In my humble opinion

[gloveski]

wow alot of people are calling for blood and the season is only 3 weeks old

with sydney's current list we are only a midtable team at best

Alot of people are calling for players like sunny and LRT to brought into seniors along with others. Until the season is completely lost or these guys start to dominate in the reserves they will not be looked at.It is better for these guys to be getting full games in the two's rather than spending 3 qtrs of a game in the one's sitting on the pine.

I will admit we have more than our fair share of dead wood but with retirements of seasoned campaigners happening last year it is unhealthy to have to many new players on your list in one year.Hence this may be the reason why some guys are getting extended chances to prove themselves hopefully one or two of them may take the next step.But most likely their would be a few guys that are playing in the ones who are on borrowed times until some of our youngsters have had time to develop..

This time next year Roosey will have more of an idea of who should stay or go and most likely will recruit some talented youngsters with two experienced guys that are around the 20 to 24 age mark.

Remember Coll'wood sometimes you need to take a big step backwards to go forwards..............hopefully gone are the days of stop gap measures.

[sWAns63]

Yes, I do remember Collingwood. You must also remember they PLAYED their younsters & gave them experience. Are you also saying that amongst the 15-20 younsters on our list, none of them are ready to play senior football? How many years do they need......

[CureTheSane]

I'm not calling for blood.
That would be silly at round 3.
Merely making observations that SO FAR, some players have started this year in teh poor form that they played most of last year in.
From Roos's comments of late, seems he is thinking along those lines too....

[Reggi]

It's a bit early for the night of the long knives, but there are signs of some complacency amongst the playing group.

In short though Sydney's problem is in lack of midfielders. We do not have a genuine gun in there or much depth.

IMHO Roos needs to fast track Ablett and Schneider to give us some depth. If the midfield improved so would our forward line and defence.

Sydney as a team does not look as fit as some other clubs (Melb Coll West Coast) either.

Not going to be easy though we do not have a lot of midfielders (a massive surplus in mid sized defenders though O'Keefe, Barry, Seymour, C Bolton, Warfe, Thewlis, Powell? How many do you need.

But our midfield needs work.

[barry]

I have written an excel ladder prediction program whereby you pencil in wins, and it shows where you would be on the ladder during the season. (I've sent it to des, so it may appear on RWO in a week or two).

Anyway, everything is going as expected if you are thinking 5-8th finish. In fact, even by round 9, we will be in 9th spot, then our rise up to 5th takes place (even 4th at Round 19) with a slight drop off at the end.

If anyone knows how to attach/link excel sheets (its 34k) let me know.

[gloveski]

Craig Bolton on the odd accasion was used as a midfielder from memory at Brisbane

I agree with ablett and schneider as they have the bodies to cope with senoir football week in week out

[Charlie]

In short though Sydney's problem is in lack of midfielders. We do not have a genuine gun in there or much depth.

We do actually. It's just that, unlike the last two years, Willo is being beaten by his taggers. This is a big problem, because we rely on him and Goodes to an extraordinary degree.

What's the answer? What was he doing differently last year? Why isn't he doing it this year? Last year, it seemed as if he was floating 2 or 3 feet above the turf, and they just couldn't go with him.

[desredandwhite]

barry, I've checked it out, very cool - I assume the Xs mean the ladder position?

you can download it from http://www.redandwhiteonline.com/docs/LadderPredict.zip for now... I'll put together a proper page for barry's excel spreadsheet soon.

[SWANSBEST]

I agree with Reggi that we have an over supply of medium sized defenders. I would love to see Craig Bolton used as a mid fielder. The Lions used him mainly as a defender in the Firsts but he started as a wingman and played as a mid fielder in Reserves , sometimes having 40 possessions per game . One thing that you can be certain of would be the quality delivery to the forwards which we lack at present.
If Ball or Goodes get injured we will have a major crisis in our ruck division . Meiklejohn will probably then have to be fast tracked. Without a proper Ruck Coach the task will be harder.

[Charlie]

At the moment, C Bolton is absolutely essential to the defence. He's by far our best backman at the moment, and, quite simply, can't be spared to go into the middle.

[chammond]

We do actually. It's just that, unlike the last two years, Willo is being beaten by his taggers. This is a big problem, because we rely on him and Goodes to an extraordinary degree.What's the answer? What was he doing differently last year? Why isn't he doing it this year? Last year, it seemed as if he was floating 2 or 3 feet above the turf, and they just couldn't go with him.

From memory, Willo has started slowly in both the past two seasons.

Plus, last year Kelly was often getting the best tagger, and Creswell carried some of the load. At the moment, Willo is the only ranked midfielder in the Swans team.

[barry]

Let me just say, that my ladder program is working a treat. 100% accurate at round 6. (Since we have won one I didnt think we would (woods), and lost one we shouldnt have (hawks), we are back on track for a 4-8 finish.
Heres an output:

Originally posted by desredandwhite
barry, I've checked it out, very cool - I assume the Xs mean the ladder position?

you can download it from http://www.redandwhiteonline.com/docs/LadderPredict.zip for now... I'll put together a proper page for barry's excel spreadsheet soon.

[NMWBloods]

I like your spreadsheet. I reckon we could win anywhere between 8-12 games, which gives us a ladder position of 6th to 13th. We're that unpredictable - see my comments in the other thread!

[Alison]

I think we also need Craig Bolton in defence. Besides, how tall is he? Think he might be taller than people think. Hopefully he can have a great game this weekend. He has been a bit quieter the last couple of games.

[TheMase]

Originally posted by Alison
I think we also need Craig Bolton in defence. Besides, how tall is he? Think he might be taller than people think. Hopefully he can have a great game this weekend. He has been a bit quieter the last couple of games.

189cm IIRC