TOPIC:

The bye has given a chance for Swans fans to reflect on the season so far.
To be honest it has been a frustrating year as we have been in a reasonable position to win all 8 games we have played in but we have only come out on top in 2 of these encounters and as a result we find ourselves sitting equal bottom on the ladder even though our largest losing margin has been 18 points. One trend that has been apparent to me has been that Swans tend to drop off in performance and output late in games. This may be for 3 possible reasons
1. We hang in there for are as long as we can but the superior talent of the opposition prevails.
2. We are not as fit as our opposition
3. We don't want it as much as the opposition.
I don't think its 1, so that leaves either fitness or mindset. My view is that it is a combination of both. Despite all the talk about the exciting youth at the club, the win loss record is also important and the score of the current coach is 8 wins and 18 losses or 30%. More tellingly only 3 wins out of the last 19.
The next two games at home will determine if Swans are going to do anything with this season. This Sunday V Claremont and next Saturday against West Perth need to both be wins for us to keep our interest in 5th spot.

Mike...I can say that Swans have definitely improved this year and I base that on the game against Subi and your results thus far but agree that you're missing that key element to go to the next level and for mine, I think it's fitness first and foremost and then probably mindset. If you're fit and running out games then mindset takes care of itself to a certain extent. If you're struggling to physically stay with the opposition in the last quarter then you start taking shortcuts and not doing the 1%er's required to win games and then mindset kicks in....that's just my view and will stand corrected as I've only seen you once this year.

experience in the mid-field is our issue not fitness, Palmer would have been the missing link in there and Ellard has had a terrible run with injury also.
cant expect young blokes to run out games against experienced mid-fields, they just get worn down unfortunately.

Good point Mark although during the bye period we lost a few guys who could have added a bit of experience and depth in the midfield, namely Freddie Clutterbuck and Jacob Coniglio both of who appeared to have fallen out of favour with selectors . Both of these guys could have provided some support to the young guys but have chosen to walk mid - season which seems to happen a lot more at Swans than at other clubs,

If those 2 players have decided to walk out mid season, that is bad news indeed.
In Freddies case, he's been getting plenty of the ball in the Reserves from what I hear.
Something wrong if he cannot get a league game. One would have thought Swans would need all their experienced players this week against Claremont.
The Tigers gone into the match as favourites and apparently tipped to win by 30 or thereabout points.
Considering the season is at the half way mark, Swans would dearly prefer a win in this match to stay in touch with the teams above them.
Going to be interesting viewing the team listings a little later.

Looks like the selectors have lost patience with Simpson who has been named in the Reserves this week.
Has shown glimpses of his ability at times this year but goes missing for large chunks of games and has not had the impact on the scoreboard that has been needed with only 7 goals from 8 games so far and not really applying enough forward pressure to lock it in our forward half.

Great to see Jesse Glass- McCasker back BH. We missed him in the last game. He provides a lot of versatility to the team as he can swing down forward as well. Howlett still hasn't convinced me that he is worth a spot. Hopefully the coach has got some sort of a plan to keep Jhye Bolton under control, which probably means less than 30 possessions. They have to try and tag him because he regularly destroys us for fun.

I thought Nathan Ireland on debut who came in for Glass-McCasker in our last game was very good Mike but it looks like he might have been selected for the WA 18s game vs SA.

Bolton and Mitchell 30+ each ?!
fine weather is our best hope and try and move the ball quick to our tall targets and get some goals on the board before we run out of gas.

In the last 5 years we played the Tigers 14 times for 4 wins and 10 losses. On a brighter note we have won the 4 at Bassendean out of the 7 games played there in the last 5 years and the last game at Basso in 2018, the game was nicked from us after the siren. I think we will give this a bit of a shake if the players are up for it.