#AFL Round 11, Swans vs Blues, 7:50pm, SCG #AFLSwansBlues @sydneyswans

[707]

Umpiring was soft, not too much their way but soft. Buddy ball softly glancing Rowe's head, give me a break! Umpires would do better to let minor things go, too much officiating.

Plaudits to Sinclair and McVeigh who have defied the keyboard critics and are having wonderful seasons well above expectations.

Heeney needs to fix his goal kicking and quickly, will cost us games. Wonderful to see Adam & Mick presenting the trophy, particularly liked young James O presenting the medal, future F/S.

How long can we afford to have Rampe taking key forwards, he's getting beaten and now giving away Clarko Rule frees, Aliir must come under consideration if Melican isn't back soon, WCE forwards in a fortnight .... Also unconvinced with Marsh, doesn't seem up to the pace of the firsts, he's depth at best, can't be part of our finals tilt so please try someone else before it's too late in the season.

Stoddart whilst doing the odd good thing is playing too soon despite showing promise. Much prefer a more mature player.

A win is a win but gee we need more cohesion going into 50.

[wolftone57]

I'll say it first...Hanners is cooked. That was his worst ever game. 12 stats for the game with a few very late. Didn't go in and win the footy and just stood around the packs. Too slow to get to contests.

A win is a win but it was very uninspiring against a bottom side with players out. Heeney would do well to look at McVeigh's technique when kicking for goal. The one flaw in his game.

Another very good game by Jones and Ollie Florent continues to impress. Thank goodness for Sinkers.

Thought we really missed the run and nous of Mills tonight.

Nico I agree with you about Hannas. But must add Kizza and Rohan to the mix. I think we need a real rethink. Cameron, Towers, Aliir need to come in for Kizza, Hannas and Newman.

[Flying South]

Spot on with everything.

Hanners is a big worry. He could hardly move and he was on managed time. He needs to work out his fitness issues in the reserves.

I believe he has OP. Not sure you can work on that in the reserves. Needs to have extended break. Put him away till round 18. That gives him 6 weeks to rest then work back into form for finals. OP needs complete rest. Not managed training and game time.

[Markwebbos]

I believe he has OP. Not sure you can work on that in the reserves. Needs to have extended break. Put him away till round 18. That gives him 6 weeks to rest then work back into form for finals. OP needs complete rest. Not managed training and game time.

My understanding is he had OP last year and an unrelated injury this year ... if you believe the Swans that is.

We have one more game to �tune up� before the Weagles. Would love to see AA, Cameron possibly Towers get a run.

Any chance AJ could have Mills / Marsh�s spot before the end of the year or is that crazy wishful thinking?

[ugg]

Newman started on the wing but played most of the 2nd half as a forward, which he wasn't very good at. In hindsight, we would have been better served with a more natural forward like Towers, McCartin or even Fox who showed at Geelong he has some forward nous.

Hannebery no penetration in his kicking on his preferred left, and flat out has no right foot anyway. Robinson in good form and more importantly fully fit should be considered as a replacement.

Also hello to the gentleman sitting in front of me in the Ladies Stand browsing RWO at 3Q time.

[707]

Forgot to mention Hewett, he is given big jobs every week and gets them done. Tonight he severely restricted the world's tallest midfielder Patrick Cripps and got plenty of it himself AND he's efficient with ball in hand.

George is slowly becoming one of our most important players as evidenced by his high finish in last years B&F, another high finish looms this year.

[Danzar]

Newman started on the wing but played most of the 2nd half as a forward, which he wasn't very good at. In hindsight, we would have been better served with a more natural forward like Towers, McCartin or even Fox who showed at Geelong he has some forward nous.

Hannebery no penetration in his kicking on his preferred left, and flat out has no right foot anyway. Robinson in good form and more importantly fully fit should be considered as a replacement.

Also hello to the gentleman sitting in front of me in the Ladies Stand browsing RWO at 3Q time.

[CureTheSane]

Ground announcer says Ronk-ee. Confusing. Burst of Swans song 6 minutes in also confusing.
Blues competitive in Q1. Time to knock that on the head!

Kennedy also called him this after the game.
My take on it is that they all know how to say his name, but add a 'y' on at the end as they might for Zakey, Nickey, Jakey etc

[Hotpotato]

Especially in the first half I was wishing Towers was playing.
Was he dropped or injured?
Hoping for a ten goal win but the Blues took the game on early and were slicker and more descisive catching the Swans napping .
Poor execution kicking for goal, I don�t get this basic flaw that is so costly .
All very fixable by a good coach . Kick from low down , follow through to your target.

[liz]

I remember coming home sooo frustrated after the loss to North, not because we lost but because it was a dire, stop-start game where both teams were ordinary. Tonight was almost as bad, and I think the main culprit is the umpiring. Not biased umpiring - I couldn't tell you if we got the better or worse of it today - but just umpiring that takes all the flow from the game. I'd be surprised if there were more than half a dozen marking contests where the umpires didn't pull a free from somewhere, including a number of bizarre shepherding calls, more of which went in our favour than against.

I understand that it's a hard game to umpire, and expect that they will miss some, and make mistakes. But what's killing it for me is the philosophy behind penalising trivial things, especially in marking contests. Clarkson has an awful lot to answer for.

[MattW]

I agree with 707: a finals-winning team has Melican or Aliir in it. I think they'd play Melican if they could, but I'd like to see Aliir in for Marsh.

Nice touch of class by Stoddart late, promising player. But as above, I think we will need a harder body in there as the year progresses, especially if Rohan and Ronke are also playing. I'd be happy enough with Robinson, Fox or Towers (who I agree is unlucky).

Bummer for Newman: the majority of his touches were poor, he's a better player than that. He kicked well a couple of times late and probably needs a couple more games in there to build his confidence up playing first-team footy.

Another good game by Florent. He is one of our more agile mids and kicks well. Dangerous with the ball on the run and now tending to facilitate more exits in close with his nimbleness. He previously played a little headless in close, handballing to others under pressure etc, but he is improving that. Reckon that sealer against the Bulldogs helped him along.

Hayward is hard. His is aggressive and is filling into his body, sticking his tackles. One of my favourites.

I disagree re Hannebery. I think he is down on confidence a little and should get a chance to play it out.

Finally, I thought Buddy moved well. More time on the ground than any other player. Hopefully that heel is behind him.

[MattW]

I remember coming home sooo frustrated after the loss to North, not because we lost but because it was a dire, stop-start game where both teams were ordinary. Tonight was almost as bad, and I think the main culprit is the umpiring. Not biased umpiring - I couldn't tell you if we got the better or worse of it today - but just umpiring that takes all the flow from the game. I'd be surprised if there were more than half a dozen marking contests where the umpires didn't pull a free from somewhere, including a number of bizarre shepherding calls, more of which went in our favour than against.

I understand that it's a hard game to umpire, and expect that they will miss some, and make mistakes. But what's killing it for me is the philosophy behind penalising trivial things, especially in marking contests. Clarkson has an awful lot to answer for.

Yep. That North game was pure frustration - couldn't have been better scripted to produce it. Tonight was similar. Pedantic, technical officiating. Further, I had to watch from home and also had Basil to contend with.