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Roos tells stragglers to hang in there
Twelve months after Sydney turned its AFL season around with an astonishing comeback against Melbourne, Swans coach Paul Roos has a message for the current stragglers - hang in there, there's a long way to go.
While Sydney is currently comfortably placed in third spot heading into Saturday's clash at Telstra Stadium with Melbourne, he can relate better than most to the early season woes of some of the competition's glamour clubs.
Struggling at 1-3 after four rounds last year, the Swans campaign appeared doomed as they trailed Melbourne by 20 points at three quarter-time.
However, Sydney kicked 10 goals to three in the final quarter to trigger a run of four successive victories and 14 wins from its next 19 games.
Roos, who was in his first full season, was named coach of the year and the Swans went within one game of making the grand final.
Amongst the fancied clubs currently languishing in the lower half of the ladder are Hawthorn and Collingwood, both on four points, and Adelaide on nought.
"Everyone is talking gloom and doom about Hawthorn and some of the teams, Geelong and Adelaide, but there's still 18 rounds to go," Roos said.
"Probably the biggest reason for us to come out of last year is that it was a long year and even though we are 3-1 (this year) three wins are not going to get you in the eight.
"So I don't think you can get too carried away either way.
"If you are a bit down as some of the teams are, they've still got a lot of incentive and a lot of games left to get up."
While Roos said last year's win over Melbourne had been significant in a number of ways he hadn't dwelt on it.
"You do move on pretty quick at the end of the year, you think back on different games, but we certainly don't reflect on that, it was 12 months ago now, it's a long distant memory," Roos said.
While Sydney was backing up last season's strong effort with a good start to the current campaign Roos stressed the Swans were still a work in progress.
"Obviously we're having a bit of success at the moment, but you've got to be careful you don't get ahead of yourself," he said.
"It's good to have young guys coming in as options, (Jarrad) McVeigh, (Paul) Bevan and (Adam) Schneider (all 19), (Lewis) Roberts-Thomson (20) and (Luke) Ablett (21), so we've still got four or five young guys in the team as well."
A reminder of how quickly a season can turnaround...but also that it can go the other way
Twelve months after Sydney turned its AFL season around with an astonishing comeback against Melbourne, Swans coach Paul Roos has a message for the current stragglers - hang in there, there's a long way to go.
While Sydney is currently comfortably placed in third spot heading into Saturday's clash at Telstra Stadium with Melbourne, he can relate better than most to the early season woes of some of the competition's glamour clubs.
Struggling at 1-3 after four rounds last year, the Swans campaign appeared doomed as they trailed Melbourne by 20 points at three quarter-time.
However, Sydney kicked 10 goals to three in the final quarter to trigger a run of four successive victories and 14 wins from its next 19 games.
Roos, who was in his first full season, was named coach of the year and the Swans went within one game of making the grand final.
Amongst the fancied clubs currently languishing in the lower half of the ladder are Hawthorn and Collingwood, both on four points, and Adelaide on nought.
"Everyone is talking gloom and doom about Hawthorn and some of the teams, Geelong and Adelaide, but there's still 18 rounds to go," Roos said.
"Probably the biggest reason for us to come out of last year is that it was a long year and even though we are 3-1 (this year) three wins are not going to get you in the eight.
"So I don't think you can get too carried away either way.
"If you are a bit down as some of the teams are, they've still got a lot of incentive and a lot of games left to get up."
While Roos said last year's win over Melbourne had been significant in a number of ways he hadn't dwelt on it.
"You do move on pretty quick at the end of the year, you think back on different games, but we certainly don't reflect on that, it was 12 months ago now, it's a long distant memory," Roos said.
While Sydney was backing up last season's strong effort with a good start to the current campaign Roos stressed the Swans were still a work in progress.
"Obviously we're having a bit of success at the moment, but you've got to be careful you don't get ahead of yourself," he said.
"It's good to have young guys coming in as options, (Jarrad) McVeigh, (Paul) Bevan and (Adam) Schneider (all 19), (Lewis) Roberts-Thomson (20) and (Luke) Ablett (21), so we've still got four or five young guys in the team as well."
A reminder of how quickly a season can turnaround...but also that it can go the other way