Surely Swans are pretenders too? On a worse 5 game run than us, beaten far more easily this weekend by a lower ranked side.

I'm not overly concerned about this week at the moment. We're experts at spoiling Collingwood's party and Pendle's 400th is the perfect target.
We need to get the hunger back. It's not overly structural. It's pressure and contest. When we get our pressure around 200, most can't go with us.

I don't believe you can maintain high pressure for an extended time. Look at Sydney as well. Teams suffer a lull but the opportunity is there to go again. Some tough games coming (Hawks and Saints are flying) but the reality is, it's 6 wins to get to a grand final. 4 of those games against teams currently out of the 8.
We've shown we can go on 6-8 game runs of high intensity footy. It needs to start this week.

I'm definitely not a fan of Young but he has to play. Kemp has coughed up a shitload of goals the past month and as tough as it sounds, he has cost us games. He can't play this week. We need a tall to mind Mason Cox and Young is the best choice.

Charlie was huge. Elijah looked good on the wing rotation and I'd go with that again. But him and Ollie can jam the Hollands brothers waxing system they have going. You dispose to the best option, not the lesser option because it's your @#$%&! brother.
Ollie, Kemp and Cunners out. Harry, Acres and Martin in. Cowan to Elliott. I'd even consider Binns for Cottrell.

I know I'll cop some grief for this but Cripps has to step up as our midfield leader this week. It good to bully little blokes but when players like Dunkley and Wines go with him at centre bounces, he has to power through it. He attended 92% of the centre bounces for 1 centre clearance. As a team we had 1 centre clearance in the second half to 6. If you want the most opportunities, you need to perform or get out and give someone else a go at being top banana. 7 stoppage clearances are great but the middle of the ground is where we need him to get back his best. His job is not to run past calling for cheap handballs but to be a beast at centre bounces.
Same with Pitto, no tackles, no centre clearances. Fire the @#$%&! up.

Tough, aggressive, pressure footy. It's this teams DNA. Get it back and we're on a roll again.

I'm not overly concerned about this week at the moment. We're experts at spoiling Collingwood's party and Pendle's 400th is the perfect target.
We need to get the hunger back. It's not overly structural. It's pressure and contest. When we get our pressure around 200, most can't go with us.

I don't believe you can maintain high pressure for an extended time. Look at Sydney as well. Teams suffer a lull but the opportunity is there to go again. Some tough games coming (Hawks and Saints are flying) but the reality is, it's 6 wins to get to a grand final. 4 of those games against teams currently out of the 8.
We've shown we can go on 6-8 game runs of high intensity footy. It needs to start this week.

I'm definitely not a fan of Young but he has to play. Kemp has coughed up a shitload of goals the past month and as tough as it sounds, he has cost us games. He can't play this week. We need a tall to mind Mason Cox and Young is the best choice.

Charlie was huge. Elijah looked good on the wing rotation and I'd go with that again. But him and Ollie can jam the Hollands brothers waxing system they have going. You dispose to the best option, not the lesser option because it's your @#$%&! brother.
Ollie, Kemp and Cunners out. Harry, Acres and Martin in. Cowan to Elliott. I'd even consider Binns for Cottrell.

I know I'll cop some grief for this but Cripps has to step up as our midfield leader this week. It good to bully little blokes but when players like Dunkley and Wines go with him at centre bounces, he has to power through it. He attended 92% of the centre bounces for 1 centre clearance. As a team we had 1 centre clearance in the second half to 6. If you want the most opportunities, you need to perform or get out and give someone else a go at being top banana. 7 stoppage clearances are great but the middle of the ground is where we need him to get back his best. His job is not to run past calling for cheap handballs but to be a beast at centre bounces.
Same with Pitto, no tackles, no centre clearances. Fire the @#$%&! up.

Tough, aggressive, pressure footy. It's this teams DNA. Get it back and we're on a roll again.

Not often I say this but I agree with most of this except the part about Young - Adam Saad our smallest player on the list at 178cm would be a better match up on Cox than Young - At least he is not scared of body contact

I'm not overly concerned about this week at the moment. We're experts at spoiling Collingwood's party and Pendle's 400th is the perfect target.
We need to get the hunger back. It's not overly structural. It's pressure and contest. When we get our pressure around 200, most can't go with us.

I don't believe you can maintain high pressure for an extended time. Look at Sydney as well. Teams suffer a lull but the opportunity is there to go again. Some tough games coming (Hawks and Saints are flying) but the reality is, it's 6 wins to get to a grand final. 4 of those games against teams currently out of the 8.
We've shown we can go on 6-8 game runs of high intensity footy. It needs to start this week.

I'm definitely not a fan of Young but he has to play. Kemp has coughed up a shitload of goals the past month and as tough as it sounds, he has cost us games. He can't play this week. We need a tall to mind Mason Cox and Young is the best choice.

Charlie was huge. Elijah looked good on the wing rotation and I'd go with that again. But him and Ollie can jam the Hollands brothers waxing system they have going. You dispose to the best option, not the lesser option because it's your @#$%&! brother.
Ollie, Kemp and Cunners out. Harry, Acres and Martin in. Cowan to Elliott. I'd even consider Binns for Cottrell.

I know I'll cop some grief for this but Cripps has to step up as our midfield leader this week. It good to bully little blokes but when players like Dunkley and Wines go with him at centre bounces, he has to power through it. He attended 92% of the centre bounces for 1 centre clearance. As a team we had 1 centre clearance in the second half to 6. If you want the most opportunities, you need to perform or get out and give someone else a go at being top banana. 7 stoppage clearances are great but the middle of the ground is where we need him to get back his best. His job is not to run past calling for cheap handballs but to be a beast at centre bounces.
Same with Pitto, no tackles, no centre clearances. Fire the @#$%&! up.

Tough, aggressive, pressure footy. It's this teams DNA. Get it back and we're on a roll again.

Last year we got on a roll
Our footy brand was contested ball and pressure
You can only sustain that for so long

To me you can bang on about Young and Kemp etc the bottom line is it’s a team defence thing
When the ball gets out in the open we are toast at the moment
If we lose the clearances or we win it and it’s ineffectual we are getting smashed in open space
I think we give up score more than 13 other teams
You can’t win a flag with poor team defence

Things were looking good 6 weeks ago . We picked up on areas we struggled in 2023 but with a few key injuries and guys banged up
And out of form we have been exposed
Our one wood which is bruised contested footy is still ok but not enough to cover up our deficiency on the outside

Unlike some teams there is a reluctance to move the magnets around
With so much damage being done outside the contest and clearance why not play Saad as an outside mid
Look at what Ed Richards has added at the Dogs
Clearly Binns deserves a game or two and he is a runner

I think we can beat Collingwood
They were average yesterday
If Cincotta keeps Daicos to 25 we should win

Hawthorn is a completely different proposition
Anyway time will tell but Voss needs to change things up to reduce damage done by opposition on the outside

I'm not overly concerned about this week at the moment. We're experts at spoiling Collingwood's party and Pendle's 400th is the perfect target.
We need to get the hunger back. It's not overly structural. It's pressure and contest. When we get our pressure around 200, most can't go with us.

I don't believe you can maintain high pressure for an extended time. Look at Sydney as well. Teams suffer a lull but the opportunity is there to go again. Some tough games coming (Hawks and Saints are flying) but the reality is, it's 6 wins to get to a grand final. 4 of those games against teams currently out of the 8.
We've shown we can go on 6-8 game runs of high intensity footy. It needs to start this week.

I'm definitely not a fan of Young but he has to play. Kemp has coughed up a shitload of goals the past month and as tough as it sounds, he has cost us games. He can't play this week. We need a tall to mind Mason Cox and Young is the best choice.


Charlie was huge. Elijah looked good on the wing rotation and I'd go with that again. But him and Ollie can jam the Hollands brothers waxing system they have going. You dispose to the best option, not the lesser option because it's your @#$%&! brother.
Ollie, Kemp and Cunners out. Harry, Acres and Martin in. Cowan to Elliott. I'd even consider Binns for Cottrell.

I know I'll cop some grief for this but Cripps has to step up as our midfield leader this week. It good to bully little blokes but when players like Dunkley and Wines go with him at centre bounces, he has to power through it. He attended 92% of the centre bounces for 1 centre clearance. As a team we had 1 centre clearance in the second half to 6. If you want the most opportunities, you need to perform or get out and give someone else a go at being top banana. 7 stoppage clearances are great but the middle of the ground is where we need him to get back his best. His job is not to run past calling for cheap handballs but to be a beast at centre bounces.
Same with Pitto, no tackles, no centre clearances. Fire the @#$%&! up.

Tough, aggressive, pressure footy. It's this teams DNA. Get it back and we're on a roll again.

Remember just two months ago vs. Melbourne when Gov, Kemp, Olli and Martin came back into the team, and we held Melbourne scoreless until the 10 minute mark of Q2. I don't think I've seen a better team defensive performance; we applied pressure to every D50 entry and our defenders (particularly Weiters and Gov) read every one like a book, just intercepting for fun. We have the personnel and sometimes we have the plan, really hope the current slump is all about conditioning and we're set for another block of top fitness.

where's all this thought coming that we're in a fitness block? or going thru some conditioning stint?


i hope that's the case. that's so much better than we're running out of gas and are goneski.

Apparently Russell himself confirmed it on radio recently

3 weeks ago the dogs were pretenders and no chance of finals. Now flag contenders
Swans have lost 4 in 5. Gone?
Port fans boo their coach yet they are top 4 fancies
Hawks were in the wooden spoon chat room, now form team of the comp
Essendon** were good, now they are not good. Thank goodness


We got complacent and lost to GWS because we got ahead of ourself.
Dogs are now the team to beat, we were close.
Port have won 90% of marvel games and Friday night games, and we turned up with 2 massive key position outs and a third player who goes unheralded, and we dominated until we ran out of puff after a short day break (following a hard hitting game). 5 minutes to go and we were lining up for the lead.
We are close enough if good enough.

Lost to the pies and the turmoil is real.
Win and we are on track.
Flog them and we are the real deal.

Is this the definition of line in the sand?