Given the success, we thought we would keep him up there again against Carlton as we were lacking some tall options, so we had to work around our smaller type players. Shawry’s ability to read the play, his speed and the way that he leads gives us another dimension that we haven’t had this year - a really quick player inside our forward 50.
While we value his ability to play down back as well, I think it will be horses for courses throughout the year. Certainly at this stage without Bradshaw playing and with Henry Playfair’s retirement, we do need to orchestrate a different looking forward line and certainly Shawry will be there over the next few weeks.
It was great have Jesse White back in the team and playing well again, after he was a late inclusion for Lewis Roberts-Thomson. Jesse really made a difference on Sunday. We have been working with him all year to make sure he is improving and taking steps forward. He had stagnated a bit at senior level so he was sent back to the reserves to find some form. He came back into the side after a good performance in the reserves and was feeling better about himself.
That showed on the weekend and that’s the sort of output we expect from Jesse, to compete for the aerial balls and present on the lead, like he did for us on Sunday. We are not asking him to kick bags of eight or nine goals, but what we are asking him is to give us an honest contest up there and an option every time we come forward. It was certainly his best game for the year at senior level.
While we have had personnel changes up forward, it has really been our improved ball movement that has sparked the return to form. Our ball movement previously hasn’t given us the opportunities to take a lot of marks in the forward line. I think we were the lowest in the competition for a four or five week period for taking marks inside 50, which is quite a damning statistic. Some of the blame for that can be shouldered by the forward group spilling their marks, but our ball movement was quite stagnant and it meant that our delivery into the forward line was very predictable, making it easy for very good teams such as Collingwood to drop off and influence a contest. Now that ball movement has improved, the results are coming.
We take on Melbourne this Sunday at the MCG, who have been in good form and had the opportunity to beat Fremantle last week in Perth. They are a team that loves to run the ball through the corridor. They are certainly going to be a challenge for us. As far as a forward group goes, we really rely on our midfield winning the contested ball early in the match, like we did against Carlton. If we can gain the ascendancy in that area, it should give forwards every opportunity.
While the young Melbourne group has really emerged this year, their defence has certainly been a key area they have improved. James Frawley and Colin Garland are great defenders and they have been supported by Cameron Bruce, who is a good ball user, and Aaron Davey, who sets up a great deal of their play from the back half. Those players are very good for Melbourne and have been in good form. From our point of view we will be trying to put them under a bit of pressure.
As always, effort will be all important and we hope we continue our improvement in that area this week. We were in a position a few weeks ago when we were 33 points up against Richmond and our effort tapered off and wasn’t good enough to win the game. Hopefully we learned a lesson from that loss, that regardless of the opponent, we have got to make sure that our efforts are high for the entire game. We know Melbourne can score quickly. Last week they scored six goals within a 10 minute period in the third quarter, and were back within a few points of Fremantle. We can’t drop our intensity for parts of the game, because we know the opposition will hurt us. We have got to continue playing the way we did last week.
Despite two disappointing losses to Hawthorn and Richmond at the MCG this year, our players love playing there. It is the home of football - and more importantly - finals football. This weekend is an opportunity to play well at the MCG and our boys are really keen to put their best foot forward.
Finally, I must mention Jude Bolton as he prepares for his 250th AFL match. He has been in outstanding form for us for a long period of time. The last couple of years he has really taken his performance up a notch. He and Kirky have been our hard men around the footy for a long time. The 250 games milestone is a fantastic effort and one that puts him in the top-five of games played for the Swans. He will go down as one of the greats of this club, and deservedly so with the way that he works, the way he prepares himself and the way he puts himself out there to take on whatever happens each week. I hope he plays well this week - and for a couple of seasons to come!
