I have watched footy for a lot of years. There is something wrong with the team at league level. There is endeavor it just falls away the longer the game goes. To me I don’t see any changes being made during the game. Same players in same positions every game. And don’t get me started on Kelly not playing
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Is there any chance he’ll get picked up in the msd tonight and Swans have been TOLD Not to play him in League Games?!
Why would swans listen to anyone outside the club.
They shouldn’t,especially any AFL outside noise.
But knowing the AFL system,it wouldn’t surprise me if it did so such a thing.
Otherwise,why didn’t Kelly get a game?
I was at the game on the weekend and got talking to a few swannies people in the know. They said that Kelly has no idea why he isnt playing, has received zero feedback from the coaching staff even after the 18/20s game and is not expecting to be selected in the MSD given he is playing ressies.
There was some banter around of SD not realising how good Lawson Humphries was and maybe this is another example of a quality player being lost in the ressies at the duck pond and going straight to the big time. Apparently the Geelong scout has been to quite a few games recently which was interesting.
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Concerning but not surprising that Kelly is getting no feedback. I was near the 3 quarter time huddle on Saturday and some players looked disinterested in what the coach was saying. The man has no charisma or presence at all. At least Pickering was a tall dude so he was able to talk at the same level as the players physically
And Pickering is now an assistant to EP coach McQueen and fits in very nicely back at his original WAFL club :->
This was in the West after Pruyn got the job.
“In a statement to members, the club said there were “many high calibre applicants” but they wanted “a person with the ability to be the cornerstone of an enduring and sustainable high performing football department”.
Well Pruyn was Pickerings assistant for 3 years and at the time I thought the club needed to find a coach from outside of the club to take over. It all seemed too rushed and apart from a couple of tweaks the game plan has not changed much from what Pickering was doing.
Pruyn is a great clubman and has been involved at the club for over 20 years but I don’t think he is the person to take us forward.
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Pruyn was announced less than a week after Pickering was sacked, I am not sure there were any applicants let alone “many high calibre applicants” as per the members statement!
Lets face it, it was a fait accompli!
Also one of the reasons Pickering was moved on was because a great number of players said they were receiving no feedback from him!
JL reckons your Season has bouyancy,Bease!
The same board that picked Pruyn, and gave him an extension, picked Pickering. Surely, it’s about time there was a rival ticket for a board challenge?!
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Given the board talks a lot about 5 year plans, I went back and checked the records for the last 5 complete seasons (2021-25).
In that time Swans won 46, lost 47, drew 1 and made the finals in 2 out of the five years. They also won the 2023 reserves premiership.
That’s actually not a bad record which historically compares favourably with all but the halcyon premiership years of the club.
The frustrating thing from a supporters point of view is that I have felt that the team has never truly been in contention for a flag despite accumulating a reasonable number of wins over the past 5 years.
Even in 2024 when they made the preliminary final, they seemed to be short of the attacking weapons that you need to win. We thought the team was building from 2024 but once more they went backwards. Yes Injuries played a big part but you have to ask why is this happening so regularly? Is it just bad luck or is there an issue with the way they are training?
Many of these 46 victories were also based on a boring defensive style of play which was aimed at blocking the opposition rather than trying to attack. Very hard to watch especially for us who were bought up on the early 80s high scoring footy.
We all look at the players and you expect them to get more skilled every year as they get experience under their belt. Under the last 2 coaches I feel that our players have not developed and some have just fallen by the wayside. Jesse Turner is a great accumulator of possessions but so many of them are wasted with poor disposal. There are other examples of players who are making the same mistakes as they were 3 or 4 years ago and it is frustrating to watch.
I sometimes wonder whether it would be better for the club to have a season where they bottom out, similar to what is happening at West Perth this year. Terrible to say I know but sometimes its the only way that will force change.
As it is in 2026, Swans are not good enough to challenge for finals but not bad enough to warrant salary cap concessions. I think our list at its best should be challenging for finals, there is enough talent there but for various reasons documented many times here, its just not happening.
Rant over
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Great rant Mikeh couldn’t agree more we are near but never near enough. We get up win a few then go backwards. Of the 23 who played on Saturday who has improved not counting Steed. From last year. It would be so nice to go to a game thinging we can win this not hoping we can win this. To many people have been around the squad for to long. Need a change of direction on all fronts. There just doesn’t seem to be any direction on the field when the opponents get a run on there is basically no position change in the line up. Even if the coach came down and coached by the boundary just something different. Mix things up a bit. Let another line coach speak. Cause wat ever the coach is doing is not working. Stuffs up my whole week when we loose. So a lot of bad weeks lately.
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Mike and others loyal swans supporters i want to contribute from the outside .
Swans and Basso are one of the few games I look forward to each season. It has always been a great time even when you used to flog us. The crowd, the ground (no matter the conditions) and usually the football were always a great to experience.
You have a great members (although I not sure we are the ferals), they like good football, skills and players with attitude and this is why your games are always well attended.
For a while you seem to be the team that is gunna but just doesn’t seem to get there, you have recruited some very good players and some not so like most clubs. Since Doc Dawson you just have not had a galvanizing force both on and off the ground. 2024 was very good and I though here we go Swans are coming and everyone beware. Your colts and reserves appear to have cyclic seasons as well.
As I said you are a great club but somewhere there seems to be a thought process in the leadership that if we do well every couple of seasons that is great and that is a hard culture to crack, Perth seem to have found a way, we did after some really dodgy seasons and now understanding that recruiting better than average players and using our zones properly is starting to move us away from out mediocre attitudes.
I have no idea of what you can do other than make the club look inwards and work from there. If i have overstepped the boundary then i am truly apologetic.
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Thanks for that insight Grump. As usual you have nailed it. Nice to get a perspective from a neutral observer as I think sometimes us supporters can get clouded by our frustrations.
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