Very Surreal at the moment

[Bart]

5-3 heading into the next few weeks with a great deal of confidence. Is there anyone who could put their hand on their heart and say they expected this ? It gets better when you consider we head to Canberra on a high with possibly no O'Loughlin, Saddington, Seymour, Fixter, Doyle etc.

Nobody is getting carried away with themselves, but this sure is an exciting time to be a Swans supporter.

Some questions:

Do we finally have reasonable depth ?

Are we overachieving ?

Is our list a lot better than most pundits gave credit at the start of the season?

And finally the unspeakable. Can we win the flag ?

[penga]

the interesting thing is that our depth will increase towards the end of the season with fixter and doyle coming back and the possibility of james playing as well if a defender goes down... this kinda works in our favour with the 'fresh' legs... i dont think we deserve a flag with our current list and the weaknesses that we have, thats why roosy is 'rebuilding'... however, if we win the flag in our first year of 'rebuilding' imagine what we will be like when we are 'built'!!! i dont think we should be talking about the flag just yet... if we do, something monumental will go wrong

personally, i think the swans have been underachieving for a while now, so maybe we are playing just a bit above our level atm...

we still have a pretty dodgy backline, and pretty dodge ruck - so our list isnt that great yet but their is plenty of talent coming through!

[NMWBloods]

We have gaps everywhere except for the forward line, but we have been able to cover them in our recent good games. The key reason is much the same reason we did so well in '96. The guys have been going out and giving it everything in those games.

We have some talent in our side, but much of it is raw and there is not enough genuine talent across the team to carry us. Therefore at this stage what we need to do is play very intense footy to keep our run going.

This is what made '96 different to every other year in at least the past few decades. After a poor start the guys found something and lifted, playing intense, tough footy, with a never-say-die attitude for the rest of the year. This is the key for this year and the next couple at least.

[Rod_]

My understanding of the Roos Plan is to blood as many young players as possible then have some depth in the club for future attacks at the finals - There by being able to cover for players that are down for a game or 2 or replace injured players with the depth that has been created.

Keep the ship heading towards the Grand Finalie.... Have as many of the top players available to win or the depth to cover. ... This includes Player confidence in themselves and "the game plan". At the moment this is working. (And I hope it continues)

Always a however.....

However as with the flood the game plan that Rocket was using, the Roosy plan will be worked out and inturn defences put in place to negate the impact..... Change is the only defence - keep them guessing - make the opposition be behind our game plan. We must continue to introduce changed game plans. We defeated Brissy by stopping their midfield on the day - Will that work next time? If not what will work?

My concern is next year (burts the bubble theory) whether we can improve at the same rate next year as we have this year to get to the GF (Thats if we dont do it this year....)

Rockets plan nearly worked in 96 - new ideas and got sooooo close.

Roosy's plan is working at the moment, will it be as good next year? Hope So! Better if possible..... (again that is we don't get there this year - this supporter confidence is high)

My early mail is that we will be top 4 this year and blood a lot of players into finals footy. Go for a big season next year is we dont get there this year...... I hope we can go to the top this year, but structurally we are not ready. Getting closer but not ready yet. (By the end of the season we will now how close we get won't we...... )

Next year is looking goode though.....Depth, Luck, some abitilty and retain the key players that count when needed, etc

And look out you other teams...

Theory according to Rod_

[penga]

NMW, its the key for every year isnt it

one thing i hate about journos covering us, atm, is that they only ever mention magic and sadders as injured... they underestimate the capabilities and importance of doyle and fixter to our team

i do agree with u about our forward line, it is lethal!

[NMWBloods]

Originally posted by penga
NMW, its the key for every year isnt it

True enough. Although some teams (eg: Esserndon '00, Brisbane) can get away without the intensity for periods because they are so good. We can't, even though at times we thought we could (eg: '97-'98).

[NMWBloods]

My early mail is that we will be top 4 this year and blood a lot of players into finals footy. Go for a big season next year is we dont get there this year......

To bring in another thread, if you believe we are shot next year, that would make perfect sense to bring in Akermanis, which could push us over the top.

[barry]

To win a flag we need the following
1) A big strong "mongrel" key defender.
2) A dominant ruckman.
3) Another high-quality midfielder.
4) No injuries at finals time.

Can we find these. If everthing went perfectly, yes
1) James overcomes all his injuries. He's the only one with a mature enough body to take on the big forwards.
2) Doyle gets back on the track, and plays well.
3) Nick Davis gets fully fit and moves into the midfield.
4) Luck.

I dont expect many of these will happen, but it would not be impossible for us to go all the way.

[NMWBloods]

James overcomes all his injuries. He's the only one with a mature enough body to take on the big forwards.

As much as I hope I'm wrong I can't see any way that James will play any meaningful amount of AFL football. He's just too brittle.

[barry]

Originally posted by NMWBloods
As much as I hope I'm wrong I can't see any way that James will play any meaningful amount of AFL football. He's just too brittle.

There must be some hope otherwise the swans would never have persisted. We'll see latter in the season.

To add enourmous value to our defence he only has to be a bench player who comes on when one of Schuable or Saddo are struggling. He may not need huge match fitness.

Thats for this year. Further down the track LRT will take on the KPP defence.

[gloveski]

realistically we are at least 2 seasons away from playing competitive finals football.

We need to find a key position player and a few quality midfielders to replace cresswell and the aging maxfield.

History has shown that young players taper off towards the end of the year and to expect these guys to be still up come finals time is a dream.

I still expect us to finish between 7th to 10th at best.

But with a bit of luck especially with injuries god knows what will happen.But one thing for sure the future is looking bright and maybe the rebuilding period wont take as long as expected.

[Charlie]

Bah, humbug!

I threw out the "preparing for the worst, but hope for a couple of good wins" after the Brissie game. Now I'm a footy coach, taking it one week at a time and dreaming of a premiership cup inscribed "2003 - Sydney"... If it had of existed, this exact thread would have been around at about this time 7 years ago.

[penga]

if u r a footy coach now charlie, does that mean you will be coming out with endless cliches now?

[Bart]

Originally posted by Charlie
Bah, humbug!

I threw out the "preparing for the worst, but hope for a couple of good wins" after the Brissie game. Now I'm a footy coach, taking it one week at a time and dreaming of a premiership cup inscribed "2003 - Sydney"... If it had of existed, this exact thread would have been around at about this time 7 years ago.

Yeah @@@@ it ! Let's now go and win the bloody thing

[omnipotent]

Lack of key, classy, quality defenders will find us out. Also the midfield has older players and will tire come September so it needs back-up.