Roos defends Swans' style of play

[ScottH]

Roos defends Swans' style of play

"Every game I watch is pretty much exactly the same, teams are looking to hit targets and teams are looking to hold onto the footy, end of story.

[Glenn]

Hardly earth shattering news from Roos, just some teams do it alot better than others

[swansrule100]

he must get sick of the same old question though

[Glenn]

Yep seems he is, he was on Sports Tonight (2UE 954AM), and was obviously very disappointed saying the team knows they have to get better etc.
Interesting that he said he feels the Swans playing style is being unfairly criticised when it is basically the same as other teams, with most of the critcisim coming from the Melbourne Media

[swansrule100]

Originally posted by Glenn
Yep seems he is, he was on Sports Tonight (2UE 954AM), and was obviously very disappointed saying the team knows they have to get better etc.
Interesting that he said he feels the Swans playing style is being unfairly criticised when it is basically the same as other teams, with most of the critcisim coming from the Melbourne Media

u agree with roosy??

[Glenn]

Originally posted by swansrule100
u agree with roosy??

In a way yes I do, we have seen the Swans are capable of that free flowing running football, rebounding out of defence and playing direct down the ground, when they are on their game. However I think where the problem lay is a fine line between the very good and very bad for Sydney.
From what I saw of the game on Saturday, Sydney were not alone in the negative tactics stakes

[swansrule100]

i agree with you there, our gap between good and bad is rather large.

But i think as its round 2 there are plenty of chances to fix that

[Glenn]

Definitly yes still plenty of Football to be played between now and the Finals, not time to slash the wrists yet

[Dpw]

Sounds like Roo's is trying to blame everyone/thing other then himself or his players. Three lines on how bad we played and our skill errors and the rest of the article playing the blame game. Take some responsiblilty Paul there your players carrying out your instructions or atleast trying too. If they cant move them on for god sake Iam sick of hearing excuses after every game the team loses take some responsibility maybe then we can move on as a team and change our culture.

[NMWBloods]

Teams do play a shut down game against us, however I think we bring that on ourselves. We play such a dull keepings off game at various times and we show ourselves enormously vulnerable to opponent's flooding. Of course they will do it against us. Roos may blame the opposition, but the case is that we are involved in more dull games than most other teams.

[liz]

Originally posted by NMWBloods
Teams do play a shut down game against us, however I think we bring that on ourselves. We play such a dull keepings off game at various times and we show ourselves enormously vulnerable to opponent's flooding. Of course they will do it against us. Roos may blame the opposition, but the case is that we are involved in more dull games than most other teams.

It's partly because the Swans are so good at shutting down other teams while scoring freely themselves (when on song). It would be madness for an oppostion coach not to respond by trying to shut us down. When they play teams that don't have the same defensive instincts they are more likely to back themselves to win in a freer flowing game.

At the start of 2004 when it became clear what other clubs were trying to do, we struggled (the Geelong game a good example). I reckon that later in the season Roos was trying to turn things on their head by showing the opposition that his team would usually prevail in a close grind (eg the Collingwood game, the Adelaide game).

I know we're all mightily frustrated by Saturday's efforts but we need to give it a bit more time to see how this season will evolve. I've no doubt that the Swans coaching panel have spent the off-season trying to work out alternative ways to counter opposition tactics and two games is far too soon to see if they've been successful.

One obvious area to work on (an oft-cited observation) is effectiveness at clearances because if you are regularly killing the opposition with quick take-aways from stoppages you will have other clubs doing their best to avoid them. Sadly we were absolutely walloped by the Kangas in this department. If that means getting a Moore, Schmidt or Buchanan into the centre where they might make a difference with clever handballs, so be it.

For all their other attributes, Bolton, Crouch, Mathews, Maxfield, Fosdike have not consistently delivered in this facet of the game. Only Kirk of our established midfield have shown any real ability at this - maybe Williams isn't too bad but we need him on the outside of the packs to effect the fast take-aways.

[SwansGirl]

Hear! Hear! Well said

[Nico]

Hey Liz, on the stoppages.

A host of us have been saying this for 2 years. Are you finally accepting that our midfield/clearance players are not good enough, instead of perenally sitting on the fence?

[Guzzitza]

Originally posted by liz
I reckon that later in the season Roos was trying to turn things on their head by showing the opposition that his team would usually prevail in a close grind (eg the Collingwood game, the Adelaide game).

but it seems we cant handle the close grind, by the 4th quarter our heads are down and we get beaten by strong direct players from the opposition. Its like the other team is waiting till we hit that point of exhaustion, they know our players will wilt in the 4th. We either need fitter players or a change of strategy.

[swansrule100]

Originally posted by NMWBloods
Teams do play a shut down game against us, however I think we bring that on ourselves. We play such a dull keepings off game at various times and we show ourselves enormously vulnerable to opponent's flooding. Of course they will do it against us. Roos may blame the opposition, but the case is that we are involved in more dull games than most other teams.

i guess then the question is (apart from actually winning the bloody game) do the swans and or teams in general have a responsibility to entertain???? or whilst they are not doing anything illlegal should they win at all costs?