No Footy classified tonight

[swanspant12]

LOL grant thomas is a @@@@@. Last week he said sydney wont make top 4 and are a bottom 4 top 8 side. Well thomas we knocked off west coast by 52 points mate and i want you to eat humble pie when we finish in the top 4 ya wanker!

[liz]

I enjoyed the part where Thomas said that the Swans were never going to fill any highlight reels. Surely the 8 minute or so period towards the start of the 2005 PF is its own highlight reel. Not even a need for any editing.

[Danzar]

An email I sent to a friend on Monday went like so:

The hype about premiership contenders bothers me a little. I don?t think yesterday?s win yet says our Swannies are the bona fide premiership contender to watch out for but that?s not to detract from the win nor how committed Sydney are.

The three teams to beat in my view are/were Collingwood, Adelaide and West Coast. We lost to Adelaide, albeit by a small margin, we?re yet to play Collingwood and the win against the Eagles was against a seriously under strength side ? two suspensions and one new injury (Beau Waters) leading into yesterday?s game, on top of their already shocking injury list.

52 points at Subi is a flogging though ? on the rare occasions they lose there, it?s never by that kind of margin. But I?m still somewhat hesitant to view it as anything other than a regular win.

It?s another month before we play the Pies (at ANZ mind you) and the Hawks are a worry, not because they are winning (they?re on an easy run at the moment) but because of the size of their winning margins. Come round 22, I think it will be a different Hawks side to the one we played in round 5, so they?re ?number 4? for me.

The nature of our draw is such that we really won?t be able to make a call until the regular season is over.

I think to be fair to Wilson, she was likely trying to make a similar point. I also found this from the club website to broadly reflect the call made by both Thomas and Lyon. http://www.sydneyswans.com.au/news/n...6/default.aspx

Saints is our danger game and I'm banking on losses to the Pies and Hawks (not saying we can't win both though). That will get us to third.

I've also held over judgment on whether Reid's decent two weeks is a sign he was back in form until this game - and now I know he is. This is a huge boon for the club heading into the final seven rounds.

[Jewels]

Well I am going to put this out there...I think we are actually still 4 goals behind hawthorn and collingwood at the MCG and about the same against adelaide.

i think a fit josh gibson coming over the top and spoiling in our forward line can destroy it...exactly the same as in the first quarter against them at aurora and in the semi final last year. i think buddy will monster richards if the ball comes in often enough.

i think the collingwood defence will do the same thing, and travis cloke will monster grundy.

i think the adelaide midfield matches up as well on us as anybody, and their forward line is one of those that causes us real problems.

if we get the right set of results we can win this but i think the next month will be really interesting. we have to beat the saints otherwise there will be a m ajor deflation of our hopes and expectations...

i am notoriously pessimistic (although i was too gutless to post what i thought about sunday before hand - i expected to win by about 6 goals) but i think we are one of about 6 sides with a good chance - and if things fall our way we can win the whole thing - but lets not get ahead of ourselves - we are winning and playing good footy but we are hardly tearing teams apart. had essendon even kicked reasonably straight for three quarters the game would have been quite different, had we not kicked as accurately as we did across a range of games the scoreboard pressure we have put on sides would not have been there. we may well have beaten adelaide without goodes' injury, but maybe not. And we might have caught richmond had we scored the first goal after three-quarter time...

anyway the long and short of it is that we just have to get out there and really pound the saints this week. they really beat up on us at etihad and we need to turn that around this weekend.

especially since i am planning to come up for this game.

Pretty good summation and I tend to agree. We are a good side and we do stand a good chance, but things fell our way in 05 and I think we need those same things to fall our way to win it this year.

[Go Swannies]

I really don't think we know yet.

In the past five weeks we have beaten: Bombers (away), Cats (h), Giants (-), Lions (h), Eagles (a)
The Pies (all at home) have beaten: (pre-bye) Melbourne, then Eagles, Freo, Cats and lost to the Blues
Hawks (all at home): Lions, bye, Blues, GWS, Dogs

The Eagles are just too decimated to go on current form - but it may costs them even a chance at Top 4.

Watching the Blue-Pies game I was amazed at the low skill level. The Pies may have another gear but they didn't even really show it against the Cats. If the Swans had lost to the Blues as badly as the Pies did, it would be used as the preface to every article to show we aren't a real flag threat.

This weekend, the whole of Melbourne will be watching the Pies-Hawks game expecting it to be a GF preview. I'll be looking to see if either are playing as well as the Swans have (in several quarters at least) over the past month. Of course, if we don't play as we did last week we could be beaten by the Saints and we are in trouble. But if we dispose of the Saints, as I think we will, we may be a deserved flag favourite.

That's scary.

[wedge.maverick]

Why even watch that crap????? AFL360 and On The Couch are that far ahead of Footy Classified as programs it's not funny. 4 AFL wannabees on late at night trying to be contoversial is not what I call entertainment.

[Mr Magoo]

Well I am going to put this out there...I think we are actually still 4 goals behind hawthorn and collingwood at the MCG and about the same against adelaide.

i think a fit josh gibson coming over the top and spoiling in our forward line can destroy it...exactly the same as in the first quarter against them at aurora and in the semi final last year. i think buddy will monster richards if the ball comes in often enough.

i think the collingwood defence will do the same thing, and travis cloke will monster grundy.

i think the adelaide midfield matches up as well on us as anybody, and their forward line is one of those that causes us real problems.

if we get the right set of results we can win this but i think the next month will be really interesting. we have to beat the saints otherwise there will be a m ajor deflation of our hopes and expectations...

i am notoriously pessimistic (although i was too gutless to post what i thought about sunday before hand - i expected to win by about 6 goals) but i think we are one of about 6 sides with a good chance - and if things fall our way we can win the whole thing - but lets not get ahead of ourselves - we are winning and playing good footy but we are hardly tearing teams apart. had essendon even kicked reasonably straight for three quarters the game would have been quite different, had we not kicked as accurately as we did across a range of games the scoreboard pressure we have put on sides would not have been there. we may well have beaten adelaide without goodes' injury, but maybe not. And we might have caught richmond had we scored the first goal after three-quarter time...

anyway the long and short of it is that we just have to get out there and really pound the saints this week. they really beat up on us at etihad and we need to turn that around this weekend.

especially since i am planning to come up for this game.

What he said. We lose to West Coast and we are fifth with hawthorn and collingwood to come. The top of the table is too even to call anyone afavourite and I wouldnt go confidently into a MCG final against either of Hawthorn or Collingwood.

[barry]

Saints is our danger game and I'm banking on losses to the Pies and Hawks (not saying we can't win both though). That will get us to third.

If we cant beat the pies or hawks at home, there is little point turning up for the finals.

Losses to those two will almost certainly mean we would meet at least one of them in a final "away" from Sydney later on.

FWIW, we need to win 1, and win, or least be very close in the other.

[Doctor J.]

I don't get all this concern about Thomas, Wilson, and anyone else for that matter not giving us respect. They don't coach us, they don't play for us, and nor do they have any input into any decision made by the club. They are simply spewing forth dumb opinions. Let them keep doing it, and meanwhile we'll keep proving them wrong. For me, this year has a lot of 2003 about it. Just hope the end of year turns out just a little different.

[Dirtyburt]

I don't get all this concern about Thomas, Wilson, and anyone else for that matter not giving us respect. They don't coach us, they don't play for us, and nor do they have any input into any decision made by the club. They are simply spewing forth dumb opinions. Let them keep doing it, and meanwhile we'll keep proving them wrong. For me, this year has a lot of 2003 about it. Just hope the end of year turns out just a little different.

Wouldn't mind playing Brisbane in the semi!

[Swansongster]

For me, this year has a lot of 2003 about it. Just hope the end of year turns out just a little different.

A very interesting observation. I quite like the idea of a QF away win but don't think that there is a champion team (like Brisbane were) to knock us off in a home PF. I also think we are a better team than that year.

[ugg]