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mikeh wrote: So its four out including Noble suspended with Hampson, Costigan and Clarke injured. I assume Swans didnt challenge the 2 weeks for Noble so he will be back for the last game at Shark Park.
8 players on the bench at this stage including Tarir Bayok against his old side. East Perth look pretty strong and they get Dobson back. They have been solid apart from the 2nd half fade out against Claremont and a victory will keep their faint finals hopes alive.
Leederville is not a happy hunting ground for Swans lately with only 2 wins out of their last 13 matches there although many of these losses have been against Subiaco, we have been more competitive against the Royals and I hope that continues on Saturday.

you are right about the skill level on both sides.i thought we should win by 5- 10 goals with all the injuries and suspensions this week but apart from the last quarter their wasn't much to get excited about from a east perth viewpoint.the umps threw the rule book away for holding the ball but at least they were fair to both sides.al i was glad about was that we didn't play subi this week i think they would have blown us away.

Is there a reason why umpires are unclear on what a handball is ?

mikeh wrote: Low point of the season for Swans. That was an abysmal performance. No other word for it. One quarter of decent effort, complete lack of skills, overuse of hand ball inability to put together any passages of play. East Perth were not great either but we made them look like flag contenders. Such a frustrating day. Mediocrity seems to be the culture at Swans and nothing seems to be changing. They are making the same basic errors every week.

Truly awful Mike and to be honest I dont think the club can continue to go on like this.
Piss weak skills, listless efforts, lamentable decision making....we make the same posts week after week year after year and nothing ever gets done about it.
Maybe TRSM is on the money and a complete clean out of the football department is necessary as this shit being delivered week after week year after year is just not good enough.
Most of those that took the field today outside of Fisher who was fantastic did NOT put in the required effort or skill for WAFL football and need to have a long hard look at themselves in the mirror and ask if they are giving their absolute all over 4 full qtrs!

Matt Riggio only got 5 touches yesterday, must be his lowest ever. Did anyone notice if he was injured?

mikeh wrote: Matt Riggio only got 5 touches yesterday, must be his lowest ever. Did anyone notice if he was injured?

Rigs had a shocker Mike, has had an ordinary year to be honest which is a shame for such a great servant of the club, of those 5 I can only remember 1 that went to a team mate Fisher just inside 50 for our only shot on goal in the last qtr in what was yet another pathetic dismal late game fadeout by SD that has become all too familiar in the last few years!
Similar to Rigs I dont think Tony or Howie have been great this year either!

Beasley Hutton wrote:

mikeh wrote: Matt Riggio only got 5 touches yesterday, must be his lowest ever. Did anyone notice if he was injured?

Rigs had a shocker Mike, has had an ordinary year to be honest which is a shame for such a great servant of the club, of those 5 I can only remember 1 that went to a team mate Fisher just inside 50 for our only shot on goal in the last qtr in what was yet another pathetic dismal late game fadeout by SD that has become all too familiar in the last few years!
Similar to Rigs I dont think Tony or Howie have been great this year either!

Yes I'm wondering if the years are now catching up with him and he might pull the pin at the end of the season. Notte may go around again next year and I also wonder about Doc as well who seemed to be running up and down on the spot as well.
Fisher basically carried the team yesterday.

I can see a host of changes next week Mike, well probably not come to think of it as most of the time the match committee pick blokes I dont think should be getting a game ahead of others who I think should be?!?!?!
I would love to see the likes of Riley, Edwards, Germs, Bayok, Bashemule, Deng, Hughes, Oosterhoff, Trew, Sears, Ugle etc given an opportunity in the last 2 games...just pick them on their strengths and what they CAN DO with the football instead of always about how they might fit in the team structure, defensive aspect stuff for a change!

BH what is your opinion of Pickering as a coach? I know Swans problems started well before he was appointed but I was watching him yesterday a bit ( mainly because I couldn't bear watching what was on the ground). He was on the boundary line for at least the 2nd half with a headset but the times I was watching he didn't seem to be giving any directions or talking to players as they came on and off. His addresses at Quarter and 3 quarter time seem to lack animation, pretty much the opposite to Harding. I know he did give them a bake yesterday at quarter time and it did jolt them into action for a while
Certainly the issues run a lot deeper than the head coach but I couldnt help comparing our situation to that of East Perth. Barnard took over last year when they pulled out of the alignment with the Eagles and everyone expected them to be wooden spooners for a while. He has managed to turn them into a very competitive unit and even though they also have some issues with skills they are now quite a way superior in that area to what Swans are
I'm wondering if Pickering is too passive and the players are not really listening to him

mikeh wrote: BH what is your opinion of Pickering as a coach? I know Swans problems started well before he was appointed but I was watching him yesterday a bit ( mainly because I couldn't bear watching what was on the ground). He was on the boundary line for at least the 2nd half with a headset but the times I was watching he didn't seem to be giving any directions or talking to players as they came on and off. His addresses at Quarter and 3 quarter time seem to lack animation, pretty much the opposite to Harding.
Certainly the issues run a lot deeper than the head coach but I couldnt help comparing our situation to that of East Perth. Barnard took over last year when they pulled out of the alignment with the Eagles and everyone expected them to be wooden spooners for a while. He has managed to turn them into a very competitive unit and even though they also have some issues with skills they are now quite a way superior in that area to what Swans are
I'm wondering if Pickering is too passive and the players are not really listening to him

Did you hear him at qtr time yesterday Mike?
Certainly was not passive quite the opposite, but I think the frustrations of coaching at SD has got the better of him.
For whatever reason whether it is poor coaching, talent identification, talent development, skills, fitness, strength.....we seem to be a long way off the pace compared to the better sides.
The WAFL in standard is not even a patch on what it was 10 years ago let alone 40 years ago so you would think it shouldnt be that hard to improve just your basic skills etc but I continually see them getting worse every year and we SD havent improved one iota (other than the additions of Fisher & Anderson who have both been good, Fisher was outstanding yesterday) in my opinion even in this shortened season where everyone you would think with the same disruptions should be on a fairly even keel.

In EP's case it is a bit of a furphy they had to rebuild as they had a decent squad there it was just hindered by WCE involvement/takeover now that has gone their players are getting the opportunities at League level they probably should have then not too mention they have recruited well getting Ramsay back from Collingwood/knee, Robertson from Brisbane/WP, Jones back from Freo/Peel plus selective productive recruiting from other areas- Scott, Lynch, Simpson, Freeman, Schumacher, Watts, Hooper, Kerr etc whilst Barnard has also put his stamp on them with the constant references of them playing the "EP-Royals football way".

I am not sure what our football mantra or values are anymore mate???
I know we are all about community in our off field values which is great but what are our on field values these days? We never hear of them.
I quite often harp on about our SD football sides of the 1980s who would play the game with a ruthless, take no prisoners, winner takes all attitude and were also highly skilled and not surprisingly had great success but sadly that aura is now long lost and gone and too may "outsiders" not from a SDFC background have taken over the off field side of things and they do not either know or care for such SDFC D.N.A type things!
I often see a few boys from the 80s club (players, coach, admin, staff) at the games and they must honestly shake their heads in disbelief at how we have fallen away and virtually dismissed as easybeats by all of the other WAFL clubs now.

That is just my take from the outer!

BH and Mikeh, excuse my comment from afar but the comment abt Barnard getting the play the EP way is perhaps what Swans need to go back to, the bit of mongrel from one or three players, the bit of flair the using the middle of the ground better, also you don't seem to have the seagull you always had (cannot for the life of me recall his name) that cut us up.