2 minutes ago, Rodney (Balls) Grinter said:

We've got a Steven May.  He'll be thought of as better than that Chris Langford bloke over the journey I recon.

Another kill joy performance from May.  I can only recall Buddy beating him in one contest.

That was one brutal game from ground level and conditions were fairly slippery all night. The hits were hard and our boys just kept fighting on and on. Pure G & D! 
Such a professional outfit are the Swans and they have tormented us for a decade, absolutely ecstatic we got the W.

Oliver’s last quarter has been highlighted already but he literally was everywhere in that quarter. Harmes ran his backside off all game and was very pleased with his return. 

They all did their bit at different stages but a big shout out to Jordon. Kid is meeting every challenge thrown at him. Coaches recognised Dawson was a problem for us in the third quarter with his intercepts and they put Jordon on him in the last to do a defensive job up forward and it certainly had an influence. 

On a night where goals were incredibly hard to get T Mac was BOG for mine. 

The debate over TMac to defence has to end now. Petty wasn’t amazing but Gawn gave him praise in the post match interview with Fox Footy, they seem to think he can do the job. But Tom’s form up front is just too good, and we don’t know what we’d get from Weid. 

It was an ugly game, actually very reminiscent of the Cairns game last year but the difference is we were up for a scrap and just did what we needed to do. It’s not going to go down as a classic but getting a tight win as well shows some metal. Stood up to the challenge when it mattered. 

Shout out to Spargypants for that big goal, summed it up very quickly and executed brilliantly. 

Tommy stood tall, been a while since we’ve seen a Melbourne take a pack mark like that. 

May showed why he should be AA, Buddy who?

Jackson continues to amazing me. That said tip of the cap to Hickey in the ruck, seems to always play well against Melbourne. 

I haven’t seen the first half yet so I’ve got that to look forward to, but interested to know the consensus on Brown’s game. Looked very slow at the end. He kicked 3 goals so how much more do you ask for from a FF?

Anyway, 8-0 is just....mind blowing! ?

2 minutes ago, Clint Bizkit said:

True, but the problem with losing centre clearances is it is almost a guaranteed opposition inside 50 with even numbers because of the 666 rule.

True. But as is often the case for teams we play, the swan's entries were almost all messy, wide and shallow. .

Because they blanketed lever, which was smart, we couldn't rebound as well as we have done.

But even so, their centre square clearnanced generated bugger all scoring opportunities.

1 minute ago, binman said:

True. But as is often the case for teams we play, the swan's entries were almost all messy, wide and shallow. .

Because they blanketed lever, which was smart, we couldn't rebound as well as we have done.

But even so, their centre square clearnanced generated bugger all scoring opportunities.

It got them the first goal early in the last which got them back right into the game.

Went to the MCG tonight and enjoyed a Big Mac and a Hash Brown. Tasty! I was disappointed a banana Fritter failed to appear on the menu, so my sweet tooth wasn't satisfied. Still, a good Saturday night out.?  

1 hour ago, adonski said:

 

• Fritsch terrible, looked lazy, hope he cops a rocket 

Had Rampe on him most of the night and he’s the Swans best defender. Tmac and BBB wouldn’t have played so well if Fritsch didn’t get the best defender.

2 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Okay James Harmes I was wrong about you..

Well now Dazzle if u can say it I can as well, I thought Spargo was instrumental in our win tonight!?

47 minutes ago, dees189227 said:

Spargo has taken his game this season to the next level. Clearly a player who knows he is on the fringe and does not want to lose his spot. I must admit last year I was not convinced on him but his tackling pressure has been awesome. In that final quarter he was great. 

Only Spargo is not on the fringe, or if so, only as much as about 16 or so other players in the side at the moment.  He was very much rated in his first season in 2018, had a bit of second year blues in 2019 and somewhat so in 2020, although had some good games towards the end of the season and possibly injured at other stages.

However I'd say the way Spargo is playing now is pretty much exactly what we recruited him for, a pretty highly rated role by Goody and makes him just about a lock in the side.

1 hour ago, Jaded said:

Ummm he was leading the 1%, he held Buddy goalless. I bet he will feature strongly in the coaches votes. He. Is. A. Star. 

Yep, no doubt. It wasn't a dig at his performance just that I thought there were some pretty special efforts tonight that were ahead of him.

Clarry, TMac and Max come to mind but on reflection, Maysie's probably not far off those three.

Great game really even team performance. The twin towers T.Mac and Brown were the difference. Oliver fantastic game and May never gets beaten let's go onto 9 and nil.

Any news on trac corky 

A solid win. At least we can hang tough. They beat us 17 to 4 in center clearances. I find this alarming. 

35 tackles in forward 50 for the Swans?????Must be some kind of record.

Well do i have a story to tell, in the last Q when they showed Ron Barassi on the big screen, the people behind us said, and i kid you not, " who's the old guy on the screen?

People came up to us after the game and we telling them, lets just say there was a lot of head shaking going on.

And yes they were Melbourne supporters.

52 minutes ago, Ditcha said:

A great win. On the way home from game, I was standing at taxi rank at Caulfield Station, and man waiting as well was former player Paul Callery. He asked what my memory was like, and I told the famous story when Vin Waite knocked him out, and Big Carl knocked out Waite. Waite got 4 weeks at tribunal, and Big Carl zero weeks.

Paul is a HUGE demons man and is loving what we are producing at present!

2 hours ago, Jaded said:

Has someone checked if Weideman is ok? Must be swearing at the TV every time Tommy goes near it ?

...

 

1 hour ago, DeeSpencer said:

Second week in a row Lever has been tagged - by athletic mid sized forwards in Zuhaar and Hayward.

Petty’s lack of speed means we can’t swap him over as easily as Tomlinson, which means Lever can’t rotate on to the bad tall. 
 

Just something to watch in the way teams are targeting the guy who might’ve been our best player through 6 weeks. 

Great call. Was interesting to see how we tried to handle it, initially trying to force Hunt onto Hayward, then at times letting them just 2 on 1 Lever and having a loose man running around further afield. 

The centre clearance issue has been evident all season thus far, but is noticeably worse without Jack Viney. As good as Trac and Oliver are otherwise as midfielders, I reckon they too often approach a centre clearance possession like it’s a chance to construct the next move ahead, after their own possession. Viney is more ‘see ball, get ball, and then I’ll decide’, or if the oppo player looks like he’ll get to it first, then get him. Against a team like the Swans, that approach can’t be overvalued. Tonight was staggering in revealing our almost total inability to stop them getting attacking thrust from the middle, and it has to be fixed. 

3 minutes ago, Webber said:

The centre clearance issue has been evident all season thus far, but is noticeably worse without Jack Viney. As good as Trac and Oliver are otherwise as midfielders, I reckon they too often approach a centre clearance possession like it’s a chance to construct the next move ahead, after their own possession. Viney is more ‘see ball, get ball, and then I’ll decide’, or if the oppo player looks like he’ll get to it first, then get him. Against a team like the Swans, that approach can’t be overvalued. Tonight was staggering in revealing our almost total inability to stop them getting attacking thrust from the middle, and it has to be fixed. 

Oliver has been standing wider, and I think it's so he can hit the ball at speed when hunting the clearance. I think in the tactics thread, someone talked about our conversion from clearances: apparently we're winning less but scoring more from them. I can't pull those stats anywhere but if true it looks like we're playing high risk high reward footy, and backing our defence to intercept and win the ball back if we lose the clearance (to mitigate the risk).

Edited May 8, 20213 yr by deanox

Just watched the replay as I couldn’t do the live game but was following on the live  thread. If you take the live thread as any indication you would have thought we had an absolute shocker but was surprised at how well we held it together. I think this was a solid team effort in difficult conditions against a team that set up well tactically. Thought Oliver,  Harmes, Tmac and Jordon and Salem were best.

1 hour ago, Better days ahead said:

Uncomfortable, nervy match. The G was on tender hooks all game.

Think the word is tenterhooks!

I was behind the goals at the Punt Road end in corporate box eating duck and copious Asahi stubbies as I looked down on the plebs.

Tough game to watch, but I’ll bank the 4 points.

Seriously thought we would get rolled from late in the third quarter, but we managed to hold them at bay despite momentum.

Centre clearances are a massive concern. What is the point in having Gawn in there when we can’t win the ball at ground level. He has been poor. I legitimately feel more at ease with Jackson in the middle.

We miss Tomlinson badly. Lever can’t play the role we want him to play again (yet), without him there. 

Thank Christ for Oliver. Bloke literally got us over the line and May also a great job on Buddy keeping him at bay.

Can’t lie...for some reason I’m really concerned about the Carlton game.

2 hours ago, DeeSpencer said:

Our midfield got an absolute bath. Ben Matthews will be smiling I reckon.

Credit to the forwards for getting a score, and very much credit to our backline for a huge job.

But the mids need a kick in the backside.

Harmes - zero first options

Clarry - flat footed

Gawn - awful.

Petracca - going for too much.

JJ - effort good but execution lacking

Brayshaw - diabolical 

Tom Sparrow in please.

Harsh DS, but I agree that our midfield is just not working. It has regressed in the past two weeks.  

We’ve mostly corrected the bees at honey tendency this season, but it seems that with Viney out everyone is a little unsure who goes for the ball. Perhaps that was Harmes’s role today but he just doesn’t make good, fast decisions when he gets it (I’d like to watch every centre bounce of the game - perhaps that’s possible on the AFL StatsPro site).

With Viney out another week, we need to try something a little different next week.  Unbelievably it’s the weakest part of our game.

I thought Harmesy was in and amongst the action tonight, can't quiet gather the angst against the returning soldier.

Jimmy Jordan's tackle in the 4th when the game was in the balance was clutch.

take a bow young man.