Swans Vs Bulldogs Game Day Thread

[Bloodthirsty]

Got no time, no energy and patience to deal with Jesse White haters today. Today I'm just going to let them prance around the orchards of many trees upon which KPP in their prime grow. Either that or let them attend a global summit of geniuses that believe that going forward the Swans don't need a dominant forward partnership or a flexible tall or a backup ruckman and that Adam Goodes will never retire.

[dimelb]

Just back from Etihad.
Reading the gripes about the commentators, we seem to have gone from under the radar to taken for granted.
The Bulldogs played very good football today and were the perhaps the best midfield we have played. They are short a couple of key position players and if they get them could cause a lot more surprises. Their defence is very good, and so is their willingness to man up.
Our overall fitness and accuracy on some critical occasions were enough to get us across the line. The further it went the better we looked, but we could have played a bit tighter earlier. I thought the standouts were Kieren, Kurt and Mummy.
I agree that the umpires were woefully inconsistent, especially on holding.

[Nico]

I thought Rampe and Everitt were pretty good today. Having said that it looked to me that the dogs had a number of small forwards who caused us some concern. Their forward pressure was outstanding.
Can anyone from the cheersquad tell me if Tippets arms were getting smashed when he got his hands on the ball in marking contests in the square or thereabouts.

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I think the umps were ok. There were so many tackles that you can't expect "ball" decisions too often, given in many cases the tackles were hot with little prior opportunity. Agree we had players clearly dragged away in the tackle after the ball had gone.

[Bazman]

What about the Swan support today? Bloody fantastic for away game.

[Dosser]

Just back from the game as well. Pretty poor atmosphere today and not a lot of excitement. I thought that WB really came to play and we were a bit ordinary but did enough to win. As far as Jesse goes, I have always been frustrated by him and have been delighted in his last few weeks. I have to say that at one point, as the ball was coming into the forward line, Jesse ran straight back to take out Tippett's opponent and sacrifice his own game for Kurt's advantage. That was an eye-opener for me and I gave him full points. You probably couldnt see it on TV, but he did a few things like that.
Also, after the final siren, ROK was in tracksuit top and didnt join with the other players who were celebrating - was anything said on the broadcast about him?!?

[crackedactor]

I thought Rampe and Everitt were pretty good today. Having said that it looked to me that the dogs had a number of small forwards who caused us some concern. Their forward pressure was outstanding.
Can anyone from the cheersquad tell me if Tippets arms were getting smashed when he got his hands on the ball in marking contests in the square or thereabouts.

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I think the umps were ok. There were so many tackles that you can't expect "ball" decisions too often, given in many cases the tackles were hot with little prior opportunity. Agree we had players clearly dragged away in the tackle after the ball had gone.

I also noticed that Swans players were tackled to the ground after they had disposed of the football. They also tackled a few players running past to prevent them receiving the ball. It was disappointing that the umps never pinged them even one for these illegal tactics. I sure other sides will try the same tactics over the next few weeks. But it is nice to be in second place.

[wolftone57]

Credit to the Dogs. They played with intensity and took their chances. We were loose and careless in defence. Grundy is too slow and has poor disposal; he will probably keep his place this year because we have no options. But I suspect that next year, injuries permitting, he could lose his place.

Rhyce was certainly off the pace of the game. I don't know if this game will help him get up to speed or he will just not make it this year.

Heard an interview with Macca; doesn't sound like Jetta will be back this year.

So, I think the next 'healthy' inclusion will be Benny next week, and if I had my choice I would drop Rhyce back to the Ressies to gain a bit more match fitness.

I think we should get both Goodes and Reid back in a few weeks and that will be critical. Maybe Rohan can make a contribution this year as well.

Rohan is closer than Goodsie, Jetts & LRT who are all still on the treadmill, they are all a long way off. Sam is running outside and it won't be long until he joins the main group. Gary Rohan played again yesterday so he will be the next inclusion.

I also think Rhyce needs to go back and get match fitness. He was allowing his man to run off as he was fagged out after a forward thrust and found it hard to push on a defensive move.

Macca got in the best players but today I saw something in Macca's game I haven't seen for quite a long time. He is sticking his hand in and hoping to pull the ball out and fumbled quite a lot ands missed the ball on several occasions. I like it when he commits his body not just his arm and pulls it off like he almost always does.

I thought our backs were exposed a bit today. Reg might have kicked 1.1 but he was far too loose and I think Longmire got the wrong match ups. Mal was beaten today ans quite loose, he was turned over constantly and insisted on going for the fly when his player stayed down. his kicking and decision making were not so good either.

Dre was really good as was Dane. I think ALL the young ones were good. Knock Jesse all you like but today the delivery was for most of the game absolute CRAP. Tip had problems and kicked almost all his goals in the second half, in fact 2-2nd, 2-3rd, 2-4th. From very good delivery from Dre (2), Lukie HB & opportunistic kick off ground. We bombed to the wrong spot for our forwards for the most part today. They were either caught behind their opponents or just having to make spoils because the long kicks were not to their advantage. Tip worked very hard, much harder than Jesse who seemed to get a bit lost at times but Jesse is playing a very different role starting on the wing. I think that has to stop as it is confusing and quite frankly left one of their players open and alone as well as Jesse alone but in their back half and they hurt us on the rebound. So blame the coach not the player.

I learnt something I had always suspected, Jed Lamb's delivery is elite. Some of his kicks were just super a pity Rhyce couldn't take advantage of one of the best passes I have ever seen, just shows how he lacks match fitness.

What can we take out of today? Bullies have improved and we were not cool under their pressure, we panicked. We need to look for tall defenders who are mobile and have endurance. We battled on and eventually wore them down. But we need to realise that sort of footy won't win a premiership.

[Nico]

Bit harsh on McVeigh Wolfy. As I said earlier in the thread; the Dogs had a number of small forwards as they dont have the quality talls to stretch our backline in marking. So it caused a few problems for our backs. By the way Reg was responsible for the Dogs first 3 goals. How many more did he leak. As loose as Granny's teeth. The last line of defence was a real issue today with the ball getting over the top of our backs. Ethihad is a very fast track though and we don't have to play there again this year. Ball bounced all over the place today.

[Swansinger]

A cracking,hard-fought contest ! It was a privilege to witness it from the 2nd row, just off centre wing . I dips me lid to all the lads on both sides.

[ScottH]

A cracking,hard-fought contest ! It was a privilege to witness it from the 2nd row, just off centre wing . I dips me lid to all the lads on both sides.

Exactly that!!

Jack got hammered a few times in clearances, but still managed to play a huge hand in winning.

I thought Andrejs had one of his best games!!

[aardvark]

Got no time, no energy and patience to deal with Jesse White haters today.

I think you just did! I thought Jesse wasn't too bad today. He kicked two of the most exciting points i have ever seen. Its a shame they weren't goals or everyone would be raving about how good he is. He did take a couple of cracking marks late in the game.

[Primmy]

Thank you singer.
Dre is growing into his role.
We the fans are NOT privilege to Jesse's instructions. During home games I watch him work as a protector of the forward line players so assume that is his role, we have Tippett etc to kick goals.
I predict the Brothers Jack will be a force to be reckoned with
Some of our older and more experienced players will be gone sooner than we think, but there may not be so much "shock of the new" as has happened previously. The kids are playing like they know they have a future.

Not a great game but perhaps a game "we had to have". In other years we would have counted it as a handsome win.

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Thank you singer.
Dre is growing into his role.
We the fans are NOT privilege to Jesse's instructions. During home games I watch him work as a protector of the forward line players so assume that is his role, we have Tippett etc to kick goals.
I predict the Brothers Jack will be a force to be reckoned with
Some of our older and more experienced players will be gone sooner than we think, but there may not be so much "shock of the new" as has happened previously. The kids are playing like they know they have a future.

Not a great game but perhaps a game "we had to have". In other years we would have counted it as a handsome win.