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Good match thus far. Should be a ripper final quarter.

I thought it was a very creditable effort by subi. They just couldn't match the outside run of the swans. Or the inside game. They had to attack from Savigni. What a great game from him. They had Mayo portent in attack. They tried mixing the forward line up. Wagon train added a bit. I loved his fortitude. And Evitt is a possible afl player. 

No-one can question the work ethic and effort the players put in each week but I've said on here ad nauseam, our problems are around skills execution and decision making. Case in point, Mayo running into an open goal only to get within about 35 meters and give it off poorly resulting in a turnover. Robbins did likewise not long after. It's these errors that are killing us.

Wardman should persevere with the wagon driver, Evitt brings effort and forward pressure, Robbins made some blues but he should keep having a crack but what really came out today is how slow by foot we are. During the third quarter there was a passage of play where two Swans players were taking the ball out of their defence over on the far side and Greg Clark was next to them to start with, but couldn't keep up even though one was bouncing the ball.

The guys have a red hot crack but we're way behind in skills and pace which is costing us games. Is that down to personnel or training structure or both? I don't know, but unless we get better by hand and foot, we'll stay in the bottom half of the ladder for the foreseeable future.

Clark out for the season with a groin

Clark, Foley and Mullane out as well.

FF 33 Malakai CHAMPION 14 Ryan BORCHET 32 Jacob EVITT
HF 9 Leigh KITCHIN 59 Lachlan HENDERSON 16 Joshua ROBBINS
C 15 Wil HICKMOTT 13 Liam HICKMOTT 56 Judd KELMAN
HB 28 Connor FARAONE 11 Marlin CORBETT 35 Drew ROHDE
FB 8 Angus DEWAR 31 Henry BERENGER 2 Galen SAVIGNI

FOLLOWERS
41 Kody EATON
3 Taj SCHOFIELD
39 Jaimon ALONE

INTERCHANGE
44 Corey BELLOUARD
34 Jordan FARAONE
19 Rory MURISON
18 Ben SOKOL

Mullane injured? I reckon Bellouard will go ok. Very light but lots of dash. It's not a big team, but the swannies aren't that big either. 

Johnny Leonard wrote:

Mullane injured? I reckon Bellouard will go ok. Very light but lots of dash. It's not a big team, but the swannies aren't that big either. 

Mullane has done a calf

Reasonable effort. Bellouard was interesting. Mostly beaten but game. Murchison looked promising. I wish they'd go forward with more confidence. Don't worry if there's a turn over. Hesitating only breeds more doubt. 

A pretty good effort in my opinion given who we were missing and plenty of young guys having a red hot crack. The Motts were very good and Kitch continues to have a great season. Savigni is our best defender these days as I don't know what Gus is doing and I'm pretty sure he doesn't either given the way Wardman swings him around.

Schofield is developing into an elite mid and Borchet has found some form. Soks was monstered for most of the day and probably should have received a couple of frees but otherwise ineffective. The Champ's draft prospects continue to grow and Eaton does what he has to do every week.

We were in it for 3 qtrs but fell away in the last which has happened a bit too much this season. I'm not sure if it's fitness or just a young group dropping intensity as the game goes on. A loss is a loss but at least we were competitive and didn't get blown away.

As an aside, my take on Swans today is they tend to over use the ball in transition and need to tidy it up in the finals as they'll get found out when the pressure increases.

Good game of footy especially the first half in perfect conditions. We were very undermanned with Clark and Mayo amongst a raft of outs, apparently Clark is done for the season, dont know the injury but sensible to put him in cotton wool for this season. Mayo apparently a foot injury, may be back but again why risk him, let the youngsters have a go., Murison and Bellouard both worth persisting with, Champion really adds some zip around the forward line, Eaton actually won the hit outs, he continues to put in 100% every week against the odds. The fact that at 194cms, he was able to slightly get the best of the swans rucks shows that may be an area that Swans may struggle with in the finals against the Big blokes in the other top 5 teams. Sok had a poor day but was totally ignored by the umps as O'donohue scragged and pushed often illegally all day and got away with murder. Borch was good again, thats 9 goals in the last 2 weeks, the Hickmonts, Taj and the evergreen Kitch were good in the middle.
Agree with BC regarding Swans over use of the footy as we did benefit from a number of turnovers, they had 48 more kicks and an astonishing 116 more handballs. That could well find them out come finals time, but they will be there and we will not.