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

[derkd]

When was the last time we had a win at the SCG? we came close in 2022. It is a ground that has caused us massive problems.

Swans will come at the Pies very hard, if Collingwood are any chance at all they have to be on from the very first bounce, or Sydney will be away and it will be goodnight. If Warner, Goulden and Heeney rock up...it could get very ugly. People might say i am being negative, but 32 points up with about 16 mins to go in a quater, if your finding 'form' your not letting the oppisition dominate you and almost steal the game. If we are any chance of making finals we need to be a four quater side. no lapses. I am yet to see it at all this year....even the port game early in the year that we roamped home we allowed them to slip away to a big lead.

I also worry how much energy the Pendles 400 game took out of the team. At any rate, the next few weeks are a crazy ask, even 'if' we beat Sydney, then have to somehow find a way to also beat Brisbane! so our season will end either this week or next, unless we can magically flip the scirpt on this whole season. For mine we just need to finish as close to nineth as possible to mitigate the poor deal from last year.

Changes for this week, said it before, I will say it again, given Allen a shot playing the Degoey role in the guts. he isnt the same player on a wing.

If we are going to go down, I want to go down being creative. We need to be planning for 2025 now.

[RudeBoy]

There's been a suggestion that Lipinski is the one to fill JDG's shoes in our midfield group, because of his creativity and good skills. I get that, and on paper, he's probably the one to do the job. However, he seems to be terribly out of form, and his lack of intensity and physicality, makes me doubt he can step up. I hope I'm wrong, because I sense that he'll be given a role in the midfield this week. He certainly has the tools to fulfil this role. What he needs is to find his inner demon. He could make a huge difference to our chances if he performs well.

[Johnno75]

Lipinski tends to run a heck of a lot > 12km to get his 10-15 disposals. Not generally tagged so hard to work out why he can’t find more of the ball. Maybe playing him as a pure mid might help.

[Piesnchess]

The Pink Ducks were not just atrocious against Port, they have been shite for past few matches. Peaked far too early, piss easy fixture, few injuries, cant hack it. Their confidence is in shreds now, tatters, Grundy looked the disinterested dick hes been for quite some time, age is catching up to Tay. You dont come back from 112 point annihilation, to winning form in one week, after a shattering massacre. They will have dip, but we are playing on the edge, as a team again, our confidence is sky high again. I can see us inflicting more misery on this mob, Pink duck pretenders, by a reasonable margin.

[Durka]

You never know.
In 2011 we were beaten by 96 points in round 24 but still finished on top of the ladder and scrambled into the GF.

[Take_a_Screamer]

Swans have lost 12 first quarters so far this year
I'm sure Fly would know that...

https://www.zerohanger.com/sydney-in-li ... ss-153764/

[Jen2310]

During training this morning, the midfield was:
Lippa. Crisp and Nick
Pendles and Sidey were on the wings.

[Take_a_Screamer]

^ where was Long playing?

[Jen2310]

^ where was Long playing?

In the middle for the white team along with Fin and Allan
Bytel and Sullivan were on the wings for the white team

[Ricky Watts right boot]

I was hopeful Bytel might be a good pick-up after the Richmond game, but his kicking was awful against the arch enemy and is clearly not up to AFL standard.
Sadly I don't think Sullivan offers much either.
We might get more from one of the young mids this week - Di Mattia or Allan?

[RudeBoy]

While we are still a possibility to make the 8, I don't expect we'll be trialling any other new players, unless we suffer further injuries, or unless one of them starts to absolutely rip it in the VFL. Other players likely to feature in the next few weeks are likely to come from Richards, Markov, Harrison, Krueger, Macrae and Sullivan.

I don't rate Long or Bytel much at all, but hope to be proved wrong.

[qldmagpie67]

Rude there’s a rumour there will be a debutant this week in Demattia
He isn’t a like for like replacement for JDG but Lipinski can go into the middle
If he does get selected it might be as a sub and use his energy half way through 3rd quarter depending on match situation

[RudeBoy]

Thanks QM67. It would certainly be exciting to see the lad get a run, and if selected, it's obviously on the back of good VFL form. Fwiw, I'm keen to see Richards back in the team.

[Gerry Cooper]

Graeme Wright is a talented football administrator for sure but what kind of club are we if we can't function as well without him?

That said Wright isn't on the field this weekend against Sydney and it seems to me it won't matter who we select if we dont have a good plan to counteract their possession football game. So far McRae's only answer has been to "go harder" rather than a proper strategy of counter football. We shall see I guess.

[Cam]

This will be a tight game. Ignore their form, they have had nothing to play for in the last 2 months and will have just come off their pre-finals heavy loading training. Longmire suggested as much by giving them 2 days off to freshen up.
They will hit us with everything and it will be whether we can withstand their tactic (which worked very well against us last time, but we were underdone) of filing the centre corridor and pouncing on us.

The thing that seemed to change after quarter time in the Carlton game was the connection between the arcs, and our spacing, whereby we both crowded the blues and went around them as good as we had for months.

This time last year we were wobbling into the finals with a necessary win to Geelong and then a win in the final round what we could salvage out of the last 5 games.
This is THE game that Sydney MUST win. I don't think we will make finals even if we do win this one and the next two but who knows.
De Goey is a massive out on the SCG, we will miss his power and strength in the middle.
Tip. Pies by 1 point.