In this week’s Game Plan, Swans forward coach John Blakey talks about how the team clicked in Brisbane last week, and what it will take to repeat the effort against Richmond on Sunday...
We return to the SCG this weekend off the back of our best team performance of the year against the Brisbane Lions.
Our boys really got their hands on the ball early out of the middle. I thought Ryan O’Keefe really crashed in and set the tone and we were able to get it forward quickly. Sometimes you have one of those days when the ball starts bouncing your way a little bit, you kick a few goals and get on a roll.
There has been some discussion about whether or not we changed the game plan in our win over the Lions. That certainly wasn’t the case, but we did move the ball better than we’ve moved it for a little while. Our turnovers didn’t hurt us as badly, and I thought our skill execution was pretty good on the day. That’s probably the one area that has hurt us during the year; we’ve missed targets and turned the ball over. I thought on the weekend we controlled the tempo and controlled our ball movement really well. That helped us retain possession, and by doing that, we were able to score.
One of the real positives from a forward perspective was the spread of goals. We had 11 individual goal kickers by half time. Obviously you don’t want to be reliant on one player kicking you a score, and it makes a big difference as far as the opposition planning goes, as it makes us less predictable.
We take on Richmond this Sunday and they are a really up-and-coming team who play an exciting brand of football.
On paper, the match looks one of contrasts. Richmond are a high uncontested possession team, while we are a high contested possession team.
Looking at their midfield of Trent Cotchin, Brett Deledio, Dustin Martin, Daniel Jackson and Nathan Foley, they’ve got some real talent and pace in their side.
The danger for us is that they use the ball exceptionally well. Their efficiency is up in the top few in the competition. We need to stop them picking off targets and moving the ball freely into their forward line to Jack Riewoldt, who is the leading goal kicker in the competition.
The Tigers have a powerful midfield and very good forwards who are capable of kicking a score, so we’ve got our work cut out this week. It will be a real challenge for both our midfield group and our defence, who did a great job against some of Brisbane’s key play makers.
You always like to make your home ground a fortress and we haven’t done that yet this season. We really hope we can turn that around this week and have a good win. The games that we’ve lost at the SCG have all been to top four teams, but our last effort against Hawthorn was very disappointing.
After two good wins on the road, it’s time to turn it on for our home crowd on Sunday.
