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Roos at odds to prepare Swans for St Kilda blockbuster
By Peter Lalor
June 03, 2004
WHILE St Kilda coach Grant Thomas cancelled training yesterday and took his side to see The Day After Tomorrow, Sydney coach Paul Roos and his new defender Adam Goodes had their own disaster movies to contend with.
It says a lot about the two teams that one group was wrestling over popcorn while the other was agonising about matching a midfield and forward line that has had opposition coaches waking in cold sweats all year.
Saints Nick Riewoldt, Aaron Hamill, Jason Blake, Heath Black and Stephen Powell were already on the track in Melbourne when they were called in and sent to the movies yesterday afternoon.
Thomas revealed that the players had been filling in a chart every day for the past three years indicating how they felt on a scale of one (best) to five (worst) across seven secret categories.
"We get the scores on the guys every day and the scores were a little bit higher today, which was a bit unusual," Thomas said.
The coach said the usual average score for the group was around 16, when seven was the best possible and 35 the worst, but yesterday it was more than 18, which meant they were flat.
The team are undefeated this season and have won the past two games by more than 100 points, but the coach did not blame the games for their tiredness.
"They did four hours of clinics yesterday and that can be taxing, standing around on the end of a couple of hard weeks, so they are feeling the pinch a bit and we are guided by that," Thomas said. "But we will keep them fresh and see what happens."
Meanwhile, in Sydney, Roos has been crunching numbers and watching horror videos of his own before his team meet the Saints at the SCG on Sunday.
The Swans coach said he had replayed half of St Kilda's 108-point victory over Carlton last week and joked he had to be careful as the two Swans assistant coaches who saw the game live were still "in therapy".
Roos knows he has to find match-ups for a St Kilda forward line that features the brute strength of Hamill and Fraser Gehrig, the muscular majesty of Riewoldt and Justin Koschitzke, then has goalsneak Stephen Milne and hard-hitting sniper Brent Guerra thrown in for good measure.
Roos concedes that the Swans are returning to form but struggling to cover the loss of tall men Jason Saddington, Andrew Schauble and Lewis Roberts-Thomson.
Roos said that he had also watched a replay of the St Kilda-Brisbane match from this year in preparation for Sunday's match.
"Obviously, there's a bit different pressure from Carlton to Brisbane, but whatever video you watch, you know they're going to be good," Roos said.
The Swans coach has been on the telephone to Brisbane forward Alastair Lynch and the Lions' assistant coach John Blakey in an attempt to get some extra ideas about how to tackle the all-conquering Saints.
Brisbane came within one point of defeating the ladder leaders in the round-six match while the Saints are averaging a 50-point winning margin for the year.
Goodes, who has found himself in defence since tearing a posterior cruciate three weeks ago, said he was looking forward to the game.
Yesterday, Goodes said that despite battling a psychological scar, he was ready to wrestle the goalsquare gorilla, Gehrig, or take to the air in a contest with the league's leading mark, Riewoldt.
"We haven't had the team meeting yet, but there's certainly a lot of tall guys that I could pick up down in the backline this week," Goodes said.
"I wouldn't mind chasing Riewoldt around, or Fraser Gehrig in the goalsquare would be a good challenge."
Goodes says the Swans believe they can win.
"For sure," he said. "One thing that I sort of watched with the Saints this year is they've got so many good players all over the ground and one game that comes to mind is the Port Adelaide game (in last year's finals), how well we shut every individual down on the ground. And I think that's what we need to do on the weekend."
By Peter Lalor
June 03, 2004
WHILE St Kilda coach Grant Thomas cancelled training yesterday and took his side to see The Day After Tomorrow, Sydney coach Paul Roos and his new defender Adam Goodes had their own disaster movies to contend with.
It says a lot about the two teams that one group was wrestling over popcorn while the other was agonising about matching a midfield and forward line that has had opposition coaches waking in cold sweats all year.
Saints Nick Riewoldt, Aaron Hamill, Jason Blake, Heath Black and Stephen Powell were already on the track in Melbourne when they were called in and sent to the movies yesterday afternoon.
Thomas revealed that the players had been filling in a chart every day for the past three years indicating how they felt on a scale of one (best) to five (worst) across seven secret categories.
"We get the scores on the guys every day and the scores were a little bit higher today, which was a bit unusual," Thomas said.
The coach said the usual average score for the group was around 16, when seven was the best possible and 35 the worst, but yesterday it was more than 18, which meant they were flat.
The team are undefeated this season and have won the past two games by more than 100 points, but the coach did not blame the games for their tiredness.
"They did four hours of clinics yesterday and that can be taxing, standing around on the end of a couple of hard weeks, so they are feeling the pinch a bit and we are guided by that," Thomas said. "But we will keep them fresh and see what happens."
Meanwhile, in Sydney, Roos has been crunching numbers and watching horror videos of his own before his team meet the Saints at the SCG on Sunday.
The Swans coach said he had replayed half of St Kilda's 108-point victory over Carlton last week and joked he had to be careful as the two Swans assistant coaches who saw the game live were still "in therapy".
Roos knows he has to find match-ups for a St Kilda forward line that features the brute strength of Hamill and Fraser Gehrig, the muscular majesty of Riewoldt and Justin Koschitzke, then has goalsneak Stephen Milne and hard-hitting sniper Brent Guerra thrown in for good measure.
Roos concedes that the Swans are returning to form but struggling to cover the loss of tall men Jason Saddington, Andrew Schauble and Lewis Roberts-Thomson.
Roos said that he had also watched a replay of the St Kilda-Brisbane match from this year in preparation for Sunday's match.
"Obviously, there's a bit different pressure from Carlton to Brisbane, but whatever video you watch, you know they're going to be good," Roos said.
The Swans coach has been on the telephone to Brisbane forward Alastair Lynch and the Lions' assistant coach John Blakey in an attempt to get some extra ideas about how to tackle the all-conquering Saints.
Brisbane came within one point of defeating the ladder leaders in the round-six match while the Saints are averaging a 50-point winning margin for the year.
Goodes, who has found himself in defence since tearing a posterior cruciate three weeks ago, said he was looking forward to the game.
Yesterday, Goodes said that despite battling a psychological scar, he was ready to wrestle the goalsquare gorilla, Gehrig, or take to the air in a contest with the league's leading mark, Riewoldt.
"We haven't had the team meeting yet, but there's certainly a lot of tall guys that I could pick up down in the backline this week," Goodes said.
"I wouldn't mind chasing Riewoldt around, or Fraser Gehrig in the goalsquare would be a good challenge."
Goodes says the Swans believe they can win.
"For sure," he said. "One thing that I sort of watched with the Saints this year is they've got so many good players all over the ground and one game that comes to mind is the Port Adelaide game (in last year's finals), how well we shut every individual down on the ground. And I think that's what we need to do on the weekend."
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