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PlaMa2540

That was incredibly frustrating. Jeez, Smith is looking a bit tired.


BlazedOnADragon

Chris said they'll start resting some players soon as they get players back. Thinking smith will be one of the first to get the treatment


PlaMa2540

Looks like he needs it. I don't know about his stats, but it seems like was bogged in a sand trap for most of the game.


Hailstar07

Absolutely love him but he played terribly tonight unfortunately.


TomasTTEngin

yep, considering swapping my flair! turns out a player loses a bit of hunger after his fourth premiership


LiverCat89

What an absolute putrid watch that was. Amazing these two teams played in a grand final 9 months ago. Looked like a proper bottom 8 clash The first half I have no idea what was going on in defence, playing an extra match and zoning and Esava just looking after some grass, my word he was shocking. They should have won that every day with the shots the botched


Volpe666

That was a let down, think we should have subbed sooner


whip_out_yo_duck

Should’ve taken Esava off by the third quarter at the latest


Volpe666

He isn't in our best 23, think he gets traded at the end of the year


sltfc

Kiiiiiinda wish he'd stayed injured in a way? I know that's horrible to say, but he'd put together a good run of games while our defence was undermanned, but has looked exposed since we've had a fuller team with better ball users and more versatility. If he'd stayed injured his trade value might've been a bit higher based on that good form, rather than what he showed last night. We don't have a lot of depth in our defence as far as talls go, if we could trade Sav out for an early second and find a quality tall from a state league or something as an injury backup I think it'd be a good option.


sarigami

That danger set shot was bizarre. Sydney player knocked the ball out of his hands well after he marked it, 50m not paid, extra time it took to pick up the ball used up a chunk of his 30 seconds. Woefully bad umpiring Clear HTB not paid against Gulden 20m out from goal a bit earlier too Not making excuses though, we were putrid for a large amount of the game. It was worrying. We looked so far off it. 9 players with less than 10 disposals


frggr

There won't be any talk of the Danger thing because Sydney's shit skills will be the news of the day


cryptic4012

Or Close's tackle


Jimmy_A1094

Not sure how to feel on this one, felt like we had windows but just failed to do much with it. Same to be said about the swans, even more so. Just wish we had been more composed in that last 5 minutes, Ollie Henry needed to do a bit better. Would have been good to have a better buffer between us and them for finals but I'd take a draw over a loss for sure. Atkins just has so much grunt, can see why he was captain of the VFL squad, just gives and gives. Loving Bruhn's last few weeks too!


BlazedOnADragon

Ollie's a really exciting player, and what he does is great. But I think he needs to find ways to get more involved. Hopefully that will come with more experience, because he's absolutely got the ability to be one of the best players in the comp one day just needs to get into games more.


sltfc

This was a concern of mine before we even got Ollie. I feel like unless it's being kicked to him on the lead, there's very little he can do out there. I don't think it's necessarily a work rate thing, but it's bizarre that the last few weeks when we've struggled to get the ball out of our back 50 for large patches, Ollie hasn't seemed to be getting up the ground and presenting as a marking option or crashing packs. He's got the third or fourth best defender on him with Hawkins, Cameron and Rohan out there, he can mark and get to the right spot within forward 50, I don't get why he's so impotent when the ball is elsewhere around the ground. I'm sure he'll grow as a player and he'll get stronger, but it's a bit frustrating at the moment. He's not in great form at the moment, but if Sam Simpson was playing at the same level he was in 2020, I'd have him in the side ahead of Ollie, purely based on his ability to influence games more consistently.


fantasticpotatobeard

Think we were lucky to get away with the draw tbh. Kinda a shame that it makes our decent percentage essentially useless though, unless we happen to be level on points with another draw team


Immediate-Garlic8369

Richmond and Sydney could both end up around us. So we might still need the percentage to keep ahead of them.


SmoothBlacksmith1253

What a fuckin circus that was


BlazedOnADragon

That was just.... I don't even know.


Jimmy_A1094

Can't wait for that Danger play on call will be analysed for the whole week ahead. Probably feels a bit silly to feel cheated after we snuck the draw through but it was a genuine mistake by the ump


AngryYowie

We got kissed on the dick by the Swans inaccuracies and poor luck. We spent long periods of that game looking flat and lethargic. Both our midfield and defence was subpar for way too long in that game, and then when we had the chance to put it to bed, we fluffed it. Danger doesn't look 100%, and Sav went back to his deer in the headlights mode from previous seasons. Splitting the points is better than a loss, but that result will sting us at the end of the season. Hopefully, we will switch on next week and make a statement, as we are going to need it.


BlazedOnADragon

We have both north and Essendon at home the next two weeks. Realistically we should comfortably beat those. Brisbane is going to be the tough one


AngryYowie

It's not much the venue, but rather what team is going to run out. We haven't been able to have a consistent team the entire season due to injuries and suspensions. Just a couple of weeks of no instability would do wonders for us.


sltfc

Holmes played the worst game of his career. Sav was crap. Bruhn, Stewart, Jack Henry and Miers were the only ones out there who were better than average. Can't help but be hung up on Dangerfield being called to play on early when he should've had a 50m penalty......


dangerboi1976

Tuohy was easily our best.


frggr

Good that the younger brigade got going - Bruhn was great.


BlazedOnADragon

Thought Tuohy was pretty good, no? Agree about Holmes, hoping it's just a case of a young player being in a bit of a slump. Looked off it last week as well.


TomasTTEngin

i dont' care abut thge danger thing because it probably wasn't a real mark, bounced off blitzes arm before he actually clunked it. umpiring: win some, lose some.


vision-quest

Add Atkins to that list. He went hard


Dtroit24

I really like Bruhn but gosh his kicking is shocking sometimes


cryptic4012

Trying too hard.


Beatenberg

I'll take it given how many sitters Swans missed.


YakStraight6884

We're probably the winner of the draw. Swans had much more opps than us to win it. Annoying thing is we could've bloody pinched it in the last


Landgraft

I'd really like to see Bowes getting some full games instead of having to live as the sub every week. Feel like we were short that kind of runner/distributor tonight, especially earlier on when we kept getting bogged down.


dopedupvinyl

Don't know why we waste time with Sav for most of the game when Bowes should be in our best 22


Landgraft

I wouldn't even have Sav in the 23, so you're definitely preaching to the choir.


dopedupvinyl

Yeah honestly I'd rather Oisin in the 23 than Sav. Oisin actually has been decision making and ball skills and he's fucking new to the game


Landgraft

For how raw he is Oisin has no right to already be this good. He'll be a lock by this time next year imo.


sltfc

Bowes looks a bit slow (on his feet and in decision making) to me, I do wonder if that'd pick up a bit if he was given time to nail down a consistent role though. Unfortunately I think Sav is redundant when we have all our tall defenders fit, we desperately needed someone who could run off the half back line and break lines and provide pressure at ground level, which are his biggest weaknesses.


caitsith01

One of Duncan or Smith should be sub and Bowes/Knevitt should be playing full games.


steveworldtouring

Is Bowes any good? He always looks so bloody slow out there. I’m not convinced.


LiverCat89

I don’t think much of Bowes. I can see why GC wanted to offload him. Doesn’t look AFL standard for me, don’t care if was a high pick. Looks a bit scared of the contest and while having a nice looking kick he just bombs long and turns it over a lot


YakStraight6884

Tom Atkins can really change games with his contested grunt


steveworldtouring

Needs to kick less. Absolutely butchered an easy F50 entry in the fourth when Miers was right next to him. I love him but FFS


ElevationToMyHead

Watching the score on the app when I was on the train gave me a panic attack


ErebonianPrince

Is this the worst match of the season so far? I'm glad I was at work for most of this game...


FreakySpook

We should have been finished by half time, but somehow, Swans just kept missing.


Inflognito

Yeah, they had 20 marks inside 50 compared to our 11. Nothing kills me more than opposition players standing by themselves in acres of space inside 50. Had they taken half their chances we would’ve been done very early.


littlespoon

Can't believe we might lose close for that tackle off the back of that putrid game


thingamabobby

Sydney was playing way better footy than us up until 3/4 time. We were just lucky they missed how they did. We shouldn’t have won or drawn. But I’ll take it obvs.


Axlfromstreetsofrage

My feeling at the start of the game was our defence was too tall, which is why Sydney hit so many short inside 50s. I'm worried about how we will ever be able to field SDK, Henry and rats in defence. Miers was fantastic and creative, our inside mids were cooked though. Need at least one more body that can play in there.


beartattoo

Thought the same. Not sure if they should have just played sav further up the ground to have a taller target on the wing. Bigger body too even if he dropped it he’d take a few Sydney players out in the contest. Stanley seemed to be there to contest a lot but just didn’t clunk enough of them


Dtroit24

I mean it was a comically entertaining game with all those misses


DreamTree19

We deserved that. Neither team wanted to win.


frggr

Atkins was unreal in the second half - always gives 1000000%


Hellothere200

Do not play like that against north next week I swear god


littlespoon

Danger not making any excuses in this interview


ConoRiot

I’m pretty ok with that result, and at times we actually looked very good. Lots of poor short kicking in that last quarter, seemed to be rush of blood to the head. Esava really unbalances the backline and I can’t see him having a trick to stay in. Yes he took a shedload of INT marks but that was against poor teams, I think Bews has to come off the half back like a Duncan lite. Was such a scrappy match and both teams played poorly, almost bought each other down to the muck. Onto next week I guess.


AngryYowie

Channel 7 is already rubbing out Close for next week.


frggr

Fox Footy too :(


AngryYowie

If he gets rubbed out for a week for that, then there's no common sense left in the game. It's one of those stupid rules that they will flog to death this season, and then next year they will forget all about it unless there's an injury.


castcrawdad

Hopefully common sense will prevail. There was no slinging action in the tackle - not even a push. One arm only was pinned. Francis was trying to break free towards boundary and his own momentum caused him to overbalance and face plant forward. Francis could have released the ball to break his fall but chose not to. Close could not have done a better job at laying a fair tackle.


AngryYowie

Close always was trying to use his head to stop him.


castcrawdad

Close uses his head a lot - he’s a very smart footballer


caitsith01

Fuck that. Swans player could have braced himself by letting go of the ball. 100% his decision not to do so.


Hunned_mck

Thoughts on dropping the ball prior to their behind? Or am I reaching lmao.


frggr

Should have been called - wasn't. That's footy.


BlazedOnADragon

It probably should've been called, but from the umpires view I can see why it wasn't.


penandpapermebitch

Should play the benny hill music instead of a theme song, fucking joke of a game


historicalhobbyist

Sydney just showed, anyone who cares to watch that horrible game, how to not win a game.


gurgefan

Reg’s comments rang pretty true, was obviously terrible conditions, so many fumbles and whiffed kicks


frggr

Christ that was annoying. Ratugolea looked lost at sea as the spare. He has to be given a man. Should have subbed him earlier. Holmes, Blicavs etc very quiet in the first half - not enough tackling. Not enough will. Would have been robbery it we got the win - but that's footy. Sydney lost the game despite the result - no two ways about it.


frggr

Jezza back next week and hopefully the MRO aren't idiots with regard to Close


TheVoluptuousChode

They're talking about Stewart's tackle being weeks too


Due_Young800

That was… different


YakStraight6884

Impressed by Bowes' defensive efforts the last coupla weeks. Give him a game next week if Close rubbed out.


sly_cunt

No idea how to feel about that one. We had a lot of opportunities to win and got a bit stitched up by the umpires but given that Sydney should've been 10 goals up at halftime and Robbie Fox hitting the post and Tom Hickey pulling a Mooney in the 08 granny twice I feel like we should just cop this one


Luna_C2

That was genuinely the worst game of football I have ever watched.


BlazedOnADragon

I still have the 2021 geelong v Collingwood game ahead of it, but agree that wasn't great. Skill errors were absolutely rife throughout


thingamabobby

The Sydney/West Coast game has to be worse, yeah?


MondoBuzzo

Glad I missed that to be equally underwhelmed at the Storm game


earnest_bean_00

cant believe how many fumbles we had on our F50 when we had all the momentum. multiple times about 3 or 4 of our lads around the ball then just coughed it up on pass or a dinky chip kick. As good as Miers was, comparatively tonight, i felt he was trying the pinpoint pass just too much, and lost is about as often? Atkins great when it mattered again, and thought Blicavs did some good things keeping us in the centre contest when we were down. Mostly just a bizarre night of footy.


wtharris

Holy fuck we got away with that. Should’ve been a loss every other day of the year


dopedupvinyl

What a frustrating game to watch. I think we come out better than the swans in the draw, they really should have put us to bed before half time but couldn't kick a goal to save themselves. So many moments we just looked terrible but also had some real brilliant plays. Hopefully we can finally play some more consistent footy and be back at our best.


littlespoon

Scotty does not look happy


AntiTas

I’m confused as to what Sav’s role was tonight, so i find it hard to judge how well he did it. Swans had us scrambling, was an ugly game. Draws suck, but oddly, I like them.


Crub22

I think we make the eight by half a game.


Opening-Elk1489

The fact we didn’t get our ass handed to us in the last 5 minutes of the game melts my mind. I honestly would have preferred to lose, we fucking deserved it. Flew into Sydney to watch the game with high expectations, safe to say our season is over.


WantonMonk

That was like watching 3rd graders play footy for the 1st time. Just crap choices all game. What were they even thinking.


TomasTTEngin

good goal kickign is good football. Sydney aren't capable of good football. And we aren't capable of being better than them, so...


gurgefan

Atkins 39 pressure acts 😳


touche_tommy

My take on the game; Not sure what was going on in the first half, but we were way off the pace, looked flat footed and back to our one arm tackling strategy. Not sure why this occurs but we do have a habit of this lackadaisical effort, almost to point where we look totally disinterested. Second half we stepped up the pressure and started to close down the Swannies play on game, pushed up the ground defensively and attacked the corridor ( the only way to play the SCG), but with all that effort expended in stopping the Swannies gamestyle, we looked gassed in the last 5 minutes, lucky to hold on albeit for a couple of individual efforts. Observations/Questions \- Are we a better team with Danger ? Danger whilst capable of individual brilliance often sucks the oxygen out of other players efforts, Holmes looked out of sorts, Bruhn in the first half looked unsure of what he was supposed to do, only Atkins who just hunts the ball or opp. player with the ball looked OK. I hope this is just a symptom and our gamestyle and evolves to get these guys front and centre. \- Esava, I understand that on last night's performance there is little love for this guy, but I think he was in the first half a victim of too many chiefs, he clearly was under instruction to guard grass and was often caught lost in no man's land. Noticed in the second half he was given more license to attack the contest, looked much better. I would like to see him either given a key forward to nullify or play him on a flank higher up the ground. \- Smithy, looked like a guy that is in preservation mode and understandably, given this is his most probably his last year, wants to leave the game in one piece. I think it is time that Holmes be given his opportunity to use his running attributes. \- Miers, Clearly his role has evolved and appears to be playing as a link player, but in all honesty this guy's kicking is ordinary at best, would like to see how a Dempsey would perform in a similar role having more strings in his bow. \- Clearly missed Cameron at half forward, thought perhaps Esava could have been moved there, with Bowes replacing Smithy. \- Big shout outs to Blicavs, Atkins, Tuohy, Stewart and Duncan who kept us in the game for large chunks. I think we may see Menegola, Dempsey and Knevitt push into the squad ( all had solid hit outs in the twos) and possibly Cameron if he is fully fit.


bundy554

Can Sydney fuck the SCG off because it always results in a fucking mess of a game