TOPIC:

After yet another heart stopper at home this weekend we head up to Joondalup to take on the equal top of the ladder WP who will be smarting after losing a tight one to EF last week.
WP have most bases covered with plenty of midfield depth lead by the usual ball magnets in Black, Nelson, Meadows, Pierce, Lynch x 2, Manzone etc a dangerous forward line of Keitel, Knott, Riddoch, Kernutt, Dobson & Hamp and a dependable close checking back line lead by Pegoraro, Gaudagnin, Moulton, Johnson, Munns, Hamilton, Wilhelm & the likes.
We will have to play out of skin to match this mob at home and hopefully the boys continue their recent form and we get back key forwards Noble & Edwards and possibly Stephens this week after injury?
 

They certainly have the wood over us up there with Swans only having 11 wins out of the 36 matches played, including 8 losses out of the last 9 games, a 44 point win in 2019 being our only victory since 2014.

Some of the losses they have had in the last 7 years have been very close games including the elimination final last year. We have actually been on top for long periods in many clashes, only for the Falcons to play a blinding 15 minutes or quarter of football to snatch the initiative.

Guys like Knott, Black, Nelson and Manzone always seem to pull out good games against Swans, not to mention that Rudy Riddoch seems to have made it his personal crusade to not lose to his former team every time he plays against us.  He doesn't do a lot in terms of possessions, but his interventions often have a massive impact on the outcome.

Having said all that I am hopeful about Saturday. This Swans team has a lot of fight in it and they have shown during the season that they don't give up even if they are being challenged by the opposition.  The win against Peel was one of the most gutsy team performances I have seen for a number of years. This season they have also beaten some of their other bogey teams of the past decade in Claremont and the Doggies.

Looks like it might be a wet weather scrap on Saturday so Swans need to play with the same intensity as they did against Peel and put pressure on the opposition ball carriers.

Looking like a wet weather scrap this avo as you have indicated Mike.

I’ve finally got a Sat avo off work and was thinking of taking junior along. What are the chances of finding a dry location for an opposition supporter with a youngster in tow to watch the game at Joondy - slim pickings from memory. Perhaps a WP supporter on here can provide a heads up???outside of an umbrella is there any real shelter for opposition supporters???

That game could have gone for another day and the result would have been the same - WP by one, two or three. Thought we were unlucky. Despite the loss, the club should take heart from the team performance and individual efforts like Collin's game at full-back, while I hope the injuries to Jones and O'Donohue are not too serious.

I thought we were a touch disappointing yesterday SH to be honest.
The conditions were not great with that gale blowing but that happens every time you play up there but WP were there for the taking and we just couldnt get it done yet again against them.
We got some of the match ups wrong from the start, Collins should have gone to Keitel from the opening bounce and by the time we did make those adjustments we were coming from too far back.
Pegoraro from WP was probably the difference on the day, how many times he intercept marked unopposed by our forwards was mind boggling.  
It doesnt get any easier this week with Subi again only a few weeks after playing them in Kalgoorlie.....how the fark does that work?????

First game I have missed this year. Sounds like it wasn't a great encounter. Unfortunately these games at Joondalup seem to follow a script. Swans are never really blown out of the water but can't muster enough to get over the line either. The same guys from WP seem to accumulate possessions and keep Swans at bay.

Saturdays score of 7-8-50 was Swans lowest of the season. Up till now they have been scoring 70 - 80 points in most games which has been good enough to win 5 out of 8, but I think if Swans want to take the next step and compete with the better teams they need to be averaging about 85 -90 rather than the current 72. So they need to find an extra 2 goals per game.

Our defence has played very well this year and have probably been instrumental in us winning most of our matches but we do need to score more.
 
This weeks game against Subiaco will tell us a lot about where Swans are heading this season. If they win,they are 6-4 and can then use this as a springboard for a serious finals assault. Lose and they will allow Subiaco back into the race and be scrapping for 5th place with them and Peel.