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Swans go west to beat hoodoo
By Mark Duffield
April 2, 2003
NOT content with having to fly several thousand kilometres to Perth to play this weekend, Sydney will subject themselves to a road trip for training today in their bid to break the supremacy of Fremantle and West Coast at Subiaco Oval.
The Swans, who play the Dockers at Subiaco this Saturday night, will drive 40 minutes to train on Monarch Field, west of Sydney and the home of SFL team Campbelltown.
Monarch Field has similar dimensions to Subiaco which is 171m long and 127m wide - longer and narrower than most grounds in the AFL but still nine metres wider than Telstra Stadium where the Swans beat Carlton by 74 points on Saturday.
"Paul Roos is leaving no stone unturned," club spokesman Stephen Brassel said yesterday. "It is also a chance to get out into Sydney's west which we are naturally trying to do by playing games at Telstra Stadium."
Sydney will know today if young ruckman Stephen Doyle will miss the rest of the season with a knee injury he picked up against the Blues.
Doyle, who had kicked two goals before being forced off the ground, has been diagnosed with a surface fracture to the back of his right kneecap. An arthroscope will determine the full extent of the damage but this will not be able to take place until he recovers from a slight infection to the area.
He is expected to miss at least three months and possibly the season.
"It is nothing like a knee reconstruction," Brassel said. "It is a crack to the back of the kneecap, but it is just in an awkward position. The early prognosis is that it is likely to be 10 to 12 weeks."
Doyle, 21 and a towering 203cm, is in his fourth AFL season but has played only 17 games, nine of them last year when an ankle problem forced him to miss five matches.
Veteran midfielder Daryn Cresswell will miss at least three matches with a calf strain that restricted him to just seven possessions against Carlton.
Cresswell, 31, has been one of the most durable players on Sydney's list since his debut in 1992, playing 226 games in 11 seasons at better than 20 matches per season. He has indicated he will retire at the end of 2003.
The Swans hope Michael O'Loughlin (knee), Andrew Schauble and Daniel McPherson (both hamstring) will be fit to face Fremantle who lost only three of their 12 matches at Subiaco Oval last year.
By Mark Duffield
April 2, 2003
NOT content with having to fly several thousand kilometres to Perth to play this weekend, Sydney will subject themselves to a road trip for training today in their bid to break the supremacy of Fremantle and West Coast at Subiaco Oval.
The Swans, who play the Dockers at Subiaco this Saturday night, will drive 40 minutes to train on Monarch Field, west of Sydney and the home of SFL team Campbelltown.
Monarch Field has similar dimensions to Subiaco which is 171m long and 127m wide - longer and narrower than most grounds in the AFL but still nine metres wider than Telstra Stadium where the Swans beat Carlton by 74 points on Saturday.
"Paul Roos is leaving no stone unturned," club spokesman Stephen Brassel said yesterday. "It is also a chance to get out into Sydney's west which we are naturally trying to do by playing games at Telstra Stadium."
Sydney will know today if young ruckman Stephen Doyle will miss the rest of the season with a knee injury he picked up against the Blues.
Doyle, who had kicked two goals before being forced off the ground, has been diagnosed with a surface fracture to the back of his right kneecap. An arthroscope will determine the full extent of the damage but this will not be able to take place until he recovers from a slight infection to the area.
He is expected to miss at least three months and possibly the season.
"It is nothing like a knee reconstruction," Brassel said. "It is a crack to the back of the kneecap, but it is just in an awkward position. The early prognosis is that it is likely to be 10 to 12 weeks."
Doyle, 21 and a towering 203cm, is in his fourth AFL season but has played only 17 games, nine of them last year when an ankle problem forced him to miss five matches.
Veteran midfielder Daryn Cresswell will miss at least three matches with a calf strain that restricted him to just seven possessions against Carlton.
Cresswell, 31, has been one of the most durable players on Sydney's list since his debut in 1992, playing 226 games in 11 seasons at better than 20 matches per season. He has indicated he will retire at the end of 2003.
The Swans hope Michael O'Loughlin (knee), Andrew Schauble and Daniel McPherson (both hamstring) will be fit to face Fremantle who lost only three of their 12 matches at Subiaco Oval last year.
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