swan42 wrote:
mikeh wrote: Given Swans are on a lengthy bye at the moment, I thought I would canvass our supporters on here to see what they think of the season so far. I was away for a month so I have only seen two games, Round 1 v Perth and the last game against SF so I would be interested in the thoughts of those who have seen them more.
It appears to me that the players are taking on board what the new coaches plans are and have certainly played a more attacking style of footy from what I have seen. They have had a few disappointing performances against Subiaco and West Perth but they have been good in all the other matches and at 3 wins 3 losses are well placed to push for a finals spot at this stage.
Palmer and Payne seem to have added depth to the midfield, Palmer has shown his class in a few games. Ellard had a slow start to the season due to injury but he will build as the season goes on. Gault is going from strength to strength and is the guy we could least afford to lose with injury IMO.
Of the younger brigade Tobe Watson, Warwick WIlson and Braydon Hackett all appear to have improved from 2017 and are now more or less in the team every week. On the other hand Adam Faulkner seems to have fallen out of favour and is no longer in the best 22.
The three weeks after the bye see us playing East Perth at Leederville, Perth at Bassendean and Claremont at Claremont. Ideally we would like to win a minimum of 2 of those 3 games to keep our win/loss ratio over 50%. I think this is well within the ability of this group, the only misgiving I would have is that our record at Leederville and Claremont (Showgrounds or Oval) over the last 4 or 5 years has been pretty poor.
One of the most important changes this year has been having Blakely and Gault playing together. As we gain more confidence in both Noble and Gault up forward we will develop an even more attacking game.
With respect to Faulkner I think that he has been challenged to not only improve his disposal but other areas as well. There is no knock on his commitment to the ball. Another player who needs to improve greatly is Taryce Stewart. he has plenty to offer but the effort thus far has been to put it politely very spasmodic.
To date I think most Swans's supporters would be reasonably happy.
I will be interested in seeing what BH, MO and DW have to say.
Hardly feel qualified to report this year 42. I've been overseas for the past month. Priorities have been elsewhere. Honeymoon is now almost over for us newlyweds and looking forward to catching some footy throughout the rest of season 2018.
From what little I've seen results wise we shouldn't complain and the win on the weekend v EP appears from the outside to be full of merit. Will be interested to see if Faulks can force his way back in. Definitely appears he has been challenged to improve his shortcomings. I'm not sure he will if disposal is the criteria. TBH at this stage I'm not sure if we have improved or the opposition within the comp bar 2 teams is much weaker. Leaning toward the latter but that debate will play out over the next couple of months. Look forward to being a little more active on here once I'm back in Oz, well as long as I can slip these new shackles once a weekend
