Why are we so upset we lost to the Swans?

[maverick]

I reckon most people's ladder predictors had this as a loss, but we think this loss means we are worse than last year for example. Maybe it was because it was a shocker of a game, not sure but I think we under estimate the Swans a bit.

The Swans will win every game from here and finish top 4 and make the GF IMHO.

We matched them quite well for almost 3 quarters, and if we could kick for goal early in the game we may have set up a match winning lead.

We think we have a great foward line, at the moment, would you take a forward line of Hall, O'Loughlin, O'Keefe, Buchanan and Schnieder or Roo, G, Milne and Fiora. Roo is the only one that would get a game for them.

They have an AA in Bolton in the back half, superb on ballers in Bolton and Kirk and a great ruck team of Jolly and Spider.

The only effective hit out I saw all night was from Blake, we are getting hammered week after week in the ruck. I actually thought Rix was alright on the night, but really he wasn't, its just that our expectations are so low.

So not to offer excuses, but for me, they are a far better balanced team than us, loads fitter and have a mental strength we could only dream of.

We can still make the finals if we are good enough, but we would need to take our chances when they present for the first time this year.

[saint patrick]

Will lose to Brisbane at the gabba next week ,beat Collingwood and be 5o/50against the Hawks last round...

could easily lose all 3..

will not finish top 4 IMO...

Hope not anyway ...

a premiership by default was one too many

..want to see a free flowing GF between Geelong and West Coast or Hawthorn/North ...

assuming we don't get there of course

[Otiman]

Because we were on top and the game was there for the taking and we lost it.

Sydney were not good, and we were worse.

[Brewer]

I was sitting next to a Swans supporter at the pub watching the game.

Whenever we had the ascendency he got worried. I told him not to panic, and that unless we were 4 goals up going into the final quarter, the Swans would probably win. Even if we were 4 goals up it was anybody's guess.

He was surprised at how accurate I was, while I was just ashamed that our failure was so predictable.

Last night's loss was, sadly, irrefutable proof that we simply haven't got what it takes. All our previous excuses have been shown up to be just that, excuses. Something is very wrong and it ISN'T injuries, bad umpiring, a rotten draw, or superhuman opponents. Sydney didn't trick us, outwit us or outskill us - they simply kept up with us for 3 quarters and waited for us to fall over in the 4th.

What bothers me is that I don't know what we will do next year for us to be any better. It would appear that RL is not a fast learner and does not adapt well to the conditions, I'm not sure how that will change between now and season 08. It would also appear that much of the team is content to play a pretty lacklustre style of footy, without an awful lot of heart, stamina, or basic skills. Again, I wish I could see why that will be different next year.

Sadly, I suspect that we will lose Harvey at the end of this year - unless he can see some real positive signs for next season that I can't.

I hope I'm wrong, of course, and maybe I'm just in mourning for the death of season 07, but I am bitterly disappointed. We have run out of excuses.

[plugger66]

Will lose to Brisbane at the gabba next week ,beat Collingwood and be 5o/50against the Hawks last round...

could easily lose all 3..

will not finish top 4 IMO...

Hope not anyway ...

a premiership by default was one too many

..want to see a free flowing GF between Geelong and West Coast or Hawthorn/North ...

assuming we don't get there of course

Disagree Ithink they will win there last 3. A very good side well coached.

[my les foote]

The Swans will win every game from here and finish top 4 and make the GF IMHO.

So we get to play them again. Which one of us will knock off Geelong?

[Teflon]

I reckon most people's ladder predictors had this as a loss, but we think this loss means we are worse than last year for example. Maybe it was because it was a shocker of a game, not sure but I think we under estimate the Swans a bit.

The Swans will win every game from here and finish top 4 and make the GF IMHO.

We matched them quite well for almost 3 quarters, and if we could kick for goal early in the game we may have set up a match winning lead.

We think we have a great foward line, at the moment, would you take a forward line of Hall, O'Loughlin, O'Keefe, Buchanan and Schnieder or Roo, G, Milne and Fiora. Roo is the only one that would get a game for them.

They have an AA in Bolton in the back half, superb on ballers in Bolton and Kirk and a great ruck team of Jolly and Spider.

The only effective hit out I saw all night was from Blake, we are getting hammered week after week in the ruck. I actually thought Rix was alright on the night, but really he wasn't, its just that our expectations are so low.

So not to offer excuses, but for me, they are a far better balanced team than us, loads fitter and have a mental strength we could only dream of.

We can still make the finals if we are good enough, but we would need to take our chances when they present for the first time this year.

Really good post - I too had this game down as a loss and was staggered by the "bring out yer dead" crew on here after the game..

Sydney play a style very well and I thought Roos coached superbly on the night - they shut down well but also seem to instinctively know when to move the footy quickly and set up scoring shots - they didnt even rely on Hall last night and some of their transition play (and fwd entry movement) was light years ahead of ours.

Its called discipline - they have it in spades but it took them time and early everyone wanted Ross head.........they have a flag now....

Sydney dont rely on superstars - unlike Saints historically who have always needed a Riewoldt, Lockett type to get excited over...they play as a TEAM across the board and work for each other...its how they trouble the more talented sides like Eagirls cause the Swans maintain the rage for the longest consistently.

Had we utilised the footy a tad better, taken some chances and also IMO taken risks earlier (and thats a coaching error also for the GT lovers out there...) then we couldve seen a much different result.

As it was we went down by 17 pts to a very good side on its home turf.
We get there - no we are not going to win the GF this year.....but I have no doubt we will in time gel as a coaching unit/playing group (with some list modification I may add) and we will be right in the mix.

[St. Luke]

I picked us to lose against the Swans and still have us in the 8. Sydney at home are always a tough gig. I don't know why people come out and say it was a Roo's masterstoke and how fantastic the Swans are - what a load of crap! We were neck and neck with the Swans right up until the last quarter! we played worse against the Pies and the Tigers IMO - why then is this such a big deal with everyone?? I'm as disappointed as the next supporter but we need to learn fast and move on. Freo is gonna be another tough gig, but they're on our turf this week - as supporters let's make it count and show them they aren't welcome!

[saintdooley]

why are we so upset?
take a good look at the ladder and you will know why im pissed off, watch the replay of the last quarter and you will know why im pissed off, travel 11 hours on a bus the sydney and then 14 hours back because the bus stuffs up on the way home and then you will know why im pissed off!
we are not a 4 quarter side any more! we are turning into the blues, we can only play for 3 quarters then drop off in the 4th!

[carn_sainter]

For me, it's not so much that we lost

it's how we lost

we just keep putting ourselves out of the running, story of the season thus far...

a good opportunity opened up for us to go to 7th i think, and we just let it slip...not because we were beaten by a better team so much, but because we beat ourselves

we did a fair bit well...clearances we won, our defense was alright...

but we completely butchered the ball and didn't look like we wanted to win (of course we did want to win, but it didn't translate into play too well)

[mischa]

Maybe because we'd won four of the last five or five of the last six against them and maybe because we played atrociously when our season was on the line.

[maverick]

You all make good points on the loss, and I agree with most of them, to some extent at least, but I reckon every half decent team that plays Sydney think they cost themselves the game.


Everyone constantly underestimates them, and makes it look like they themselves are the reason for the defeat.

In the last three years they have won and lost GF's by less than a kick, could have won 2, could have won none. This year could be a third straight GF, they must be doing something right.

[meher baba]

I agree that the Swans are hard to beat, especially at home: it all depends on the will-power of the umpires, who need to police their shameless cheating, whinging, feigning, etc. for four quarters.

On Saturday night, the umps only managed to do this for a quarter and a half, after which the crowd got to them and they stopped blowing the whistle for blatant free kicks given away by the Swans. Worse still, they gave some shockers against us.

All that said, we played an extremely unattractive and half-hearted variety of football for most of the game. And that's always disappointing, especially when we lose.

[meher baba]

P.S. Paul Roos has brought a style of play into football that is very similar to what the Pakistanis brought to hockey about 25 years ago.

Roos has clearly instructed his players to cheat constantly, express feigned outrage every time a free kick is given against you, collapse to the ground for non-existent illegal hits, and generally work on wearing out the patience of the umpires, who find it impossible to keep on penalising them - and ignoring the bleating for holding the ball decisions & etc. - for four quarters of a match.

It works extremely well unless the officials have the cojones or else specific backing from the hierarchy of the sport to stamp it out.

What is required is for the Swans to be properly and attentively umpired for a full season, and they would be forced to stop it. Another option would be to bring in some sort of a sin bin and give the officials the power to send a player off for 10 minutes for constantly giving away free kicks or talking back to the officials (this has had an enormously good impact in Rugby Union).

Don't think that the AFL is blissfully aware of what the Swans are up to. That's what Demetriou's blast about the Swans' style of play in 2005 was about. It might even have been behind the moves to get rid of Roos early on and replace him with Wallace or whoever, which seemed to have some backing from the AFL.

But that's as far as anybody at the top of the AFL is prepared to go, because they don't want to be seen to be victimising a team in a city where they want to expand their market.

But they are going to have to do something soon, because the way the Swans play is a blight on the game.

[cowboy18]

In order?

1. Opportunity lost. Everything was falling our way in the other games.
2. I hate the swans. Really hate them. Combination of style (Meher Baba's post highlights many of my issues with the swans more articulately than I could), supporter group and simply being an AFL fan in Sydney. I support every other team against the swans. EVERY other team.
3. We could have won. We were good enough in patches to steal it, and it was only when they got a break in the final term that I couldn't see us breaking through to kick a couple.
4. I hope. I really do. I want us to achieve success. And the only way I can follow them is in a positive way - negativity or even realism is simply to self-destructive for me personally. I remember churning over our inability to succeed for many years and the only way to persist was to whack on the rose-coloured glasses. Speak to other 40-50yo posters and get their feel on it, we had a sniff of our only success and pretty much a lifetime of club failure. We've got coping mechanisms to die for.