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Loss of accuracy a worry for Roos
By TIM MORRISSEY
14jul03
PAUL Williams had good reason not to talk up the Swans' finals chances after Sydney dispatched St Kilda to playoff purgatory on Saturday night.
Despite Sydney's 51-point rout at the SCG, the Swans midfielder admitted the one-sided scoreline couldn't hide the team's alarming drop-off in goal accuracy since the mid-season week off.
Sydney went into the break with a league best 61.4 per cent goal efficiency, but in the Swans' three games since their accuracy has plummeted to 42.9 per cent.
The upside is that the Swans need just two more wins with seven rounds remaining to virtually cement a place in the finals.
However, Williams believes it might be time to enrol in kicking school after the scrappy 15.22 (112) to 9.7 (61) victory which all but ended any hope the Saints had of playing finals footy in September.
"We were slow out of the blocks but we still should've kicked five or six goals in that first quarter," said Williams, referring to Sydney's 2.7 effort.
"That's something we are going to have to address.
"We've been pretty good all year but I think a few of us will be going down for some goalkicking practice during the week."
Williams includes himself and flashy forward Michael O'Loughlin in that group after both kicked 1.3 against the Saints.
"Mick should've kicked more than what he did," said Williams.
Last round against West Coast O'Loughlin was flawless, kicking six goals from six attempts to set up Sydney's hard-fought eight-point win.
If the Swans are going to feature in the finals O'Loughlin has to be a major factor with the 25-year-old star's freakish ability to create scoring opportunities.
The Swans other main strike weapon Barry Hall also failed to make a significant impact on the scoreboard, finishing with a solitary behind against the Saints. But the menacing full-forward contributed in other areas.
"Barry set up five or six goals," said Williams. "That's the beauty of us, we don't rely on Barry to kick six or seven goals every week.
"We want him to keep presenting; he's playing a little more centre half-forward, a different role for him and he's been great for us this year."
Swans coach Paul Roos is not panicking over the team's kicking slump but admits he is concerned.
"You're always worried when you're kicking a lot of points, we saw what happened last week [against West Coast] even though we got up," said Roos.
"There's not a question the psyche of both teams change when you're kicking goals as against points.
"At the end it didn't make any difference but it certainly could have; thankfully it didn't.
"The goalkicking is one thing we really need to focus on and Mick [O'Loughlin] kicked six straight last week and he kicked 1.3 this week and a couple didn't register so we certainly need to work on those."
The next assignment for Sydney is on Saturday at Optus Oval against a Carlton side reeling from a 116-point flogging by West Coast.
Only three times this year have Sydney faced a team which won the previous week and eight of their opponents lost by 40 or more points the round before.
By TIM MORRISSEY
14jul03
PAUL Williams had good reason not to talk up the Swans' finals chances after Sydney dispatched St Kilda to playoff purgatory on Saturday night.
Despite Sydney's 51-point rout at the SCG, the Swans midfielder admitted the one-sided scoreline couldn't hide the team's alarming drop-off in goal accuracy since the mid-season week off.
Sydney went into the break with a league best 61.4 per cent goal efficiency, but in the Swans' three games since their accuracy has plummeted to 42.9 per cent.
The upside is that the Swans need just two more wins with seven rounds remaining to virtually cement a place in the finals.
However, Williams believes it might be time to enrol in kicking school after the scrappy 15.22 (112) to 9.7 (61) victory which all but ended any hope the Saints had of playing finals footy in September.
"We were slow out of the blocks but we still should've kicked five or six goals in that first quarter," said Williams, referring to Sydney's 2.7 effort.
"That's something we are going to have to address.
"We've been pretty good all year but I think a few of us will be going down for some goalkicking practice during the week."
Williams includes himself and flashy forward Michael O'Loughlin in that group after both kicked 1.3 against the Saints.
"Mick should've kicked more than what he did," said Williams.
Last round against West Coast O'Loughlin was flawless, kicking six goals from six attempts to set up Sydney's hard-fought eight-point win.
If the Swans are going to feature in the finals O'Loughlin has to be a major factor with the 25-year-old star's freakish ability to create scoring opportunities.
The Swans other main strike weapon Barry Hall also failed to make a significant impact on the scoreboard, finishing with a solitary behind against the Saints. But the menacing full-forward contributed in other areas.
"Barry set up five or six goals," said Williams. "That's the beauty of us, we don't rely on Barry to kick six or seven goals every week.
"We want him to keep presenting; he's playing a little more centre half-forward, a different role for him and he's been great for us this year."
Swans coach Paul Roos is not panicking over the team's kicking slump but admits he is concerned.
"You're always worried when you're kicking a lot of points, we saw what happened last week [against West Coast] even though we got up," said Roos.
"There's not a question the psyche of both teams change when you're kicking goals as against points.
"At the end it didn't make any difference but it certainly could have; thankfully it didn't.
"The goalkicking is one thing we really need to focus on and Mick [O'Loughlin] kicked six straight last week and he kicked 1.3 this week and a couple didn't register so we certainly need to work on those."
The next assignment for Sydney is on Saturday at Optus Oval against a Carlton side reeling from a 116-point flogging by West Coast.
Only three times this year have Sydney faced a team which won the previous week and eight of their opponents lost by 40 or more points the round before.
