TOPIC:

2017 Review

Now that the 2017 WAFL season is over for Swans I thought I would provide some positive reflections on our season.

It would be remiss not to start by acknowledging Tallan Ames’s tremendous commitment and effort over a 250 + game career at Swans. Very few players in the future will achieve such longevity and it speaks volumes of his versatility and desire to do what was best for the club.

The 2017 season needs to be placed in the context of the 2016 season. After such a disastrous 2016, for the club to qualify all three teams in the finals is a noteworthy achievement and indicates that the club had a successfully season. It is also worth noting that we were the only club to reach the finals in all three grades. Credit also should be given to Greg Harding for his time at Swans and particularly on our turnaround after 2016. On top of those achievements our female teams won the three grand finals.

Our backline has been our strength for most of the past few seasons with guys like Notte, Howard and Ugle alongside Ames. This season we saw the blooding of Jack Watson and more recently Sam Taylor and Tobe Watson. Whilst it is expected that Sam Taylor will be one of the players drafted this year, Tobe Watson showed tremendous promise in his league games and in particular his efforts yesterday.

Anyone who has seen Taryce Stewart’s games this year know how exciting his talent is and it is to be hoped that his knee injury is relatively minor and we are able to witness his special talents at Basso again next year. Another player who made an impression and has given a taste of his potential next year was Noble and we can look forward to further development next season.

With the influx of Corey Gault, Jamie Bennell and David Ellard we were always going to see a marked improvement this season and that was exactly what happened. There is an expectation that Jamie Bennell may not be at Swans next year nut he showed his class and character this year and previously by honouring his commitment to the club and fulfilling his agreement with Swans at the start of the host club alignment (version 2). With a pre-season together Gault and Ellard will prove to be a very important part of our ongoing success.

My comments are not an exhaustive review of our season; rather they are some initial comments. I am sure others will be able to provide their own POSITIVE views about our 2017 season Hopefully, posters will only include positive comments in this topic and will create another topic if they feel the need to post some negative comments about our season.

I would like to finish on a couple of comments about Ryan Crowley. It is a pity that we won’t have more than one season of him playing for the mighty black and whites; anyone who was able to witness his game yesterday would have any doubts about his commitment to giving his absolute best for our club and I personally hope that he will be appointed our colts’ coach for next season.

42...of those you've mentioned imo Cory Gault is a very exciting prospect...I'd be surprised if he doesn't get picked up in the draft...not trying to hijack this topic...just thought I'd mention one of those you've highlighted. I just noticed he's 24 so maybe not. I thought he was younger than that but should be a good long term servant of SD which is terrific for you blokes as he showed a bit against Subi.

hopefully apart from the retiring players we keep everyone and build on a very solid season.
what stood out in the games against Subi and South was apart from talent which we cant do anything about unless we recruit was they looked fitter and stronger so hopefully all the young blokes at the club have a few weeks off and then get in training as we need to bridge the gap and we have some good young talent in the reserves but some found it hard to run with the top teams when they played league.
our improvement will hopefully come from Watson x 2, Cipro, Maguire, Nuich, Erceg, Hackett, Daniels and a few others.
need some of those guys to improve like Turner and Wilson and become good league players to give us more depth.
as for the coach, someone from outside the club would be my preference so every bloke is starting pre-season from scratch and we get a different look at how we play.
a fit Rogers and Clancee Pearce will also be handy

Justin Simpson looks like returning next year so that will be a huge plus for the new coach which is down to 2 applicants now

good solid effort especially after the previous season. I would give you a B+. I am chuffed actually as I tipped SD to finish third or fourth before the season startted.

Swandog wrote: Justin Simpson looks like returning next year so that will be a huge plus for the new coach which is down to 2 applicants now

Which 2 Swan dog?

I keep hearing rumours of a straight swap between Greg and Bill Monaghan...if reality would certainly have made a mockery of the entire interview process.

As for season 2017 can only tick it off as a real positive after 2016...a lot of players genuinely improved in 2017 and the returning AFL boys that came back brought good energy to our group and played their guts out for the stripes. We will lose a few, what we have learnt from them is a big plus

Hopefully some more Swans's supporters will comment soon.

S42 It would be remiss of me not to congratulate your club on the significant improvement from last season, Massive effort and the fact that all grades played finals is a sign of good things to come. With the right coach you should stay in the finals frame for a fair while.

Any other contributions from any Swans's supporters?

After the disaster of 2016, it was pleasing to see the club turn things around and get all 3 grades in the finals. While Ames and Crowley will be big losses, the return of Clancee Pearce and hopefully Ryan Davis will add that extra bit of toughness needed to go further into September.
One thing they really need to do is boost their scoring. They never scored 100 points or more in a game this year, and last achieved it against the weakened Peel team in Round 14 last year.
A better than expected result for 2017. Hoping for much more in 2018.