TOPIC:

I’ve already had a whinge on the East Perth thread about WAFL clubs not posting their teams early enough. Now for treating fans like mushrooms on the injury front. The WAFL website has a player injury area but the clubs don’t update it. Why not? The fans are interested to know. If clubs don’t give a sh!! About the fans why should the fans give a sh!! About the clubs and the comp? No wonder the AFL can roll into town and take the place over.

And what the Wafl clubs don't realise is there are many that have walked away. And now following other pursuits whereas the footy has taken a back seat. 

Same as last week, smashed around the packs when it counted.
Swans blokes were cramping in the 3rd quarter on a hot day and always looked like getting run over.
Losing 5 blokes before the game no excuses but we just don’t have the depth of the top teams to cover those losses especially Ireland and Erceg as we have no key position depth in the club

As I reflect a few hours after my disappointment at losing a game that we were leading in for 95% of the match, I have come to the realisation that East Fremantle were the better team on the day and deserved to win. When you break the game down, Swans scored most of their goals in two 15 - 20 minute periods. 5 in the first part of the first quarter and 5 in the last 15 minutes of the 2nd.  For the rest of the game the Sharks were pretty much in control of the midfield and it was only our defensive unit and our accurate goal kicking that kept us on track. So really the 26 point lead at half time was a bit of a mirage.

The Sharks really controlled the ball in the 3rd quarter and we could barely get our hands on it. We had no presence in the centre square. Poor Germs is continually up against big opposition guys who wear him down eventually and this is what happened today. EF got the ball out of the centre square ridiculously easily in the 2nd half and our forwards were starved of opportunities. When we snatched the lead back at the 25 minute mark, I thought we might hang on but instead of going for another goal which would have iced the game, the players started messing around with kicking backwards and sideways and playing keep off. Just doesn't work at this level unless you have less than a minute to play.

Overall the only positive I gleaned from the game is the way that the defence is working as a unit led by Tony Notte. Apart from that I am no wiser about the game style that Pickering is trying to implement this year after watching the first two games. Some of the high profile players in the team are not performing and need to get into gear soon.

I know its early in the season and a couple of losses by under two goals is not something to be panicking about. However the two teams that have beaten us were not finalists last year and both seem to have improved while Swans appear to have not moved or even gone slightly backwards due to the loss and non replacement of Gault.

Next weeks game against Perth becomes a must win for us, because after that we go into a block of games against Claremont, Subiaco and South and if we don't win next week our season could start to slip away very quickly. 

Pretty good summary, mikeh. The Sharks were their own worst enemy in the first half.
Really impressed by Clark and Turner. They worked their backsides off and most of the good outcomes for Swans came through them. Notte is still an exceptional player and the backline from Swans stopped many promising attacks until the weight of numbers wore them down.

0-2 doesn’t look great but EF split the games with Swans last year and EP look like big improvers. could easily have been 2-0.

A few have stated that is was a game in two halves. While the scoreboard suggests that, it was more a case of domination by Swans for much shorted time than a half and EF's dominance for most of the game - as Mike as already suggested. It is a shame that the 666 rule applies, for Swans' rover, ruck-rover and centre have more value in defence than in the middle at centre bounces - just like last year, we win the tap and it is sharked time and time again by the opposition. Most of our attacks start from defence. 

Frustratingly, yesterday showed Swans' potential as a side if they could, be a miracle, win ball out of the middle consistently. The second quarter from the 12 minute mark signalled Swans' five goals for the quarter, corresponding with the only time in the game when Fisher managed to throw off his shadow in the middle. We won multiple centre clearances - and the result was quick goals. 

Well done to Greg O for his game.

Great point about the attacks starting from defence SH. This just accentuates my point about the lack of grunt in our centre square work in that we have almost conceded the centre clearance and rely on mounting our attacks from half back. This obviously worked at times but as we have seen in the last few weeks I don't think this structure is sustainable for entire games. You need your share of clean ball out of the centre to  kick a winning score. Just another genuine ruck option would give us a lot more flexibility and physical presence.

Turner and Clarke worked their guts out all day but they didn't have enough mates.

How good is it with the colts game with so many familiar names, Jones, McManus and Eastaugh. I wonder if Fitzgerald and Burrows are sons of past players.

Groundhog Day yet again for SD supporters in losing a close game after being in front for a good part of the match.
I hate to keep harping on it but it is so glaring obvious to all bar those at the club obviously who do not appear to address the issue in that when we hit the front late in a match we give up that lead almost instantaneous from the next centre bounce.
MO there is no doubt we dont have the depth of the established annual Top 4 of every year and that is exacerbated when you lose 5 players on the morning of the match, 4 of which are from the backline- Erceg, Stephens, Beck & Watson and also our forward/back up ruck Ireland.
This also effects the Reserves who I noticed played 2 short Ehlers being pulled out early in the match to make his League debut and acquitted himself quite well too I might add.
Other than the 5 who were late outs for the League side yesterday I also noticed none of Cipro, O'Donoghue, Waite, Raynor or Morris played either I assume under H&S Protocols as well?

 

A shout out to the integrated Swans team who played their first ever game after the league match yesterday. I hung around and watched it and the skills demonstrated by the players pleasantly surprised me as I had never seen an integrated game before. The game was a bit scrappy in the first quarter but the standard really picked up after that and one guy in the opposition team( Curtin Wesley) was consistently kicking the ball 45 - 50 metres and the Swans players were good at hitting targets by foot. Curtin Wesley ran away with it in the last quarter but overall a very creditable performance for their first game and a great community initiative by the club to get involved in this competition.