared to let the ball come to him rather than actually go to the ball carrier.

Our midfield is relatively young and it competes every week. They are doing it without our best ruckman and our most explosive midfielder. However I give you one worrying stat;

Kennedy 27+ disposals on 5 occasions = 5 wins
Kennedy less than 27 disposals = 3 losses (& 1 win v Melbourne).

 

[CAS79]

Yep! Spoilt children!

Yep! I live in Melbourne & have gone to nearly EVERY game we have played he since we got shoved to Sydney.

In my life time as a Swans supporter, there have been many, many losses.

What's another one? We got them in the one that mattered.

Last year's final.

Chins up. There are worse things in life.

Did you get the the 2006 GF?

1 point loss . . . . . . OUCH!

Ted speaking to you as one of the posters I respect the most I respectfully disagree with a section of this. There have been many losses, whats anothyer one

Losses are not meant to be taken in our stride, while some are worse than others I get in bad moods after a loss and the club better not have the attitude. I shout and scream drop so and so but we should be disappointed tonight. We don't spit on players or coaches but we should critique the sides and a players game game.

And agree with Scott Wade tonight that the running defenders were poor tonight and got us trapped in time and time again and a lot of that had to do with their work rate to position, allowed St Kilda players free rain to meet them and pressure them.

 

[bedford]

Smith will be the new Josh Hunt this week, gutless old scotch effort

 

[Heeney2Franklin]

Worse than the Richmond performance?

Ouch

Tonight was on a whole new level compared to Richmond game, all you could do is laugh as we didnt get the ball out of defensive half for a WHOLE quarter.

I hate getting stuck into the team but tonight was unacceptable it should of been a 15 goal loss masked only by their inaccuracy.

We will be waiting another lifetime for a flag if we dont fix our forwardline, mids look up just no target nothing so they bomb and hope.

 

[PaulRoos]

Very f'n (flippin') ordinary Swans.

When we were 5 zip I told a few in this forum that no games are gimmes and to hold ya tongues .. some were getting WAY ahead of themselves and now it's gonna bite and hurt.

Yeah we should make the finals and yeah we can be competitive but play like we have recently and we'll be first bundled outta the race.

Sad but true.

Round 16 I get my one and only chance to go to a Swans game v Egos at Subi/Patto's ... a game I'm normally looking forward to, however this year and even this far out I'm not sure I wanna witness a 10+ goal grubbing.

 

[db swannie]

Our forward line is still an unsettled mess. Even against Melbourne our talls had little impact, and yesterday none. I hope Sp[angher comes back into the side SOON.

It's an uneven comp this year, or so it seems. I'm still enjoying the ride, despite the losses. It's not all doom and gloom.

 

[Xarb]

Very dissapointing loss, I had this one penciled in as a win but the saints have totally switched on since last week.

To me it looked like very poor ball use by the swans. When they had good possession and were working the ball up the field thy kept on making stupid errors and poor disposals which is a bit uncharacteristic of them.

I have a theory that we need to be the underdogs to play well. After the hawks win and subsiquent hype we lost to the tigers, then a 101 point win last week leads to this.

Calls for a player or coaches head seems a bit harsh, looked like a bad team effort to me.

It's an uneven comp this year, or so it seems. I'm still enjoying the ride, despite the losses. It's not all doom and gloom.

Dispite some bad swan losses I'm loving this season. It is so unpredictable compared to last year. Finals are going to be crazy.

 

[Tedeski]

Ted speaking to you as one of the posters I respect the most I respectfully disagree with a section of this. There have been many losses, whats anothyer one

Losses are not meant to be taken in our stride, while some are worse than others I get in bad moods after a loss and the club better not have the attitude. I shout and scream drop so and so but we should be disappointed tonight. We don't spit on players or coaches but we should critique the sides and a players game game.

And agree with Scott Wade tonight that the running defenders were poor tonight and got us trapped in time and time again and a lot of that had to do with their work rate to position, allowed St Kilda players free rain to meet them and pressure them.

Your frustration & disappointment is justified Cas. So too is everyone elses to a point. But you know how it is in the heat of the moment. We all say things & then calm down as the week goes on & start making more sense.

I in no way expected to win last night because of Lenny!
End of story! Hopefull? Yes.

So even in our p'ship year we lost to Richmond at the "G" by a point or so.
These are games that with logic, we should win but the other team has their reasons to win. I always try to reason before the game.
It's an away game. We had a soft game the previous week. The Saints had a hard game against quality opposition so were better switched on.
Last week did nothing positive for our mindset for this game. It happens all the time.

All poor excuses..............yes.............but it happens.

Chins up!

 

[S120]

It goes some way to show how badly we need Goodes. We were all hopeful that this period without him would show how much the rest of the club has improved but without him and Mummy, we have been poor.

Our rebound has really dropped off, I agree with that. So often it has been the building block of our game plan but it's non-existent just about atm. Armstrong deserves a go to be a key rebounder IMO. If they insist on Shaw and Mattner being primary lock down defenders, we need someone else to take the load from Mal.

I'm hesitant to blame the defenders for what happened last night (as I am whenever we lost badly) because it's far more often than not the midfield who get smashed which leads to the defence being under intense pressure. The Saints destroyed us at the stoppages and there was nothing Ted and co. could do. I think they performed pretty admirably in fact given how much ball was coming in.

But St.Kilda just out-worked us all night. Pretty simple. Their pressure was 10 times more consistent and keen, their stoppage work ran rings around us and they had an open forward line to deliver to while we had a congested and dysfunctional one to deliver to.

 

[J_Moore]

There looks to be absolutely no run up the field. On the big grounds, you need to run twice - run to make space, then run into the space to get possession.

At the moment, everyone just stands 40-50n ahead of the ball, and we kick to a big contest. Our opponents have figured it out, and have realised they don't need to cover the ground defensively - they just need to get more numbers to the contest straight in front of the kicker, since that's the only place the ball is going.

Time and time again we kicked it along the boundary to a contest, and it came straight back because the Saints had two or three spare at the drop of the ball.

I'm not sure if it's coaching or the players that are responsible for this, but it's been figured out.

 

[SSFC]

When we win it's the mids kicking the goals and when we lose it's the mids getting the blame.When the ball is coming in so often there's not much a defender can do one on one even if they win the contest 7 out of ten times.Those 3 times might end up being 3 goals.
While watching the game I was thinking when will Spangher be back,no disrespect to Spang but when you think you need him in the forward line I think it shows where we are at up front.I'm sure things will change when Goodes is back but I hope we go after a
KP forward at the end of the year.

 

[CAS79]

I'm not sure if it's coaching or the players that are responsible for this, but it's been figured out.

if you have a look at McVeigh last night, there were some subtle indications he wanted a couple of players, in Malceski and Jetta to do exactly this. And as I said on another thread Macca was working into space pretty well. I think it's a player thing but if it's consistent than it becomes a coaches thing to correct.