Match Day Thread Rnd 5 V Western Bulldogs.

[Meg]

Did any media report include news about why Reid did not play on Saturday?

Was reported that he pulled up with a sore calf after training on Thursday. Hopefully just precautionary to omit him on Saturday and he will be ok for this coming match.

[graemed]

Did any media report include news about why Reid did not play on Saturday?

[aguy]

Indeed. So sad. Schneider looked devastated after the siren. Must be such a horrible feeling.

Shaw should have had the same feeling after the swans game

[Meg]

That second miss from Schneider was such a heartbreaker for the saints - snap from right in front about 15 out? Saints deserved to win today, and he blew two chances to seal it for them.

Indeed. So sad. Schneider looked devastated after the siren. Must be such a horrible feeling.

[mcs]

It's no consolation but - GWS got belted with Mummy playing, the Suns won their first match playing the first time without Malceski, and St Kilda heartbreakingly lost by two points to the Bombers with Schneider missing two 'gimmes' in the last few minutes. So our dearly departed Swannies might not have won it for us yesterday either!

That second miss from Schneider was such a heartbreaker for the saints - snap from right in front about 15 out? Saints deserved to win today, and he blew two chances to seal it for them.

[Meg]

It's no consolation but - GWS got belted with Mummy playing, the Suns won their first match playing the first time without Malceski, and St Kilda heartbreakingly lost by two points to the Bombers with Schneider missing two 'gimmes' in the last few minutes. So our dearly departed Swannies might not have won it for us yesterday either!

[Ludwig]

One thought on Rampe. He seems to be asked to variously play on a small forward, third tall and act as a distributor out of the back half given he is a thumping kick.

It's a lot to ask and wonder if the reason for some mistakes in recent weeks.

Once Reid is back, he and Laidler can act to cover pure forwards, and I'd leave Rampe free to play a bit looser and use his kicking to clear defence.

Match that with McVeigh playing more behind the ball to marshall things a bit more and use his elite kicking, and I'd feel better about our release options from the back.

I agree. I'd like to see 5 play back with 2 HB flankers run the wings in Jetta and Rampe. They pick up the play defensively coming down their respective wings and rebound when we have the ball. Both are long kicks and have good pace.

[Ampersand]

I'm happy to persevere with Rampe. He's a young player with a lot of upside going forward. Shaw on the other hand... could someone like Jones really do much more damage to our chances?

From the little I've seen I really liked the look of Newman and he seems like a composed defender and a good kick. Hope he shows something in the 2s. Tell me we couldn't have used some of this delivery yesterday:

http://www.sydneyswans.com.au/video/2014-12-03/swanstv-nic-newman-highlights

[i'm-uninformed2]

One thought on Rampe. He seems to be asked to variously play on a small forward, third tall and act as a distributor out of the back half given he is a thumping kick.

It's a lot to ask and wonder if the reason for some mistakes in recent weeks.

Once Reid is back, he and Laidler can act to cover pure forwards, and I'd leave Rampe free to play a bit looser and use his kicking to clear defence.

Match that with McVeigh playing more behind the ball to marshall things a bit more and use his elite kicking, and I'd feel better about our release options from the back.

[mcs]

If we played boring wet weather footy: long kicks down the line, back our mid's to win the ball up / throw in and wait for a mistake in your forward 50 - we would have won easily.

That's it in a crux. Saying that, the really poor play was in the 1st quarter, before the rain really set it. It would of been a very different day I feel had Buddy went back and made in 18 nothing early on, then it going down the other end two minutes later for a Rhyce Shaw Brainfart which got the doggies going.

[goods78]

The players are pretty good a taking responsibility for skill execution errors. What annoys me is the coaching staff lack of accountability for a wet weather game plan (or lack of it - as per other thread).

40 points from turnovers, the majority it seemed when in possession down back the swans kept on trying to switch the ball instead of going down the line.

I could not believe McVeigh calling for the switch at one point in heavy rain whilst deep in defence. If you have the captain calling for it, to me that says that the coaches approve of the play.

If we played boring wet weather footy: long kicks down the line, back our mid's to win the ball up / throw in and wait for a mistake in your forward 50 - we would have won easily.

[goods78]

Grateful if someone would explain what the umpire called in relation to the Pyke (non) mark near the end of the match. Did the ump say the ball had been touched? Or did he call that Pyke had played on? Or something else?

I was listening to the umpires via the sports ears and he was repeatedly calling 'touched play on'

[aguy]

Can I just say that I love the rwo community and the discussion that we can have about our favourite footy team

[mcs]

I don't agree that the disposal from defence has been a result of the lack of presentation up field. The Bulldogs game was lost fair and square by poor kicks by shaw Rampe and Richards and by fumbling turnovers by Grundy. The turnover kicks were straight to bldogs players with next to no pressure on them. The kicks should never have gone there in the first place. Of course the midfielders could try to get free more but the defenders turnovers have been woeful

It was a combination of terrible decision making (as aguy suggests - why would you make some of those kicks in the first place) and insipid actual quality of the disposals

[aguy]

We havent had a big score kicked against us yet, so the backline is not doing too badly defensively. Being overseas for a bit of this season (missed 2 games so far) I cant comment too much, but from what I have seen and read on RWO it appears our disposal from defence, and maybe lack of players presenting and spreading has caused too many turnovers, and our midfield disposal scrappy and without purpose apart from Lloyd. We have lost 2 matches by narrow margins and coming back from a tough game in the West and playing poor conditions didn't help.

I don't agree that the disposal from defence has been a result of the lack of presentation up field. The Bulldogs game was lost fair and square by poor kicks by shaw Rampe and Richards and by fumbling turnovers by Grundy. The turnover kicks were straight to bldogs players with next to no pressure on them. The kicks should never have gone there in the first place. Of course the midfielders could try to get free more but the defenders turnovers have been woeful