Preview The Swans Redemption Arc Goes On - Sydney vs Port Adelaide - Preliminary Final

[Jeffers]

We absolutely cannot let them dictate us when we’re on the attack. They’ll do everything to block the short kick to the corridor to open up our running game.

Going inside 50 gotta lower the eyes or we’ll just end up kicking it to Aliir all day.

 

[Bandicoot]

Because he's a good, smart player who can infuriate his opponents. And he can afford to snipe and fly the flag in a Grand Final without worrying about suspension.

A half fit McInerney would be more value than Wicks.

 

[Punts]

They've beaten us the last 8 times. It's a thing.
Many of our players have never beaten them. That's the danger.
It will be in the Port players' heads positively & in ours negatively.
Should they get a jump on us, it will a battle for our group to overcome the demons of past games.

Paul Roos couldn't beat any Malthouse coached Collingwood team.
Not once. Gulden is the key here. They shut him down & we & our gameplan are rendered useless.

What may save us?
The extra week rest. The home ground advantage.
But we need to snap out of our slumber v Port Adelaide.

Warner said there pressure is outstanding

That’s the one thing we don’t cope well with when we fall over

Maybe why they have our number

They will bring it again

 

[bloodsbigot]

and what was the reason why our midfield was pulverised ?

Well that's a loaded question. I actually don't think our midfield played that badly from what I saw (To begin with anyway).

We had no forward line so Port just walked it out of their defense and countered us as soon as we kicked the ball forward. So I think at some point our midfield just became demoralized and gave up. Defensively we were absolutely shit and let everything through (Thanks to a slow, useless Francis and our lack of our defense general Rampe).

Port will be missing Houston and probably playing an injured Farrell. We'll add Papley and Amartey. We'll have our starting defense fit and firing (Rampe and Melican). Offensively for them they're missing Marshall. So defensively and offensively we'll have our structure back, so our mids can play with greater confidence and have less defensive responsibility. As far as the midfield battle goes, I suspect Horne Francis is going to play injured and the 'cramping' was way worse than they're letting on. History shows that the medical staff at Port are dodgy as shit.

The game will be vastly different from our last encounter.

 

[bloodsbigot]

A half fit McInerney would be more value than Wicks.

Depends what tactics we'll go for.

 

[bloodsbigot]

We absolutely cannot let them dictate us when we’re on the attack. They’ll do everything to block the short kick to the corridor to open up our running game.

Going inside 50 gotta lower the eyes or we’ll just end up kicking it to Aliir all day.

Looks like they were just going man on man with extreme pressure rather than a zone defense last time around.

 

[SwansLifer]

Have faith in JMac. The last 2 weeks of training will ensure he is much fitter. The "extra" training he did was hopefully some match simulation. As others have pointed out he was starting to come out of it a little later in his game time.

Will be interesting where the match ups are with this one. Will the Power think the Swans are stretching them and put Ratagulea back?
Bergman is extremely gettable here and I expect his opponent to get at least 3. Probably Hayward/Parker.

What does it look like?
Amartey - Zerk-Thatcher
McDonald - Aliir
Hayward - Bergman
Parker - Sinn/Farrell
Papley - Jones
Lloyd - Burgoyne

 

[Bandicoot]

We absolutely cannot let them dictate us when we’re on the attack. They’ll do everything to block the short kick to the corridor to open up our running game.

Going inside 50 gotta lower the eyes or we’ll just end up kicking it to Aliir all day.

I noticed in the GWS game that we lacked run for the first half. After taking a mark/free kick the player just looked upfield as to the best place to kick it yet with GWS playing man on there was no free player to kick it to.
Having someone running past to take the handpass causes opposition players forward of him to come to meet him thereby freeing up the player they were originally guarding. We were at our best in the first 13 weeks by constantly taking handball receives and then kicking it to the free short. He in turn would immediately go looking for the next short due to players being forced to come at him.

 

[Bandicoot]

Have faith in JMac. The last 2 weeks of training will ensure he is much fitter. The "extra" training he did was hopefully some match simulation. As others have pointed out he was starting to come out of it a little later in his game time.

Will be interesting where the match ups are with this one. Will the Power think the Swans are stretching them and put Ratagulea back?
Bergman is extremely gettable here and I expect his opponent to get at least 3. Probably Hayward/Parker.

What does it look like?
Amartey - Zerk-Thatcher
McDonald - Aliir
Hayward - Bergman
Parker - Sinn/Farrell
Papley - Jones
Lloyd - Burgoyne

Papley will be having wet dreams about being matched up against Jones.

 

[Bloods86]

Have faith in JMac. The last 2 weeks of training will ensure he is much fitter. The "extra" training he did was hopefully some match simulation. As others have pointed out he was starting to come out of it a little later in his game time.

Will be interesting where the match ups are with this one. Will the Power think the Swans are stretching them and put Ratagulea back?
Bergman is extremely gettable here and I expect his opponent to get at least 3. Probably Hayward/Parker.

What does it look like?
Amartey - Zerk-Thatcher
McDonald - Aliir
Hayward - Bergman
Parker - Sinn/Farrell
Papley - Jones
Lloyd - Burgoyne

The news about Jmac training etc was positive last time too. Play the fit/in form players, although arguably it's not his fitness that was the problem, rather rusty as anything and not moving as well. We beat GWS without any positive impact from him. At most, have him as sub.

Port played Esava up front last time even though they were then stretched down back. They were just too good / us too bad elsewhere for it to matter.

Would send JJ to Burgoyne. Other than that, maybe have Campbell run with him, hurt him the other way.

 

[kneecapper]

I noticed in the GWS game that we lacked run for the first half. After taking a mark/free kick the player just looked upfield as to the best place to kick it yet with GWS playing man on ,an there was no free player to kick it to.
Having someone running past to take the handpass causes opposition players forward of him to come to meet him thereby freeing up the player they were originally guarding. We were at our best in the first 13 weeks by constantly taking handball receives and then kicking it to the free short. He in turn would immediately go looking for the next short due to players being forced to come at him.

The thing that stood out to me is that GWS were playing much more of a man-on-man defensive style than a zone for the first three quarters which limited our options before the game opened up. It can be a simple thing to say just give a hand pass to a player running past but they were also working very hard to shut down those options too.

The problem with this sort of defence is it's much more tiring guarding men than it is guarding space as with a zone.

The most telling stat for me from the GWS v Brisbane game was that GWS covered more KMs than any team this season in that game and I think that was due to their coverage defensively for the first three quarters.

I think this also explains our struggles early in games. Despite our running weapons off half-back in Blakey and Jmac, we are primarily a precision kicking team and that can be shut down with a more intense and miserly defence and this is easier to achieve on fresh legs. But the cost of that type of defence is that it is tiring, which may explain why we have run out games much better than the opposition up until now.

I expect Port will start off in a similar fashion defensively and the question for them will be whether they can punish us sufficiently on turnover and whether they can keep it up for four quarters.

What would really help us early in games is if some of our bigger guys could clunk more marks because it's so important to field position, taking pressure off our backline and catching the opposition out of position defensively.

 

[SwansLifer]

The news about Jmac training etc was positive last time too. Play the fit/in form players, although arguably it's not his fitness that was the problem, rather rusty as anything and not moving as well. We beat GWS without any positive impact from him. At most, have him as sub.

Port played Esava up front last time even though they were then stretched down back. They were just too good / us too bad elsewhere for it to matter.

Would send JJ to Burgoyne. Other than that, maybe have Campbell run with him, hurt him the other way.

Why would you send JJ to Burgoyne instead of Rozee or Butters?
Burgoyne played a nice game last week, but let's not get carried away with a tag on a guy who's played 35 games overall and a handful of decent ones.

Agreed with the JMac training news last time, however, 2 more weeks of training is huge. It's not just the training, it's the continuation of recovery. He will still have some rust there don't worry about that given it's a final of this magnitude. There is about a 0.1% chance JMac won't play unless he gets injured at training. Coaches, particularly experienced ones, don't just drop guys that they have this high on the totem pole at this time of year. They will back them through almost anything.

 

[Dubai Quacker]

The news about Jmac training etc was positive last time too. Play the fit/in form players, although arguably it's not his fitness that was the problem, rather rusty as anything and not moving as well. We beat GWS without any positive impact from him. At most, have him as sub.

Port played Esava up front last time even though they were then stretched down back. They were just too good / us too bad elsewhere for it to matter.

Would send JJ to Burgoyne. Other than that, maybe have Campbell run with him, hurt him the other way.

Burgoyne got some Sherrin against GWS - but he’s still very light framed & isn’t likely to dominate the way some of the more mature, powerful running half-backs do.

I don’t think we’ll dedicate JJ to him.

Instead, I suspect JJ goes to Rozee, Drew or Butters.

 

[Swan_Lifer]

Sweet, Butters, Horne-Francis and Burgmann, were all very good last week.

Going to be tough day for our followers and mids.

They'll clog up the corridor and make us go around them. They did it well against the Hawks.

What is it with Adelaide teams. I remember a time when the Crows would always beat us, year after year, at the SCG.

Can JMac move sideways? Otherwise leave him out. In: Fox and Cleary.

 

[LukeParkerno1]

And if they don't include Tauru, Lalor, Travaglia, Hannaford, Berry and Shanahan you will need to explain yourself multiple times.

I have faith in you

Shanahan is one

 

[RedBloodBlackSwan]

The thing that stood out to me is that GWS were playing much more of a man-on-man defensive style than a zone for the first three quarters which limited our options before the game opened up. It can be a simple thing to say just give a hand pass to a player running past but they were also working very hard to shut down those options too.

The problem with this sort of defence is it's much more tiring guarding men than it is guarding space as with a zone.

The most telling stat for me from the GWS v Brisbane game was that GWS covered more KMs than any team this season in that game and I think that was due to their coverage defensively for the first three quarters.

I think this also explains our struggles early in games. Despite our running weapons off half-back in Blakey and Jmac, we are primarily a precision kicking team and that can be shut down with a more intense and miserly defence and this is easier to achieve on fresh legs. But the cost of that type of defence is that it is tiring, which may explain why we have run out games much better than the opposition up until now.

I expect Port will start off in a similar fashion defensively and the question for them will be whether they can punish us sufficiently on turnover and whether they can keep it up for four quarters.

What would really help us early in games is if some of our bigger guys could clunk more marks because it's so important to field position, taking pressure off our backline and catching the opposition out of position defensively.

Nailed it

 

[Bloods86]

Burgoyne got some Sherrin against GWS - but he’s still very light framed & isn’t likely to dominate the way some of the more mature, powerful running half-backs do.

I don’t think we’ll dedicate JJ to him.

Instead, I suspect JJ goes to Rozee, Drew or Butters.

It's more than just the GWS game, Burgoyne has had a good breakout year.

We often send JJ to the key opposition HB as well as mids e.g. his last assignment, and with Houston and Farrell (probably) out, that's Burgoyne.

But if we put him on Butters or Drew I won't complain either.

Can always have Campbell as a semi run with role on Burgoyne.

 

[Jewelsbon]

Suspension aside, I can't understand why Wicks is even being mentioned. His form in the seniors was very ordinary hence he was dropped to the reserves. Did nothing special whilst playing in the reserves other than get suspended.
My God, more than half the people here suggest we should drop McInerney yet bring in someone like Wicks. Crazy.
If we want to win the premiership, we need McInerney in the in the side and in the form he was in 10 weeks ago. He is in the top 10 of our playing list. If you want to drop him and replace him with a player ranked 23-24 say Goodbye to winning the flag.

Yep, the pre injury Jussie would be brilliant to have in on Friday, I'm just not totally convinced he is currently that Jussie.

 

[Tedeski]

Prior to the 8 losses we had beaten them 14 out of 15 times over an 11 year period. You make no reference of that…. Is that not a thing? Do you just cherry pick what the media spurt out.

The better team will win on the day.

Swans to win.

Well I am talking about a modern dominance of one team over another & I'm not saying we can't or won't stop it.
But if you feel the team that played pre the 2017 season when we won the 14 of 15 games consists of the same players, then you are mistaken. Not many from that dominant period by us are part of this team.

Rampe, Lloyd, Parker, Heens, Mills ..................that's it I think. They are the four remaining players from the 2016 GF.
Then Cunningham may have been in a team that beat them prior to that GF.
So my point is spot on.
Mills won't play so 19 of the 23 players taking the field for us in this game have never beaten Port.
Their last memory of a game against them is the 112 point embarrassment only a few weeks ago.


We need a huge mental effort to turn this around.
We have the assistance of the extra week's rest & the home ground advantage so we have no excuses.
We are the top team, we have given ourselves every advantage to this point now it's time to break this dominance over us by Port.
If we can't, better now as we have no right to another GF appearance.

 

[Kiama Chris]

Have faith in JMac. The last 2 weeks of training will ensure he is much fitter. The "extra" training he did was hopefully some match simulation. As others have pointed out he was starting to come out of it a little later in his game time.

Will be interesting where the match ups are with this one. Will the Power think the Swans are stretching them and put Ratagulea back?
Bergman is extremely gettable here and I expect his opponent to get at least 3. Probably Hayward/Parker.

What does it look like?
Amartey - Zerk-Thatcher
McDonald - Aliir
Hayward - Bergman
Parker - Sinn/Farrell
Papley - Jones
Lloyd - Burgoyne

McLean?

 

[Tommy221987]

If this Swans team isn't mentally strong enough to beat a Port team that have had the wood on us, then they definitely aren't ready to overcome some Grand Final demons.
I for one think they are primed and ready for the challenge.

 

[Adnico26Parker]

Sounds like Port might be getting a bit ahead of themselves if they’re talking about the Grand Final already…

 

[Bloods86]

Sounds like Port might be getting a bit ahead of themselves if they’re talking about the Grand Final already…

View attachment 2113354

No different to questions about Mills.

Though the answer I'd give is no. He's done for the year.

 

[ShireSwan]

I don't want Ladhams anywhere near the team.

McLean may not be perfect but he's not useless and can control his emotions unlike that nitwit Ladhams. Also we spent the entire preseason training for McLean, McDonald and Amartey as our three headed monster. Bringing in Ladhams while Amartey was injured threw off their system in my opinion.

Just watching the game now it's become painfully clear our forward line was dysfunctional with Ladhams. Very sad to see.

IDK having Ladhams in there for a game with no fvks given...not the worst idea. He can go round thumping everyone, putting the fear of god into anyone going for a mark, and take the 20 week suspension afterwards, no problem.

Yes it was disfunctional (as it often has been this year), putting that on Ladhams is a rather long bow though.
He could do the same job as McLean does (stay at home big and a down the line option), likely a little better atm in that he's got longer arms and might actually mark a few, or win some taps.

I know it's too late now, but we probably should have tried it to see.
I think we can win this week with our forward line, but I have severe doubts on next week.
Time will tell.

Hopefully the rest this month will have done McLean's legs some good and he can get free enough to take some grabs.

 

[wills2g]

on paper how can port win

our lineup is 100x stronger than theirs