Rnd 10 - Pre Match Thread - vs North Melbourne at Marvel Stadium, Saturday 20 May, 1:454 PM

[i'm-uninformed2]

Per Longmire's midweek press conference, published a short while ago on the Swans website, Sheather is out this week with a recurrence of the stress issues in his foot. McCartin won't play, Ladhams almost certainly will.

Wouldn't commit to Sheldrick coming in or not, but did say there were a couple who would come in from the VFL side (which I guess is self-evident seeing that we've lost three and only Ladhams is right to return).

With Ladhams coming in, it seems unlikely this will be the week that McAndrew debuts. So the two ins are probably going to be two of Sheldrick, Stephens and Melican, with Warner and Hall-Kahan maybe outside chances. I can't think of anyone else who is even a remote possibility.

"We've had 21 changes to our team this year" - Longmire

Also, apparently Bud spent two days in bed Thurs/Fri but played to fill the gaps. Doesn't explain everything, as the trajectory is real, but might explain the particularly poor movement on the weekend. Anyhoo, onwards and upwards hey

[Nico]

agree 100%. Our poor defensive pressure from the midfield has made our defenders life a nightmare even without the injuries

Our forward pressure is worse.

[i'm-uninformed2]

Our forward pressure is worse.

Gotta say agree with this big time. It's been an issue for a while and was seriously noticeable seeing it up close on Saturday. I've said before, we really need a pesky, defence focused small forward companion for Paps playing the role Wicks did (albeit well in first half of year, then falling away a bit from there) in 2021. Hayward's willing to do some of the work, but otherwise, we're light on for defensive effort down there.

[waswan]

Thats Konstanty if he gets healthy

[Auntie.Gerald]

Beware McAandrew

He has grit and is accumulating skill and games awareness

Pykey in the making

PS did see McAndrew deck Heeney on the outside near the line at training pre season

It was a great hit

[707]

I am comforted by the amount of outs this week at Norf, but still nervous!

Hopefully Buddy can get himself up for this and kick a bag to get past Wade on the all time goal kickers

[Thunder Shaker]

Also, apparently Bud spent two days in bed Thurs/Fri but played to fill the gaps. Doesn't explain everything, as the trajectory is real, but might explain the particularly poor movement on the weekend. Anyhoo, onwards and upwards hey

Swans forced to play 'really sick' Buddy as injuries pile up

If there was an injury ladder, scored on most available first 22 players, we would be bottom four. West Coast is worse - they have so many injured that about half their list is unavailable.

The AFL does not have sufficient protection for particularly bad runs of injuries. This deficiency needs to be examined.

[liz]

The AFL does not have sufficient protection for particularly bad runs of injuries. This deficiency needs to be examined.

What do you suggest? The most obvious solution would be to increase list sizes but this is contrary to the apparent push to reduce them. This idea has reared its head again in the context of how the Tasmanian team will be set up. But there's also a thought (likely emanating from the better paid players in the competition) that the better players should get more of the pie. And that means sharing it amongst fewer players.

Apparently this will be no big deal. Clubs will just have supplementary lists pulled from the state level competitions. Which is great for those clubs with strong pools of state league players to choose from. ie not the NSW clubs. I am not sure what the quality of the Suns' and Lions' VFL squads is like because they've not had to call on them much. Brisbane has had an excellent run with injury over the last couple of seasons, while the Suns still have an extended list as part of their recent concessions.

[neilfws]

If there was an injury ladder, scored on most available first 22 players, we would be bottom four. West Coast is worse - they have so many injured that about half their list is unavailable.

There's a "games experience on the injury list" stat and indeed the Swans are bottom (or top) four, with 815. Eagles are 1982! But then Geelong are 1103, illustrating the danger of looking for simple explanations using single measures.

Games experience on the available list is just as relevant of course - I guess Geelong go well on that score.

[Jimitron5000]

Here is another one. I looked at our available senior listed players who played VFL last week. Between the five of them, they have a total of 132 games experience with Melican, Wicks and Stephens making up 128. There is very little experienced depth available, and most of them are small (the other two players are Sheldrick and Corey Warner), which really limits our options.

[707]

Seasons from Hell. We are not alone here, two very recent examples are Collingwood and Melbourne

Melbourne were beaten Prelim finalists in 2018, 17th in 2019, Premiers in 2021

Collingwood 2018-2020 were finalists, (in 2020 traded their future first to GWS for a three 20-30s picks inadvertently handing GWS pick 2) 2021 were 17th but bounced back last year to narrowly miss the GF

We are now done it appears so need to use the balance of this season to our future advantage, just like Melbourne and Collingwood did.

[i'm-uninformed2]

This largely reflects my view that things can change quickly. They have for the worse this year for us, and can change back quickly for the better.

In 2019, Melbourne had the best ruckman in the league in Gawn, tapping the ball to the best contested/clearance player in the league in Oliver, a former no 1 draft pick in Petracca, a top 3 Brownlow place finisher in Brayshaw, and Jack Viney . . . and they finished 17th.

There is a real challenge for everyone at the club to fix certain things - the list issues we still have, consistency of performance, etc. So nothing is guaranteed. But it's sometimes part of the evolution of the team.