Post Match. Swans thump Pies. All comments.

[Johnno75]

Must not have climbed the steps at G as yet????

Is it too late???

Can’t help but laugh, fumble fumble, give it to the opposition, don’t run hard enough, loose players on the rebound.

It was just dumb starting Fin as the sub.

Oh well let’s fill up the cup and drink from it, while everybody else contests the 2024 season.

[magpieazza]

Ill be very happy if we make the top four from this point.

I will also be very happy if Carlton dont win the premiership this year and so hopefully if we win 2 games this year it is against Carlscum.

Can we turn it around ? I think so but we may need something different to bring on change.

For me its all about the hunger and we need to find it somehow

[pietillidie]

Very ugly indeed.

Not sure what to say except we're weeks behind physically before we even get to questions of mental preparedness.

It's disappointing in that I can imagine myself losing motivation after such an awesome season and moving on to a new challenge. You expect some of that in professional sport, and particularly for older players, and we've seen it before in sport, but we're further behind physically than I'd have expected given that's something you can measure.

On a general point outside and including sport, it's incredibly hard to get motivation right. You'd rather not need negative drives such as fear, shame, embarrassment, etc., but it might well be needed at this rate!

One thing we do know is that malignant narcissists like Ronaldo are always driven, but they're also incredibly toxic and anything but role models for life. So, that's one end of the scale. And unlike other areas of life, footballers are locked in for the season; i.e., they can't be replaced like a bad contractor at work, so that motivator is out the window.

Well, the challenge has been thrown down. It's not too late to turn things around, but this is going to take some serious reconvening and reworking, because it's unacceptable to be that far behind. Next phase of thinking, all.

[Woods Of Ypres]

Unfurling the flag is the dumbest ritual in the AFL
it was won 6 months ago
just a rubbish event.

[Skids]

We look slow. I thought it was just GWS looking fast last week, but it was the same tonight.

[LaurieHolden]

Still Premiers....I'm clutching at straws...
Richmond's 2019 & 2020 season openers were howlers. Have a look where they were sitting at round 5 each year.
Hawthorn 2015 didn't fare much better. And the Cats had their moments.

No doubt a loss like that will sting the group. The internal reviews will be interesting this week. Looking forward to Flys summary.
Were going to find out pretty quickly if this is an abberation or if this group is exhausted above the shoulders.

Our ball movement has been one paced, nearly like training pace, not the line breaking runs we've seen over recent seasons. And our pressure meter simply hasn't registered. I just didn't see any real,intensity tonight, and was also lacking last week.

The Johnson experiment to me looks done. We've all seen it.
Macrae needs to start next week and given block of 5 games.
I'm of view Moore simply looks distracted. Maybe the media requirements have had his head not quite back in the onfield role required, he's simply off his tucker at the moment.
IQ should be stinging after that, he simply had no influence. Another who's head might still be in media Street.
Dean in the pre-season and in two tough senior games looks to have real game. I'd really like to see what he's capable of with another 30 games under his belt. I reckon there's a player there.

Might the Brisbane match come at the right time? Those road trips have often galvanised our group on a number of occasions.

[Cam]

I thought we had a fair crack, not about hunger at all. The story of the game is how Sydney systematically disconnected each part of our structure, rendering our effort in vain. Our links were cut and so players functioned in isolation from each other for long periods of the game. Mids couldn't connect to the forwards, half backs struggled to connect sidewards with our mids. There were no waves, they were blocked and dismantled. Twice in two weeks. So it's up to the coaches to figure out how to get the connections happening again because all the gps records in the world won't matter if they don't chain together like they did in 22 and 23. It was like we were 2023 Sydney and they were 2023 Collingwood tonight.

[shawthing]

Big test now for Fly.

Spot on. He has been the ideal players' coach so far. Really befriended them and made them all feel comfortable. And it has worked to get the most out of a good ordinary list with a few stars thrown in (let's be honest).

But now he needs a lot more Adam Kingsley mongrel in him than the Fly of the past two years. Now he needs to drive these players to either (1) see how much the older blokes have got left, and (2) to see what the young kids have in them.

The real heroes of our next premiership though will be the recruiting team. How the heck do you bring in KPPs with limited draft picks and not much trade capital? But that's the only way we will win another flag. This team can make top four if they play at their best. But the flag is between GWS and Sydney I'm afraid. Both these sides are LOADED.

[Magpietothemax]

I thought we had a fair crack, not about hunger at all. The story of the game is how Sydney systematically disconnected each part of our structure, rendering our effort in vain. Our links were cut and so players functioned in isolation from each other for long periods of the game. Mids couldn't connect to the forwards, half backs struggled to connect sidewards with our mids. There were no waves, they were blocked and dismantled. Twice in two weeks. So it's up to the coaches to figure out how to get the connections happening again because all the gps records in the world won't matter if they don't chain together like they did in 22 and 23. It was like we were 2023 Sydney and they were 2023 Collingwood tonight.

I agree with this largely.
But I think also that Sydney's ability to disconnect our structure was massively aided by our inability to execute the skills of last year.
We were just so far below the standard of what we achieved last year in terms of fluid ball movement and ability to defend opposition incursions into our D50. Our defence was just unable to coordinate and sync like last year, So many times, spoils that would have been made last year did not happen, and loose Sydney players in F50 were able to take marks without a real contest - again, rarely seen last year.
I dont want to detract from the opposition's strength, but I did see this game as more a result of the deterioration of our standards, rather than the Swans finding some magical formula to tear us apart.

[swoop42]

It's been a fantastic ride these past 2 years with memories that can never be taken from us.

It was never going to last forever however and whatever undefinable team spirit that lead to miraculous victory after miraculous victory has most likely been lost or at the very least greatly reduced to that of normal levels.

In reality I'm just thankful it lasted as long as it did. It was record breaking and got us our 16th flag.

I was expecting a response tonight at home and we didn't get it. It was a worse performance than last week and by a margin IMO.

While I'm not giving up on our year after just 2 games I can't help but cast my mind back to the similarities between our 02/03 and 22/23 seasons.

Back in 02/03 we had a coach in Malthouse, who after taking over the worst team in the competition at the end of 1999 took us to successive Grand Finals in his 3rd and 4th season in charge. Fast forward to the McRae era and we have a coach who took over a 17th placed side and took them within 1pt of a GF in his first season before lifting the cup in his second.

These were both fantastic coaching performances.

Of course come 2004 our side dramatically hit the wall and we plunged to 4th last.

While we all hope that our start to the season is just a short term blip and we can avoid such a drastic slide after witnessing our first 2 games I know now that unless we get back to work and rediscover the hunger it's going to be a long season.

[shawthing]

Dean in the pre-season and in two tough senior games looks to have real game. I'd really like to see what he's capable of with another 30 games under his belt. I reckon there's a player there.

I'll back you there Laurie. I'm not sure why Dean is coping so much brunt of criticism after only two tough games. I thought Howe and Q and even Moore were even worse tonight. And don't get me started on why Markov played and Noble didn't. The Markov experiment is quickly coming to an end I think.

[magpieazza]

Looking at the list theres about 9 players ready to come in, so lets see how the coaches and players can react with a pretty full squad.

[Piesnchess]

Still Premiers....I'm clutching at straws...
Richmond's 2019 & 2020 season openers were howlers. Have a look where they were sitting at round 5 each year.
Hawthorn 2015 didn't fare much better. And the Cats had their moments.

No doubt a loss like that will sting the group. The internal reviews will be interesting this week. Looking forward to Flys summary.
Were going to find out pretty quickly if this is an abberation or if this group is exhausted above the shoulders.

Our ball movement has been one paced, nearly like training pace, not the line breaking runs we've seen over recent seasons. And our pressure meter simply hasn't registered. I just didn't see any real,intensity tonight, and was also lacking last week.

The Johnson experiment to me looks done. We've all seen it.
Macrae needs to start next week and given block of 5 games.
I'm of view Moore simply looks distracted. Maybe the media requirements have had his head not quite back in the onfield role required, he's simply off his tucker at the moment.
IQ should be stinging after that, he simply had no influence. Another who's head might still be in media Street.
Dean in the pre-season and in two tough senior games looks to have real game. I'd really like to see what he's capable of with another 30 games under his belt. I reckon there's a player there.

Might the Brisbane match come at the right time? Those road trips have often galvanised our group on a number of occasions.

Well said Laurie, your comments are always very incisive, well thought out. To me, we look jaded, tired, my big concern was swans running game, and fleet foot, and overlap running style, they ran us off our feet. Forwards are well down, backs look all at sea, again, we had 8-9 players who simply did not contribute much. premiership hangover maybe, yes. But this is now one heck of a wake up call. No more flag celebrations, its a lovely memory but over now. As MM said, season is a marathon, not a sprint, so we do have time to get out of this slump. I reckon an injection of youth now, which can work wonders for a team down on form. That kid Harry DeMattia, whose very highly rated, give him a go, and perhaps another, but we must make a few changes now. I have faith in Fly, hes a very good coach, he can turn this around, he has the time, but our work ethic has to reallly lift henceforth now.

[pietillidie]

I thought we had a fair crack, not about hunger at all. The story of the game is how Sydney systematically disconnected each part of our structure, rendering our effort in vain.

Maybe, but if so that's a pretty big indictment of our coaching preparedness. Possible, but for a second week?

I'm more inclined to think that the sharp execution of skills and routines at fitness is the last phase of fitness. Call it 'match fitness' or whatever. A lack of sharpness and rhythm still implies being weeks behind, and something you expect to see at the start of the praccy matches.

I don't think they can even get to the tactical counter-offer because the match readiness isn't there. Add an ageing list to that, meaning you've got more players naturally starting a bit slower, and we're labouring. Ideally, you want to be slightly ahead of schedule overall to allow those older players to ease in gradually.

Either way, I'm not sure if I can stomach watching any of it again to reassess!

[lazzadesilva]