Gameday!

[Wardy]

Good outlook - the hawks will be buggered purely because they had to walk a couple of kms just to get to the away team shed!!! The thing is we are still in the Top 4 that's a heap better than being in the bottom half.

[Dirtyburt]

Agree no disaster, need to match cats now. Great lead into finals

[stellation]

We'll be better for the run. I'll opt to take that away from it and leave it there.

[DA_Swan]

Our guys gave it their best shot - but realistically we had our chances and when you consider that we lead by 38 points and won the frees 27 - 12 - it hurts , maybe if the free count was 29 - 12 including puopolo and the non fifty we win - we made to many mistakes under pressure and it cost us - hopefully we are better for the experience and its great to have that chance to be better !!!

[Beerman]

If someone had said to me at the start of the season that we'd be top 4 (and still a very slight chance of top 2) going into finals I'd have taken it in a heartbeat. Whatever happens from hereon in, 2012 has been a great year to be a Swans fan.

At the start of the year I would have said top-4 is a bit optimistic. So although I'm shattered about last night, I keep reminding myself that we're having a great year. At least we haven't appeared in any commonwealth bank commercials saying we can win the premiership (a la the aussie Olympic team)

My suggestion to those frustrated by umpiring is to let it go! It makes us sound like North fans. Every team every week is robbed by the umpires if you believe the forums. Hawthorn are probably talking about the non-push in the back call against Pyke that I could see from 150 meters away. I'm enjoying footy much more since I stopped umpiring the games and just played the whistle, as it were.

[BillyRayCypress]

Great game except for the two umpiring decisions.

I was watching LRT by chance at 3/4 time when he got the red vest and he looked very surprised when it was handed to him.

Morton as sub does not work. He needs to be there the whole game if he plays.

Hawks were asleep in the first qtr and by half time the game was as it should have been.

[DamY]

Gameday!

No, Hawthorn game last week was the twilight game, so they had about an hour and a half LESS time then us.

I'm really disappointed that we lost, but we gave it a great shot and very nearly got there. THOSE two umpiring decisions were shocking but that's footy.

If someone had said to me at the start of the season that we'd be top 4 (and still a very slight chance of top 2) going into finals I'd have taken it in a heartbeat. Whatever happens from hereon in, 2012 has been a great year to be a Swans fan.

Yeah first world problems, there's a lot of clubs way below us, keep that in mind

[Jewels]

Great effort by the Swans.
Remember we only had a 6 day break from a late night finish at Etihad last week (same as against Pies) so Hawks hadan advantage in that last qtr.
An extra day to get over bruises and niggles is a big advantage.

Top effort.

No, Hawthorn game last week was the twilight game, so they had about an hour and a half LESS time then us.

I'm really disappointed that we lost, but we gave it a great shot and very nearly got there. THOSE two umpiring decisions were shocking but that's footy.

If someone had said to me at the start of the season that we'd be top 4 (and still a very slight chance of top 2) going into finals I'd have taken it in a heartbeat. Whatever happens from hereon in, 2012 has been a great year to be a Swans fan.

[Melbournehammer]

I think playing Geelong in Geelong is likely to help.

My bigger concern is our inability to stop teams once they get on a roll. Teams can score and have scored really quickly against us. The essendon game was almost inconceivable - except that it has been repeated a few times !

We have got to learn what we can do to get hands on the ball and kill it sometimes. To. Have six goals kicked in eight minutes is going to lose you a lot f Ames - particularly since we find it so damn hard to score ourselves.

[DLBIA14]

A game that changed with every quarter. First quarter we looked like guns, second quarter we looked like imposters, third quarter was a battle of the wills that left a statelmate and the fourth quarter was a shoot out.

I'm really disappointed losing this game moreso than any other loss this year. I think the boys might have a mentally tough week trying to piece together their confidence again.

[Meg]

Great effort by the Swans.
Remember we only had a 6 day break from a late night finish at Etihad last week (same as against Pies) so Hawks hadan advantage in that last qtr.
An extra day to get over bruises and niggles is a big advantage.

Top effort.

+1. And just to get some idea of the bruises and niggles, look at what is happening in the background of the video of the interview with Jarrad McVeigh on the Swans website. And these are players who will officially have 'no injuries'!

[31 hard at it]

Great effort by the Swans.
Remember we only had a 6 day break from a late night finish at Etihad last week (same as against Pies) so Hawks hadan advantage in that last qtr.
An extra day to get over bruises and niggles is a big advantage.

Top effort.

[Margie]

Substitute Jetta for Jude and there may have been improvement. Jetta just did not put his body on the line when needed. He could have used his speed a lot more efficiently to chase players down and actually lay a decent tackle.

I'm not blaming Jetta for the loss, Hawthorn are a very good team and it was a great game. Buddy is just a notch above most forwards and once again, our forward line didn't really fire.

I thought going into tonight's game it was a 50/50 proposition, but was more confident of winning this one than beating Geelong next week.

I don't subscribe to the theory that it was good preparation for the finals. It may have the opposite effect - we could lose momentum or confidence by getting pipped at the post by 3 of the top 4 contenders.

On a positive note, the crowd atmosphere was the best all year.

[GongSwan]

Close but no cigar, again, we can match anyone, just that fraction of composure, that possibly Jude can add

[mcs]

I have only read the last page of this thread, so apologies if I am just repeating what others have said.

Firstly, it was a terrific game of footy.

Secondly, we more than matched Hawthorn for most of the game. We just didn't get enough score on the board in the first quarter and a half when we were dominating possession. The late second quarter lapse was costly - stating the bleedin' obvious there, but we came out and matched the Hawks goal for goal in the second half.

Maybe we're just a smidgeon off the top couple of sides this year. I think we can beat them all - after all, we've only lost by small margins - but maybe just 3 or 4 times out of 10.

I do agree with the poster above that Jetta is not stepping up at the moment. He needs to actually try and win the ball on the ground occasionally - not dive into packs at will, but when there is a loose ball to be won and he is the closest Swan, he needs to actually attack the thing, rather than hope a team mate might get there first. Too many times, the ball was there to be at least contested and he stood back while a Hawk swooped onto it and ran away. He's had an excellent season and certainly has improved heaps but there is still plenty of scope for improvement.

+1 to everything said here. Great game of footy, but we really didn't put enough scoreboard pressure on when we absolutely dominated them for the first term and a half. Any other day and we would of taken a good part of a 10 goal lead into half time, but we blew it today.

Then it was 2 quarters of intense, finals like footy and we almost snatched it at the end. A couple of 50/50 calls go our way (i.e. if that Porpulo or whatever his name is call was called as HTB not a 'high' tackle) or the ridiculous non 50 metre call (what an absurd piece of umpiring that was - its 50 every day of the year!) and we might of got home. But we really should have locked it down when we got in front with a couple of minutes to go. Two factors didn't help us there. One we have a lot of good but inexperienced players, and two, i think that is the sort of situation where Jude Bolton makes a massive difference. Apart from his obvious actual influence on the play, there is also his leadership and influence on the younger heads in midfield. He will be a welcome return next week.

I thought at the start of the year that 2012 might be a year too early for us, and perhaps that is the way it is going. But, even though we've lost 3 close ones against three other top teams, they have all been flip of the coin jobs that could easily have fallen our way. We have to play a lot more consistently across the 4 quarters come finals time to get anywhere near the main game at the end, but I firmly believe we are good enough. Our first quarter and a half showed that. With the exception of not getting enough scoring shots out of it, we were absolutely belting who will now be 'the unbdoubted Premiership favourites.' If we can reproduce footy like that, especially the immense pressure we had them under for 3 + quarters come finals time, it will take an almighty good team to beat us. Hawthorn are a fine team (very dislikable, but a good footy team none the less) and we had them on the ropes well and truly in the first quarter and a half. We didn't land enough blows to mortally wound them, and as a good boxer does they came back hard, but that early onslaught showed me that our best is good enough to match it with any team in the comp.

We might not quite make it in 2012, but we are going to give it a damn good shake, that I am sure of, and the Swannies will never lie down and just roll over, that is a given. We are too proud a club, and too good a team to do that.