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By Adrian Warren AAP
SYDNEY, May 19 AAP - Sydney AFL coach Paul Roos would happily run around naked if he thought it would snap his team's losing streak, but he planned to eschew any motivational gimmicks in the lead-up to Sunday's home clash with Hawthorn.
Sydney has slumped to 10th on the back of four straight defeats, its longest losing streak under Roos' tenure.
Roos today declared it was up to the players to "resurrect" their form and work things out for themselves as the coaches could give them only so much assistance.
Prime midfielder Jude Bolton, who celebrates his 100th senior appearance on the weekend, today candidly admitted his own form had slipped back "quite a lot" from last year and said the players confidence had dropped as a result of their losing run.
Two of Roos' counterparts, Dean Laidley at the Kangaroos and Hawthorn's Peter Schwab, successfully resorted to unconventional methods to break respective losing streaks of four and six last weekend.
Laidley had "a chat about life and footy" to his players prior to their game against Port Adelaide, while Schwab had the Hawks do an early-morning climb up the Thousand Steps in the Dandenongs in the week leading up to their drought-breaking victory over Fremantle.
While Roos acknowledged the unconventional ploys worked, he said if a coach kept relying on them, his side was always likely to be an "up-and-down team".
He said he preferred Brisbane's "no bells and whistles" approach and said the Lions were a "meat and potatoes team" that stuck to what they knew rather resort to "fancy camps and motivational speeches".
"The other things have their places, no doubt at times, but you can pull so many rabbits out of a hat," Roos said at training today.
"I'd do anything to win, I'll run around naked if that gets us a win, but I'm not sure that people want to see me do that, week in week out."
Roos said there were a lot of reasons for the team's form slump but said one the players had identified was their work rate.
"I think they are all working hard, but there's a difference between working and working really, really hard," Roos said.
Bolton agreed the team work rate hadn't been "fantastic".
"We've just been playing really patchy football, we've been playing in spurts," he said.
"I suppose our run from halfback has been stifled a little bit and that's causing us to not give our forwards enough opportunities, but if we can generate a bit more possession right through the midfield, we will be right."
Bolton, who made his debut back in 1999, revealed the Swans' coaching staff had been toying with him, starting him both inside and outside the square and said besides his declining possession rate, he had been disappointed with his lack of pressure skills.
"I've definitely slipped back quite a lot actually and I've just been sitting down with the coaching group and working through where I can improve and get back to where I was last year," Bolton said.
Roos said Sydney would get a better idea on Friday of how long Brownlow medallist Adam Goodes would be sidelined with the knee ligament injury he suffered last weekend.
SYDNEY, May 19 AAP - Sydney AFL coach Paul Roos would happily run around naked if he thought it would snap his team's losing streak, but he planned to eschew any motivational gimmicks in the lead-up to Sunday's home clash with Hawthorn.
Sydney has slumped to 10th on the back of four straight defeats, its longest losing streak under Roos' tenure.
Roos today declared it was up to the players to "resurrect" their form and work things out for themselves as the coaches could give them only so much assistance.
Prime midfielder Jude Bolton, who celebrates his 100th senior appearance on the weekend, today candidly admitted his own form had slipped back "quite a lot" from last year and said the players confidence had dropped as a result of their losing run.
Two of Roos' counterparts, Dean Laidley at the Kangaroos and Hawthorn's Peter Schwab, successfully resorted to unconventional methods to break respective losing streaks of four and six last weekend.
Laidley had "a chat about life and footy" to his players prior to their game against Port Adelaide, while Schwab had the Hawks do an early-morning climb up the Thousand Steps in the Dandenongs in the week leading up to their drought-breaking victory over Fremantle.
While Roos acknowledged the unconventional ploys worked, he said if a coach kept relying on them, his side was always likely to be an "up-and-down team".
He said he preferred Brisbane's "no bells and whistles" approach and said the Lions were a "meat and potatoes team" that stuck to what they knew rather resort to "fancy camps and motivational speeches".
"The other things have their places, no doubt at times, but you can pull so many rabbits out of a hat," Roos said at training today.
"I'd do anything to win, I'll run around naked if that gets us a win, but I'm not sure that people want to see me do that, week in week out."
Roos said there were a lot of reasons for the team's form slump but said one the players had identified was their work rate.
"I think they are all working hard, but there's a difference between working and working really, really hard," Roos said.
Bolton agreed the team work rate hadn't been "fantastic".
"We've just been playing really patchy football, we've been playing in spurts," he said.
"I suppose our run from halfback has been stifled a little bit and that's causing us to not give our forwards enough opportunities, but if we can generate a bit more possession right through the midfield, we will be right."
Bolton, who made his debut back in 1999, revealed the Swans' coaching staff had been toying with him, starting him both inside and outside the square and said besides his declining possession rate, he had been disappointed with his lack of pressure skills.
"I've definitely slipped back quite a lot actually and I've just been sitting down with the coaching group and working through where I can improve and get back to where I was last year," Bolton said.
Roos said Sydney would get a better idea on Friday of how long Brownlow medallist Adam Goodes would be sidelined with the knee ligament injury he suffered last weekend.
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