Are we going to be better this year?

[Charlie]

I think we are...

PROS -

FIXTER - Sydney's forgotten man should hopefully be back next year. He was great in defence last year, providing a lot of drive and clearing Crouch to go into the middle and tag more often. Will be an asset.

SCHNEIDER - This year could have only benefitted him. With another pre-season behind him, a now seasoned Schneider may well step up even more next year.

O'LOUGHLIN - Micky was fantastic this year... 41 goals from only 16 games is a great effort, especially considering a couple of those games were under severe injury clouds. If Mick can get a proper pre-season this year, then I don't think 70 goals is out of the question.

MAXFIELD - The year as captain will put him in good stead to lead a genuine charge at the premiership. Has added experience to his natural leadership ability.

ABLETT, THEWLIS, POWELL, MCVEIGH and MALCESKI - From what I've seen and heard, we can very happy to have guys of this calibre knocking on the door of the 22 next year. One of our criticism that has lasted this year is that we lack depth... I'm very optimistic about every one of these players.

CONS -

CRESSWELL - Well, duh. When I saw Nicky and Willo hoisting Cressa on their shoulders, I knew that my dream of one more season was not going to eventuate. Bummer. Cressa will leave a hole, no doubt about it... but it's a hole that one of the above mentioned midfielders will fill with time.

EXPECTATION - The Swans thrived on not being expected to do anything, more or less all year. We won't get that next year, but hopefully the players can adjust better to the new-found pressure than the 1997 group did at times. We'll have to wait and see.

[ugg]

For all the planning that the coaching staff and players do, you never really know what next year will hold. I really feel it was an opportunity lost last night, its not often you get a home prelim final, and when you do, you have to grab it.

As long as Roosie keeps blooding more youngsters to slowly take the place of the Cresswells, Williamses, Maxfields and Balls I think we'll be heading in the right direction. Not sure whether we can emulate the feats of this year but hopefully it will set the club up for a period of success of the next decade or so.

[Reggi]

There is a hell of a lot more to it than that.

We will need to improve heaps over summer to just stand our ground in this comp.

Really the group of them would need to work extremely hard over summer to remove their deficiencies/ improve the side.

J Bolton needs to bulk up and improve his fitness - he may not be ready for it - but he is the man when it comes to ball winning in the midfield - needs to get stronger and fitter.

Many other that need to do similar

We will get some players back from injury - but that is part and parcel of football. We would need to have a really big effort to improve on behalf of that player group to stay as we are - much more to improve.

Going on our history we are more likely to go back a bit before we improve.

Not meaning to be negative - but following 96 there was a general felling "it will just happen for us now" and it didn't.

J Bolton, C Bolton, A Goodes, B Mathews,T Kennelly, J Saddington and if they grow up a bit N Davis and N Fosdike really need to to really take over the reigns next year.

They are the leaders of this team now

[sharpie]

My biggest worry at the moment is have we lost our window of opportunity? This year the likes of Richmond, Hawthorn and St Kilda seriously underperformed. And while they do this year after year, I think next year they may come good. Other teams like Freo will only get better you would think. The comp was so even this year that anyone had a chance, and we made the most of it until yesterday. It just shows that its a long way to the top.

[liz]

Originally posted by sharpie
My biggest worry at the moment is have we lost our window of opportunity? This year the likes of Richmond, Hawthorn and St Kilda seriously underperformed. And while they do this year after year, I think next year they may come good. Other teams like Freo will only get better you would think. The comp was so even this year that anyone had a chance, and we made the most of it until yesterday. It just shows that its a long way to the top.

I'm oscillating at the moment between thoughts very close to these, and looking to Collingwood who have been able to back it up this year with an even and hard working squad, not too disimilar to ours.

Reggi's point about having to improve in all areas just to stand still is spot on, and other players will need to emerge from the fringes if we are to repeat this year. And despite looking at the core of our team and liking what they've done, turnover is necessary to keep on improving. A noted a comment made by the commentators during the Pies game yesterday that the Collingwood team contained 8 players not in their GF team from last year.

Apart from the confidence and spirit that Roos has instilled in the team this year, the main reasons for our success have been the improvements of Kirk, Goodes and B1, the recruitment of B2 and the emergence of Schneider. The only ones of these who I can see could get even better next year would be the B boys, though Kirk and Goodes retaining this level of performance isn't inconceivable. And getting some support for Goodes might help him to have even more impact, even if he himself stays at the same level. For Schneider I suspect next year will be a consolidation year.

Willo, Maxie, Crouch, Schaubs, Ball, Hall, Barry, Magic, Mathews are unlikely to improve much. Several of these already play at a consistently high standard and it would be good to see them repeat it next year, but they are unlikely to be able to provide a lift.

So where can the improvement come from? We will need another couple of the youngsters to really emerge to the point where they make a Schneider-type impact on the team. Maybe it will be Powell, maybe McVeigh will be ready. O'Keefe still has improvement left in him - he does good stuff but I'm still waiting for him to really take a game by the scruff of the neck as I think he can. Doyle is of massive importance. We know he can be a fine player but he certainly needs a change of luck with his injuries. Maybe Davis can contribute more (not that he was bad this year, but improved fitness might enable him to improve) and Kennelly is another who is still capable of lifting to another level.

Lots of questions, and only 6 months to go before we start to find out the answers. Won't be easy but, hey, it wouldn't be nearly so much fun if it were.

[Reggi]

In agreement with Lizz pretty much

I think Scneider will need to have a big pre-season - will find next year very tough. He will need to really improve his fitness.

LRT will need to get stronger - but is 2 - 3 years from being a permanant contributor.

If Doyle stood up it would be an enormous boost.

The make up of the side will need to change substantially.

Next year I expect Stevens, Ablett, Sundqvist, James, Thewlis, Doyle to push for permamanant spots next year

I think clubs will have noted our lack of ball winners and be in a much better position to counter us next year