Swans Don't Flood - Roos

[bricon]

"Statistically you can tell the teams who flood and if you look at our statistics we just don't flood, but no-one wants to write about that," he said.

"But it also depends on what your definition of flooding is, but I would say that we are probably one of the teams in the competition that actually doesn't flood, but I am not going to tell people how we play."

So there!

http://sydneyswans.com.au/default.asp?pg=news&spg=display&articleid=195597

[footyhead]

Hahahahahahahahaha!!

[Sanecow]

So Footyhead is on some kind of global ignore list?!?

[DST]

Originally posted by Sanecow
So Footyhead is on some kind of global ignore list?!?

I heard he was banned for a week.

DST

[Sanecow]

No, he's been posting:

http://www.redandwhiteonline.com/forum/search.php?s=&action=showresults&searchid=128868&sortby=lastpost&sortorder=descending

But they aren't showing up.

[DST]

Originally posted by Sanecow
No, he's been posting:

http://www.redandwhiteonline.com/forum/search.php?s=&action=showresults&searchid=128868&sortby=lastpost&sortorder=descending

But they aren't showing up.

That is funny, it would be like a dream where you are screaming with nobody able to hear you.

DST

[Thunder Shaker]

I suppose the next commentator to refer to the mythical Sydney flood would refer to the Swans as the Red Sea.

[Go Swannies]

Now I'm prepared (nay expecting) to be told how I'm wrong but I've always thought that flooding was filling your defensive half (mainly inside 50) with most of the team. The aim is to stop the opposition forwards from getting a chance for a scoring shot. That's what Leigh was signalling that the Lions weren't doing well enough in the last few minutes of the most recent game.

I think that what the Swans does is gets large numbers around the ball. Maybe the aim is to have someone free who can get the ball out. But the secondary effect is definitely to congest the action so there's a Swan to tackle any player who has the ball.

So he's correct - we don't flood. We just have a roving pack. It does mean when we do break out we have all the excitement of passing the ball to the next player in space who is moving forward in support. If we have lots of players running with the ball, by definition they can't be in the defensive 50 to hold up play.

[Go Swannies]

Originally posted by DST
That is funny, it would be like a dream where you are screaming with nobody able to hear you.

DST

I'm not allowed to comment on Footyhead.

[Sanecow]

Originally posted by Go Swannies
I'm not allowed to comment on Footyhead.

Not if it draws attention to his treatment, anyway! I'm no fan of his theories, but it seems a trifle harsh.

[NMWBloods]

Originally posted by Go Swannies
Now I'm prepared (nay expecting) to be told how I'm wrong but I've always thought that flooding was filling your defensive half (mainly inside 50) with most of the team. The aim is to stop the opposition forwards from getting a chance for a scoring shot. That's what Leigh was signalling that the Lions weren't doing well enough in the last few minutes of the most recent game.

I think that what the Swans does is gets large numbers around the ball. Maybe the aim is to have someone free who can get the ball out. But the secondary effect is definitely to congest the action so there's a Swan to tackle any player who has the ball.

So he's correct - we don't flood. We just have a roving pack. It does mean when we do break out we have all the excitement of passing the ball to the next player in space who is moving forward in support. If we have lots of players running with the ball, by definition they can't be in the defensive 50 to hold up play.

As I've noted a couple of times, we do flood, but every team also floods.

What is ugly about our game is exactly as tactics you observe above - we follow the ball in packs, like U13 football.

At one point on Saturday night, 2 min 8 seconds into the first quarter, neither side had scored and we had no one in our half of the ground. This is not good for football.

[cruiser]

Originally posted by Sanecow
Not if it draws attention to his treatment, anyway! I'm no fan of his theories, but it seems a trifle harsh.

His profile states that he posted a message under this topic today. He must be quite frustrated right now.

[Sanecow]

It's the missing light grey post between the first two posts on this thread.

[Schneiderman]

Originally posted by Go Swannies
I think that what the Swans does is gets large numbers around the ball. Maybe the aim is to have someone free who can get the ball out. But the secondary effect is definitely to congest the action so there's a Swan to tackle any player who has the ball.

So he's correct - we don't flood. We just have a roving pack. It does mean when we do break out we have all the excitement of passing the ball to the next player in space who is moving forward in support. If we have lots of players running with the ball, by definition they can't be in the defensive 50 to hold up play.

See now I'm not even that sure that this happens.

My theory is that we have a very defensive mindset - that tackling and ball pressure are what we see as our strengths, rather than exciting and risky play.

Therefore here is a comparison of how our midfield plays versus say West Coast:

Sydney - Kirk, Matthews, Crouch and Bevan are effectively tagging the best players of the opposition. So if those players are consistently near the ball (and they are) so are our four. Williams and Bolton are tasked with trying to get their hands on the ball, so they (and their tags) will also be close in. Then because of the poorer skill level of our disposals (which our players allow for) you may see a Maxfield and a Schneider type lurking real close by for when the ball pops out. Thats 8 of our players and probably 8 of theirs in a small space.

WCE - Cousins and Judd are supreme at getting their hands on the ball in close. One will feed the other with supreme skill and confidence. They may have their tags there with them, but otherwise the other midfielders back off a tad, confident those two will win the majority of the time. In turn, Fletcher, Embley and others stand even further out, expecting a quick and precise disposal to their advantage. To put it more simply, they are already out of the blocks and ready to attack. You'd be lucky to see more than six Weagles too close to any stoppage, compared to a guaranteed 8 with the Swans.

Now this may well be tactics, or more likely the defensive midset of the players themselves. For all we know, Roos might be preaching the need to give themselves more room and have confidence in each other (heard that before?) but like a bunch of 11yr old soccer players they continue to cling together and follow the ball around.

[NMWBloods]

I'm curious to know what the statistics are that show we don't flood...