Momentum vs Kids

[sfan]

Not sure all this easing into the season is that wise. You need a certain amount of momentum otherwise you are playing catchup all season. With only two weeks to go to the big dance it has been disappointing so far. Happy to be proved wrong! Thoughts?

[Mike_B]

Agree that we need a win or two before the H&A, but if you can't test out the kids early in the pre-season, then when you bring them into the team, all of a sudden there is a result riding on things, not just the process.

From what I understand, Roos is planning on fielding closer to the full strength team in the next couple of games, so that should give us a better indication of where we stand, and hopefully give us some momentum leading into Rd 1.

[NMWBloods]

I think a win in the pre-season is nearly essential. Have a look at how poorly Collingwood performed in the early part of the 2004 season and they came into the season having lost all their pre-season games.

[Damien]

Originally posted by NMWBloods
I think a win in the pre-season is nearly essential. Have a look at how poorly Collingwood performed in the early part of the 2004 season and they came into the season having lost all their pre-season games.

Yes totally agree - I am sure we will pull one out though....hopefully lol.

[ugg]

We've received a few spankings in the pre-season in the past 2 years and have come out alright.

[NMWBloods]

Originally posted by ugg
We've received a few spankings in the pre-season in the past 2 years and have come out alright.

But we've also won some games.

[liz]

Originally posted by NMWBloods
I think a win in the pre-season is nearly essential. Have a look at how poorly Collingwood performed in the early part of the 2004 season and they came into the season having lost all their pre-season games.

Was one the cause of the other, though, or did they just have common causality?

[ugg]

Does anyone have the pre-season results of the past 2 years?

[NMWBloods]

Originally posted by liz
Was one the cause of the other, though, or did they just have common causality?

Who knows really. But they had performed the previous two seasons, and after nine rounds last year they'd only won 1 game. They won 7 of their next 11 before collapsing again. So, it may have been they simply were performing to expectations and suffering the impacts of injuries, or it may have been that such a poor run into the season meant that they struggle to get any momentum going. After all, we know how much momentum can affect a team both during a game and during parts of the season.

[timthefish]

i think it is definitely true that momentum is a good thing coming into a new season, as it is at any point in the season. however, i believe it is a quality that can be difficult to manufacture and it is also something that almost certainly waxes and wanes for all teams throughout the season.

considering brisbane over the past few years, i think it is fairly obvious that momentum is better serving a team in the latter part of the season than the early part. the art of securing that is maintaining depth in the list (development of kids is a contributor to this) and keeping your stars fit and fresh (don't flog em in the start of the season), so i'm not sure if winning a pre-season match amounts to a hill of beans.

[sfan]

Roosy's comments

"We got belted, but their good players played well. There is 13 premiership players running around out there and we had a lot of young blokes, but still you can't make excuses for some of the things that went on out there. It's just deciphering which were there more talented players and our poor things."

Full article

http://sydneyswans.com.au/default.asp?pg=news&spg=display&articleid=187564

[Mike_B]

Article in the SMH.

Some of Roosy's comments:

"Obviously we got belted. Their good players played well, and we have a lot of young blokes. Still, you can't make excuses for some of things that went on out there."

"Clearly the ones you are disappointed in are the ones who have been around the club for a while," Roos said.

"If they're the ones making the mistakes, eventually you have to weed them out and move them on."

Going by some comments from people today, and things I have seen, I can't help but think Fosdike is one name in particular who is on the weeding list.

[robbieando]

Are some people forgetting our win a fortnight ago???

Anyway, yes having some momentum going into the season is always nice, but not as important as getting the senior players match fitness at this stage of the pre season. But winning the next two matches or not isn't going to effect things as much as some would have you believe.

The results don't matter, it gaining match fitness and some touch that are more important.

[liz]

Originally posted by Mike_B
Going by some comments from people today, and things I have seen, I can't help but think Fosdike is one name in particular who is on the weeding list.

I've been a bit of a Fosdike "defender" over the past few years, not because I think he's a champion in the making, but because I think he's been judged against where he was taken in the draft (which isn't his fault) rather than against the absolute standards required of a regular AFL player.

But I've been very very disappointed with what I've seen from him over the past two weeks. There is probably only one spot in the team between he and Spriggs, especially with McVeigh looking fit, strong and on-song. Spriggs hasn't set the world on fire but I'd say he's a fair way ahead of Fosdike at the moment.

[swan_song]

I'm going to have my head bitten off here I feel, but IMO today's effort from the team was quite simply deplorable. Sure they were at 3/4 strength and we still had many out, but time and again wrong options were chosen (kicking to packs, which Brizzie love), field kicking was in part just plain awful, there was little shepherding, talking and helping teammates (though plenty of leaping on the ball and bottling it up), lots of playing the boundary again, some absolutely stupid free kicks given away... Thankfully, and hopefully, this is not the side we will field in the season proper. In the two game I have seen, I don't rate the efforts of Jolly very highly. Spriggs today did very little I thouight, but then again there were pretty few who did anything. For the second week running I rate LRT as in the Swans' best three. Heath James is not the solution at FB, and he gave away too many shots at goal thru silly free kicks.
Having said all that, and taken the question of momentum, which I raised after last week's effort, into consideration, the more worrying thing to me was that for the umpteenth time the Swannies failed to score a goal in two quarters of football. Indeed I think it an indictment in modern day football for any team, from little leaguers to the woop-woop league, to go for three quarters of football and only score a single goal! Worrying times for Roosie?