Pre-Match. Pies v. Swans. All comments.

[Take_a_Screamer]

I'd consider McCreery for stints through the middle. Has the speed, strength, size and acceleration to burst through and away.

...but we've never seen McCreery in that role.
Stick with Ned Long he's a big boy, his playing time was only 59% last week. Had 6 tackles, 2 clearances.

[Gerry Cooper]

Sydney on their home deck won't be an easy proposition. They are in danger of losing the top spot to Brisbane if they lose and could even lose their double chance if the other teams just behind them win well. Last time they played the possession game against us and cut us up. What will be McRae's tactics to counter that happening again? Increased pressure wont do it. pressure is a technique, not a strategy. If we want to win we need to change our standard play on at all costs unaccountable strategies. We need to man up if they start chipping the ball around. Strangle that and then we can get the game back on our terms again.

I'm not in favour of wholesale changes this week, particularly amongst our younger players. Both Bytel and Long have been playing roles for us and doing that reasonably well. Long, for example didn't get a lot of possessions but some of his blocks and counters at stoppages have been very valuable and I doubt his potential replacements are able to do that at all, let alone effectively. Sidebottom won't be dropped for such an important game, and the only one I would really consider would be John Noble, whose poor form didn't improve even in a more dominant winning team. I would prefer Markov if he has got his mindset right again.

I wouldn't bring Kreuger in either. You don't need too many big men on the SCG and Cameron, Cox, and McStay are probably enough for our needs.

if we do win this one, it won't be by much again. Collingwood by five points again.

[RudeBoy]

I'd consider McCreery for stints through the middle. Has the speed, strength, size and acceleration to burst through and away.

...but we've never seen McCreery in that role.
Stick with Ned Long he's a big boy, his playing time was only 59% last week. Had 6 tackles, 2 clearances.

Ned Long had 3 kicks and 4 handballs.

[LaurieHolden]

I'm a perpetual glass half full supporter, but if we get to within 6 goals of Sydney at home I'll be amazed.
Everything is stacked against us here, injury, come down from #SP400, Sydney rebound.
They'll be smarting after that obliteration but unless the explanation is internal strife at the Swans, don't go into this expecting the same as Saturday night.
Take the win against Carlton and be happy with it.

[Pies2016]

DeGoey only recorded 3 centre square attendances, so they went into the game knowing he would be playing more as a forward than a midfielder. To offset that, Long had 15 centre square attendances and didn’t record one clearance ( which is not to say he didn’t play his role around the ground ) They would want to improve that area but McCreery is no clearance player either, so they may yet bring back Sullivan or MacRae.

Alternatively, they may also look to exploit the Swans defence which has been terribly undersized in recent weeks (although supposedly they will get a couple back this week ) This would open the door for Krueger, albeit, playing at the SCG generally lends itself to fielding smaller forward lines rather than taller. You wouldn’t expect too much in the way of change after a win but the real interest lies in which part of the ground do they look to strengthen, given DeGoeys ability to play both mid and forward.

[Gerry Cooper]

I think people need to make up their mind what they want. People cry out "Play the kids and new recruits!" and when we do and they don't play like Nick Daicos every week, it's "drop them and try X" or "We have no depth" (or both).
Young players will do better developmentally with a sustained run in the seniors. A revolving door selection process destroys confidence and prevents them making the very steps we all want them to make. In Long's case last week his stats were down but his off the ball work gave more space for Nick, Crisp and Co to operate in and the rest is history.
I'm sure he would have liked better stats but that doesn't mean he didn't play a valuable role.
I think leave him where he is and the stats will start to show.
Unless Mitchell comes back, we would only be replacing him with someone less competent who has been out of the team for some weeks, so that's going back to square one re team balance and efficiency as far as that replacement player goes.

[qldmagpie67]

Rude again I get where your coming from with Long only having 7 touches but Sidey had what 10 or 11 no influential touches.
What Long did blocking and harassing and just making life hard for the Carlton mids goes largely unnoticed
He stood Cripps when Pendles didn’t and he didn’t let him off the hook. That in itself warrants another week.
Bytel played outside and I thought struggled seemed a little lost at times in his role
If where ever to play Sydney in Sydney this season this weekend could be that time.
You don’t overcome what happened to them last weekend in 7 days
They didn’t have a player win his position all day
There forward line lacks X factor it’s very vanilla unless it’s getting silver service from the middle
Down back there a rabble. Cox McStay Elliott Hill should all be able to impact if we give them decent service

[The Black and White Lion]

Small ground SCG. Too much congestion. McCreery will be lest effective like he is at Marvel as the space inside the arc is too close with too many bodies in the way. Every forward can apply pressure like a lunatic, there's no excuse even for Coxy.

As such I'm playing McCreery as that centre forward type taking turns at the bounce and wreaking havoc across the half forward line / edge of the SCG centre square. He has many of the attributes like a much younger DeGoey.

[K]

...
I would bring back Markov (a bigger/stronger version of Noble), ...

No, he's not.

[Jpies]

I'd consider McCreery for stints through the middle. Has the speed, strength, size and acceleration to burst through and away.

...but we've never seen McCreery in that role.
Stick with Ned Long he's a big boy, his playing time was only 59% last week. Had 6 tackles, 2 clearances.

We have. He played in the centre the game he got concussed. I thought he did reasonably well there, too.

[Piesnchess]

From the Swans AFL website:
"One of our most anticipated fixtures of the 2024 AFL season is finally here. This Friday night we're set to clash with Collingwood on the SCG and our members and fans are invited to join in on all the festivities."

Let's belt them like the other teams did ... and stuff up their festivities

True I watched most of that Pink Ducks Swanettes horror match, and they were absolutely shithouse, shocking. NO team has ever had a 112 point thrashing in League history an gone onto win a flag. The stuffing has been knocked out of the Pink Ducks, their confidence must be shattered now, Longarse Longmire been there to long now, the sour bastard he is. Grundy and Tay looked forlorn an so despondent, I reckon Cameron will take him to the cleaners in the ruck. Sure they will come out an have a dip, but their confidence would be utter shit, been out of form too long now, the Swans peaked too early, and a few injuries and they shat the nest. We are getting them at the right time, down on their knees, I reckon we can finally take these pretenders bigtime up there , at long last. Woods by 32 points.

[David]

Not sure I'd be making too many changes from last week. Could make a case for any of Sullivan, Richards, Markov, McInnes or even Macrae to come in for De Goey, but none are exactly a satisfying replacement or necessarily addressing any clear needs. Not sure who else is a chance ... Allan? Eyre?

Disagree with those suggesting dropping Long or Noble – even if they weren't at their best on the weekend, I think they do add something important to our structure. Bytel I'm a little more unsure of; he gets the ball a lot but not sure he actually uses it that well when he's not linking up with close-range handballs. Maybe he's someone who could make way for Markov, who presumably should be available (given McRae was suggesting he was a chance to be selected against Carlton this time last week), and then we can bring in Sullivan for De Goey – though I'd like to see him actually start rather than coming on late as sub yet again.

Otherwise would love to see Kreuger back, but I'm not sure where he fits now that Cox has returned. Dean's another one I'd like to see in the side but who presumably has to bide his time.

[qldmagpie67]

Don’t worry about Adam’s
He’s past his best. He was a absolute warrior for us and deserved to be a premiership player especially after his efforts in 2018 (along with Treloar who now could get his reward this season)
Unfortunately Adams won’t get a chance this year

As for Grundy he stopped caring about football the day he signed whats now universally recognised as the worst contract in AFL history
Once that midfield was slowed and now has been dismantled they needed a leader, someone in the centre to lift them and give them a chance to get there hands on the ball first
Well more bad news they had Grundy with his hands on his hips
He showed absolute disdain from mid way through Q1
Heck for those who went and watched the replay will see how Jordan Sweet played all over Grundy
Imagine what Cameron will now that Grundy isn’t getting away with his illegal blocking tactics
Be interesting to see how or if they can rebound this week.
But take it to the bank now they won’t be winning a premiership this year

[Culprit]

The Swans are under the pump in the media so they will come out hard. They are hard to beat at the SCG and our best form will win this game but will we bring it? A win keeps is alive, a loss to me says the season is over.

[Haff]

My unimaginative take is that the game will follow a similar thread to Carlton, we will lead all day, 24 pts up in the last qtr and go into our shells in game saving mode and gas it or just cling on.
Don’t think we’ll change much:
Out JDG, in Sullivan (to sub). Lippa into the 22.