Fair point Ruck'n'Roll. I see it like this.....
2005.....ahh, different times. The Swans were on the rise, we were all optimistic with the vibe that something great was just around the corner (which it was!).....and it reflected in the tone of the posts. It was a great year....
2019.....we're getting impatient now. We've had Buddy for five seasons and we're no closer to premiership glory.....and while we're always near the top we seem to be just treading water. It's frustrating, waiting for all of our young talent to deliver collectively before the veterans get too old. The premiership window is still open....but how much and for how long?
Add to that, the ever increasing political tribalism that pervades society (and footy threads) and as such, more people willing to politicize just about everything, even footy (like how the Goodes thread morphed and became the separate "Racist Vigilante" thread) and you have the potential for increased butting of heads, negativity and in turn, decreased 'funtimes', a la 2005.
Healthy debate is good.....but intertwined with more positive vibes and less butting of heads would be nice. So let's win the flag this year.....now that would lift the mood! .....and release the pressure valve.
I dont agree that we always been just treading water. That may have been the feeling last year a little but 2017 was more about a lot of bad luck with criitical outs and injuries after losing a grand final the previous year that we should have won (and in a situation where many believe third parties influenced that result) . In addition we had been in a grand final two years prior to that as well.
While we may not have achieved the ultimate success in that time , I dont believe we have really been treading water I think that feeling comes from the realisation that we were off the pace in the last two years and last year in particular we never seemed to "click" as a team and many of our senior leaders were disappointing to say the least.
This year Im not actually that optimistic of our chances so if we all of a sudden see improvement form the likes of mills, papley , heeney , hayward , ronke , melican , alliir etc and we see parker, rampe , grundy maintain their level and we see reid and buddy fit and firing then Im sure my and many others mood will change .
In fact there probably is no reason to be any less optimistic than you would have been leading into 2005.
From your comments, I think I am actually more optimistic than you.....but I still think we've been treading water for the last couple of seasons at least and some fans/RWO'ers are getting a little impatient and fearing we'll actually go backwards. There is always a fear of the unknown and I feel like the club is at a bit of a crossroad....we could get better, we could get worse....fan confidence is stalling somewhat and frustration is rising and it reflects in some of the comments on this forum. We do agree on success raising the mood......as it always will.
I think if they stay fit we have the cattle. But not 100% confident in the rest of it.
I think this year is the defining year of how well we have managed the retirement of players and loosing a key player like Mitchell
It appears we have staggered our team well but who can tell until we see this year how we perform
If we compared our situation to a team like the hawks who obviously back ended players and could no longer keep Mitchell hodge Lewis buddy and they still ended up higher on the table last year and could still this year then I would not be happy
Just 7 weeks from tonight, footy will be back :-)
As with every year since I started supporting the Swans in 1985 as a shy innocent country boy fresh off the plane from NZ I start the year hoping for a flag.
Over the past 20 years or so I have become used to the fact that the Swans will be playing finals in September.
To be in this envious position is something that can’t be taken for granted and something to be very appreciative of. Over that time 15 other clubs would probably gladly swap places with us.
I genuinely believe that 2019 provides just as as good an opportunity for a Swans flag as any of those seasons. Having said that the evenness of the competition means that just about every other club will start the season confident of at the very least finals appearances this year
In the past five years or so it seems like the fickle finger of fate, frustrating finals form ( and some, shall we say external factors ) have conspired to deny the club adding to its flag collection.
Taking into consideration that in my opinion this can’t continue I am predicting that they finish fourth in the home and away season.
They then surprisingly get some long overdue lucky breaks during the finals series progress through to the grand final and deliver a balanced performance where most of the team perform to their potential on September 28th thus winning the flag that most pundits have already written us off for ( ideally against Collingwood 😀)
Just 6 weeks from tonight, footy will be back :-)
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