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enjoy your hols DW.......nice to kick straight for a change.......

SD...fucke?n umps again hey? always seems to cost u boys...as always I guess

Freeze -- that is because you had an old Subi player kicking them for you -- a good win too.

If anyone wants to blame the umps they have their heads in the sand! Absolutely no impact in the final result which could've and should've have been much more. That was as pathetic 4 quarter performance as I've seen in 20 years I've been following the ducks.

South4eva wrote: SD...fucke?n umps again hey? always seems to cost u boys...as always I guess

Ahaha mate you have zero right to gloat! What about your absolute pumping today ay!?? Fuckin South Frem frontrunners yet again!!!

Terrible kicking is terrible footy whilst attitude is still the most important indicator to how we play.
Great win by the Colts to kick 3 goals in the last 5 minutes against the wind to stay unbeaten, and good to see the Reserves bounce back from last weeks debacle.

Mad Dog wrote: If anyone wants to blame the umps they have their heads in the sand! Absolutely no impact in the final result which could've and should've have been much more. That was as pathetic 4 quarter performance as I've seen in 20 years I've been following the ducks.

I agree mate, don't blame the umpires as our players should be absolutely used to the deplorable rubbish that gets dished up to us each week, highlighted by the report on Ricky Cary for a perfect tackle which should be thrown out in an instant if they are fair dinkum about Australian Rules football!!! just get on with the game and win the footy..We will learn from the loss and bounce back

A few hours to dwell on that performance and I honestly didn't see that coming. I was however a little less confident when noticing that Elari was out and had been replaced by a bloke who I don't rate at all. We effectively played that game with one less mid,against a team who's strenght is the mids,because all McKay did all day was follow Obrien around. The worst part of that was,that at certain times when we had the ball he had opportunity to demand it and needed to offer an option but was too worried about what Obrien was doing. He should never play League footy again.
It shows that we are struggling for some experienced depth at the moment as the only other options to come in are a bunch of kids.
And the injury list is growing. Ugle will be out for a couple with a hammy,Cary was on one leg and not sure how long Elari will be out for with what I think is a hip. Still no Doc,Banfield must still be 4-5 away,Burnham has had stitches in his foot and Not sure of the issue with Smirk.
Yes the ressies got up and that is fantastic but I can't see a lot of players ready for the step up. Donovan should come in and then it's a raffle.
The game itself was hard to watch! We clearly weren't mentally prepared. Out numbered badly at the contest(sometimes 1 on 3,2 on 4)and when we did have possession and space we either chopped it up or fumbled.
A huge 2 weeks coming up that will define our season! WP and then a 4 day break to play a fresh Peel. Might I just say that that is horrible fixturing! Semi professional footballers who have to go to work during the week expected to back up after 4 days. Could easily be 2-4 in a few weeks.

Well done to the Sharks, they were the vastly superior side today and to be honest the 31 point margin flattered our boys as Swans got a few cheap junk time goals to make the scoreboard more respectable. East Freo attacked the game from the first bounce, they wanted the ball so much more than Swans, they dominated the clearances and when they had the ball they consistently hit targets by hand and foot. Conversely when Swans had the ball, the Sharks put a lot of pressure on the ball carrier which often forced the black and whites into error. Their delivery into the forward 50 was precise and made things easy for a guy as skilled as Hampson. Their work rate was far superior to Swans so they were often running hard and creating loose men in their forward half.

So a big reality check today for our boys. Swans cannot afford to bring anything other than their A game to a contest. They were 2nd to the ball on most occasions and when they took possession they often butchered it by fumbling marks, handballing behind guys and kicking over the heads of their targets. Did Faulkner hit a target at any stage today? Even Sid the Swan wasn’t on his game as his pants fell down at quarter time as he was walking in front of the McDonald Stand, at least this caused a bit of a laugh and some enjoyment which was in short supply today for Swans fans!

Elari was obviously a big loss as was Ugle when he came from the ground early but this was no excuse as East Freo had their problems as well and Swans still had a midfield good enough to compete to a much greater extent. Swans made it ridiculously easy at times for the East Freo defence with their haphazard kicking into the forward line. On one occasion in the last quarter, Brock O’Brien who was camped on his own across half back, took 3 uncontested marks in about 3 minutes from hurried Swans kicks, it was poor footy. Swans defence stood up OK given the pressure but theres not much that guys like Ames, Howard and Simmo could do given the midfield dominance of the Sharks.

Having said all that there were some positives to come out of the day for Swannies. Rudy Riddoch is starting to deliver on some of the promise he has shown for the last year or two. Some of his goals today were quite audacious in that he took on and beat 2 or 3 defenders along the way. Levi Ridley and Warwick Wilson showed that they are very comfortable in the WAFL environment and have heaps of potential. Sure they make some mistakes but all young players do. Josh Kirkup showed some guts and determination, he got a heavy hit early in the game but he made some good 2nd efforts and won the ball for Swans on a number of occasions.

The other upside today was the turn around by the reserves team who were humbled by Souths last week but pipped the Sharks by a goal today in a very exciting finish. Depending on the fitness of Elari and Ugle and also with Cary on report, there may be a few spots up for grabs in the Anzac clash with West Perth. Guys like Donovan, Coniglio, Manton, Grescos and Nelson would have to come under consideration given their performances today.

It will be interesting to see the teams response to what was a subpar performance admittedly against a very good side who didn’t allow them to play their game. I would hope that they would at least come out with a lot more desire to be first to the footy at Arena Joondalup next week. I think we need to keep in mind that this Swans team is predominately a young group of players and they are going to be a bit up and down from one week to the other.

Good summary Mike. Also enjoyed a nice cold beer in the bar at halftime. Catching up with old friends who support Swans. The beer was also cheap at $4 a middie! A good day for us Sharks supporters.