In this week's Game Plan, Swans midfield coach Leigh Tudor talks about how the team plan to emulate the four quarter effort they showed against Collingwood last week against Adelaide on Saturday night...
We are always disappointed to lose, but we can take a lot of positives from our effort to push Collingwood last Saturday night.
The guys went in into the game with a clear plan and stuck to it for four quarters, so that was really encouraging.
There are a few areas we will continue to work on. We went through some stages there against Collingwood where we didn’t score which is something we need to look at. That comes down to our ball use and ball movement, so we will continue to work on that and improve.
At a stage in the third quarter it looked as though Collingwood could have kicked away and put the game to bed, but it was pleasing to see our group really dig in and turn the momentum. It’s a pretty strong characteristic of this group. They never give up and always think they are a chance. When we can put together four quarters of football, we will win more games than we lose. That’s the mentality we need to take into this weekend’s match against the Crows. The competition is just so close this year, that you can’t afford to play the patchy footy we put up against Carlton a few weeks ago.
The Crows probably aren’t going as well as they would like, but make no mistake, they are a good team and capable of beating anyone on their day. They are a tough team to beat at AAMI Stadium and if you let them play their brand of footy which is all about switching the play, getting a lot of uncontested possessions, playing on quickly and using the corridor, they can really hurt you.
We’ve got to be really mindful that at their best, the Crows are a dangerous team. Opposition teams have been really good over the last five or six weeks at not letting them dictate the game with their style.
A month ago, they really pushed Collingwood for three quarters, and more recently they controlled the first half against the Bulldogs. Clearly their best is good enough but they just haven’t been able to do it for four quarters, so that will be their focus.
When you go through the Crows midfield, you see a lot of quality players. Not only can players like Scott Thompson, Patrick Dangerfield, Bernie Vince, Nathan Van Berlo, Richard Douglas and Brent Reilly break the game open, but they are dangerous goal scorers too.
We’ve got to win our fair share of contested ball and not let them spread and do their own thing. Our contested and ground ball work, along with our tackling has been really encouraging over the last few weeks.
We have a good record on the road this season and we need to bounce back after consecutive losses.