Autopsy Swans lose to Lions by 4 pts

[bloodsbigot]

Like we did with Serong?

Was going to mention Serong. But was sticking to the theme of playing above expectations. He was a top draft pick. Only other ones that come to mind are Rampe and maybe Papley.

 

[ashep]

Just needed some kind of sign that the club won’t be defined by that last Grand Final loss and the pre season just delivered a sliver of hope. Season comes and we come
Crashing down to earth with a Coach trying to imprint his vision and the walking wounded fronting up and just playing terrible coupled with some difficult umpiring not rewarding our efforts.

That day needs to come of a break through win or the Grand Final will just sit there as the joke it was seemingly forever.

We’ve been here before and that break through gusty win usually comes but I can’t see it this time.

Compare the weekend's result to the first time we fronted up to the Cats after '22

0-2 is a disappointment but all is not lost.

 

[The Gong]

I'm usually quite optimistic but I'm starting to see a lot of holes in our list. I know we're missing some bigs but even when they're back our stock of talls is not elite by any stretch of the imagination. I feel like our ability to score in bursts last year got us out of a lot of trouble and papered over the cracks a lot. Our mids kicking goals made up for our lack of quality tall forwards. Then there were games when we got found out and scoring bursts couldn't get us out of the hole and we got hammered.

I'm almost going to look at this as a bit of a development year for us to some extent with implementation of a new game plan. I really liked the endeavour from Hanily, Bice and Corey Warner and I'd like to see us invest some game time in players like that this year and bring them along and continue to develop McDonald. Amartey keeps showing flashes but then has a shocker like the weekend. I don't know if the knee was a problem after the impact or playing in the ruck gassed him but he's a real Jekyll and Hyde player.

 

[Kiama Chris]

Watched a little of the replay

Papley and Hayward were shocking , defensively more so

**** wish we had an harden edge coaching panel that would drop them

They know what they can get away with to I bet with cox

That's interesting framing "what they can get away with". That implies that they are "swinging the lead" and deliberately avoiding that task (tackling).
If that is true (not saying it can't be but it didn't used to be so with Hayward) then Cox needs to lay down the law - HARD.
Perhaps a week "managed". Never dropped.

 

[caesar88]

Watched a little of the replay

Papley and Hayward were shocking , defensively more so

**** wish we had an harden edge coaching panel that would drop them

They know what they can get away with to I bet with cox

Spot on IMO.

Cox has had as brutal a start as any coach could have in terms of player availability, post-GF hangover, tough draw first few rounds, all at once. Those have been out of his control. What is in his control is what message he sends to his players, and what standard he is going to set for them.

In my opinion he needs to set that standard now. Set the tone for his coaching tenure early.

 

[Punts]

Spot on IMO.

Cox has had as brutal a start as any coach could have in terms of player availability, post-GF hangover, tough draw first few rounds, all at once. Those have been out of his control. What is in his control is what message he sends to his players, and what standard he is going to set for them.

In my opinion he needs to set that standard now. Set the tone for his coaching tenure early.

He needs to

This is somewhat why I wanted a new coach , an outsider to set new standards etc

This is not me saying cox isn’t going to be a good senior coach but the playing group no him well and what to expect imo

 

[joeykanga]

Konstanty had 6 tackles in his debut for the Roos, we obviously don’t rate that skillset

Probably just rated Hanily higher and perhaps Hanily wants to be a Swan more than Konstanty ever did.

 

[Wheresbuddy]

Konstanty had 6 tackles in his debut for the Roos, we obviously don’t rate that skillset

I think it has been clear at least since the 2023 off season that Konstanty can tackle. Just ask Millsy........

 

[hairy biker]

I know it shouldn't matter but this still pisses me off;

Cats recruit, Tigers midfielder poll perfectly in season openers: AFL MVP

Four players are tied for first after Round 1⭐️

www.zerohanger.com

4 writers from Zerohanger give separate votes on a 5,4,3,2,1 basis for each game.

Not one of the four gave a vote to Jordon in this match.

I'm bloody sure that won't be the case when the coaches votes come out.

EDIT;
And the coaches votes (fmd);

Sydney v Brisbane​

9 Josh Dunkley (BL)
8 Zac Bailey (BL)
4 James Jordon (SYD)
4 Darcy Wilmot (BL)
3 Jarrod Berry (BL)
2 Dayne Zorko (BL)

 

[giantsully]

Terrifically frustrating game to watch - so many positive elements but we still found a way to lose. It felt like every one of their goals came from a turnover - I'm not sure what the actual amount was but it must have been near world record pace. Lions just too good a team to give those sort of chances too (and at times it felt like they were playing for it, just waiting back expecting us to blow our chance and be there for the easy rebound).

Anyway, plenty of stuff to work with - they were very difficult conditions to play in and hopefully things will settle down in the coaches box in a few weeks' time (and we start bringing back more soldiers than we're losing).

And of course, how good was Bice?

 

[giantsully]

I think Dean Cox has his work cut out for him in regards to getting this group to be harder and defend more. They really are one of the least-physical and disciplined groups of Swans players we've ever had. "Soft" and "lazy" would be the street names for my criticisms there, though I loathe saying that about professional athletes putting themselves through more physical exertion in a week than I do in a year.

I feel like this issue kinda bleeds into our skill execution, decision-making and composure. Yesterday the intent was a lot better than last week, but it's like as soon as we are in a game that is very physical and contested, our execution with ball in hand doesn't just suffer the expected slight drop. It just becomes absolutely laughable.

You must have been watching a different game to me - I thought our heat around the contest was fantastic. I know they beat us in the CP count, but I didn't think that reflected what I saw on the day, which was the Lions were made to earn every kick.

 

[bloodsbigot]

9 Josh Dunkley (BL)

Did he get the 9 votes for his Footscray slide into Amartey?

 

[caesar88]

You must have been watching a different game to me - I thought our heat around the contest was fantastic. I know they beat us in the CP count, but I didn't think that reflected what I saw on the day, which was the Lions were made to earn every kick.

I don't know about "fantastic." I just don't think we do pressure all that well, and that feels glaring when I watch most other teams and what their version of pressure looks like.

For all the talk about how improved our tackling was this week, we actually had less Rowbottom-less tackles this week than we did last (49 vs 52)

I think this is primarily because we're just not big/strong/hard enough as a team. We "have a crack" but we don't strangle and suffocate the life out of teams over four quarters anymore, and haven't since 2021/2022 at least.

 

[giantsully]

I don't know about "fantastic." I just don't think we do pressure all that well, and that feels glaring when I watch most other teams and what their version of pressure looks like.

For all the talk about how improved our tackling was this week, we actually had less Rowbottom-less tackles this week than we did last (49 vs 52)

I think this is primarily because we're just not big/strong/hard enough as a team. We "have a crack" but we don't strangle and suffocate the life out of teams over four quarters anymore, and haven't since 2021/2022 at least.

What I saw was a team that:

• tackled hard (and last time I checked Jimmy R was in fact a member of the Swans team)
• smothered brilliantly
• contested in the air (mostly and when given a chance by our appalling I50 delivery)
• didn't let them have their usual easy uncontested game

All of which indicates a performance that was neither "lazy" nor "soft" which were the words you almost used.

Unfortunately, we also found a way to do incredibly daft turnovers which led to ridiculously soft goals. Without those, we beat last year's premiers and we're not having any of this whinging.

 

[caesar88]

What I saw was a team that:

• tackled hard (and last time I checked Jimmy R was in fact a member of the Swans team)
• smothered brilliantly
• contested in the air (mostly and when given a chance by our appalling I50 delivery)
• didn't let them have their usual easy uncontested game

All of which indicates a performance that was neither "lazy" nor "soft" which were the words you almost used.

Unfortunately, we also found a way to do incredibly daft turnovers which led to ridiculously soft goals. Without those, we beat last year's premiers and we're not having any of this whinging.

We may have to agree to disagree on this. I think it was not the first time that we've been incredibly poor with ball in hand when pressure is applied to us. I don't think we handle pressure as well as a premiership side should handle pressure, and I think part of the reason for this is that we just aren't inherently tough enough as a team. If you're not hard and tough enough then it stands to reason you won't be hard enough to win hard balls and you'll be nervy using the ball under pressure.

 

[SM]

I'm not too sure Roberts turning it over to Dunkley straight from a kick in has anything to do with pressure and is just a pretty simple brain fade. Things like that had far more to do with us losing than anything to do with pressure being applied to or by us.

 

[Neverwas]

Not bashing him at all. I've been impressed. But Hannily has an ideal opportunity to make himself very unpopular with opposition defenders. Respect comes from kicking goals but even more from being an annoying in-yer-face little bastard who won't let defenders play the game they want to play and capitalises on their mistakes. Papley used to be the master of frustrating defenders but the job's currently open.

I'd love to see Campbell and Hannily consistently leading the forward pressure stakes. As Hannily learns more about the way teams defend and try to clear the ball he'll have more opportunities to frustrate them.

Hanily's trademark is already his second, third and fourth efforts. Great to see

Sent from my Pixel 8 Pro using Tapatalk

 

[Neverwas]

What I saw was a team that:

• tackled hard (and last time I checked Jimmy R was in fact a member of the Swans team)
• smothered brilliantly
• contested in the air (mostly and when given a chance by our appalling I50 delivery)
• didn't let them have their usual easy uncontested game

All of which indicates a performance that was neither "lazy" nor "soft" which were the words you almost used.

Unfortunately, we also found a way to do incredibly daft turnovers which led to ridiculously soft goals. Without those, we beat last year's premiers and we're not having any of this whinging.

It shouldn't be forgotten that for large parts of the game the Swans pressure rating was well over 200. Reached about 230 at times.

Sent from my Pixel 8 Pro using Tapatalk

 

[wolftone57]

Can’t deny the effort but they really shot themselves in the foot to lose this game ffs

How many ****ing goals from the backline do we want to gift teams? First Florent now Roberts. Absolute momentum killers.

At least Hamling played well and We found a Player in Bice.

it’s gonna be one of those years. I think mentally theyre cooked. The demons from
The grannie will take all year to shake tbh

I don't think this has anything to do with GF demons. I think it has to do with poor decisions and execution. It also has to do with some baffling moves by the coach. Macca to FF? Didn't see that coming. Not did he I'll bet. He was having a stinker but... When McCartin went back there was no tall Saam forward as Amartey went into the ruck. Then our minds in their wisdom sent 4 nice high balls forward. Baffling.

On CPH2471 using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[ashep]

I don't think this has anything to do with GF demons. I think it has to do with poor decisions and execution. It also has to do with some baffling moves by the coach. Macca to FF? Didn't see that coming. Not did he I'll bet. He was having a stinker but... When McCartin went back there was no tall Saam forward as Amartey went into the ruck. Then our minds in their wisdom sent 4 nice high balls forward. Baffling.

On CPH2471 using BigFooty.com mobile app

Completely agree. First 2 weeks have had nothing to do with the GF. Just fell short against a couple of quality sides. Not dramatic issues we can't sort out over the next few weeks.