I’m not sure we are getting a lot of value from Florent and Lloyd. If Horse is determined to bring Melican in, would rather see one of them as a sub rather than Fox.
Personally not sure we need Melican. Papley for Clarke and J Mac for Stephens would be my changes. Stephens to be the sub.
If you can't play four quarters you can't win finals. Simple really. Early exit unless we suddenly get some endurance. We should also look at making some hard calls on personnel before this one. Clarke can't be in the side. We need to do something out of left field to win this.
Rob Innes came to the Swans as the fitness guru of the AFL after being Richmond Performance Manager during their premierships. Richmond had huge endurance in those years. But this year the Swans fitness level has been questionable at best. The inability to close out matches being the 4th worst fourth quarter team is a damning testament to our fitness. This is not psychological, it is the inability of the players to compete because they are stuffed. Now, I am not sure if it is all the fitness department's fault. The players started mostly competitive work in the second week all players back on the track. This is unusual in that the fitness requirement is to get some endurance training into the players in the first four weeks. We are way behind all sides in the eight and most outside the eight. On Sunday Melbourne went up another gear in the last and we simply could not go with them. Our mids were five paces behind their opponents, our backs were loose and trailing their opponents and Fritch was allowed to run around without an opponent because his opponent was gassed.
We will not win a final this year due to a lack of endurance unless we gat a 10 goal lead by 3/4 time. If we are under 30 points up at 3/4 time we will lose.
I think next year is a good time to start looking at a realistic look at a premiership. But to do that we really do need to address several problems;
Our Key Defensive players. We need another tall defender
Ruck. Our ruck situation is not good. Hickey is finished, as good as he has been for us. McAndrew is developing nicely and will be a really good tap ruck. But not this year. He must be given a go next year. Do we get Grundy as the quick fix? Freo's Darcy? Or do we pry Dog Darcy out of there?
We need another bull in the mids. I think Sheldrick when fit could fill this role but we need to get him fit. Our young mids are starting to show something but are hamstrung by a lack of endurance this year.
We need to stop bombing the ball long to nobody in particular. This is just playing into the hands of the intercept players. These days of coaches taking them out of the game seem to have been lost on John. Our delivery to the forwards needs to be tweaked. No good just putting the ball on their heads. By the way could somebody teach Harry & Dane how to kick a short pass.
We have had a lucky run and really don't deserve to be here and will probably go out in straight sets which is probably a good thing. we can look to getting endurance fit for next year and give it a real shot
And/or a McDonalds voucher.Originally Posted by Hotpotato
Nice post Wolfy. One other thing: how about our forwards play in front. Many times Melbourne had front position and took the mark. If the ball is coming in quickly you have to be in front. If the ball comes to ground you have the first chance at the footy.
Last edited by Nico; 29th August 2023 at 02:10 PM.
Pretty hard to go out in straight sets when you're only playing one set.
Those who have the greatest power to hurt us are those we love.
Agree totally. We were playing from behind. I can't understand why Longmire allowed them to play 3 behind the ball? why not match them up? We could not get the ball out due to that.
These last quarter fade outs started in the 2022 preliminary final when we were coasting against a very good team in Collingwood and ended up winning by a point. Imagine what a team we would be if we managed to play 4 quarters.
a game of tennis is best of 5 sets in the men's game & three in the women's. A game of AFL is the best of four quarters. Our sets are quarters.
The straight sets analogy only applies to matches, and thus those playing in the Qualifying Finals.
In Tennis, the winner of the most sets and by definition, the last set, wins the match. That doesn't apply to quarters in AFL - you can win the match if you lose in the last quarter, or if you have lost two or three of the quarters.
We have these players to choose from to replace players in the side;
Papley
McInerney
Corey Warner
Arnold (has played very well in reserves)
Buller (has played very well in the reserves)
Hall-Khan (an outsider)
Any of these options would be preferable to Clarke. The fact is Clarke is limited by his incapacity to think quickly. He takes far too long to think about options and then turns the ball over. Just not quite skilled enough at this level. As much as Corey warner did not get much ball last time not did Clarke. at least Warner uses it reasonably well and can get out of a situation using his pace. Just a little light for AFL atm.
MaInerney will come back with Papley.
Who goes out?
These players were poor last week;
Fox
Clarke
Harry
Will (although I don't think it was entirely his fault as the delivery was crap)
Amartey (first game after hamstring strain but led to the contest far too often)
McLean (kept running under the ball or led to the ball by opponent)
Parker (23 @ 47.8% is not so good. Wasted over 50% of that 23 so only about 10 effective disposals)
If these players improve their games this week then we will be a far better side and harder to beat. But we need to find some endurance from somewhere because Cripps & Co will run & run & run. I wish Parker, Papley, Heeney, Chad & Millsy had Gulden & Rowie's endurance.
Up until late in the third quarter, our tactics were working fine and we led by three goals. Petracca and Fitsch killed us in last quarter. We had no equivalent answer. Melbourne were too good. Can be that simple and it's way too easy to play the blame game.
When we beat Carlton convincingly a couple of months ago we didn't have - McDonald, Mills, Rampe, McCartin, Amartey, Stephens. In the side were Francis, Budwah, McAndrew, Melican and Corey. (plus Clarke and Wicks)
Those who have the greatest power to hurt us are those we love.
Good point Big Cat, but Carlton were off the pace at that stage and that’s why we beat them with so many of our first teamers out. Until their game against the Giants they’ve been in top form. Let’s also admit they had their spot sewn up and the Giants were playing for their lives so mentally they proved stronger once they got on top in the last quarter.
Our game against them now is a different scenario all together. They want to prove something to their fans after being in the doldrums for so long ( where they rightly belong😊) and we have fitness issues. It will be very tough for us with the crowd roaring them on and so we can expect most of the 50/50’s to go their way. We certainly can’t win if we fade in the last- all our boys will need to contribute for the whole game.
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