The Roar article

[giant]

http://www.theroar.com.au/2016/03/09...llar-question/

Thought this was an interesting article and a reasonable assessment of where we're at. His thoughts on Jack down back and Heeney in midfield were played out somewhat last night.

[Ludwig]

I thought it was a poor analysis which showed a lack of understanding of the club. There were a few factual errors as well, e.g. that Franklin would be pushing 37 in the last year of his contract when he will in fact be 35 even when the contract ends, and talking about the 25 yo Hanners aging and being pushed to the periphery. Some comments were accurate, but not particularly insightful and often discussed in the media.

[RogueSwan]

I thought it was a poor analysis which showed a lack of understanding of the club...

I think it was a well thought out article. Much better than most media outlets publish. Maybe Hanners will be playing a different role in three-four years. Maybe Kirk (our next Coach ;-) will have completely different idea about his best position.

[barry]

It's a stats based analysis that only shows high level view. I think 2015 was a year we devoted to beating hawthorn, but due to unjury and being a game or two short, never got to show in the finals. I think jack carried an injury. Maybe a move to the backs may help.

Only 3 plays over 30 and 1 or 2 of those may not be regulars is encouraging. I think we'll make a big play in next year's odfseason .

[Auntie.Gerald]

No Goodes, Jetta, Pyke, Shaw, Birdy is a big loss for on field predictability then take out Macca, Reid, Rohan, McGlynn, Richards, ?

So that is 10 massively experienced that have not been on the field in the 3 NAB Games and if we don't have 3 or 4 of our 5 out injured now to start rd 1 ...... it is still playing footy at a SNR level without a wealth of 7 experienced players

could you imagine the Hawks with Mitchell, Hodge, Poppa, Gunston, Gibson plus another 2 missing ?

So yes it will no doubt be a challenge this season

i think we can muster 13 wins

[stevoswan]

No Goodes, Jetta, Pyke, Shaw, Birdy is a big loss for on field predictability then take out Macca, Reid, Rohan, McGlynn, Richards, ?

So that is 10 massively experienced that have not been on the field in the 3 NAB Games and if we don't have 3 or 4 of our 5 out injured now to start rd 1 ...... it is still playing footy at a SNR level without a wealth of 7 experienced players

could you imagine the Hawks with Mitchell, Hodge, Poppa, Gunston, Gibson plus another 2 missing ?

So yes it will no doubt be a challenge this season

i think we can muster 13 wins

Agree. I think top four is out of the question. Hope I'm wrong, and I know it's early days, but I see a greater divide between the Hawks and us atm for the season ahead, and it also appears others have improved more than we have/will....

[Doctor]

"Have the AFL?s crazy, draconian, ridiculous, unedifying and manifestly unfair trade sanctions, which expired at the end of last season?s trade period, played a role in how the Swans have been able to adjust their list to this new style of play?"

No doubt. I still get steamed every time this comes up.

[Ludwig]

"Have the AFL?s crazy, draconian, ridiculous, unedifying and manifestly unfair trade sanctions, which expired at the end of last season?s trade period, played a role in how the Swans have been able to adjust their list to this new style of play?"

No doubt. I still get steamed every time this comes up.

Me too!

Just imagine how good we'd be with Jake Carlisle and Mathew Leuenberger in the side. Those damn sanctions kept us from landing the 2 players that could bring a premiership this year.

[Levii3]

Glad we didn't end up getting Carlisle would be better if we got Yarran or Seedsman

[liz]

Me too!

Just imagine how good we'd be with Jake Carlisle and Mathew Leuenberger in the side. Those damn sanctions kept us from landing the 2 players that could bring a premiership this year.

I imagine our salary cap would have a bit to say too. Trading restrictions aside, we have Buddy and Tippett on around $1m per year (maybe more for Buddy this year), plus a strong midfield on healthy dollars. We practically paid Essendon to take Bird off our list, which I imagine had far more to do with his salary than it did the club's assessment of his worth as a player.

While the trade sanctions were grossly unfair, unreasonable and completely unjustifiable, I doubt they've had too much impact on the way the list has shaped up for 2015. Had they not been relaxed to allow us to trade in Sinclair for Jetta, we would have more of a cause for concern.

[Mug Punter]

That article seemed fair enough to me.

Agree re the point of pace, I could see Hanners, Jack and Heeney providing some of our outside pace this year. Our insiders of JPK, Mitchell and maybe Parker will have a tough job to do this year.

A big issues for us is our ageing backline as Ted got rolled a couple of times last year which I'd never really noticed before. With our academy looking bare this year I'd say we'd be looking at bringing a couple of KPDs in at the end of this season, one a journeyman with 2-3 decent years left in the tank and a young gun with our first round draft pick. I guess if Talia really steps up that could solve this for us but for mine he has squad player (and don't get me wrong we need them too) written all over him.