Round 7 vs. St. Kilda: Game Thread

[Bas]

It hasn't started here yet due to time differences but I don't know how it's as shocking as watching the delayed telecast of the Swans match.

Hang out for the Czech's and pls stay away from any ropes and ceiling rafters!

[Alison]

Yeah, I thought Riewoldt was extremely good setting up play and goals. Bolton was really beaten tonight. Has had a couple of quiet games now.

I thought Leo Barry (although beaten by Gehrig) was not too bad. The first goal Gehrig kicked I thought he had his hands in the back of Barry and the 3rd goal he kicked they had switched and Bolton was on Gehrig. Leo just let himself down with a couple of lazy disposals but I thought his one-on-one contests were not too bad.

I don't know what others think but there seems to not be a lot of defensive pressure from our forwards (and midfields) and the ball seems to fly down into our defensive 50 which does not give our defenders a chance also leaving a really open forward line for our opponents.

I also noted that St Kilda seemed to do a lot of illegal blocking in their forward 50. Leo Barry/Richards were blocked out of a few contests.

Kirky (although seems to get reasonable amount of disposals) seems quiet and not very effective. Jude Bolton is really down.

It just seems we need to do so much work to get a goal (and usually then it is a point) although we were a bit more accurate in front of goal.

I think we really need to look at our forwards/midfielders presenting themselves when we are coming off the defensive rebound. A lot of times it seems our defenders get them ball and no one seems to be leading so they have to stop and handball it.

Anyway just some thoughts.

[Jeffers1984]

Pathetic. No words to describe it apart from Pathetic.
This game plan is no longer going to work as every team has followed up watching West Coast do to us in the grand final last year. You don't beat the Swans playing man on man, you zone flood and hit them back on the rebound.

Honeymoon's over Roos. Time to change the game plan or we are going to look at a number 3 draft selection 2 years earlier than i thought we would.

Our midfield is unbelievably slow and defensive. Port will have a field day with their fleet of foot players.

[originalswan]

I'm usually able to find some positives out of most games but I am as disappointed with that effort as anything I can remember in recent years.

It's not so much that we lost but they just didn't seem to be "on" at all. People say that our game plan is shot but that wasn't the execution of the game plan that we've witnessed over the past few years. A game plan based on hard running and tackling won't work if no-one on the team is prepared to run and no-one is capable of laying a tackle that actually counts. It wouldn't really have mattered what game plan St Kilda used against us tonight with that sort of crap dished up.

It is almost impossible to find any Swans player who you'd say had a good game.

The modestly reasonable

O'Keefe - worked hard and did some effective things but was wearing a glove and wasn't really able to shake it off
Malceski - good in first half, though not so effective later. At least when he had the ball it looked like something might happen,

Pass-marks (if I'm being generous)

Hall, O'Loughlin, Davis - all worked hard and did modestly well with what they got dished up. Straight kicking all round by the forward line limited what otherwise could have been even uglier.
Ablett - decent job on Harvey and at least tried to get the ball moving our way. Really needed to kick that goal though. He needs to be able to nail those.
Jolly - worked pretty hard and not his fault that St Kilda read his taps while our blokes couldn't be bothered to try.
Leo - not a disasterous effort on Gehrig given the crapness of our midfield

Mediocre

Goodes - maybe a modest improvement in work rate but some daft errors too. Where is the real Adam Goodes.
Schneider - scraping the barrel but did some OK stuff
C Bolton - well beaten by Riewoldt but a very tough assignment for him given the height and reach disadvantage

Innocuous

Jack - not going to slate a youngster playing his second game and he worked hard
Bevan - not the worst but didn't really add anything
Kirk - didn't really notice him do much good or bad but expect more from him

The rest - need a pretty good long hard look at themselves

Richards - this is the model from first half of 2006. We want the GF version back. Beaten by every opponent he played on and some shocking mistakes
Everitt - lethargic
Buchanan - nothing like the zip we've come to expect from him. Maybe he needed a game in the twos to get a bit of match fitness back
Bolton - was he even out there?
Fosdike - was he even out there?
McVeigh - only time I noticed him was when he couldn't even get a behind from a straightforward shot at goal.
Mathews - reasonable job on Dal Santo until the final quarter when he ran him a merry dance. Gave us almost nothing in the opposite direction.
Crouch - beaten so soundly by Milne that poor Jack got moved onto him.

Agree with most of this post except that Michael O'Loughlin (by the way one of my favourite players) has a shocker! Problem is with Hall being double teamed he is the player we need to step up (amongst others).

Worst players in terms of skill or disposal and simply impact on the game would have been McVeigh, Crouch (doesn't seem match fit), Fosdike, Richards, Mathews, Goodes and O'Loughlin.

I have alot of questions but feel the match commitee is not willing to answer.
We simply have too many of our so called "good players" down at the same time - How much longer can the team carry all these players?

Our endeavour was certainly an improvement from last week but our skill levels were sadly lacking.

Question is will the hierarchy have the strength to show underperforming players that their time is up. How many more chances do these average footballers get? Or are our reserves really that much poorer?

[cruiser]

I'm sure this post is totally unreasonable and obscenely negative. But at this point, I really don't care.

No Vivien, I feel and think exactly the same way right now. Having trecked down to Melbourne the last two weekends, I feel devastated by tonights game.

[Nico]

Well I was embarrassed like everyone else. In think it was NMW in another thread that said we refused to go direct and went sideways when going into the forward line. It was almost as if we wanted to avoid going inside 50.

The turning point I saw in the game was the absolutely embarrasing effort by Richards when got the ball outside 50, avoided his opponent then instead of heading for goal handpassed to a St Kilda player who took it up the ground, the result being a goal. Richards was as bad as it gets.

But the player who really stamped himself as useless was McVeigh. He was simply rubbish. Cant wait to see the clanger count because I doubt he has had a possession he didn't stuff up.

On that tonight we are genuinely on the slide. Yep we have a few players out who should bolster the side when they come back but we are in heaps of trouble because......

Richards - he may have had his day in the GF. He was disgusting to say the least. Clearly is not a leader and has stepped down rather than up in the abscence of Kennelly, Dempster and LRT.
Crouch - What happened to the pre season edict of doing X amount of work before playing. He did no pre season and it shows. He played a dog of a game and when he was beaten in a contest stood there or walked to the next contest. Over the hill physically and in the mind.
Barry - Yep he was serviceable in that he kept Gehrig reasonably in hand. But tell me that after running to make 50 metres of space takes a couple of bounces then instead of driving deep into the forward line, stops and waits for a player to come to him so he can show off his evasive skills, is that of an intelligent man. Frankly for mine that is the coaches fault for allowing him to do this time and again to the detriment to the team.
J Bolton - say no more. Another crap game and what is his value to the team in a pocket or on the flank. In centre bounces Montagna beat him everytime to the ball and Jolly dominated the taps. Over the hill by a mile.
Ablett - slow and almost unaccountable tonight. Doesn't work the ground at all. When you expect him to now take a leading on ball role he is always second to the ball and frankly is playing for wages only.
McVeigh - Just a wasteful footballer who lacks the skill and smarts to be playing AFL.
Bevan - I think someone else said a waste of a selection. Should never be played again.
Jack - waste of a rookie promotion. Poor hand skills, wooden hands, no idea where the ball is going, and who said he has improved his kicking (horrible).Probably crucified by being promoted. I'll be the first to say it - does not have what it takes to make it and wont make it. Like Bevan he has grown up learning rugby skills and it shows.
Spida - not looking like a sensible pick up.