Have we progressed from last year?

[hammo]

Watching Del Santo last night confirmed why we need a gun midfielder. We simply don't have players like him and Hird who have time to make everything look easy.

We also need KPP for our backline. Shauble, Barry and Bolton are quality players but can get found out against big forwards (Gherig).

I am pleased Roos says the Swans will be aggressive in the trade period. We certainly won't win premierships with our current list. We scrapped our way into 6th - realistically playing only a handful of good games (St Kilda, Brisbane wins), and then winning ugly most other times.

[NMWBloods]

There was a beautiful move at one stage by Dal Santo, when he broke away from the pack, took a bounce! and then delivered to Riewoldt! We have no one who can really do that.

[Wazza]

Originally posted by NMWBloods
There was a beautiful move at one stage by Dal Santo, when he broke away from the pack, took a bounce! and then delivered to Riewoldt! We have no one who can really do that.

Apart from Williams your spot on, Kirk was nailed everytime he went to his left.

[NMWBloods]

I actually had "(apart from Williams)" and then deleted it because he just can't really do it on a regular basis any more. He is the only player who has been capable of doing it over the past few seasons, but injuries have really hindered him.

Kirk needs to learn some new tricks offensively.

[Snowy]

Kirk won't learn some new tricks at his age, players who are one-sided stay that way under the pressure of senior AFL football. The Saints have improved because of so many early picks gradually getting more experience, but Roos said a couple of years at the bottom to get these is out of the question because of the fickle market-place in Sydney.

[swansrule100]

we are building a foundation for success!

[ROK Lobster]

Originally posted by Mike_B
http://www.realfooty.theage.com.au/r...789693513.html

Good to see they are targeting an established midfielder and ruckman, but for all of you interested in Crwaford - read Roosy's thoughts on that issue!

It is very clearly NOT a "no" though...

[cruiser]

Originally posted by Mike_B
[url]Good to see they are targeting an established midfielder and ruckman, but for all of you interested in Crwaford - read Roosy's thoughts on that issue!

Interestingly no new defender.

[JF_Bay22_SCG]

Originally posted by swansrule100
we are building a foundation for success!

It is all about the journey!

Off to watch the Wizard of Oz (not Jeff Farmer, by the way!) to see where the Yellow Brick Road leads to.

Will see you in Darwin! ;-)

JF

[liz]

Bear in mind that last year we had one outstanding player - so outstanding that he won the Brownlow. And that was not on the basis of just a handful of brilliant games - he hardly played an ordinary game and was great to outstanding in most. He was a player that was almost impossible for opposition coaches to quell, such was his blend of height, skill and athleticism.

We didn't have him for most of this year. Put him into this year's team and we would have more more fluent, more attacking team, because his influence would have rubbed off on the rest. Added to the improvement in Bazz and O'Keefe, the emergence of Bevan and Buchanan and the fact we still had a couple of tall ruckmen and an magician in the forward line at the end of the year and we would probably have looked a far better side. It may not have been enough to challenge for the flag, but we would probably be more satisfied with what we have.

The question is whether we will get him back or not, or at least the devastating model we saw last year. It doesn't just come down to the knees because he played some woeful footy before he got injured. I think it mostly comes down to finding the right position for him - the same issue that Carlton struggled for years with for Koutoufides.

It's possible that the adversity of this year will make him a better player in some ways - but that's an intangible at the moment.

Goodes aside, there clearly is a risk if a team relies on the brilliance of too few genuine matchwinners.

The key to the future will be whether any of the emerging youngsters can develop to become top 12 players, such that they are a critical part of the team rather than able to just provide a burst. It may take Bevan, McVeigh and Schneider more than another off-season because their bodies are still relatively immature, but if Ablett and/or Buchanan are going to do it you'd think it should become apparent next year.

We don't have the wealth of top talent in the reserves that some other clubs have, but in many ways that's a legacy of having one of the most balanced squads going around, agewise. Remember that one of the reasons that Freo, St Kilda, even Geelong seem to have so many youngsters playing key roles in their senior team is, to some extent, because they failed four to five years ago to recruit the players who should now be the 22-27 yos making up the core of their team.

Also remember that sometimes the jewels emerge from unexpected places - players who looked like potential plodders suddenly emerge into very very good players. And those who burst onto the scene as teenagers fail to go on with it. We may have another O'Keefe or Kirk lurking on the list - Roos just needs to keep rubbing away the surface dirt to see what emerges.

Given the evenness and solid work ethic of our core of senior players, it wouldn't take much to emerge into the team, whether from within or without, to form a team that could match the Adelaide teams of 1997-8 or the Roos of 1999. The problem is that the current Brisbane squad has changed the goalposts and that has everyone a bit overawed on how to go about building a premiership squad. There are certainly no easy answers...

[Nico]

Originally posted by NMWBloods
There was a beautiful move at one stage by Dal Santo, when he broke away from the pack, took a bounce! and then delivered to Riewoldt! We have no one who can really do that.

Throw a blind turn into that passage. A beautiful footballer.