TOPIC:

One good thing is Swans percentage is still quite good after todays match.
They should be able to get over the line next week, and could find themselves back in the top half of the league ladder.

Mad Dog wrote: The 3rd qtr cost us when we were absolutely shocking and our weaknesses in pace and midfield depth were exposed. Noted,we had a few things go against us and a few guys banged up but there is no way we should've lost that game! The effort in the end to get within 2 points was good but we didn't win so I'm not happy!

Looking foward to seeing the back of Coniglio,Banfield needs a rest or to lift his game and a couple of others just aren't ready! But that's where we are at I guess. Looking foward to seeing Riddoch and Wilson come back in next week! Kirkup played well in the ressies. I noticed Nelson didn't play Ressies today,first thought was that he said eff you when not getting picked? He and Riddoch should definitely have been playing today along with Wilson!
Also Ridley didn't play at all today ???

The season has been on the line for a few weeks now. A loss to the Eagles reserves will put an end to our finals hopes I'd say with a tough run home so that game is the biggest of the season without a doubt!

Gee MD time to give the Jacob bashing a rest mate although I do agree Rudy, Nelson & Wilson should all be playing in the League team. Banfield did lay 8 tackles inside forward 50 but we need a bit more pressure applied up there for mine. Not sure why Donovan was dropped/injured last week thought he was good up forward. Hopefully Kirky is ok after taking no part after half time & Bluey is only out for a week with his cut foot. Ridley is away with the WA 18's isnt he?

Looks like I missed a cracker of a game aside from the result. Only bit I got to see was 30 seconds during the qtr time huddle on the TV where I heard Harding say to the forwards "they gave us 4 goals piece of piss" ...appears the rest of the game didn't quite work out that way.

Beasley Hutton wrote:

Mad Dog wrote: The 3rd qtr cost us when we were absolutely shocking and our weaknesses in pace and midfield depth were exposed. Noted,we had a few things go against us and a few guys banged up but there is no way we should've lost that game! The effort in the end to get within 2 points was good but we didn't win so I'm not happy!

Looking foward to seeing the back of Coniglio,Banfield needs a rest or to lift his game and a couple of others just aren't ready! But that's where we are at I guess. Looking foward to seeing Riddoch and Wilson come back in next week! Kirkup played well in the ressies. I noticed Nelson didn't play Ressies today,first thought was that he said eff you when not getting picked? He and Riddoch should definitely have been playing today along with Wilson!
Also Ridley didn't play at all today ???

The season has been on the line for a few weeks now. A loss to the Eagles reserves will put an end to our finals hopes I'd say with a tough run home so that game is the biggest of the season without a doubt!

Gee MD time to give the Jacob bashing a rest mate although I do agree Rudy, Nelson & Wilson should all be playing in the League team. Banfield did lay 8 tackles inside forward 50 but we need a bit more pressure applied up there for mine. Not sure why Donovan was dropped/injured last week thought he was good up forward. Hopefully Kirky is ok after taking no part after half time & Bluey is only out for a week with his cut foot. Ridley is away with the WA 18's isnt he?

Coniglio is a great kid! Just not up to it at the moment and I think he needs to work on his deficiencies at a lower level! Hardly bashed him up in my previous post!
Noted Banfield laid 8 tackle but he hasn't had double figure stats for at least 3 weeks now and while stats aren't be all and end all he just doesn't look dangerous.
Don't think Donovan was dropped,hurt his hand against EF.
Ridley may be away but didn't play.
Dylan Nelson didn't play anywhere yday?

Forgot to mention what a terrific performance by the Reserves!!! Beating the top team who when we played last time,beat us by 100 points from memory. It wasn't pretty but who cares?!
Our % isn't great but can go a long way towards securing a finals birth with a win next weekend. How long has it been since our Ressies played finals? Must be at least 10 years

Mad Dog wrote: Forgot to mention what a terrific performance by the Reserves!!! Beating the top team who when we played last time,beat us by 100 points from memory. It wasn't pretty but who cares?!
Our % isn't great but can go a long way towards securing a finals birth with a win next weekend. How long has it been since our Ressies played finals? Must be at least 10 years

2008 our Ressies played finals along with the League & Colts the same year not sure they have since, our last Ressies Premiership was 2006 with Dennis Armfield B.O.G
Hopefully we have a few boys back in the near future with the 18s finishing on Wednesday and we get a few back from injury and or who didn't play at all yesterday.

Beasley Hutton wrote:

Mad Dog wrote: The 3rd qtr cost us when we were absolutely shocking and our weaknesses in pace and midfield depth were exposed. Noted,we had a few things go against us and a few guys banged up but there is no way we should've lost that game! The effort in the end to get within 2 points was good but we didn't win so I'm not happy!

Looking foward to seeing the back of Coniglio,Banfield needs a rest or to lift his game and a couple of others just aren't ready! But that's where we are at I guess. Looking foward to seeing Riddoch and Wilson come back in next week! Kirkup played well in the ressies. I noticed Nelson didn't play Ressies today,first thought was that he said eff you when not getting picked? He and Riddoch should definitely have been playing today along with Wilson!
Also Ridley didn't play at all today ???

The season has been on the line for a few weeks now. A loss to the Eagles reserves will put an end to our finals hopes I'd say with a tough run home so that game is the biggest of the season without a doubt!

Gee MD time to give the Jacob bashing a rest mate although I do agree Rudy, Nelson & Wilson should all be playing in the League team. Banfield did lay 8 tackles inside forward 50 but we need a bit more pressure applied up there for mine. Not sure why Donovan was dropped/injured last week thought he was good up forward. Hopefully Kirky is ok after taking no part after half time & Bluey is only out for a week with his cut foot. Ridley is away with the WA 18's isnt he?

MD one wonders what your criticism would be if you didn't like Coniglio! It seemed to me we had a pretty dysfunctional forward line for most of the game yesterday. I suspect there may be a number of changes (3-5) for next week's game.

How many of us would entertain the notion of two very "colourful" WANFL hardnuts such as Ronnie Boucher & Basil Campbell sharing a quiet beer ????

Yep indeed yesterday at Fremantle Oval

Southerner wrote: How many of us would entertain the notion of two very "colourful" WANFL hardnuts such as Ronnie Boucher & Basil Campbell sharing a quiet beer ????

Yep indeed yesterday at Fremantle Oval

True? That shows that these guys have a real admiration for each other and it would have been great to be a fly on the wall listening in!

Funny old game of momentum shifts really. I was disappointed immediately after the game as you always are when your team loses by less than a goal. When I reflected on the game later and looked at the stats, I was actually surprised that Swans came that close really. Souths were a 4 goal better team on the day and it would have been an absolute steal if we had pinched it like we did in the corresponding fixture last year.

The Doggies dominated the midfield apart from a few patches in the game where Swans got maximum value for their clearances. They had 10 more inside 50's than Swans. We had no one like Cook and Ashton Hams who provided great run and carry for them all day. The fact that we came within a kick was a tribute to the boys spirit and persistence when they were being outplayed and we nearly made South pay the price for not putting us away in the 3rd quarter.

As Mad Dog said the 3rd quarter was very poor. For some reason Swans completely switched off after half time and allowed South to take complete control of the game. Really the Doggies could have kicked 8 in this term and put the result beyond doubt but they were a little inclined to overuse the handball and put themselves under pressure which then meant a few opportunities went begging for them.

Of course the Swans boys fought tooth and nail in the last quarter but it was always tough playing catch up footy on a warm day when everyone was exhausted. I’m not sure what Harding and the other coaching staff can do to minimise these periods in games when the team switches off but this trend has cost us several games this year without doubt.

Both teams made mistakes but Swans were particularly adept at coughing up the ball to their opponents when Souths were in scoring positions. I thought the defence looked shaky yesterday, particularly when Ugle went off and we are obviously missing Simmo’s calm decision making and ability to take a saving mark. The final nail was the comical ‘kick’ out at the 30 minute mark of the last quarter where they tried to handball out of defence, turned the ball over and conceded a goal which would probably not have happened had they kicked long to a contest. As it turned out Swans kicked another goal after this and may well have won if this had not happened.

Decision making under pressure is something many of the Swans players need to work on, you can excuse these mistakes with 19 year old rookies but many of the experienced players were making poor decisions as well.

This defeat now makes the game against East Perth next week season defining for them. A loss in this game would not rule them out of the finals race but it would mean that they would have to win a number of games in a row after the bye to stay alive which is something that they have not been able to do so far this year.

We will wait and see what we get served up by the Eagles lotto this time, at least Darling won’t be there. I think there will be some changes to the Swans team given the magnificent performance by the reserves yesterday. Hopefully Elari recovers because did we ever miss his hardness at the ball yesterday. I think we also need an X factor to try and throw the Eagles off their game and I would give Riddoch a chance to display his wares in front of an AFL audience, he just needs to work harder when he hasn’t got the ball.

Every player needs to lift next week and perform at the standard like we did when we smashed Peel by 8 goals in Round 6 which was by far their best performance of the season so far.