RalphiusMaximus

Can't let this one go. It was 100% Tappy's fault. And he did it twice. He was caught behind and gave his man a huge shove in the back. Right there he's done the wrong thing. Unfortunately he timed it perfectly so Stef's leap, rather than carrying him into the side of Murphy's head, carried him directly into that of Tappy. If he'd just kept contesting properly then the third man in (Martin) would have crunched Murphy and taken the ball away too.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Tappy miss. It looked like he copped a pretty solid whack on the jaw. Could be broken. Of course, if he's just concussed then we can bring him back next week and he'll kick 6... Anyway, I can see both Strauss and Tappy going out, which makes next week really interesting. Do we see Blease get a start? I think it's a great opportunity to give Davis a taste. Play him on LeCras or Nicoski. They are both small marking-type forwards, so he might stand a half a chance. I'd also love to seem Warnock get back into the side to sit on Lynch. Frawley goes to Fletch and Rivers gets to play third man, which is where he prefers to be. I honestly can't understand why Green is still in the side at the moment. Richie Vandenberg kept the captaincy when he wasn't good enough to get into the side and there were no problems. Surely they can bite the bullet and admit that he's not carrying his weight? Ditch him for a game or two and put Davey into the forward line. So this leaves us with the following: Out- Tapscott, Strauss, Green In - Davis, Blease, Warnock

Honestly, it was a pretty good effort for three quarters. If they hadn't blown us away in the second we'd all be reasonably happy with a hard game in which we conceded too many junk time goals to loose by 25 or so. If we'd actually kicked straight in the first quarter we'd have taken a pretty solid lead in and perhaps things would have been different. I'm not thrilled at the margin, but it was 100% better than last week.

DL has a reputation as a great match day coach and tactician. I think the question marks over him are more to do with his ability to work with the players on the training track. Basically the opposite of DB.

I'm concerned to see Evans go down with Stress Fractures to his back. We seem to have a number of players with back-related problems, and to me that says there's a problem with the physical conditioning. With luck this is again something that a new coach will look into and perhaps make some changes.

Of course he has. Of course, he's not actually allowed to sign their contract for another couple of months, but why let details get in the way of a good rumour.

Bear in mind that Eddie actually poached Mick from the Weagles when he was contracted to them. Not at all hypocritical there, right?

I would love to see us throw truckloads of cash into getting Malthouse or Clarkson. They would have to head up our wish list.

I think the overhaul needs to start with our physical conditioning, so first off is to replace the entire department. We need our kids to be getting stronger faster, and given how rarely our tackles stick it seems to be a massive flaw in the way we build these kids up. Next, we need someone who really understands how to defend. I really liked the call someone made earlier on Nathan Bassett. I think he could do wonders not only for our backline but our forward press. Try to get him in as backline coach. Our midfield has been built around speed and theoretically kicking skill, but they have shown themselves to be incapable of winning a hard contested ball and as mentioned above, can't seem to stick their tackles or prevent opponents from getting a clean disposal away. Obviously this needs to be a focus when we look at the midfield coach. I honestly don't know who that would be, so suggestions are welcome. Our forward line has been a shambles since Josh Mahoney took over. He obviously has to go. I would really like to see us get someone who played as a KPF in the role if possible. We have a crop of very promising tall forwards coming in who desperately need a mentor who knows how they need to play. Once again, I don't know if there is anyone in coachingland who fits the bill, but it would be worth looking into. Finally, our head coach needs to come from one of the clubs who have had recent success. Someone from Hawthorn, Collingwood or Geelong. Not only do they have a culture of success at these clubs, but the level of professionalism in the way they train and prepare seems to be a level or two above the rest of the competition. This is an area that has really hurt us, that our players are unable to execute under pressure, which is a direct reflection on how well they are drilled. So there's a nice little wish list for you. What do you think the odds are of getting it?

Like I said yesterday, he wasn't going to survive this one. All in all I think it's the right move at the moment. Whether it is a good thing long-term will be decided when they try to land another coach. Then we'll see what the football community are thinking about the club. I really hope they make the players front up for the press conference tomorrow so they can see exactly what they've caused. Whatever the problems in the gameplan, the blame for yesterday lies squarely with them and they need to know it. Put the leadership group on the stage and have the rest of them in the audience.

The Good: Our best three players were all in the sub 50 game group. The Bad: Our best three players were all in the sub 50 game group. The Ugly: The whole damn day. Thank God I wasn't able to watch the game. It was bad enough on the radio until I turned it off.

If we are to have a new coach, I want an old fashioned fire-and-brimstone-breathing bastard who will run the players into the ground on the track and tear the hide off their backs during his game day speeches. That is the one thing that they desperately lack as a group. DB may be a great bloke, he may be good at bringing the kids along, but he has never been able to kick start the team when they were playing like a bunch of sulky schoolkids. We've all seen the footage of some of the great coaching addresses of the past. I would kill to have someone who could do that now.

Yeah, I'm not a fan of knee-jerk reactions, but I can't see how DB will survive this. Like Craig over in Adelaide, a coach on already shaky ground who has just suffered a record defeat is almost a certainty to be gone. What I would have loved from DB today is if he had just walked away at half time and left the players a note on the dressing room door: "if you can't be bothered playing, why should I bother to coach you." Let them play without the support staff for the second half. It's sad that it's has come to the point where the team actually needs that sort of slap in the face to get them moving. If we do find ourselves with a new coach next week, the first thing they have to do is drop most of the side that played today. I know that pretty well ensures a loss to Carlton and the end of our finals chances, but it might send some sort of message to them that they are not indispensable and there are plenty of other guys waiting to take their spots.

Junior!

I stopped listening in the second quarter. It was simply too painful. Perhaps I'll read a match report to find out if we ever get a second goal.

He is damn fast with really clean skills. Unfortunately he struggles to find the ball and needs to learn how to win a one on one contest. I'm happy to give him a bit more time to learn that. I was listing much the same negatives about Strauss last year, and look how he's coming along.

Where did the Swans finish last year? We made them look second rate.

1. Win the three games we should win. 2. Win one of the games we shouldn't win. 3. Scully to declare that he's sick of the crap and will sign with us immediately. 4. Watts to kick 5 as we steamroll the Blues. 5. No more injuries this year. 6. A great debut from one of our first year players.

Is anyone really surprised that we got the worst possible timeslot? Really?

I'd love to have him working in the fitness department. That's his real strength, and he seems to be good at building young bodies into AFL bodies which is exactly what we need.

I had the AFL match center up at work. Only way I was going to keep up with the game sadly.

But that's the entire point. It wasn't a poor crowd. 39,782 on a Sunday afternoon is an amazing crowd. I've gone to Sunday games where we struggled to hit the 20,000 mark. We should be thrilled to have a turnout like that for this game. Wanting another 10,000 members to come along is just being greedy.

While I agree that we could have used Junior this year, I have some serious reservations about the notion of keeping him on. Firstly, who would we have delisted in his place? We offloaded Junior, Bell, Miller and Johnson from the senior list, and lost Bruce as a direct result of sacking Junior. Therefore had Junior stayed we would most likely have offloaded only Bell, Johnson, Miller and the Rookies. With the veteran spots filled by Bruce and Junior, Green stays on the main list. This means that we either cut McKenzie and Spencer loose or we promote them to the main list and only have one live pick in the draft. Obviously the club was not letting go of Jordie and at the time our ruck stocks were looking in very bad shape, so Spencer was required. Since it would be madness to go into the draft with only one live pick, we would have had to drop someone to keep Junior. Who was that player going to be? Secondly, I think that his body was beginning to show signs of wear and tear. I would have hated to see him have a farewell season like Brad Johnston over at the Bulldogs, constantly injured and more or less a liability when he got on the park. Better to go out while you are still able to earn a spot in the team. Finally, there is the fact that we are seeing so much from the first year players who are getting games for us this year. Would Evans or Nicholson have had a chance if we had a senior midfielder or two to spare? These guys are the future of our club and they need to get time on the field playing with the firsts to get the hang of the game. In the short term they are not as effective as those they replace, but long-term the benefit is huge. I honestly think that it was the right time for Junior to go. He was told that at the beginning of the year, and the fuss, however muted it has been, is to me the only selfish thing he has ever done in his football career. Had he been able to accept that the call had been made months earlier and just enjoy his final season for what it was, I have no doubt that he would now be working as an assistant coach/player development person with the MFC and continuing the amazing job he did as a mentor and guide to our young list.

So at a game where we were always going to be thrashed on a bitterly cold Sunday afternoon we pulled sub 40,000? Big freakin' deal! When I saw the title I thought I'd see a rant about only pulling 20k or so. If we were anywhere near 40k then I'm thrilled. That counts as a win folks.

As I understand it the issue was that Martin didn't even attempt to give the ball to the right player. Had he kicked it in the right general direction he would have been fine.