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Swan fans endorse 'forget winning' plan
20 February 2004 Herald Sun
Tim Morrissey
SWANS coach Paul Roos' big-picture approach to Sunday's Wizard Cup clash against Carlton has the support of the fans, even if it costs Sydney victory.
A poll on the club's website yesterday revealed that 82 per cent of the Swans faithful think the team should "forget about winning and blood the rookies".
Only 18 per cent of the fans responding to the question, "How should the Swans approach the Wizard Cup?", voted for the team to "play the best side and win every game".
Roos said yesterday that winning on Sunday at Telstra Stadium would be nice, but it wasn't a priority.
Instead Roos will concentrate on three factors: youth, style and the anticipated oppressive conditions that go with playing football in February.
"We are keen to see the young guys play again this week and see what sort of improvement they have made," Roos said.
"We are really keen to make sure the players get a certain amount of game time and we're keen to start playing the way we want to play for the year.
"If we can win, obviously that would be great, but we've got to be mindful of the state the players are in.
"If it's level at three-quarter time, we've still got to stick with Barry Hall only playing half of the last quarter.
"We don't want 'Hally' playing 30 minutes and doing his hamstring, for example.
"We've got some pretty set ideas about what we want to achieve and we've got to stick to it."
In the forefront of Roos' mind is the Swans' Round 1 clash against reigning premier Brisbane at the Gabba on March 27.
He's also mindful of Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse's 2003 Wizard Cup experience.
"I was interested to read Mick Malthouse's comments that winning three Wizard Cup games and making the grand final of the pre-season competition last year took a lot out of his players when the main competition started," Roos said.
"So if you attack the Wizard Cup in a sense of what you want to do as a team, and you keep winning, that's great.
"You get the best of both worlds, but I don't think any coach wants to sacrifice Round 1 of the season by belting your blokes up."
The Swans yesterday released a 28-man squad for the Carlton game.
Roos won't finalise his team until he learns whether the AFL has agreed to his request to increase the number of players on the interchange bench from six to eight.
The AFL has agreed to eight on the interchange for tonight's Essendon-Fremantle game in Darwin and tomorrow's Kangaroos-Melbourne match in Canberra.
However, the league said yesterday it would monitor the situation in Sydney in the next 48 hours.
Roos confirmed Hall, Stuart Maxfield, Brett Kirk, Nic Fosdike and Adam Schneider would play, probably at the expense of draftees Tim Schmidt, Josh Willoughby and Matthew Davis, all of whom had their first run in red and white against Essendon on Saturday.
20 February 2004 Herald Sun
Tim Morrissey
SWANS coach Paul Roos' big-picture approach to Sunday's Wizard Cup clash against Carlton has the support of the fans, even if it costs Sydney victory.
A poll on the club's website yesterday revealed that 82 per cent of the Swans faithful think the team should "forget about winning and blood the rookies".
Only 18 per cent of the fans responding to the question, "How should the Swans approach the Wizard Cup?", voted for the team to "play the best side and win every game".
Roos said yesterday that winning on Sunday at Telstra Stadium would be nice, but it wasn't a priority.
Instead Roos will concentrate on three factors: youth, style and the anticipated oppressive conditions that go with playing football in February.
"We are keen to see the young guys play again this week and see what sort of improvement they have made," Roos said.
"We are really keen to make sure the players get a certain amount of game time and we're keen to start playing the way we want to play for the year.
"If we can win, obviously that would be great, but we've got to be mindful of the state the players are in.
"If it's level at three-quarter time, we've still got to stick with Barry Hall only playing half of the last quarter.
"We don't want 'Hally' playing 30 minutes and doing his hamstring, for example.
"We've got some pretty set ideas about what we want to achieve and we've got to stick to it."
In the forefront of Roos' mind is the Swans' Round 1 clash against reigning premier Brisbane at the Gabba on March 27.
He's also mindful of Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse's 2003 Wizard Cup experience.
"I was interested to read Mick Malthouse's comments that winning three Wizard Cup games and making the grand final of the pre-season competition last year took a lot out of his players when the main competition started," Roos said.
"So if you attack the Wizard Cup in a sense of what you want to do as a team, and you keep winning, that's great.
"You get the best of both worlds, but I don't think any coach wants to sacrifice Round 1 of the season by belting your blokes up."
The Swans yesterday released a 28-man squad for the Carlton game.
Roos won't finalise his team until he learns whether the AFL has agreed to his request to increase the number of players on the interchange bench from six to eight.
The AFL has agreed to eight on the interchange for tonight's Essendon-Fremantle game in Darwin and tomorrow's Kangaroos-Melbourne match in Canberra.
However, the league said yesterday it would monitor the situation in Sydney in the next 48 hours.
Roos confirmed Hall, Stuart Maxfield, Brett Kirk, Nic Fosdike and Adam Schneider would play, probably at the expense of draftees Tim Schmidt, Josh Willoughby and Matthew Davis, all of whom had their first run in red and white against Essendon on Saturday.
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