caesar88
Moderator
- Apr 26, 2016
- 36,450
- 72,510
- AFL Club
- Sydney
- Moderator
- #1
It's time for jury duty for AFL fans. AKA, watching a West Coast game.
Hey, does everyone remember the Sydney Swans vs West Coast rivalry of the mid-2000s? What a time it was. Close games, awesome match-ups all over the field, plenty of respect between the two teams, benders on the weekend, bikie gatherings on weeknights. Ohhhhh, sorry, this isn't the Eagles board. My bad.
In the interest of generating some nostalgia, the Swans this year willingly sacrificed their premiership chances to try and revamp the rivalry with West Coast, since let's face it, they weren't gonna meet us at the top. Top four clashes? Boring. Always so contested and defensive and low-scoring. Bottom four clashes are where it's at. End-to-end footy with no manning up? Players using would-be tacklers as turnstiles? Uncontested marks under no pressure? Not to be dramatic but this is probably going to be the game of the season.
Especially if we win, which we should. Our 75% is still considerably better than West Coast's 100%, and 75% is about where we were against the Lions. We did a lot right, we were fiercely competitive, full of ticker and our talent shone through plenty. We ultimately lacked the finesse and execution and faded as the game went on, and that was the 25% difference between us and the Lions. I'd imagine there'd be a feeling of "damn... we could've had that one" amongst our players, which hopefully means there will be a fire in the belly coming into this game that might otherwise not have been there if we faced the 18th-placed team coming off a win.
Realistically speaking, we have more weapons who, if they fire, will cause West Coast headaches. Both teams leave a bit to be desired at either end of the ground, so what happens between the arcs will be critical.
We have an outside brigade of good movers and users - Blakey, Campbell, Florent, Gulden, Lloyd & McInerney - who have been getting plenty of it lately. To put into perspective, it is time for... * Freddie Mercury voice *
STATS... AH AH
Those six aforementioned outside players have been averaging 84 kicks between them in the last three games. Let that sink in for a moment. 84 kicks per game. Even if you take away the ones that might've been dump kicks when hemmed into the boundary line, or rushed kicks off one step in a pack, those guys kicking it that much is still a good place to be in, considering our outside players used to be West Coast players (which is Latin for spectators.) Their strike rate with those kicks still leaves a bit to be desired (with the exception of Lloyd, though he's not as adventurous with his kicks as the others), but we just need to back them in to keep getting the ball and building more confidence in what they can do with their kicks.
A big factor in those players getting the ball in positions to kick over the last three weeks is that we've been more competitive in the contest, which has meant a bit more supply. Heeney in the mids against the Blues worked well, while the last two weeks we matched two of the better midfields in the comp in St Kilda & Brisbane for three quarters on the back of two things:
- Giving Rowbottom more license to hunt the ball (averaged 23.5 disposals in the last two weeks as opposed to his average of 16 before; has also averaged 16 contested possessions in the last two weeks, nearly doubling his average of 9.5 before)
- Adding Sheldrick to the midfield (he's getting more midfield time than Papley and averaging 9.5 contested possessions, which is three more than what Papley was previously averaging)
If Mills returns, my hope is that it wouldn't effect what we are doing with the above two. My hope is that he'd complement them. The more hardness we have in the contest, the better off we'll be.
For their part, West Coast also have some weapons. I don't know if there's a better spine in the competition than Michael Brennan, Glen Jakovich, Chris Judd, Peter Sumich and Josh Kennedy, while that Peter Matera looks a promising wingman (fortunately for them, he's from WA, so they don't need to worry about him setting sail for home.)
In all seriousness, I really rate our future 3x All Australian premiership defender Tom Barrass as a full back, Jayden Hunt could have a field day rebounding from defence for them if our front half pressure is like it has been so far this year, and in the midfield, the big bodied but injury-plagued Yeo could decide to turn back time, find a way, and take back those words that hurt us.
INS & OUTS...
Blurgghhhhh. This part gives me indigestion every week because it feels like a constant guessing game. We know the drill by now. We spend the Sunday/Monday after games speculating which of our many injured players will return. Horse comes out on the Tuesday and reveals two players we had no idea were injured are suddenly going to miss because of some inexplicable, stupid reason like they were doing the Las Ketchup dance when they accidentally fell down the stairs. Then we spend the Wednesday browsing realestate.com.au (sponsor shoutout!) looking for lovely green pastures we can put Tom McCartin out to.
So I'm just gonna go with the ideal scenario where all the big guns return. Horse said that Mills, McCartin & McDonald (sounds like a country music trio) all trained last week, while Heeney should return from his concussion layoff. So the four of them come in. McCartin for Francis (stiff), Mills for Wicks (suspended anyway), Heeney for Hayward (like for like), and McDonald for Buller (no shame in a quiet debut).
Swans by 347.
Hey, does everyone remember the Sydney Swans vs West Coast rivalry of the mid-2000s? What a time it was. Close games, awesome match-ups all over the field, plenty of respect between the two teams, benders on the weekend, bikie gatherings on weeknights. Ohhhhh, sorry, this isn't the Eagles board. My bad.
In the interest of generating some nostalgia, the Swans this year willingly sacrificed their premiership chances to try and revamp the rivalry with West Coast, since let's face it, they weren't gonna meet us at the top. Top four clashes? Boring. Always so contested and defensive and low-scoring. Bottom four clashes are where it's at. End-to-end footy with no manning up? Players using would-be tacklers as turnstiles? Uncontested marks under no pressure? Not to be dramatic but this is probably going to be the game of the season.
Especially if we win, which we should. Our 75% is still considerably better than West Coast's 100%, and 75% is about where we were against the Lions. We did a lot right, we were fiercely competitive, full of ticker and our talent shone through plenty. We ultimately lacked the finesse and execution and faded as the game went on, and that was the 25% difference between us and the Lions. I'd imagine there'd be a feeling of "damn... we could've had that one" amongst our players, which hopefully means there will be a fire in the belly coming into this game that might otherwise not have been there if we faced the 18th-placed team coming off a win.
Realistically speaking, we have more weapons who, if they fire, will cause West Coast headaches. Both teams leave a bit to be desired at either end of the ground, so what happens between the arcs will be critical.
We have an outside brigade of good movers and users - Blakey, Campbell, Florent, Gulden, Lloyd & McInerney - who have been getting plenty of it lately. To put into perspective, it is time for... * Freddie Mercury voice *
STATS... AH AH
Those six aforementioned outside players have been averaging 84 kicks between them in the last three games. Let that sink in for a moment. 84 kicks per game. Even if you take away the ones that might've been dump kicks when hemmed into the boundary line, or rushed kicks off one step in a pack, those guys kicking it that much is still a good place to be in, considering our outside players used to be West Coast players (which is Latin for spectators.) Their strike rate with those kicks still leaves a bit to be desired (with the exception of Lloyd, though he's not as adventurous with his kicks as the others), but we just need to back them in to keep getting the ball and building more confidence in what they can do with their kicks.
A big factor in those players getting the ball in positions to kick over the last three weeks is that we've been more competitive in the contest, which has meant a bit more supply. Heeney in the mids against the Blues worked well, while the last two weeks we matched two of the better midfields in the comp in St Kilda & Brisbane for three quarters on the back of two things:
- Giving Rowbottom more license to hunt the ball (averaged 23.5 disposals in the last two weeks as opposed to his average of 16 before; has also averaged 16 contested possessions in the last two weeks, nearly doubling his average of 9.5 before)
- Adding Sheldrick to the midfield (he's getting more midfield time than Papley and averaging 9.5 contested possessions, which is three more than what Papley was previously averaging)
If Mills returns, my hope is that it wouldn't effect what we are doing with the above two. My hope is that he'd complement them. The more hardness we have in the contest, the better off we'll be.
For their part, West Coast also have some weapons. I don't know if there's a better spine in the competition than Michael Brennan, Glen Jakovich, Chris Judd, Peter Sumich and Josh Kennedy, while that Peter Matera looks a promising wingman (fortunately for them, he's from WA, so they don't need to worry about him setting sail for home.)
In all seriousness, I really rate our future 3x All Australian premiership defender Tom Barrass as a full back, Jayden Hunt could have a field day rebounding from defence for them if our front half pressure is like it has been so far this year, and in the midfield, the big bodied but injury-plagued Yeo could decide to turn back time, find a way, and take back those words that hurt us.
INS & OUTS...
Blurgghhhhh. This part gives me indigestion every week because it feels like a constant guessing game. We know the drill by now. We spend the Sunday/Monday after games speculating which of our many injured players will return. Horse comes out on the Tuesday and reveals two players we had no idea were injured are suddenly going to miss because of some inexplicable, stupid reason like they were doing the Las Ketchup dance when they accidentally fell down the stairs. Then we spend the Wednesday browsing realestate.com.au (sponsor shoutout!) looking for lovely green pastures we can put Tom McCartin out to.
So I'm just gonna go with the ideal scenario where all the big guns return. Horse said that Mills, McCartin & McDonald (sounds like a country music trio) all trained last week, while Heeney should return from his concussion layoff. So the four of them come in. McCartin for Francis (stiff), Mills for Wicks (suspended anyway), Heeney for Hayward (like for like), and McDonald for Buller (no shame in a quiet debut).
Swans by 347.
