TOPIC:

Unbelievable that the season is half gone already. Swans are sitting pretty at 8 wins and 2 losses despite the setback last saturday and can look to the 2nd half of the season with a bit of confidence and relish. Looking ahead to the next 10 games Swans play the following teams twice

South Fremantle (home and away)
Claremont ( home and away)
West Perth ( both away)

They also play the following teams once
Peel (away)
Perth (home)
East Perth (home)
East Fremantle (away)


We don't play Subiaco again in the qualifying round.

So if Swans could beat all of the current bottom four teams that they are playing in this period they would collect 6 wins to take them to a total of 14 which would be enough to play a home first semi at a minimum. If this happened, any other victories they had against the top 5 teams ( EP, WP, EF) would be a bonus and might push them up into the top 2.

Dangerous to speculate too far ahead I know, for example Peel are going to be a real challenge on their home patch this weekend, so a long way to go.

wouldn't surprise me in the slightest mikeh if Peel ruffle a few more feathers before the season is out....they should of buried EF after 1/4 time.....Clancee had 18 possies in the first quarter then went walkabout for the rest of the game though....surely the likes of Gumbleton, Hannath, Apeness and Taberner up front would click eventually and kick Peel a winning score?

Yes for sure, I can't really understand why they have only won one game this season when they have been in winning positions in many of them. They will influence the make up of the top four I reckon by upsetting a few apple carts Hopefully just not this week though

I guess if Ames, Casserly and Ugle are out, Peel's best chance to get a win v SD would be this weekend.....I reckon Clancee will be keen to make amends for going walkabout ater his 18 possesion first quarter v EF on sat....actually the guy will be super keen to have a good one this weekend to get his Freo spot back, especially with Freo warming up for the finals.....should be a goodun between the two teams.

Freo will need a replacement for Johnson and possibly Ballantyne ( although that report is a joke IMO) so Clancee may be on the plane to Melbourne. Also Morabito would have to be a chance to go as well after his 28 possession game last Sat, so Peel could be missing a few as well

Ballantyne's report is a bloody joke, Can't even make any contact anymore. Soon it will be like Auskick where you only have to touch the footy and a mark is paid.

Peel sooner or later are going to click and when they do they will cause some problems when it comes to the make up of the top four. The top 3 are set though and I think West Perth is the team that's good enough to get fourth.

good update Mike

hats off to all invovled at Swans this year, I thought we would be lucky to win a game all year after seeing us play pre-season so to win 8 so far is a great effort.
the improvement in our local kids - Blakely x 2, Anderson, Kirkup, Riddoch, Manton, Burnham, Howard, Faulkner, Boeky along with blokes we found in other zones Jukes, Cary and Latch has surprised me.
reserves are struggling but it was always going to be an issue when the club had no money to recruit at the top end as a few injuries in both grades sees us struggle..young blokes like Yukich, Nuich and Hughes are improving and if Stephens ever gets fit he can play.
colts playing great footy even with 5-6 up in league or reserves at times, hopefully we can get 5-6 league players out of that group and a few draftees.

What's the development system like at Swans? From the 15-16's and up. Reading some of you Swans supporters comments it seems like blokes that were struggling a bit last year have really come up to scratch this year and are performing.

Harding is a full-time WAFL coach so I would expect plenty of time is now being put into development as we cant go and recruit anyone, he has the chance to get blokes fit and develop them into how he wants them to play which I think is his strength as a coach anyway.
in terms of our colts Cooper is highly rated but it also helps if you have a good group, it seems to go in cycles at Swans with our colts but when you get a good group you need the right person to bring them through either as afl draftees or senior footballers.
one positive to our financial problems is that young local kids can certainly see there will be opportunities if they put in the hard work.