I don't think we're too tall today, given Freo's line up.
It's going to be tough and hard around the ball all game...IMO, it will all come down to intensity
Whichever team sustains their intensity the longest, should win.
Swans by 17
I don't think we're too tall today, given Freo's line up.
It's going to be tough and hard around the ball all game...IMO, it will all come down to intensity
Whichever team sustains their intensity the longest, should win.
Swans by 17
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it's time to pause and reflect... MT
Pouring rain here in Balmain but the radar says that Homebush is just on the fringes of it. Anyone out that way who can report?
Raining solidly but not super heavily at Wentworth Point David, or as they say in the old money, Homebush Bay. Our bike ride to the stadium up the road this arve will probably be a tad wet.
Just about to leave a mild and pleasant Canberra for the trip up the highway.
Come on you mighty bloods - lets be having them!
"You get the feeling that like Monty Python's Black Knight, the Swans would regard amputation as merely a flesh wound."
It negates our quick hands too, which I think underpins our best footy. The Swans are the masters are short, sharp, instinctive handballs that get the Kennedy and Parker hard-won ball out, eventually, into someone in a little space who can actually try and kick forward to the advantage of our forwards, rather than bomb it forward under pressure straight to the opposition's spare man in defence. In the rain, we seem to either still try the handballs but with less success (given the slippery ball), or just bang it on the boot from congestion. I think the best wet weather teams generally try to keep the ball at ground level and just gain territory by forcing it forward with bodies at repeated contests until they can get a stoppage in their forward line or are able to hit up a short kick into the forward line (hopefully to a forward).
I agree with Liz's summation, and as I posted earlier, this style of wet weather play. ie Just rubbling the ball forward with bodies around the ball,
requires prolonged intensity....IMO, that's what will win it.
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it's time to pause and reflect... MT
It requires good tackling and a strong defensive game, which, believe it or not, I think we are better at than Freo, particularly with their outs.
Fyfe, Mayne, Hill love the open space and clean ball use. In Kennedy, McGlynn and Parker we have strong in and under players which I believe Freo lack.
Again, I'm not saying conditions suit us, but I believe the advantage to Freo is overstated.
It's pretty wet GS. Raining all through the Inner West to Parra since about midnight. Probably got a few more hours in it before hopefully thinning out around game time. BOM is your friend.
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It's a pity it's been pretty dry most of this week
Can't agree with that. Fyfe, Mundy and Barlow are contested ball beasts, just as much as Kennedy and Parker are for us (with a few others more than happy to chip in too). Our major source of advantage over the Dockers should be our tall forwards, especially with their best two tall defenders missing. But that advantage will be lessened in the rain. Their forward line strength - the ultra clever and slippery Ballantyne and Walters - will be less affected by the rain that our taller timber.
That's not to say we can't win this. I would just be more confident in our relative strengths over theirs in the dry than the wet.
Fair enough, liz. I think your analysis is a good one and I'd much prefer to face them on a dry track. I'm just reacting against the Freo supporters that seem to believe rain = automatic win.
Hopefully, we learnt some things from the Richmond game last week, particularly as our back 6 is likely to be pretty much unchanged.
I'm normally conservative and restrained . Today I'm not : Swans by 50.
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