Roos at it again

[hammo]

http://theage.com.au/news/Sport/Hard-work-the-key-for-bluecollar-Swanss/2005/05/01/1114886247331.html

"We're not quite as talented as we'd like to be and obviously our supporters would like us to be, but they work very, very hard," he said.

Blah, blah, blah.

Interesting reading but what is obvious -

1. no changes next week
2. already looking to trade period, raising expectations again even though will deliver nothing as far as midfielders go.

[Mike_B]

They can work hard and they have worked harder the last 2 weeks than the 2nd half v Adelaide. However, when we will he actually say "we're not playing well" instead of making excuses every time???

As for this sentence - Sydney is likely to dip into the open market next year, but Roos is also trying to develop some of his younger players - based on this comment from Roos "So you've either got to develop them or you've got to continually go to the trade period to try to get them", well, playing McVeigh on Judd for 5 minutes and putting Schneider on the ball for a quarter is only the beginning. But what about these other guys who've played well over 100 games, are obviously struggling this year, and holding back kids who could be learning what McVeigh is right now, while McVeigh plays 3/4's on a Judd or whatever and learns even faster????

[ROK Lobster]

Same old, same old isn't it. What's the point of working their collective guts out to turn the season around to limp into finals and be outclassed. Our current 'best 22' is not going to win us a flag. Let's see who we have that might. We will beat Essendon next week in the season's most boring game to date, probably about 7.12 to 6.6 with neither side kicking a goal in the final qtr...

[Glenn]

hmmm seems to be totally different to what Roos was saying to his players at 3/4 time, with the F word thrown in on several occassions.
I think it is a case of trying to keep a calm,composed persona to the media

[Mike_B]

Originally posted by ROK Lobster
Our current 'best 22' is not going to win us a flag. Let's see who we have that might.

It's a bit early in the season for a thread on the expendables isn't it??? It's usually July/August before those ones start appearing on RWO!!

[Mike_B]

Originally posted by Glenn
I think it is a case of trying to keep a calm,composed persona to the media

Could well be, however, the media then report that and some people sit back and think "awww Poor Roosy, he doesn't have the cattle" instead of being constructively critical and asking for real answers to the problems instead of excuses.

[NMWBloods]

I think it's high time that instead of accepting we don't have the 'class' in the midfield, we start asking why we don;t have that class. What is the reason? Who's fault is it that we have one of the worst midfields in the competition? What are we going to do to fix it given that it hasn't changed in the past few years?

[Mike_B]

Would be nice to see Roos come out and let the public know he isn't happy and make a few statements like Choco Williams has after Port's loss today, instead of just trotting out the same old excuses week after week.

Article here

[Nico]

Roosey mentioned the need to develop players from within. This was his catch cry last year.

His core promise when he became coach was to "teach them to play and development". When does one start to act on a core promise.

To date he has not developed as much as a sausage.

[Glenn]

Very true Mike, while Roos may be annoyed with the players in private, he needs to show that in public and prehaps the media will ask why they aren't achieving.

As for developing players, If I were in the position of a youngster in the draft, I would be doing all I could to avoid Sydney, knowing any gametime would be little or non-existant

[Nico]

Originally posted by Glenn
Very true Mike, while Roos may be annoyed with the players in private, he needs to show that in public and prehaps the media will ask why they aren't achieving.

As for developing players, If I were in the position of a youngster in the draft, I would be doing all I could to avoid Sydney, knowing any gametime would be little or non-existant

They probably already do. Another reason to shaft the game plan.

[DST]

Originally posted by Glenn
As for developing players, If I were in the position of a youngster in the draft, I would be doing all I could to avoid Sydney, knowing any gametime would be little or non-existant

You can't be serious Glenn

We lose 4 games this year playing a style of play that at least half the compertition are currently playing (but the media like to pin on us) and you think every kid in Australia doesn't want to play for us. Oh please...............

I don't like the current game plan but the facts are it is being used by every coach in the league at present to control all or parts of a game.

Where we are different at present to the others is our lack of ability (by hand and foot) to be able to implement that game plan.

Once again this was evident on Saturday night, in the first quarter we outplayed them at the clearances, doubled their inside 50's, had our forwards work hard to retain the ball inside 50 and all for what? A 4 point lead.

Nothing wrong with the game plan but poor foot skills meant we didn't take advantage of the ball when we had it. Look to the second quarter, West Coast reverse the trend and pile on 6 goals game over.

It ain't the game plan it is how it is implemented at present that is killing us.

DST

[Ruda Wakening]

Originally posted by DST
It ain't the game plan it is how it is implemented at present that is killing us.

We may as well not have a game plan, than one hardly anybody can execute.

[NMWBloods]

It's arguable which is the bigger problem - game plan or skills. If the skills can't execute the game plan, change it.

Our success in 2003 was generally about 'allowing' the opposition to get the ball into their F50, and then we get numbers behind the ball and run the ball out with a rapid series of handballs, sort of like a punt return in the NFL.

This isn't working for a number of reasons, both this year and last year.

Barry and Kennelly have been required for defensive assignments, making it difficult for them to get some run going. Even if we don't give them specific matchups, they are targetted by opposition forwards to drag them away from the ball.

When we do get the ball in our D50, the opposition stops our run in a couple of ways. Firstly, the opposition forwards pressure and tackle hard, meaning we spend a lot of time handballing just to get free, without looking to run and set up attacks.

This then gives time for the rest of the opposition to set themselves. They shift back a bit leaving a bit of a gap in front of the half back line, hence run off the half back goes into a vacuum. In front of this, the opposition sets up a wall, with most of our players covered. A running player will end up in open space, but have no one free to kick to, therefore they will either bomb it long to disadvantage or hang onto the ball and chip it short.

As we rely on this run off half back and we do not seem to have an alternative game plan or the skills to work it forward effectively, we then mess about with the ball between the half back and half forward lines.

This will sometimes take the form of chipping the ball around, trying to find gaps but not really penetrating very far or being threatening. The more time this is done, the more clogged the forward line is and the more frustrated our forwards are and the more likely we will turn it over with our poor skills.

The other thing that sometimes happens is the players try to force the game back into the run off half back and you see a flurry of half a dozen or more handballs, often to players standing still or running madly but with little purpose or direction. Again this serves little purpose as the forwards have no idea where the ball is going and don't know where or when to lead. Meanwhile the players around the ball are so rushed and pressured, they can't spot up the forwards and hence their I50 delivery is poor.

After all of this, we turn the ball over and on the rebound our backmen are out of position as they have been trying to force the run forward, hence leaving loose opposition players from their wing forward and allowing the opposition to set up good opportunities for goal.

The worse this gets the more we seem to worry about the risk of a turnover and rebound. Therefore we flood even more players back. This means that when we do recover the ball in D50, our players have no one forward of the ball to kick to, so we either bomb it to the opposition who have set up the wall or we slow it again to the short kick or rapid handball approach, and we begin the phases again as described above.

When the ball is in dispute, we take two approaches. One is for all the players in the vicinity to dive on the ball and lock it up. Often you will see 3 Swans and 1 opposition player contesting the ball on the ground. The win for us is to force a ball up. We lose if the ball comes out as normally we are outnumbered around the edge of the pack.

At many other times we stand behind the opposition and wait for them to get the ball. When they do we attack them ferociously, often with 2 or 3 players. This either results in the opposition handballing past the tackling players to one of the subsequent free men or we force the ball in for another ball up.

When we are tackled, we normally keep the ball in safe and force a ball up - rarely do we effectively keep our arms free for a give off to a player (Goodes, Davis, Williams are best at being able to get the ball out). Often when we are tackled 1 or 2 more Swans will also dive onto our own tackled player to force the ball up. A win for us is to achieve the ball up, but it risks the loss whereby the ball spills out and again we are outnumbered outside the pack and the opposition gets a takeaway.

Stoppages are frequent in our games but not a strength of ours. Most of our players struggle to read the fall of the ball effectively, are usually second to the ball, stand behind their opponents and concentrate more on stopping their opponent than getting the ball, and if they do get the ball don't get an effective clearance.

Poor clearances are symptomatic of a number of problems. Vision, decision making and skills are generally poor, so a player with the ball in a pack frequently struggles to pinpoint a free player outside the scrimmage. We have so many players around the ball that it is hard for the player with the ball to see much outside the scrimmage. The players around the ball do not position themselves in the right spot and with the expectation of getting a clearance and takeway - they are more focussed on minding their opposition and stopping the ball getting out.

All of these issues are critical problems with our play and need to be resolved for long-term success.

[Bunyip]

I am cranky after having just skipped through the Monday morning footy news

As you can see, I do not post here very often though I read the RWO a lot.

It is dissappointing that the hackneyed comments of Colless and Roos have to be the prompt for my first post of the year.

Colless - we won games with Roos, this style of play, after slow starts in 2003 and 2004...if only we had the talent of the Saints or West Coast...BLAH BLAH BLAH

Roos - we have no class, will have to win with hard work...BLAH BLAH BLAH

I have had enough of this sh&t! Enough excuses!

Thanks you, I feel a bit better now.