Perspective.

[SemperFidelis]

Gees I hate naming players, but McKenzie and Dunstan turned it over all day. In their defence, no one ran for them. Shocking performance.

did you watch the game? dunstan had our third best disposal efficiency today (85%) D-Mac started poorly but improved (75%).
Billings, Acres, and Sinclair - all outside mids had under 70%.

I thought both were good. Our disposal overall was ordinary today. No need to single them out, I think. Dunny was being sat on much of the day; would love to know what was being said.

But I remember DMac as being a little faster; didn't quite have the jets on today.

[Bluthy]

You could almost predict this would happen. We'd been up for 3 big games and we get a bit ahead of ourselves and bang we hit a bit of wall against an oppo prepared to do the hard work (grand finalists too). We are not that ultra-consistent club yet that can win despite not playing its best. But that is the nature of young teams.

Disappointing to lose by so much but we were off today and Sydney were on. STill a lot of development/sifting through our list to go - but that isn't a surprise to me. We had some of our limitations shown to us again today. We are like a shark - if teams stop us moving we tend to die. We need to keep developing backup plans. We don't have a huge load of great ball users who can keep possession under tough presses.

Teams studied us closely as we went up the ladder. Now we need to evolve further. Probably got our structure wrong at the selection table that didn't help. Without Bruce's tank and workrate, Roo and Paddy both struggling, we lacked a strong forward target for our "bomb and lock" strategy. Without Webster it fell back on Joey to try and kick our way out of the back half and that was too heavy a load. Someone like Rice with his good kicking might have been better than Mckenzie.

Swans did a great job shutting down Steven's run which hurt. You can judge if we are likely to win by how much STeven's is allowed to break the lines. Acres got going for a while with some bullocking runs but then went MIA a bit. So we need to keep developing other options and get more consistency across the board. Today felt like a typical blip in effort for a young team that had been up for a while.

[spert]

It was a very lazy effort and poorly coached. A lot of homework for AR this week.

[remboy]

You could almost predict this would happen. We'd been up for 3 big games and we get a bit ahead of ourselves and bang we hit a bit of wall against an oppo prepared to do the hard work (grand finalists too). We are not that ultra-consistent club yet that can win despite not playing its best. But that is the nature of young teams.

Disappointing to lose by so much but we were off today and Sydney were on. STill a lot of development/sifting through our list to go - but that isn't a surprise to me. We had some of our limitations shown to us again today. We are like a shark - if teams stop us moving we tend to die. We need to keep developing backup plans. We don't have a huge load of great ball users who can keep possession under tough presses.

Teams studied us closely as we went up the ladder. Now we need to evolve further. Probably got our structure wrong at the selection table that didn't help. Without Bruce's tank and workrate, Roo and Paddy both struggling, we lacked a strong forward target for our "bomb and lock" strategy. Without Webster it fell back on Joey to try and kick our way out of the back half and that was too heavy a load. Someone like Rice with his good kicking might have been better than Mckenzie.

Swans did a great job shutting down Steven's run which hurt. You can judge if we are likely to win by how much STeven's is allowed to break the lines. Acres got going for a while with some bullocking runs but then went MIA a bit. So we need to keep developing other options and get more consistency across the board. Today felt like a typical blip in effort for a young team that had been up for a while.

A lot of good points in this post. Add Newnes mising the last three quarters on top of Webster being out and our delivery from half back and wing was going to be down. Joey having a bad day just made that worse.

[Linton Lodger]

You could almost predict this would happen. We'd been up for 3 big games and we get a bit ahead of ourselves and bang we hit a bit of wall against an oppo prepared to do the hard work (grand finalists too). We are not that ultra-consistent club yet that can win despite not playing its best. But that is the nature of young teams.

Disappointing to lose by so much but we were off today and Sydney were on. STill a lot of development/sifting through our list to go - but that isn't a surprise to me. We had some of our limitations shown to us again today. We are like a shark - if teams stop us moving we tend to die. We need to keep developing backup plans. We don't have a huge load of great ball users who can keep possession under tough presses.

Teams studied us closely as we went up the ladder. Now we need to evolve further. Probably got our structure wrong at the selection table that didn't help. Without Bruce's tank and workrate, Roo and Paddy both struggling, we lacked a strong forward target for our "bomb and lock" strategy. Without Webster it fell back on Joey to try and kick our way out of the back half and that was too heavy a load. Someone like Rice with his good kicking might have been better than Mckenzie.

Swans did a great job shutting down Steven's run which hurt. You can judge if we are likely to win by how much STeven's is allowed to break the lines. Acres got going for a while with some bullocking runs but then went MIA a bit. So we need to keep developing other options and get more consistency across the board. Today felt like a typical blip in effort for a young team that had been up for a while.

+1 Really good post Bluthy, no hysteria or panic, and I reckon you're on the money.

[SemperFidelis]

You could almost predict this would happen. We'd been up for 3 big games and we get a bit ahead of ourselves and bang we hit a bit of wall against an oppo prepared to do the hard work (grand finalists too). We are not that ultra-consistent club yet that can win despite not playing its best. But that is the nature of young teams.

Disappointing to lose by so much but we were off today and Sydney were on. STill a lot of development/sifting through our list to go - but that isn't a surprise to me. We had some of our limitations shown to us again today. We are like a shark - if teams stop us moving we tend to die. We need to keep developing backup plans. We don't have a huge load of great ball users who can keep possession under tough presses.

Teams studied us closely as we went up the ladder. Now we need to evolve further. Probably got our structure wrong at the selection table that didn't help. Without Bruce's tank and workrate, Roo and Paddy both struggling, we lacked a strong forward target for our "bomb and lock" strategy. Without Webster it fell back on Joey to try and kick our way out of the back half and that was too heavy a load. Someone like Rice with his good kicking might have been better than Mckenzie.

Swans did a great job shutting down Steven's run which hurt. You can judge if we are likely to win by how much STeven's is allowed to break the lines. Acres got going for a while with some bullocking runs but then went MIA a bit. So we need to keep developing other options and get more consistency across the board. Today felt like a typical blip in effort for a young team that had been up for a while.

A lot of good points in this post. Add Newnes mising the last three quarters on top of Webster being out and our delivery from half back and wing was going to be down. Joey having a bad day just made that worse.

Agree and agree again. Good posts.

[degruch]

Gees I hate naming players, but McKenzie and Dunstan turned it over all day. In their defence, no one ran for them. Shocking performance.

did you watch the game? dunstan had our third best disposal efficiency today (85%) D-Mac started poorly but improved (75%).
Billings, Acres, and Sinclair - all outside mids had under 70%.

Unfortunately, those stats aren't much chop...I clearly saw Dunny dispose of the ball with wonderful efficiency directly to a team mate under the pump. Unfortunately, even I can read his thoughts from the stands, the Swans players had him wrapped up all day long. He's as slow as treacle. Didn't notice D-Mac all that much, Sinclair and Acres had dirty days. Even Steele was sloppy by foot.

As for perspective, we got done by a bottom 4 team, that played like a bottom 4 team, on our own patch. We were listless, unwilling to take the game on (with the exception of too few) and almost totally stagnant all day. Hopefully rockets are dished out during the week.

Paddy...I've defended him, and I'm not suggesting he go straight away after the limited opportunities he had today, but I'm starting to wonder what the point is. Iron hands, always beaten in a contest, he seems to lead too early and has no second effort...very disappointing. If he keeps it up, send him back to the VFL and let Barrett pump his tyres for the rest of the year, we can notch it up to experience, again.

[Bruce G McAbee]

Perspective, Longer is not our first ruckman, okay at the hit outs, not so good around the ground. Hickey is the opposite, good around the ground, not so good at the hit outs. Holmes, really good at the centre bounces, ordinary at best everywhere else. To make matters worse, using Gilbert or Bruce as our 2nd ruck is not going get us near a premiership. Maybe it's time to bring Marshall in as a 2nd ruckman/forward.
We need outside runners, Sydney just had outlets everywhere to get the ball out, we didn't. We also need to learn how not to get beat up because Sydney did that to us today, they made us look like kids playing against men, they beat us up because they know they can, they've been doing it for last 6 seasons without virtually a whimper from us. Our skills, both mentally and physically need improvement. We just made bad decisions today, over and over again. As someone said we delivered the ball better to their forwards then our own.

[BigMart]

F*** I hate excuses... not a fan of excuse makers either!

It was a pitiful effort... that simple!

Flogged

[Vazelos]

Too many players down today we didn't turn up. We may have got ahead of ourselves, I didn't like the body language from the first bounce. They wanted it more, they out muscled us in close and out ran us on the spread. Not once could we run the ball on any flank with any purpose, our player would look up and see a Swans wall. We could not penetrate which made us over use the ball.
Our mid fielders seemed to have lost confidence in our forward line which hasissues.
I can see Rowan Marshall coming in at some stage so we can have a look at him closer.
Can we carry Mc Cartin? Membrey and Bruce have had one good season but our now not playing at the same level.
Longer can tap tuck but nothing else, Hickey is good around the ground but can't tap ruck..

Jack Steven, Sam Gilbert can hold their head up..
Honourable mentions to Gresham and Acres also..
A day to forget...

[Devilhead]

Some people on here have no idea - Swans might have had a slow start to the season but they are definitely top 4 material - likely to be the first side to start 0-6 and make finals.

Losing Newnes hurt us there is no doubt about that - we aren't that far off just our coaches and players need to get smarter and that will come with more experience

Swans definitely seem to be our bogey side of sorts but we can turn it around if we are prepared to work hard and keep learning

[degruch]

Some people on here have no idea - Swans might have had a slow start to the season but they are definitely top 4 material - likely to be the first side to start 0-6 and make finals.

The Swans looked marginally less comical than us today, but we looked like the keystone cops. Had the Swans played any of the top 4 teams today they would have had their arses handed on a platter...we were garbage, we weren't jumped by some sleeping premiership contender, no excuses.

[Con Gorozidis]

Some people on here have no idea - Swans might have had a slow start to the season but they are definitely top 4 material - likely to be the first side to start 0-6 and make finals.

Losing Newnes hurt us there is no doubt about that - we aren't that far off just our coaches and players need to get smarter and that will come with more experience

Swans definitely seem to be our bogey side of sorts but we can turn it around if we are prepared to work hard and keep learning

Yes yes and last week were told Carlton were a good side. They arent.
If we have ambitions of being top 4 we need to beat all interstate sides on our home deck.

[Devilhead]

Some people on here have no idea - Swans might have had a slow start to the season but they are definitely top 4 material - likely to be the first side to start 0-6 and make finals.

The Swans looked marginally less comical than us today, but we looked like the keystone cops. Had the Swans played any of the top 4 teams today they would have had their arses handed on a platter...we were garbage, we weren't jumped by some sleeping premiership contender, no excuses.

Top 4 teams like Adelaide who have lost their last 2 - Cats who lost to 3 bottom 8 teams and GWS who are getting pantsed by the Tigers and of course West Coast who can't win east of the border????

Swans are a hardened fins side the
Eirik position does not indicate just how good team they are when in form - they smashed Norf last week who the previous week obliterated Adelaide

Swans are up and about and now just might be the most in form team in the comp after today's performance

[Devilhead]

Some people on here have no idea - Swans might have had a slow start to the season but they are definitely top 4 material - likely to be the first side to start 0-6 and make finals.

Losing Newnes hurt us there is no doubt about that - we aren't that far off just our coaches and players need to get smarter and that will come with more experience

Swans definitely seem to be our bogey side of sorts but we can turn it around if we are prepared to work hard and keep learning

Yes yes and last week were told Carlton were a good side. They arent.
If we have ambitions of being top 4 we need to beat all interstate sides on our home deck.

Yes everyone understands this but why all of sudden does everyone think we are top 4 material ?

Some supporters are getting way ahead of themselves thinking we are top 4 - we got a lesson today from a very well drilled experienced finals side however if we can take another step and make the finals this year it would be a huge step forward for our young still developing team - not forgetting that huge treasure chest we have to open

2018 to 2024 was always gunna be our window and we have already taken one top 4 scalp this year at home - be patient people

[Captain Impossible]

Gees I hate naming players, but McKenzie and Dunstan turned it over all day. In their defence, no one ran for them. Shocking performance.

did you watch the game? dunstan had our third best disposal efficiency today (85%) D-Mac started poorly but improved (75%).
Billings, Acres, and Sinclair - all outside mids had under 70%.

Yea, I was at the game, were you?

That's a very flattering disposal efficiency percentage for both players. But cheap possession in the back half means crap. It's what you do under pressure that counts. And if we're going to talk stats, 2 tackles from Dunstan over an entire game is not good enough.

[Captain Impossible]

Gees I hate naming players, but McKenzie and Dunstan turned it over all day. In their defence, no one ran for them. Shocking performance.

did you watch the game? dunstan had our third best disposal efficiency today (85%) D-Mac started poorly but improved (75%).
Billings, Acres, and Sinclair - all outside mids had under 70%.

And FYI, Nathan Brown had the 3rd best disposal efficiency of anyone today. By your reasoning, we should have him playing half back...

[Bluthy]

After all the insane s*** this week is anyone surprised we looked a bit distracted and flat? An experienced top 4 team could probably deal with all the crap going down. But we need to be at our best each week to win. With Newnes going down you almost just need to write it off as one of those weeks.

[degruch]

I need to write it off as one of those weeks just to cope with losing to a hapless Sydney side coming off a short break on our home ground...Richmond did make me feel a little better though. Geez, we'll need to come out like a ballistic missile next week.

[BigMart]

I don't think we should have played at all, why risk it... injuries, form for what?

Should have forfeited

Since they were always going to win

[Wayne42]

I don't think we should have played at all, why risk it... injuries, form for what?

Should have forfeited

Since they were always going to win

Ridiculous post

[Devilhead]

I need to write it off as one of those weeks just to cope with losing to a hapless Sydney side coming off a short break on our home ground...Richmond did make me feel a little better though. Geez, we'll need to come out like a ballistic missile next week.

Sydney aren't hapless - they are a hardened experienced finals side who are starting to show good form after a slow start to their season - they are not a bottom 8 sides

If you can't see that then you have no idea

[degruch]

I need to write it off as one of those weeks just to cope with losing to a hapless Sydney side coming off a short break on our home ground...Richmond did make me feel a little better though. Geez, we'll need to come out like a ballistic missile next week.

Sydney aren't hapless - they are a hardened experienced finals side who are starting to show good form after a slow start to their season - they are not a bottom 8 sides

If you can't see that then you have no idea

Yes, yes, they're okay...Buddy, Kennedy, Hannebery, Parker, Rampe, Rohan, etc, etc, they've played more than a few finals, cruelled by injury, blah, blah. Fact is they were only marginally better than us for 3/4's today, and we were crap. Our most decisive forward thrust of the day resulted in Skunk getting hit square in the middle of the back by the ball as he ran in the opposite direction. So, yeah, they beat that team. A lot more is required before they're cruising into the top 4.

[Devilhead]

I need to write it off as one of those weeks just to cope with losing to a hapless Sydney side coming off a short break on our home ground...Richmond did make me feel a little better though. Geez, we'll need to come out like a ballistic missile next week.

Sydney aren't hapless - they are a hardened experienced finals side who are starting to show good form after a slow start to their season - they are not a bottom 8 sides

If you can't see that then you have no idea

Yes, yes, they're okay...Buddy, Kennedy, Hannebery, Parker, Rampe, Rohan, etc, etc, they've played more than a few finals, cruelled by injury, blah, blah. Fact is they were only marginally better than us for 3/4's today, and we were crap. Our most decisive forward thrust of the day resulted in Skunk getting hit square in the middle of the back by the ball as he ran in the opposite direction. So, yeah, they beat that team. A lot more is required before they're cruising into the top 4.

Of course there is a lot more required - let's not get ahead of ourselves but also realise that we have the makings of a very very good side as long as we keep learning from our crap games and continue improving

Before the season started no one predicted we would make top 4 and many said we wouldn't make finals so why get upset when we get beat by a Grand Finalist from last year who is now clicking into top gear

Our window will open soon enough

[lintonstreet]

You could almost predict this would happen. We'd been up for 3 big games and we get a bit ahead of ourselves and bang we hit a bit of wall against an oppo prepared to do the hard work (grand finalists too). We are not that ultra-consistent club yet that can win despite not playing its best. But that is the nature of young teams.

Disappointing to lose by so much but we were off today and Sydney were on. STill a lot of development/sifting through our list to go - but that isn't a surprise to me. We had some of our limitations shown to us again today. We are like a shark - if teams stop us moving we tend to die. We need to keep developing backup plans. We don't have a huge load of great ball users who can keep possession under tough presses.

Teams studied us closely as we went up the ladder. Now we need to evolve further. Probably got our structure wrong at the selection table that didn't help. Without Bruce's tank and workrate, Roo and Paddy both struggling, we lacked a strong forward target for our "bomb and lock" strategy. Without Webster it fell back on Joey to try and kick our way out of the back half and that was too heavy a load. Someone like Rice with his good kicking might have been better than Mckenzie.

Swans did a great job shutting down Steven's run which hurt. You can judge if we are likely to win by how much STeven's is allowed to break the lines. Acres got going for a while with some bullocking runs but then went MIA a bit. So we need to keep developing other options and get more consistency across the board. Today felt like a typical blip in effort for a young team that had been up for a while.

+1 or me.
Young team outclassed today but still a lot of potential