Rd 3 vs Western Bulldogs @ Marvel - Pre-Game Thread

[Aaron]

It's already Tuesday and still waiting for a VFL game review from Friday. Is it asking too much? And when they do come, there's usually not much substance to them.

Nothing from Laidler yet but the VFL has a brief wrap of the game and provide some vanilla review at R1 wrap: Swans stun Bulldogs, Cats outlast Bombers

[Bexl]

Horrible way to debut sitting on the bench hoping for an injury. Let Roberts play reserves until there is a spot for him to move straight into the senior team.

I agree that he had a good game in the 2nds I also agree that we wont name him as sub. Sheldrick must play in the 2s this week as he had no game time last week. If no changes then I think Taylor as medical sub.

[Bexl]

Campbell and Stephens will play every week unless they need a rest . They are in our best 22 and are showing it now . Kennedy as well ,Horse would rather use him in different positions than drop him. He wont be dropped , end of .

I agree Campbell and Stephens are coming along well however we are now in the very good position that we have more than 22 players that are best22.

[Ludwig]

G'day Ludwig - you should be able to watch the full VFL game here:
VFL Match Replay, R1: Footscray v Sydney

I was at the ground and Gould does look very fit. I was surprised how much of a talker - in a good way - that Melican is.

Thanks for that.

I got the impression from an earlier posting that it was only shown live and didn't bother searching for a replay. I don't find the AFL website easy to navigate. Not much logic in it. Probably designed by Telstra.

[TheBloods]

I agree Campbell and Stephens are coming along well however we are now in the very good position that we have more than 22 players that are best22.

Not really

[Auntie.Gerald]

Agree SwanSand

It is such a fine balance

I suppose we will know more thus wknd re dominating in attack which is our no1 defence and how dominant this is vs playing with one or some defensive forwards

My gut feeling is that we are showing enough in attack that increasing this ability has more upside than keeping in a singular defensive forward.

Could be wrong for sure as it has been required to date but I suspect that cycle is changing as all teams do as emerging players start to become impossible not to pick because of their talent and IMPACT in possession of the ball

[Vonsteinman]

Apologies if this has already been noted but a Swans supporter I follow on another platform posted the following on Rowbottom:

James Rowbottom after two games is ranked sixth in the league for tackles (14), third for pressure acts (57) and LEADS THE LEAGUE for defensive half pressure acts (32)!

[Blood Relative]

Apologies if this has already been noted but a Swans supporter I follow on another platform posted the following on Rowbottom:

James Rowbottom after two games is ranked sixth in the league for tackles (14), third for pressure acts (57) and LEADS THE LEAGUE for defensive half pressure acts (32)!

Good post...future captain. IMO

- - - Updated - - -

I agree Campbell and Stephens are coming along well however we are now in the very good position that we have more than 22 players that are best22.

Indeed we do. Good observation.

[Aprilbr]

Apologies if this has already been noted but a Swans supporter I follow on another platform posted the following on Rowbottom:

James Rowbottom after two games is ranked sixth in the league for tackles (14), third for pressure acts (57) and LEADS THE LEAGUE for defensive half pressure acts (32)!

Rowbottom doing so well! Who would have predicted that?

[Ludwig]

Apologies if this has already been noted but a Swans supporter I follow on another platform posted the following on Rowbottom:

James Rowbottom after two games is ranked sixth in the league for tackles (14), third for pressure acts (57) and LEADS THE LEAGUE for defensive half pressure acts (32)!

I can't wait until James hits 1000 Pressure Acts, and the entire SCG empties out onto the field to celebrate his magnificent achievement.

[dejavoodoo44]

I can't wait until James hits 1000 Pressure Acts, and the entire SCG empties out onto the field to celebrate his magnificent achievement.

Has anyone been keeping tabs on how many frees Joel Selwood has got for high contact? Would he have reached 1,000 yet? If not, perhaps that's something that could be celebrated at the cattery?

Actually, now that I think of it, celebrating it away from the cattery could be dangerous. Well done, Joel: whack! Onya, Joel: whack! Excuse me, Mr Selwood, can I just a photo of my kid whacking you in the head?

[Auntie.Gerald]

Something that will be examined again this week vs another quality outfit in the Dogs is our current strategy of minimising key player dependency out of our backline attack.

Sometimes we can be looking for patterns that don't really exist but we think they do...

But what I noticed distinctly on the weekend against the Cats was such a diversified approach to our exits which is such a critical part of footy as we know.

Whether it was Campbell, Lloyd, lizard, Cunningham etc our ability to have give and go exits from our kick ins was remarkable.

Seriously lethal and the Cats had to set their defence deeper because of how clean our exits were via uncontested by higher risk short passing by foot predominantly