Swans forward coach, John Blakey, talks about the forwards bouncing back from last Friday night's loss against Carlton and how they can kick a winning score against the Bulldogs on Saturday afternoon... 

WE head to Canberra this weekend to take on the Bulldogs, following last Friday night’s loss to Carlton.

We were probably disappointing in a couple of areas against the Blues. I thought our key forwards dropped a few marks and gave away a few free kicks that cost us chances. In the second quarter, we ended up scoring six behinds, but there were some easy shots on goal that we should have taken.

The wet conditions obviously weren’t great for our tall forwards in terms of being able to mark the ball. I thought our smalls were quite good, particularly Benny McGlynn who has been in fantastic form since the start of the year. I really rate Carlton’s Andrew Carrazzo as a shut-down player, but Benny was more than up to the task, playing very well and kicking four goals. It was just one of those nights where our key big men failed to take the opportunities when they were presented.

In the second half we were beaten in our clearance work, an area dominated by Chris Judd, so that didn’t help the team cause.

Though we’ve been right in our games until the last quarter, I certainly don’t think there is reason to suggest fadeouts are a problem in our game at the moment.  If you go back to our earlier matches, we really came home hard against both Essendon and West Coast to get the points. I think it’s just a case of our structure breaking down a bit rather than an issue with us running out matches. Our fitness is certainly not an issue. The boys are in really good condition and with the three interchange system, the match committee are really making sure we have 22 fit and healthy players out on the park.

This week’s match against the Bulldogs is another big test for us. The Dogs have a good recent record against us, and most recently beat us in last year’s semi-final at the MCG. 
They’ve got some quality players right across the ground, but particularly in their defence. They are led in defence by Robert Murphy, who is such a great ball-user. The challenge for us as a group is to make sure we put enough pressure on their defence to stop easy exits . That’s one area of the game that we can really get better in. At the start of the year we were ranked number one for tackles, and we can certainly improve on last weeks effort.

The Bulldogs have a terrific midfield, not too dissimilar to Carlton in some ways. With Adam Cooney, Matthew Boyd, Ryan Griffen and Daniel Cross, there is some real quality. They look like they will get Ben Hudson back this week who is a great ruckman and also Daniel Giansiracusa who is a dangerous player. If we look through their side, even though their win/loss record doesn’t suggest they are going super well, they have the ability, with their playing group to bounce back and really do some damage if they are let off the chain. Their start against Collingwood last week was really ominous, when they jumped the Pies with three early goals.

While importantly our structures won’t change too much going into this Saturday’s match, that doesn’t mean to say our personnel won’t. We will unfortunately be without Kieren Jack for at least the next month which does hurt our forward line. Not only does he kick goals, he sets them up and  is our number one score assist player.

If you analyse our side over the last few weeks, we have a number of players that wouldn’t be happy with their own form. There are some guys in the Reserves who are playing some really good football. Lewis Johnston and Luke Parker are not far away from making their senior debut. Lewis Roberts-Thomson should return in the next few weeks. 

While we are not the home team this Saturday, Manuka Oval is a ground that we feel very much at home on. We always have great support in Canberra and we are keen to put ourselves back on the winners list this Saturday.