Tweet
Roos awakening
By TIM MORRISSEY at the SCG
April 12, 2004
PAUL Roos proved again he is a master at pushing the right buttons to get his players firing with a rare three-quarter time blast jolting a mediocre Swans team back into life.
With Sydney fast running out of options and low on enthusiasm against a tenacious Geelong Cats side desperate for their first win, the Swans coach marched out on to the SCG and addressed his players.
"He went off as much as Roosy goes off I suppose," said Swans star Leo Barry.
"He's normally pretty composed but for him he got pretty animated at three-quarter time. But it's what the guys needed and all the guys responded."
The Swans came back from a 14-point deficit to dominate the final quarter to produce a 20-point turn around and win 10.13 (73) to 10.7 (67).
But they may be without Tadhg Kennelly for Sunday's game against the Kangaroos in Canberra after the dashing halfback received a heavy knock to ribs in the first term requiring pain killing injections to get through the game.
Kennelly will have X-rays tomorrow to determine if he has broken ribs. Even if he's cleared, he's only a 50 per cent chance to play according to Swans doctor Nathan Gibbs.
Roos praised the Cats game plan which starved Sydney of the ball for three quarters but he admitted after his little talk the players' intensity dramatically lifted.
Sydney not only won the clearances 14-1 after three-quarter time but also had several players virtually double their possessions for the game.
If the Swans' accuracy was a little better after kicking 3.8 to Geelong's 1.0 it could have become really ugly in the end.
It is not in Roos's nature to deliver a fire and brimstone sermon but he encouraged the players to at least "go down swinging".
"It wasn't really a fiery speech, I guess it wasn't too dissimilar to the Melbourne one last year to be honest," Roos said yesterday.
In that game the Swans were staring at their fourth straight loss trailing by 20 points going into the fourth quarter. However, after Roos' final words of encouragement, the Swans produced a stunning finale, kicking 10 goals to three to win by 24 points.
That proved the turning point in their 2003 season with the Swans beating Collingwood and Brisbane in the next two rounds which put them on the road to the finals.
The other time Roos really fired up by his standards was at the final break last season in Adelaide during the Swans' 12-point qualifying final victory against Port Adelaide.
After a stunning seven-goals-to-one second quarter by Sydney set up a 40-point halftime lead, the Swans were out-goaled six to three in the third term, sparking an animated talk from Roos during the final break.
"Yeah, that would be close to the most animated Roosy's been," added Barry, who rated Roos's three-quarter-time sermon against Geelong an eight out of 10.
"Roosy has the respect of the playing group and when he really challenges each individual and the team, the guys respect him enough to take it on board and do their upmost to carry out his instructions.
"That's one good feature of his coaching style. He's not too animated, but when it happens it really hits home to the playing group."
By TIM MORRISSEY at the SCG
April 12, 2004
PAUL Roos proved again he is a master at pushing the right buttons to get his players firing with a rare three-quarter time blast jolting a mediocre Swans team back into life.
With Sydney fast running out of options and low on enthusiasm against a tenacious Geelong Cats side desperate for their first win, the Swans coach marched out on to the SCG and addressed his players.
"He went off as much as Roosy goes off I suppose," said Swans star Leo Barry.
"He's normally pretty composed but for him he got pretty animated at three-quarter time. But it's what the guys needed and all the guys responded."
The Swans came back from a 14-point deficit to dominate the final quarter to produce a 20-point turn around and win 10.13 (73) to 10.7 (67).
But they may be without Tadhg Kennelly for Sunday's game against the Kangaroos in Canberra after the dashing halfback received a heavy knock to ribs in the first term requiring pain killing injections to get through the game.
Kennelly will have X-rays tomorrow to determine if he has broken ribs. Even if he's cleared, he's only a 50 per cent chance to play according to Swans doctor Nathan Gibbs.
Roos praised the Cats game plan which starved Sydney of the ball for three quarters but he admitted after his little talk the players' intensity dramatically lifted.
Sydney not only won the clearances 14-1 after three-quarter time but also had several players virtually double their possessions for the game.
If the Swans' accuracy was a little better after kicking 3.8 to Geelong's 1.0 it could have become really ugly in the end.
It is not in Roos's nature to deliver a fire and brimstone sermon but he encouraged the players to at least "go down swinging".
"It wasn't really a fiery speech, I guess it wasn't too dissimilar to the Melbourne one last year to be honest," Roos said yesterday.
In that game the Swans were staring at their fourth straight loss trailing by 20 points going into the fourth quarter. However, after Roos' final words of encouragement, the Swans produced a stunning finale, kicking 10 goals to three to win by 24 points.
That proved the turning point in their 2003 season with the Swans beating Collingwood and Brisbane in the next two rounds which put them on the road to the finals.
The other time Roos really fired up by his standards was at the final break last season in Adelaide during the Swans' 12-point qualifying final victory against Port Adelaide.
After a stunning seven-goals-to-one second quarter by Sydney set up a 40-point halftime lead, the Swans were out-goaled six to three in the third term, sparking an animated talk from Roos during the final break.
"Yeah, that would be close to the most animated Roosy's been," added Barry, who rated Roos's three-quarter-time sermon against Geelong an eight out of 10.
"Roosy has the respect of the playing group and when he really challenges each individual and the team, the guys respect him enough to take it on board and do their upmost to carry out his instructions.
"That's one good feature of his coaching style. He's not too animated, but when it happens it really hits home to the playing group."
