Seeing the my Swannies get done again this weekend didn’t make for an overly happy time come the final siren. We lost. The kids were arguing over something on xBox. It was wet. And the Missus has decided that the time has come to wash the walls in the front bedroom as there were some beginnings of mould spores rearing their ugly head.
Now aside from the obvious puns on mould and football and Carlton, the trips up and down the ladder spraying some lung decaying stuff on the walls did get me thinking about why the Swans have been so bad this season. They have adopted a different type of game plan, or if not a new game plan then the tweaks in the execution of the old one haven’t worked.
Or was it less about the game plan and execution and more about something else entirely. Was it a case of Footy Intellectual Property being sent via express courier from one club to another as part of the trade table and the yearly merry go round of coaches. In the case of the Swans, we lost both Mumford and Lamb to the Giants. Result was a loss in Round 1. In Round 4, we played North and got done again but this time it was a coach in Leigh Tudor who went from the Swans to the Kangas.
I’m not saying for a single nanosecond that the Swannies lost because of the loss of IP, but simply that Leon Cameron and Brad Scott would’ve known a whole lot more about set ups, strengths, weaknesses etc than they would’ve otherwise. The key for me is that had these games come about later in the season, the impact is lessened as the game plan would have evolved somewhat through the season. Having these two games early on has not helped a team woefully out of touch.
Interested in hearing the thoughts of others as to where there is anything in the theory or whether I inhaled too much of the mould cleaner.
About Stuart Hunter
Swans tragic since 1989 and father of two boys. Would rather forfeit a game than travel to ANZ Stadium. Also passionate about most other sports involving a ball.
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I was discussing the Swans last night with a friend of ours who stuck with the Bloods rather than follow his new local team. He’d been to the game on Sunday and he wasn’t very happy.
His views were the loss of Mumford to the Giants actually took more out of the Swans than just the IP alluded to above. It also took out a chunk of grunt from the centre. Not just winning the ball and being able to control momentum (Pyke can do that too) but also effort and going at it.
Watching them in the first round, the Swans are missing something this year. Mummy isn’t all of it (although his impact on the Giants has been instant and significant), it’s like a team that is going through the motions and not really sure how to deal with things when other teams have found them out. Maybe Goodes will help with the attitude on his return – although they can’t rely on him forever.
Stuart, it aint just the fumes.
Agreed re Mumford, Kath.
But there’s more to it, like (a) Jude Bolton, the last of the warriors, aint there (b) the best midfielders have reverted to U/14s lmindset (c) an overall look of “one year too old, one yard too slow’ (d) utter clullessness in letting an opp run loose in the backline (e) mindless bombs to the forward line.
Something has gone intrinsically wrong at the SFC.
Sydney initially thru Stu Maxfield introduced a buy in culture and have had fantastic leaders thru time , Paul Kelly , Brett Kirk and others . from the outside they seemed to have gone away from this geez how many players did Sydney seem to extract every once of ability from during there era of success ? In Tippett and Franklin they seem to have put all there eggs in a small basket . Salary cap wise it is a decision of stupidity .
Sydney have under estimated the value and importance of a gun ruck man and are desperately missing Mumford . While it is only round 4 and still time to turn it around for this year it had better be quick . How many players and who the Franklin deal costs the swans and the long term ramifications wait to be seen
@ Kath, Earl, Malcolm…..thanks for your comments.
I agree with all of you – it isn’t one thing. The trading of Mumford and Buddy, the loss of senior players through retirement and trade and the impact that this has on the playing group is as yet an unknown but all the signals are not good. Additionally players like Jude Bolton are the glue of a footy club and he has been sorely missed. There is no doubt that the smoke emanating from Moore Park a month or so ago about player group unrest was not without foundation, but if we had been winning, it would’ve been forgotten about. Too many players are playing rubbish footy – Buddy included for the most part (@Earl – u14s is a compliment from what I have seen this year) but this is primarily caused by a poor attitude rather than an overnight loss of skills. The Swans will get better when their individual and overall attitude improves.