TOPIC:

Archie Duda Goal Machine wrote:

Cesspit wrote:

Archie, enough already. I don’t want anymore history lessons of the end of 1978.
The nightmares will start recurring.

Sorry for bringing Demon skeletons out of the closet, Cess. 

After losing grand finals to you blokes in 1966, 1967, 1968 and 1976, I reckon we were long overdue to finally win one in 1978.  

Ironic isn't it? The most influential man in those 4 grand finals and what we all know of him now.

Hope the weather holds off  this afternoon. There's dark clouds north east and south east of Perth.
East Perth and Swans is a good clash at Bassendean Oval.Going back around 5 years ago.We could get around 4,500 fans at this match.
This is not just a Wafl thing.All sporting attendances are down in all sports accross Australia Will make thoes numpties at Reserve Bank happy.

Well done to East Perth. They were far too good for Swans and are looking good to go deep into September. The only criticism I would have of them is that a better team may have made them pay for their goal kicking lapses in the first half but overall they are a well drilled team with very good hand and foot skills and their strength at the contest was quite apparent.

Swans tried hard but in contrast they had no system going forward, skills were pretty ordinary and they resorted to bombing the ball into the forward 50 which made it easy for the East Perth defenders. The only passage of play when they actually put together some foot passes into the 50 was in the 3rd quarter when Jones ended up with a goal but it would have been a tough day to be a Swans forward. The cupboard was so bare up there that they were kicking the ball to Ottoviano on the lead and he is the shortest player on the field and he ended up hurting himself trying to go for a ball that a bigger bloke should have been on the end of.

The bald facts are despite all their big talk of  "being competitive and challenging for finals" Swans have had yet another wasted  year. In fact they have gone backwards under this coach and I am not convinced that he is up to it.
Jesse Turner worked his arse off as usual but with very little support.
 

Good review of today’s game.
Swans have no forward structure or game plan. Leading and kicking to the pockets, with poor foot skills.
Edwards wants to take mark of century every time. He jumps the pack two hours before the ball gets there. He should focus of leading towards the ball carrier and making genuine marking contest. Once the ball hits the ground you can forget about Palmer, Jones and Co. No one wants to or has the football smarts to rove for ball once its off hands.
Whoever is Swans forward coach should look for another job. Same story almost every week.

Turner and Watson were our better players. Good game boys

What a disappointing game, totally outplayed and only EP’s bad kicking kept us in the game, 13 scoring shots to 3 at halftime.
Plenty of blokes try hard but no system and our midfield apart from O’Donogue didn’t bother to pick up their men.
Clarke is our best kick and his disposal was poor for some reason, Turner tried his heart out but he, Clarke and Cipro all more handballs than kicks on a windy day, why is this our plan when it doesn’t work, forwards have no chance.
Coach has no credits in the bank at any level of football and gets a league gig, players wanted him and the club listened, we have now gone backwards

First up congrats EP far too good on the day and with the strongest midfield in the WAFL (Brayshaw, Schumacher, Crowden, Scott and Jones when fit) could take them deep in to the finals with a hard running style from the back half and good foot skills in hitting up team mates with clean hands up field.
From my viewpoint I thought we never really fired a shot, evident from the very first bounce in which EP cleared with ease without so much as an effort from our midfield to tackle, block or smother.
Considering we were coming off a bye we looked as flat as a pancake in energy, zest, and desire, our foot skills were as poor as I have seen in a long time even usually reliable kicks and too often when we won the ball going forward was just a blast and no connection with the forwards who also need to work harder to lock the ball inside our forward 50 as it was more often than not cleared with ease and we were possibly top heavy up there considering the conditions as EP had a more mobile smaller back 6.
I couldnt believe how many simple chest marks were dropped by our players even when miles in the clear and suggests to me their minds were elsewhere and not on the job at hand....only Watson, Turner & McLachlan played at a League standard whilst at least O'Donoghue competed and manned up on Crowden unlike the majority of his team mates.
For the rest of this season we need to be looking at what type of player we need to bring in to take this club up in to their mission stated Top 3 position that looks no closer than it ever has....it is all well and good to make these statements on paper but they need to be backed up with actions from all involved otherwise they will continue to be just that words!
Elite foot skills and ability to run at pace would be my necessities and dare I say it at a style of play that is fast moving, long and direct and the ability to kick 100 points regularly instead of the pitiful 4 goal efforts like yesterday that have been all far too regular for a decade now with no end in sight!!!
 

What really galls me BH is that in 2021, we made the finals and seemingly were heading on a upwards curve. East Perth and East Fremantle were both behind us at that stage. Now in 2023, both those clubs are challenging for top 3 and a flag and Swans are now wallowing in the bottom half of the ladder. I just don't understand it. 
East Perth showed yesterday how much progress they have made but also how far we have gone behind the top teams. All the apologists will say "oh we were unlucky earlier in the season, we lost a lot of close games"
I nearly bought into this a few days back and went to Bassendean yesterday not necessarily expecting a victory but at least a close hard competitive match.
What we got was a one sided romp which should have been over at half time had East Perth kicked straight. There was only one period in the 3rd quarter that Swans looked like they might come to life and that was snuffed out pretty quickly.
I am pretty disillusioned at the moment because all I can see is the club accepting mediocrity as a part of their existence. They need someone to come in from outside the club, similar to Peter German at Perth , who does not buy into this obvious group think and shake a few feathers up.

Mike the club has completely lost its way and its identity on the field of battle.
All of that hard work that John Todd and his group from the late 70s to early 90s did in building a culture and ethos of hard work and guts and determination never give in until the final siren has all been eroded far too easily over time (except for that 3 years under his understudy Brian Dawson) and now I actually have no idea where we are going on field.
We acknowledge the club has done good things off the field in turning around the clubs finances and also their work in the community space but the core business at Swans should be football and as it stands we are somehow falling slowly down the ladder each season of late in which we have only been in the mid to lower rungs of since 2012 anyway.
We have not finished on top of the ladder at the end of the home and away since 1984 which was 30 seasons back now.
We have underperformed for far too long now and the fans have had enough of it!

I would be interested in getting others opinions on Max Chipper. He has been racking up disposals in the successful reserves team this year. I think he was touted as a potential draftee a few years back. He has had 2 league opportunities this year. He played against West Perth in the last round but was immediately dropped . I didnt see his game v West Perth but he seemed to go OK and kicked a crucial goal.
My point about Max is that he probably needs someone to sit down with him and say that he will get 5 or 6 games in a row for the club to be able to assess whether he is up to league footy. If he knows he will have a chance to prove himself over a period of time rather than be worried about being dropped after one game, he may relax and show his true talent.
I have noticed that some of the other young reserves players (e.g Tester, Humphries) have been similarly treated I would not blame them one iota if they came to the conclusion that all the training is not worth the effort and would prefer to go and play with their mates in the Ammos. Then the club loses another promising young player for the sake of a short sighted selection policy.
There is nothing left for Swans to play for in 2023 so they should be using the last 6 games to get some games into these kids. OK rant over!

Following on from BH and our scoring, we have only gone over a 100 points once and that was against WC.
We have decent forwards but good luck down there with the game plan we have.
I also think we need to seperate the good things the club does off field from the on-field and focus on those responsible for the onfield results.
Hodyl, Holmes and Smart need to answer to what is happening and if they blame injuries then we know they are protecting their jobs