Earl Hood

And where was Dusty in the last 10 minutes? The Tiges had a fair share of it in their half forward but Dusty, no where to be seen when he would normally turn a tight game on its head.

Umpires have decided to break the deadlock.

Yes that is not what the rule was brought in for. The guy was caught cold and they both went forward in the tackle. Free kick holding the ball FFS.

And the few times we do switch from the full back line, the second and third overlap players aren’t there for it to succeed, instead the first receiver on half back stops and has to identify a target as the opposition floods back. We don’t seem to have a set play for it, where a number of players would know to just run to space as soon as they see the first move.

Yep. Remember Grigic played 90 AFL games, that’s 90 more than most here. I remember in my 20’s lining up at half back on a 16 year old Con Goridzidis who only managed 30 games for St Kilda. I think he had kicked about 4.6 before I was dragged off him at quarter time! He was just so much faster and stronger at 16 than the other 35 adults playing, it was extraordinary. Finished kicking about 8.10 I think.

Huh? It’s a hypothetical question.

We couldn’t play both forward?

I would rather it was a legitimate shirtfront that took him out. But is there such a thing anymore? Oh sorry think it’s a No, unless you are executing a flying smother, front on at high speed and turning your shoulder 90 degrees to maximise the damage at impact.

Umpiring is really pro Pies.

That was a 50m penalty every day of the week! Takes Green head on and high then initiates a wrestle.

Interesting take that you think a professional footballer would check out leading into a finals series. He did all the training as I remember it and seemed to be getting on with his team mates during those finals training sessions.

But I worry it will cost us longer term. Let’s face it we will be on the edge every game hoping Max doesn’t get injured.

All that happened points to just that conclusion. The refusal to select Grundy in the last 5 weeks or so tells me something went wrong at the club. The original plan was for Grundy to ruck and Max to go forward and pinch hit in the ruck. Max didn’t work up forward. By round 18 it was Grundy who was sent packing to work on his forward craft because it wasn’t working up forward. And that was it for Grundy. It’s a team sport but I have had a suspicion that the captain spat the dummy on this.

It’s all history now but I agree the whole Grundy saga was a stuff up. Interesting Cornes had a lot to say about it on SEN this morning. He said we had Grundy signed for 4 years but let him go one of our fiercest competitors, not the Eagles or Kangeroos, for pick 46! And did this knowing there was no ready backup ruckman for a 32 yr old. He has a valid point. Our whole season depends on Max staying fit. The inability to make the Grundy thing work still staggers me.

My biggest worry about last night is The small sample we got looks a lot like the very big samples of the last 2 years. We will beat up a lot of sides but the top clubs have worked us out and can execute their tactics to negate our so predictable ball movement. There is no sign that we have evolved our game plan or style or found solutions to our delivery into our forward line.

Did anyone notice any change to our game plan from previous years? The game evolves every season but our game style seem to stay the same. There might have been a few more attempts to switch play but largely our ball movement was predictable and that only works if you can win contested football by a large margin. Positives were newbies Windsor, Howes and add McVee and May and Fritsch up forward. The on ball unit racked up possessions but rarely managed to link up to do real damage to the Swans. Could be a long season.

Evident that the Swans have worked hard to develop a new game strategy of precise short passing to break through our strengths, intercept defence and contested possession midfield bulls. Swans quick ball movement is moving around our midfield and chopping up our defensive wall. That said we are still in it even with our old game plan that never seems to change. Field kicking is rubbish, goal kicking accuracy is rubbish. Who knows something might click in the second half but really all the innovation seems to be coming from Longmire!

JFC I am sick of those finger nail goal reviews from 40 meters! They all go against us. I don’t think the Swans even claimed a touch.

This years game plan is looking a lot like last year’s and the year before that, and the year before that….goal kicking accuracy is shizen again.

Agree he should get 6 for the head high, leaving the ground bump but I would add another 2 for stupidity. The Coaches must be beside themselves that one of their players would be so reckless after all that has happened in recent years on this very subject.

Were supporters allowed into the ground today?

Better hide him away pronto. If he draws any attention we won’t get him under the current absurd academy, draft rules.

Didn’t we move to Casey to build our supporter base as it was in the major growth corridor of Melbourne? So it’s great that we are training at Casey at times unknown and when you do, you keep the sessions closed during school holidays and all other times for that matter lest a fan stumble into the inner sanctum. Of course I understand the need for utmost secrecy regarding our game plan, the new one we develop around this time every year that starts out with a few nuances but by the second half of the season looks exactly the same as it has for the past 5 seasons. Using a boxing analogy the Goodwin game plan reminds me of a heavy weight slugger who only knows one way to fight, keep moving forward throwing as many punches as possible hoping by sheer strength to overpower your opponent. It works most of the time until you run into opponents who know how to really box. That said for one glorious period of 10 weeks in 2021 we boxed like Ali and destroyed all before us. Where did that magic come from and where did it go?

Still believe even a mentally checked out Grundy (who was still training as required) was a better option than Schache, a selection that Goodwin refused to use in a crisis! Grundy playing the last quarter against Carlton would have at least been able to contest up forward (if not elsewhere on the ground) and bring the ball to ground. I still blame the Coaching hierarchy for a large part of our finals clusterf**k. The non selection of Grundy was mind boggling, selection of Schache and Bailey as subs in finals were baffling.

I sat in the Ponsford and saw close up most of his bag against Richmond this season. That convinced me that this guy is one of the answers to our forward problems. He made the Tiger backline look inept with his reading of the ball coming in and his ability to lose his designated defender and run at the ball, mark it with clean hands and then actually convert! If he can stay fit he could be one of the best KPF in the game, hopefully for us.