PROS
Its way less embarrassing than losing a match to the bozo-riffic Bombers.
Another AFL game into our young players. I hate to sound like Danny Frawley, but we'll learnt from that.
No (more) serious injuries from the match.
Bower raised the level of his game, hope he can keep it up.
Eddie Betts maintaining his great form this year. He is our only forward that doesn't make my eyes bleed at the moment.

CONS
Kicking for goal, it must be so deflating for the team to see all their hard work undone by poor finishing off. Just kick it through the flowering big sticks!!!!!
Too much left to too few.
We snatched defeat from the jaws of victory for the second week in a row. We managed to lose another dumb off to a mediocre team.

Just spitballing here - but do you think the MC got a bit tentative about playing Setanta after the semi-negative press about him being back so soon? I can understand they didn't think it right to bring him in last week - but we clearly need to adjust our defensive structure to better cover Jamo's loss......


My Pros for the day:

Army - was always trying - hope he keeps that beyond the first game back in....
Eddie's 4th quarter
The team kept trying.

Cons:
Trying wasn't enough
We panicked.
We still don't seem to be able to switch gameplans quickly enough when it is obvious that the opposition have effectively countered what has previously worked....

_________________
Now stalking Carlton on Twitter and Facebook!

By "less kicks to Fev" they apparently mean "more kicks to the opposition"

_________________
Gaga and The Hoff party hard in London

Doubt it. Negative press didn't worry the Crows in the slightest when they brought back Bock after 1 week of an indefinite suspension.

My guess is that there are elements of the MC that were hoping against hope that the tall flankers could hold things together until Jamo could return. For those elements, it would be a bitter-sweet result if Santy is selected and puts in a big performance.

I'm all for Carlos being selected but his omission didn't cost us today.
Moot point.

_________________
Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

To be honest I think our defence was the only component of our team that managed to break even. The fact that our forwards & midfielders couldn't kick straight or hang onto possession cost us the game. Fix those two elements and 12 goals on the SCG is a good defensive effort.


I was disappointed that Ratts didn't sub Cloke and give Kreuzer an extended run at CHF. He showed last year he can pop up with 2-3 goals in a quarter and turn a match, and we were desperate for some marking power in that 2nd half, which would have given us the Hail Mary option, rather than chippy-chippy givitaway.

PRO's:

*Judd
*Waite (Disposal improved as game went on. Poor disposal early in game, along with Thornton)
*Bower
*Betts (Only Forward who had a dip. Leading our Goalkicking)

CON's:

*Losing Josh Kennedy to WCE, as we desperately need a CHF with his Athleticism and Contested ability, as Cloke is just a lazy, slow and nonphysical player. In the 4th quarter Cloke was in front position one out with Lewis Roberts-Thomson in the forward pocket and was beaten and ran off.
*Gameplan
*Kicking for goal (Gone from 41.23 in rd's 1 & 2 to 25.29 in rd's 3 & 4)
*Skill errors
*Tackling (Gone from 80-58-43-41) in last 4 weeks.

Pros: Bower
Judd
and I thought Simmo was ok too

Cons:
Gameplan: I can remember listening to Sandy Roberts and his ilk in 1985 on telecasts from the SCG. Their message every single was this... use the corridor, don't go down the flanks at the SCG. Sides that use the corridor will win. 25 years later, and we can't seem to work this out. I mean fair dinkum, why, why, why? Yeah I know it was Swans' pressure, but we knew they would apply good pressure. So why can't we devise a sustainable gameplan for the ground?
Time: how do Swans' supporters watch that cr@p week in week out? At the end of the game my distinct feeling was that there was 3 hours of my life I would never get back.
Ladder: these are the sort of games we must win to make finals.

I agree. There are some awful teams to watch in the competition. And Sydney are the the worst.

Cons:

Fev's attitude has been really good for a while now. But he looked like he dropped his head today after missing another set of early shots, and seeing the team begin to struggle. (Perhaps there's a subtle Pro in that. It may be that team considerations and a sense of responsibility were the culprits today.)

Pros
- Judd's workrate and effort but he still let his direct opponent McVeigh kick 3 goals in a low scoring game which was the difference in the end
- players in the twos available to come in and have a go (ie Browne) time to give Robo a break
- we have another chance next week to redeem ourselves
- the defensive job except for who ever was on Grundy
- Eddie Betts

Cons
- Swans really are an avg team - what they do is play tough honest footy and that was better than our talent
- total fustration at the number of points we kicked
- as a result of above the players started to lose confidence; at the start of the 3rd term when I thought we would come out fighting, we got scared and went into our shells and stopped taking risks and working hard for each other. We have really lost some confidence and we do not appear to know how to work our way through it. Our game plan is quite offensive and when players lose confidence they need to just work on the basics
- slow play and not enough risks (including the coaching) The crows have consistently been critised for having a game plan of slow chip forward movement and holding onto the ball. When the game is played on their terms it works but when the opposition has taken a significant lead you need to change it up and take more risks. The crows fail to do this and seem unable to change their style of play. Are the Blues becoming like to crows and too set on a game plan?
- two winnable games in a row lost
- Fev. he is injured or just a sook - unfortunately he has too much of an influence on us and because the rest of the forward like is struggling we are going to him even more which on makes matters worse. Desperately need to look at our forward set up again.

_________________
The glass is neither half full nor half empty. Rather the glass is twice as big than required.

I would be interested in your viewpoint on today's game BV.

_________________
"You are being watched. The government has a secret system. A machine that spies on you every hour of every day. I know because I built it." - Finch

Pro's

Agree Bower was very good
Judd of course
Eddie, simmo, t-bird in patches
I also thought JR was good pn O'Keefe and also on J bolton after half time (I think that's where he went)
Very glad I don't barrack for Freo


Con's

Kicking efficiency
Goal kicking
Soft footballers (Johnson and Houla both didn't go when it was their turn but this comment isn't just directed at them)
Tackles not sticking - like last week
Where was the training drill described by Sydney Blue of Fev leading up and a player getting behind him for the mark?
Wouldn't we love a Craig Bolton in our side?
Tough games coming - could easily be 2-4 and struggling
Saints looked awesome again

_________________
I'm shocked to be sitting here

Pros:

I can say this to most of you today: You can't judge the match, you weren't there.

Bower. Best in defence today by a long way.

Waite. BOG in the first half, quiet 3rd qtr, and steady 4th. Marked everything which went near him, and was classy and efficient in his disposal.

Russell. Had the best match I've seen him play. Good efforts, good hands, smart and skillful use of the ball.

We were given a lesson in placement at the fall of the ball. I class this as a pro because it can only be a valuable learning experience.


Cons:

Fev. Pulled a heartstring today. I love the bloke, but it was obvious he just didn't give a shit.

Zero intensity. There was more passion and intensity in the stands from the very large Blue crowd.

Apparent lack of Plan-B

Who was on Rhyce Shaw? That little turd ran the whole ground without impunity all day.

Kicking at goal.

The guys just didn't seem to want to be there after the first quarter, and we gifted them the lead and the match as a result.



It wasn't the loss which was so devastating for me, but the way we lost it.

_________________
And so while others miserably pledge themselves to the pursuit of ambition and brief power, I will be stretched out in the shade, singing.

Pros:

- Our poor games have resulted in 4pt and 17pt loses.
- We are still in the 8 with a healthy percentage of 122%
- The Bulldogs travel to Perth again tomorrow.
- The Hawks are beatable
- We can still be 4-2 which I predicted us to be at Round 6.

Cons:

- I had this game down as a loss pre-season and we delivered
- Our kicking for goal would've resulted in two wins the past two weeks if we kicked straight.
- Our confidence tails off to easily and we go into our shells.

One of the most heartbreaking and frustratung performances I have witnessed. To be completely dominant and not get the reward was deflating.

The CONs for me are:

The team still lacks a belief that they are a good team and almost wait for the other side to come rather put them away.

Some weren't willing to go when it was there turn.

Kicking for goal.

Some players were unsighted.

Played very indirect and seemed baffled by Sydney's tactics.

Sydney's style of game makes the game as ugly is it can be to watch at the elite level.

The AFL should get sued for requiring the players to play at an unsafe workplace. The SCG is not fit for football. Fev could have hurt himself badly on the boundary.

_________________
I send an SOS to the world

4 biggest cons we can work on this week:
- What happenned to our tackling?????
- Need to use the corridor: what, are we too scared to take the ball near an opposition player??? if teams block it up, throw Kruezer in the middle, Cloke at CHF & Fev forward each with a crumber by their side & the others running through AND BACK OURSELVES TO WIN THE CONTEST!
- Attack the ball!!!! By the final quarter I watched in horror as some of our players did not even reach out to grab the ball within reach while the Sydney boys threw their whole bodies in & came away with it. We lost our desire & intensity.
- Kicking drills.

(It also wouldn't hurt to put some blinkers on some of our backmen, like Thornton, so he can't like back or sideways when he gets the ball...)


btw, Santy not included I suspect b/c the MC knew Hall was unlikely to play.
If Jamo doesn't come up, we might need him for the Hawks in 2 weeks...

Judds:

Bower was fantastic, I liked Armfield, Judd was good and eddie was class

Cameron Clokes:

Cameron Cloke. Players ball-watching, they were often reactive instead of proactive and waited for others to make things happen.

Pros

Judd
Bower
Waite (for effort)

Cons

We used to have a crap 1st qtr and come back in the 2nd half to run out the game. Now we have a good 1st qtr in as far as intensity is concerned and look shagged by the 4th.

_________________
Gaga and The Hoff party hard in London

Con - certain player celebrating a 'cheap' goal at the 27th minute mark of the last quarter when the game is effectively over and on ice. Certain player laughing and smiling after that goal without acknowledging his team mates effort in extracting the ball and dishing it off to him which allowed him to score...............the boys on Triple M had a field day with this incident and rightly so.

That is effctively what is wrong with this current group (too many blokes playing for themselves)..............this attitude was evident under Pagan and still rears it's ugly head today. Was also evident in a number of games last year. Lesser known players do the hard work to extract the ball and dish it off whilst taking a hit. The so called 'finishers' in this team then score the goal. Everyone rushes to the scorer to congratulate them, bum slapping and high fives along the way whilst the guy who did the hard work receives little attention.

Yes I don't know why Simmo was laughing/celebrating like that.

One other thing - I think it was the second qtr. Cameron Cloke leading up the ground and trying to take a chest mark.

Trying to take a chest mark meant he allowed the defender to get a spoil in.

Surely having played there for some time now, Cloke would know that you extend your arms out to give yourself the best chance of taking the mark or at least getting a free kick for chopping of the arms.

_________________
"You are being watched. The government has a secret system. A machine that spies on you every hour of every day. I know because I built it." - Finch