TOPIC:

Time For a Flag wrote: Still shouldn't do it. Rodgers did the same to the pen last game. The Pen not the coaches. Disgraceful.

So then TFAF what was your opinion on the pig pen & members send off to Bluey Elari yesterday as he went off injured???
*And for the record in my opinion both instances are part and parcel of footy when you leave clubs!

Master G let's not get ahead of ourselves, a few more injuries to key players would bring us back to the field very quickly given a real lack of depth in the reserves.

MikeH nailed it when he referred to egos not running the agenda. In my opinion that has been the problem since we won a flag on the back of one of the greatest individual performances ever seen in a Grand Final.

The remaining mercenaries thought they were better than they actually were and destabilised the younger players. All but Riggio have now left and he continues to be a solid contributor to the cause.

A great season so far but still far to early to get carried away.

Grassroots wrote: Master G let's not get ahead of ourselves, a few more injuries to key players would bring us back to the field very quickly given a real lack of depth in the reserves.

MikeH nailed it when he referred to egos not running the agenda. In my opinion that has been the problem since we won a flag on the back of one of the greatest individual performances ever seen in a Grand Final.

The remaining mercenaries thought they were better than they actually were and destabilised the younger players. All but Riggio have now left and he continues to be a solid contributor to the cause.

A great season so far but still far to early to get carried away.

Absolutely Grassroots. The game has a funny way of biting you on the backside if a team gets ahead of itself. Harding needs to keep the players minds on the next game, which is a massive one at Bassendean next Saturday against Subiaco. We will still be without Ames, Anderson and Conor Blakely. Not sure of Casserly's status and Elari was injured yesterday so there must be some doubt about his availability. Don't want the injury list getting too much bigger than what it is at the moment.

mikeh wrote:

Grassroots wrote: Master G let's not get ahead of ourselves, a few more injuries to key players would bring us back to the field very quickly given a real lack of depth in the reserves.

MikeH nailed it when he referred to egos not running the agenda. In my opinion that has been the problem since we won a flag on the back of one of the greatest individual performances ever seen in a Grand Final.

The remaining mercenaries thought they were better than they actually were and destabilised the younger players. All but Riggio have now left and he continues to be a solid contributor to the cause.

A great season so far but still far to early to get carried away.

Absolutely Grassroots. The game has a funny way of biting you on the backside if a team gets ahead of itself. Harding needs to keep the players minds on the next game, which is a massive one at Bassendean next Saturday against Subiaco. We will still be without Ames, Anderson and Conor Blakely. Not sure of Casserly's status and Elari was injured yesterday so there must be some doubt about his availability. Don't want the injury list getting too much bigger than what it is at the moment.

Elari will be fine mate, spoke with him after the game, just a knock, a little sore but all good.
I reckon just keep doing what we have been doing, no need to be telling blokes to keep a lid on it or anything, don't change a thing and keep backing yourself!

Mikeh my sources suggested that we had 13 players missing from our colts' team.

mikeh wrote: Just how far can these guys go this season? I went to the game today thinking that Swans were a little vulnerable and this thought was reinforced in the first quarter when Perth seemed really slick in their forward movement and we were wasting opportunities. The defence seemed unsettled without Tallan and Swans just didn’t seem to be on their game.

I thought we were still competitive, but Perth were far more efficient and the scoreboard looked a bit sick for us when it was 6 – 1 to 0-7 near the end of the first, then again half way through the second quarter when it read Perth 10 – 2 – 62 to Swans 3 -7 – 25, the Ducks had just conceded a horrible goal, Morton’s 5th from a botched pass across the defensive goal and the Demons looked a million dollars at that stage. From that point onwards Swans scored 15 goals 8 to Perths 3 goals 6, so it was a 74 point turnaround in 2 and a half quarters.

So what caused this massive change in the game? Firstly I think this Swans team has a real belief in itself at the moment, so no matter who comes in they are caught up in the culture. The new guys Kirkup and Riddoch contributed to the team cause when they were required and I think this is the real strength of this team, there don’t seem to be any ego’s and players who think they are better than others.

Secondly, they persist when things are going against them. After that 5th goal to Morton a lesser team would have maybe thought “its not our day” and thrown in the towel. Not these guys. Every time Perth kicked a goal in the 2nd Quarter and threatened to break away, Swans would reply and keep the margin to about 5 goals. I thought Geappan was really important in the 2nd quarter, not just for his goals but for the way he also sparked the other Swans players into action.

Thirdly you have to concede that Swans had more rotations in the last quarter than The Dee’s due to their injury issues. Having said that we were without Elari for most of the last 3 quarters but Swans hardly noticed his absence because guys like Boekhurst, Faulkner and Riggio stepped in to fill the void. Again this demonstrates that Swans don’t rely on a particular group of players and when one is down, the others lift to make sure the team performance is maintained. Ryan Davis was another guy who is normally great but was blanketed on the day.

Finally when the players became fatigued in the last quarter, Swans skills stood up far better under pressure than Perth’s. The Demons could hardly hit a target in the last 30 minutes , they dropped numerous easy marks and over ran the ball a lot.

Greg Harding has come of age as a coach this year. He was at it again at 3 quarter time. I wasn’t in the huddle but I could see him from the stand and you could see the veins throbbing out of his neck delivering his message. There was a tribal roar from the Swans huddle which could be heard all over the ground, in contrast to the normal gee up from the Perth group. How can the players not be inspired by this? Take a bow Greg, it felt like a home game. Also great to see Amesy holding the team board up after his long trip!

Perth were good in patches during this match but I feel that they have gone backwards since the last time Swans played them. They were unlucky to lose Irons early but they didn’t seem to have any alternatives to Morton up forward. Bevan spent a long time in defence, Busher showed a bit before he got injured. Even allowing for the injuries they seem to have trouble running games out and their skills were pretty deplorable in the final quarter when the game was still on the line.

This has been one of the most enjoyable seasons I can remember in my many years following this team. Maybe because my expectations were so low at the start of the season, along with most other people and they have blown these expectations completely out of the water. I didn’t really think they would win the spoon but I wasn’t thinking finals in my wildest dreams. Now it’s just a matter of how far these Swans players really believe they can go this year. Who knows?

Mike you may not have noticed but we lost Irons 1st quarter I think, we were definitely 2 down for the entire 2nd half and 3 down for the entire last quarter.
May have had something to do with the win?
What do you think?

No disrespect to Swannies just putting the PFC performance into some perspective.

That may be true DF but when you're 40 odd points up I tell you It's not the size of the dog in the fight. It's the size of the fight in the dog and that was no where in the second half.

Demons Forever wrote:

mikeh wrote: Just how far can these guys go this season? I went to the game today thinking that Swans were a little vulnerable and this thought was reinforced in the first quarter when Perth seemed really slick in their forward movement and we were wasting opportunities. The defence seemed unsettled without Tallan and Swans just didn’t seem to be on their game.

I thought we were still competitive, but Perth were far more efficient and the scoreboard looked a bit sick for us when it was 6 – 1 to 0-7 near the end of the first, then again half way through the second quarter when it read Perth 10 – 2 – 62 to Swans 3 -7 – 25, the Ducks had just conceded a horrible goal, Morton’s 5th from a botched pass across the defensive goal and the Demons looked a million dollars at that stage. From that point onwards Swans scored 15 goals 8 to Perths 3 goals 6, so it was a 74 point turnaround in 2 and a half quarters.

So what caused this massive change in the game? Firstly I think this Swans team has a real belief in itself at the moment, so no matter who comes in they are caught up in the culture. The new guys Kirkup and Riddoch contributed to the team cause when they were required and I think this is the real strength of this team, there don’t seem to be any ego’s and players who think they are better than others.

Secondly, they persist when things are going against them. After that 5th goal to Morton a lesser team would have maybe thought “its not our day” and thrown in the towel. Not these guys. Every time Perth kicked a goal in the 2nd Quarter and threatened to break away, Swans would reply and keep the margin to about 5 goals. I thought Geappan was really important in the 2nd quarter, not just for his goals but for the way he also sparked the other Swans players into action.

Thirdly you have to concede that Swans had more rotations in the last quarter than The Dee’s due to their injury issues. Having said that we were without Elari for most of the last 3 quarters but Swans hardly noticed his absence because guys like Boekhurst, Faulkner and Riggio stepped in to fill the void. Again this demonstrates that Swans don’t rely on a particular group of players and when one is down, the others lift to make sure the team performance is maintained. Ryan Davis was another guy who is normally great but was blanketed on the day.

Finally when the players became fatigued in the last quarter, Swans skills stood up far better under pressure than Perth’s. The Demons could hardly hit a target in the last 30 minutes , they dropped numerous easy marks and over ran the ball a lot.

Greg Harding has come of age as a coach this year. He was at it again at 3 quarter time. I wasn’t in the huddle but I could see him from the stand and you could see the veins throbbing out of his neck delivering his message. There was a tribal roar from the Swans huddle which could be heard all over the ground, in contrast to the normal gee up from the Perth group. How can the players not be inspired by this? Take a bow Greg, it felt like a home game. Also great to see Amesy holding the team board up after his long trip!

Perth were good in patches during this match but I feel that they have gone backwards since the last time Swans played them. They were unlucky to lose Irons early but they didn’t seem to have any alternatives to Morton up forward. Bevan spent a long time in defence, Busher showed a bit before he got injured. Even allowing for the injuries they seem to have trouble running games out and their skills were pretty deplorable in the final quarter when the game was still on the line.

This has been one of the most enjoyable seasons I can remember in my many years following this team. Maybe because my expectations were so low at the start of the season, along with most other people and they have blown these expectations completely out of the water. I didn’t really think they would win the spoon but I wasn’t thinking finals in my wildest dreams. Now it’s just a matter of how far these Swans players really believe they can go this year. Who knows?

Mike you may not have noticed but we lost Irons 1st quarter I think, we were definitely 2 down for the entire 2nd half and 3 down for the entire last quarter.
May have had something to do with the win?
What do you think?

No disrespect to Swannies just putting the PFC performance into some perspective.

Nice of you to make mention of Swans losing Elari early in the game & Ugle in the 2nd half as well DF but hey then that would just shoot down the excuses that always seem to come out of Lathlain after many a loss!
The simple facts of the matter are you were nearly 7 goals up in the 2nd qtr and went 43 points down in the last qtr until Florio kicked a late goal that's an 80 point turn around in less than a half of footy!
And what were the excuses last time we played on Easter Sunday when you were 19 points up with 5 minutes to play "yellow footy" wasnt it?
FFS give some credit to Swans for a change we were tipped to finish last without a win this year by some of you so called experts!

Full credit to Swans (and I hate saying that). There senior and junior players stood up on the weekend. Their coaches made the changes that needed to be made.

Confidence is a lovely drug. The more of it you have the more you believe in your own ability and that of the teams to impact and win a game of footy.

What a match Swans and Subiaco promises to be this Saturday.

One question that has haunted me for a while now is how come other teams are able to develop their younger players quicker than what Perth are able to.

Demons Forever wrote:

mikeh wrote: Just how far can these guys go this season? I went to the game today thinking that Swans were a little vulnerable and this thought was reinforced in the first quarter when Perth seemed really slick in their forward movement and we were wasting opportunities. The defence seemed unsettled without Tallan and Swans just didn’t seem to be on their game.

I thought we were still competitive, but Perth were far more efficient and the scoreboard looked a bit sick for us when it was 6 – 1 to 0-7 near the end of the first, then again half way through the second quarter when it read Perth 10 – 2 – 62 to Swans 3 -7 – 25, the Ducks had just conceded a horrible goal, Morton’s 5th from a botched pass across the defensive goal and the Demons looked a million dollars at that stage. From that point onwards Swans scored 15 goals 8 to Perths 3 goals 6, so it was a 74 point turnaround in 2 and a half quarters.

So what caused this massive change in the game? Firstly I think this Swans team has a real belief in itself at the moment, so no matter who comes in they are caught up in the culture. The new guys Kirkup and Riddoch contributed to the team cause when they were required and I think this is the real strength of this team, there don’t seem to be any ego’s and players who think they are better than others.

Secondly, they persist when things are going against them. After that 5th goal to Morton a lesser team would have maybe thought “its not our day” and thrown in the towel. Not these guys. Every time Perth kicked a goal in the 2nd Quarter and threatened to break away, Swans would reply and keep the margin to about 5 goals. I thought Geappan was really important in the 2nd quarter, not just for his goals but for the way he also sparked the other Swans players into action.

Thirdly you have to concede that Swans had more rotations in the last quarter than The Dee’s due to their injury issues. Having said that we were without Elari for most of the last 3 quarters but Swans hardly noticed his absence because guys like Boekhurst, Faulkner and Riggio stepped in to fill the void. Again this demonstrates that Swans don’t rely on a particular group of players and when one is down, the others lift to make sure the team performance is maintained. Ryan Davis was another guy who is normally great but was blanketed on the day.

Finally when the players became fatigued in the last quarter, Swans skills stood up far better under pressure than Perth’s. The Demons could hardly hit a target in the last 30 minutes , they dropped numerous easy marks and over ran the ball a lot.

Greg Harding has come of age as a coach this year. He was at it again at 3 quarter time. I wasn’t in the huddle but I could see him from the stand and you could see the veins throbbing out of his neck delivering his message. There was a tribal roar from the Swans huddle which could be heard all over the ground, in contrast to the normal gee up from the Perth group. How can the players not be inspired by this? Take a bow Greg, it felt like a home game. Also great to see Amesy holding the team board up after his long trip!

Perth were good in patches during this match but I feel that they have gone backwards since the last time Swans played them. They were unlucky to lose Irons early but they didn’t seem to have any alternatives to Morton up forward. Bevan spent a long time in defence, Busher showed a bit before he got injured. Even allowing for the injuries they seem to have trouble running games out and their skills were pretty deplorable in the final quarter when the game was still on the line.

This has been one of the most enjoyable seasons I can remember in my many years following this team. Maybe because my expectations were so low at the start of the season, along with most other people and they have blown these expectations completely out of the water. I didn’t really think they would win the spoon but I wasn’t thinking finals in my wildest dreams. Now it’s just a matter of how far these Swans players really believe they can go this year. Who knows?

Mike you may not have noticed but we lost Irons 1st quarter I think, we were definitely 2 down for the entire 2nd half and 3 down for the entire last quarter.
May have had something to do with the win?
What do you think?

No disrespect to Swannies just putting the PFC performance into some perspective.

DF I think if you look back to the 2nd last paragraph of my post you will see that I did recognise that Irons injury had an impact on the match but both teams lost a player in the first half and to be honest, its not the first time this season that Perth have run out of gas in the final quarter, injuries or no injuries.

The other thing is that the above post was not pretending to be a balanced and unbiased view of the match. It was written from a Swans point of view and that is why I put it in the Swans section, just like you guys debate various issues in the Perth space after games. Of course opposition supporters like yourself are welcome to read it and comment but you just need to keep it in context that we are not going to spend too much time worrying about what problems the opposition have had during the match. Sorry!