We win again

[thommoone]

I was pretty sure Foz was on Kerr

[swansrock4eva]

I must say mathews has always been one of the players i found frustrating - never seems to know what "forward" means or what it means to kick to the one-on-ones as opposed to kicking to pack situations etc, yet the second he was really missing last week and this week, i was like "ack! where's benny!?" which surprised me. He comes across as a bit of an enigma, but apparently a necessary one! Bizarre....

[floppinab]

Great job by Schaubs on Wilson today

You're USELESS WILSONNNNNN, come on WILSONNNNNNNN.
Classic mozz on this big fella when kicking to the Paddo end, and............. he missed!!!!!




the mint adverstisement on tele if you didn't understand.

[liz]

Re: We win again

Originally posted by Reggi


O'Keefe & Nicks went OK - they barely went really - but were OK.

Just watched the video and realised just how good O'Keefe was in the final quarter. In fact there were a few guys who were very important in the heat of that last term who otherwise had only OK'ish games. Kennelly was really important and Barry made a couple of saving marks.

And even Nicks looked better on replay that he did live. However, he really should have done better when he was running towards an open goal, in the clear, towards the end when he hit the behind post on the full. A player of his experience and skill should have kicked the goal - and it would have been the sealer and saved us all from a heart stopping last 5 minutes.

[NMWBloods]

Agree that Fosdike has more to give, but he gets involved in packs more than people give him credit for.

Yeah, just noticed watching the replay how much he was in the packs, as well as Kirk and J Bolton. All did very well in that regard.

[NMWBloods]

Originally posted by midaro
Warfe didn't much again, but we're sick of saying that aren't we?

He certainly didn't do much when he let Haynes take an uncontested mark 40m out with about 3 minutes to go...

[Donners]

Coaching was a bit of a mixed bag in this game - I really like the use of Craig Bolton as a flanker, but Kennelly should never EVER be allowed to get within the last 35 metres of our defence, just like Barry. Also quite surprised to see Goodes playing in the ruck against Cox, particularly early in the game. Sure, use Goodes around the ground to take advantage of his lack of mobility, but use Ball at the ball-ups and throw-ins.

Some pretty surprising moves late in the third quarter as well, like bringing on Schneider and Warfe for Maxfield and another midfielder when we were being carved up by WC's small forwards.

I wonder how much of a difference Mathews would have made. Crouch has been pretty disappointing in the last few weeks, and Hall looked really off his game.

But hell, a win's a win, and there were plenty of good performances, especially from Bolton and O'Loughlin. Great to see O'Keefe really come into the game as well.

[SWANSBEST]

Maybe Roosy is starting to outwardly show the stresses of coaching

Swans fly high to defy Eagles
By Jenny McAsey
July 07, 2003
MUCH has been said about the need for even performances if new-look Sydney are to win games, but yesterday's narrow victory over West Coast showed it helps to have someone who can steal the show.

Michael O'Loughlin played the role to perfection on the SCG stage yesterday, out-pointing three Eagles to score a match-winning six goals before a crowd of 31,121.

It was the biggest turn-up for more than two years as the Harbour City folk climbed back on the bandwagon, sending notice that fifth-placed Sydney are serious finals contenders.

Yesterday's win over second-placed Eagles was important for Sydney's growing confidence, confirming they can mix it with the best, despite last week's loss to Port Adelaide.

"We did some things wrong, but I thought the guys were terrific today to beat a team like the Eagles," coach Paul Roos said.

"I rate them (the Eagles) higher now than I did prior to the game. They came off a wet track last week, got belted in the first half today ? and then came back."

Sydney's win wasn't totally convincing, given that West Coast were down by six goals in the third quarter and lifted across the board to almost snatch a win.

Although coach John Worsfold was disappointed with their lacklustre first half, the Eagles were far from disgraced and proved once again they are adept travellers.

"We lost the game ? that is the disappointing part ? but I can't question the endeavour of the players to keep fighting it out, even when things had turned against them," Worsfold said.

To make matters worse, the Eagles were missing star ruckman Michael Gardiner, a late withdrawal after hurting his foot at training on Thursday.

That paved the way for Sydney's ruck duo of Adam Goodes and Jason Ball to dominate around the ground, particularly in the first half as the Swans established a handy buffer.

O'Loughlin set the ball rolling in the first minute of the game when he out-marked young backman Kasey Green in the goal square and kicked truly.

Twenty minutes later, he had two more goals ? including one from some deft crumbing ? and a new opponent in Adam Hunter as Sydney got on top.

Roos again got his mid-field match-ups right. Brett Kirk kept West Coast captain Ben Cousins quiet, Jude Bolton had the better of Chad Fletcher and Paul Williams proved 30-year-old legs were more than a match for teenager Chris Judd.

Williams notched a game-high 26 possessions, but had praise for Judd, who fought back in the second half.

"He is going to be very special, that kid. He's really clever and, the scary thing is, you won't see the best of him for the next five years," Williams said.

In the second quarter, Worsfold turned his team upside down, trying desperately to improve the effectiveness of a stagnant forward line.

Full-forward Troy Wilson was benched and former Magpie Damien Adkins provided spark, as did a skilful Daniel Kerr, who kicked four goals and led the way in the second-half revival.

West Coast were superior at the clearances and the ever-dangerous Ashley Sampi got away from tagger Jared Crouch to score goals either side of the three-quarter break.

However, the fearless Jude Bolton and Ryan O'Keefe inspired the Swans with spirited work in the clinches, while Tadhg Kennelly and Andrew Schauble were solid in defence.

Williams said Sydney were building momentum, but still was not thinking beyond next week's home game against St Kilda. "We are definitely a team that has got some belief growing and definitely a side that doesn't rely on one or two players," Williams said. "But it's such a close competition and we have to keep doing the same things that are working and not get ahead of ourselves."

Roos was red-faced after the game, a rarity for the coolest coach in the competition.

"We did some things poorly ? there were a couple of staggering mistakes, but they are the things we'll work on during the week," he said.

"But it's pleasing that when teams come at us, we are able to hang on and graft out a win."

Sydney 13.14 (92) def. West Coast 12.12 (84)

[penga]

at the 3/4 time huddle, roosy was pretty fired up (for roosy that is), he was waving his arms and actually shouting

crouch on sampi is a bad matchup, i thought barry shouldve played on him... sampi's leap is huge and to contain sampi u have to have a bigger defender on him otherwise he tears a little defender apart, as what happened with crouch

o'keefe is "mr one-percenters", he doesnt get that many stats but he is a vital cog

[NMWBloods]

Coaching was a bit of a mixed bag in this game - I really like the use of Craig Bolton as a flanker

This was clever, but the reason he was used as a flanker (more on the wing really) was to cover Embley, who plays on the wing but drops into the forward line.

[NMWBloods]

crouch on sampi is a bad matchup, i thought barry shouldve played on him... sampi's leap is huge and to contain sampi u have to have a bigger defender on him otherwise he tears a little defender apart, as what happened with crouch

Showing up the problem of our short backline as Barry had to take the bigger Jakovich (until he went off injured). Still, I think Sampi would be too quick for Barry.

[penga]

Originally posted by NMWBloods
Showing up the problem of our short backline as Barry had to take the bigger Jakovich (until he went off injured). Still, I think Sampi would be too quick for Barry.

indeed, i was more or less stating that it wasnt necessarily crouch's fault that sampi was on top...