Sydney Swans continue to rise in 2016

WELL DONE BULLDOGS YOU COULD NOT LOSE WITH THE HOME TEAM UMPIRING DECISIONS. SO BLATANT IT STOOD OUT LIKE AN OLD STYLE COUNTRY TOILET. TO LATE AFTER THE GAME FOR UMPIRES CHIEF TO ADMIT UMPIRES ERRED IN NOT GIVING 50 METRE PENALITYS. AND LOPSIDED ERRORS BY UMPIRES A DISGRACE.

I'm yet to be convinced off the Swans. They've beat up a couple of ordinary sides and then pulled away from GWS in the last quarter of the last game..... However they will go along way to convincing me they are real deal if they go to Adelaide and get the job done on a rampaging Adelaide. I have huge questions marks over their backline. I think Ted Richards and Laidler are huge weaknesses that could easily blow up in their faces. Only time is going to tell. I'm going to hold off on my judgment of the Ducks in a month or so.

I disagree with your conclusions about the Swans in 2015 Michael. The biggest factor to me was the relentless booing of Adam Goodes. I do not for one second believe that it was entirely racist. Most other supporters were sick of the Swans and their perceived AFL love child status. The main reason opposition crowds continued with it was it worked. Not only did it obviously affect Goodesy, it affected the whole team. I have seen many sports in the last 50 years, with many hatreds and feuds between players, clubs and supporters, but this was the worst. And it affected the whole Swans performance, although they downplayed it. The effects of hostile crowds relentlessly being hostile are well documented in soccer, but AFL has always had a different culture. And Adam knew it too - not just him but the whole team. The crowd behaviour in both the Hawthorn and West Coast games was abominable, leading Adam to take a break in the game against Adelaide on August 1. The Swans had their best win, at home. They were cooked by finals time by injuries to Parker, Reid, Franklin etc. But they still finished top 4 and should have beaten Freo in the first semi. No they could not win the comp but 2015 was a season that will unlikely be repeated in AFL history for the relentless pursuit of a player and a team.

I predicted Sydney pre-season to win the flag this year and I'm even more confident now. Their onball star depth, combined with Buddy-Tippet power upfront, and some quality backs in McVeigh, Smith and Grundy, make them a formiddable outfit. Not many passengers in this team, plus they've recruited two of the best young gun midfielders in the country (Heeney and Mills) in the past two years. I hope the Doggies, Cats, Crows, North and Eagles can continue their promising starts, because their best is all good enough to challenge the Hawks and Swans, and it will hopefully be a very exciting and interesting finals series come year-end. Freo, Richmond and Port have the talent also, but have all started too poorly to be major threats.

The Swans aren't going to win a flag with Rose and Papley in the team. Those guys are good fillers, playing on boundless energy until the better players come back, but they are a few seasons off cementing a spot, if they ever do. Mills and Heeney are the players that Sydney will be building their team around in 5 years and if Sydney were one of the worst teams of 2015, how are they better now? It is still the same players doing almost all of the damage. And starting off your comments by rubbishing the team you support doesn't add credibility to your views, it actually does the opposite and just makes people wish you supported a different team.

James Rose is very unlucky to not be playing in the seniors. His form in the twos has been excellent.

I quite like Rose and was very impressed with his 15 minutes in his first game last year. But has he bulked up at all in the off season? He just looked so gangly I was worried a big defender (or even some of the nuggety small ones) would snap him in two like a twig...

I disagree that Sydney was lucky to make the finals in 2015 – four games and 21% clear of Team 9. They did what a team in their position would usually do – beat the teams below them quite well, and struggle against the teams above them. The only lucky win they had was against Hawthorn by 4 points. Defeated Port by 10 points, but had their measure for most of the match. Defeated North Melbourne by 16 points – again, had their measure for most of the match. I don't think a team that wins by a small margin is 'lucky' – it's just that they had the skill to outlast their opponent. All of their other victories were mostly by very comfortable margins. Sydney was perhaps lucky to make the top 4 – but the results show they probably weren't deserving of that position, because they were bundled out in the second week of the finals. If Richmond won against Fremantle in Round 17, they might have pushed for a Top 4 spot, but they didn't win. Sport isn't based on what ifs though – it's based what actually happens.

Agree – I don't follow any team, but my favourite teams would be St Kilda, Sydney and Fremantle. Because they've never had any success, and show that life's imperfections are a joy to watch. Loved it when Sydney lost 26 matches in a row – just because it made their subsequent rise just that much more unbelievable and unique. St Kilda – 120 years for 1 premiership. Magical! It just keeps making that one premiership just so special. Fremantle, for its port city feeling. They'll win one day, but maybe not this year. Agree – Hawthorn are too perfect. There's something quite boring about watching a team that rarely makes a mistake and is too predictable.

Hi Eddy, suggest don't take Michael Huston too seriously, underneath all that verbose stuff is a Swannies fan and admirer. Just a variation (from a diehard convert to the Swannies having been 35 yrs born and raised in Perth until moving to Sydney 1995) unlike Michael, I would refrain from comparing the Swans performance capability or culture to the Hawthorn side of the last 6 or so years. They are just so different. Comparisons about the ingredients that drive performance and about longevity at the pointy end of the ladder, yes, but thats just an academic exercise. And, if you believe that the only measure of who is the best is the number of GF's won, then Hawthorn obviously has the numbers. Even today I live in ongoing amazement at the ease of my conversion from die hard Eagles follower to the Swannies, but on reflection it is pretty simple. Unlike Hawthorn of late and (IMO) the Eagles of the 1990's, the Swans are the most successful imperfect football team in the comp. There are plenty of others that are imperfect and not successful at all. For me, it's the combination of their consistent level of success and their persistent imperfection on the field that is just so admirable, exciting. As we know, the club itself has built a brand around this, and as the article suggests, it works.

I maintain Sydney were very lucky to make the finals last year, and if they had missed the finals, the blowtorch would be hard on them, and rightfully so. Alas, no one seemed to be willing to address Sydney's problems, so they went into the off-season uninformed about where the Swans stood. This is why there's a major difference between being just a good team and a great team that's not performing. All the "commentators" looked at the Swans and thought 'Geez they lost to most of the finalists from last yeat, they're finished in 2016.' They just critiqued the Swans flaws as if they were an inevitable, irreperable part of the team, instead if realizing the Swans had the smarts and the tools to solve them. That is why I keep harping on about Sydney not fulfilling their potential. It leads to folks dismissing the Swans and not taking them as seriously as they should be, and as an avid Bloods fan, it hurts, and I want this group of blokes to be getting the credit they deserve but a season in which you abandon most of your on-field qualities will not do that for you. As for James Rose, he may not be seniors level. But was Tom Papley? Was Callum Mills? Was George Hewett? Naturally he would make mistakes, and have slumps in form, and probably be beaten by the best defenders in the comp, but it's what he possesses as a small-to-mid-sized forward that would add another dynamic to our forward line.

The irony of it all is that Heeney and Mills have not been our best youngsters. Zak Jones has been better on the half back line than Mills thus far, and I'd much rather see Papley and Rose in our forward line than Heeney. So as great and promising as Heeney and Mills are, the Academy is not the be all that ends all.

You keep saying (in many of your posts), that Sydney have underperformed since 2012, but they've won about 69% of matches played since that time, and performed better than about 15 other AFL clubs – as well as being the only team except for Hawthorn to win a flag since 2011! It's not a travesty to miss out on the premiership each year, and you can't expect your team to win all the time. I'd much rather be Sydney's position, than St Kilda or Melbourne. "In 2015, we were a lifeless team that, despite all of it’s talent, had no belief whatsoever." Goodness, that really is harsh. "Lifeless"? No, they seemed be alive when they walked onto the field. "No belief whatsover"? What, in Christianity, or Islam? They played some very good games last year – Hawthorn at the MCG was probably their best. I'm sure the Adam Goodes saga affected both Goodes and the team overall. Rarely does a team perform at 100% consistently – the problem is that there's alway a group of 22 players in another team on the ground at the same time, with their own strategies and levels of skills that are trying to undo the opposition. James Rose isn't up to AFL level at this stage – I guess that's why he's in the reserves. It was a major blunder to play him in the semi-final against North Melbourne last year. Football at this level is very very hard. No player goes out there to tank or not try their absolute best (unless you're talking about Melbourne in the the late 2000s). Give it a rest. If you're so concerned, stop being an armchair critic and go and join the Swans coaching team.

Indeed Paully D there is many a messianic manbunned beardy boy about.

Who is the second coming of Christ? Just googled that term and swans and couldn't find any reference to it. Presuming you're referring to someone with a stupidly long haircut and a beard. Pro tip, if you're going to refer to players by pseudonyms it helps if it has currency outside of the fevered imagination of your own head, otherwise no-one knows what you're talking about. Anyways, the Swans won't be going anywhere thanks in part to the academy system doing what's it's supposed to do and churning out at least one or two blue chip players every year, Heeney, Mills - let's see who they get next year.

I'm not overly surprised Sydney again look too good to miss the finals. I said it at least a dozen times: Sydney were probably one of the worst six teams of 2015, and it's a miracle we made the top four. There was honestly no way we could get worse than our performances last year, which were typified by lacklustre energy, sloppy hand and footskills, an inability to withstand opposition pressure, and seemingly no game plan whatsoever. So no, I'm not surprised by the improvement this year, nor am I surprised that a team featuring names like Franklin, Tippett, Parker, Jack, Hannebery, Kennedy, Mitchell, Grundy, Richards, Smith and Rampe is in finals contention, if not better. It's great to celebrate all of that, but it's also still important to focus on something else: Sydney have under-performed. We'll let 2013 go because they were cruelled by injuries throughout the finals. But 2014 we only needed to play one game and we could have won the flag; alas, we did not. In 2015, we were a lifeless team that, despite all of it's talent, had no belief whatsoever. For a team that's always had the goods, that's at times looked as good as, if not better than, Hawthorn, for a team that's had a winning culture and been able to withstand penalties and crisis' and injuries... we have one flag in the last five years. Maybe I'm fussy, but it's frustrating to know this team could have done so much better. Anyhow, looking forward I'd like to see these things happen: James Rose come in as a marking/leading small forward. He can play the role Isaac Heeney's been playing, so that Heeney can finally make his way to the midfield to give us even more grunt and skill (if he ever gets out of his confidence slump). Tippett and Sinclair just keep on keeping on, working their rotations between ruck and the forward line. If Callum Mills doesn't hit immediate improvement, take him out for McVeigh, since I think Zak Jones *just* has his measure on that half back line. Under no circumstances do we allow any of the fab five to leave our club, even if we have to cut Buddy's contract and give him the boot. Keep playing Richards as more of a floating extra in defence, because I rate any one of our defenders, especially the Second Coming of Christ, better in a contest than Richards, but no one reads the play like Teddy. He and Laidler essentially swap. I must be the only AFL fan who doesn't want depth. There's always the theory that any one can player can be replaced by a younger depth player who fits their mould (think Papley with McGlynn, or Jones with Malceski, or Mitchell with O'Keefe). The only issue is that it's never the same. The kid does a good job but eventually the seasoned guy has to come back, but then the seasoned guy is never the same as he was and he's taking the spot of a stealthy youngster. I know folks say it's a "good problem to have", but I'd rather not have to deal with it at all. Like, what the f@$! are we going to do with Reid given that we already have Towers and Hewett floating around half forward?! What the f@$! are we supposed to do with Rohan when we already have Jones, Rampe, Mills and McVeigh as half-back polisher candidates? What the f@$! are we supposed to do with guys like Hewett and Rose when our forward line already has Buddy, the resting ruck, Heeney, Papley, McGlynn and the rotating mids?! Too stressful for my brain. All I want to see is James Rose. He's a pretty good blend of a marking/leading forward and a small crumber. To have him staying at home inside 50, Papley causing chaos inside 50, Heeney rotating through the midfield and inside 50, Buddy roaming the arc, the resting ruck waiting in the goal square, and a mid or two popping up through their work rate gives us a very good forward dynamic that's hard to match up on and stretches defenses. I just don't like the idea of Papley and McGlynn just running around the same forward like a pair of angry ants. #JusticeForRose.