Roos and Colless say :there's nothing wrong with our style of football.

[footyhead]

Both of them have come out and said that this style of footy has got them to a preliminary final and a semi final in the last 2 years.

But there are a couple of mitigating points here:

1 in 2003 they didn't play a crap brand of footy.
In fact the game plan in 2003 (if there was any) was a lot more relaxed and Roos actch cry of: "just go out there and have fun, enjoy your footy", created a very diiferent vibe to what is happening at the club now.

2 As I tried to point out last year (here on RWO),
Last year was really our last chance of snagging a flag, becuase many more clubs have rebuilt now and are really giving the competition a good old shake.
We have not had a proper rebuild, and as a consequence the eveness of the competition is more of a worry for us than any other club. Even if we were in better form I think that would still be the case, becuase we have not developed the players that we need in various positions around the ground that we need.

In summary I think we were lucky in 2003 to catch as many teams as flat as we did that year.

in 2004 we began to play that horrible brand of footy, and so with the improvement of much of the rest of the league, our slide down the ladder has happened and looks like continuing.

The responsibility for all this lies squarly at the feet of those two gentlemen who are mentioned on the name of this thread.

So shut up and wear it, or do something about it.

[Wil]

It is not uncommon in sport for a team to catch all the rest of the competition by surprise and have one good year. We of course did it in 2003. If you thought that with the element of surprise gone that we would have been stronger in 2004 - well that is a bit delusional.

Even so the problem with 2004 and which is affecting the beginning of this year was all the injuries. Not the injuries to key players but to "fringe" players. We should of gone into this year with at least: Goodes, Davis, Schneider, LRT and James all having cemented positions in the team from having a solid 2004 coming off an exceptional 2003. That didn't happen and we are still paying the costs as none of these fairly key players (potentially) which we need to succeed have been able to. With these guys and a healthy Schauble we would be a different team.

[footyhead]

Interesting ideas.

I just think Roos went defensive when other coaches started to work him out.

Bad move.

[Go Swannies]

Interesting to have a look at Bomber Blitz that has a whole thread on AD's comments. Nearly all are critical of him for saying it. The most entertaining is this:


"Yeah I've seen him play and it didn't look like he understood much of **** back then either.

What's the deal, flashy teams like Freo and Melbourne are constantly having their "hardness" brought into question fine. So now Sydnay are playing it hard but with out any show. Bag em if you want but he says "there isn't anything he can do" ie if there was he would intefere.


I am gettinhg very sick of hearing about how ugly the game is all the @@@@ing time by thes old farts remebering their glory days. I've got Foxtel I see all the glory day **** these guys are talking about and every second game is a slog in a mudheap. I don't think half the players back then could even get a drop punt to spin straight.

Likewise I see footy today and this year has had easily the most exciting contests for awhile and I'm saying that with Essendon playing like absolute **** all year.

Some games are gonna be ugly, Some are gonna be pretty but is a sporting competition judged on talent not a @@@@ing dog show judged on posture."

[NMWBloods]

Yep, love that informed and educated commentary from Bombers' supporters who are obviously not old enough to have seen any games live more than a decade ago...

[Go Swannies]

Okay - I went for the funny one. But I found it very surprising that the Swans were much more strongly supported on the Bomber site than they have been on RWO.

Some other comments were:

"Geez a bit out of line.

Didn't Sydney make it to a semi final last year with the same playing style??

Why doesn't Demetriou bag the playing style of the other 10 clubs that finished lower than Sydney??"

and

"Agreed but it now sounds that the AFL nazi style supremos have it in mind how the game should be played. This smacks of interference and is clearly steeping on the rights of the club. How a team plays the game is an internal matter, for the club / coach to decide. As long as they are not knocking people out every week, thenit is their own business, not the buiness of the AFL to superimpose some sort of secret agenda."

and

"I don't think Sydney would really care what he said.

Honestly, if it meant we won more games than we lost I would want us to play like that."

and

"Thats pathetic. People often forget, two seasons ago AND half of last year Syndey's "style of play" was "exciting" to watch... Leaping Leo Barry, Tagh Kennely, these guys were becoming stars because of THAT style of play.

They lose a few games and look what happens. The guy who is helping Eddie @@@@ing McGuire ruin football comments. Does Andrew understand his job? It isnt to change every rule as soon as the media brings it up, it isnt to get involved with how players play.. and it sure as @@@@ isnt to criticize the way a team goes about it.

Idiot, maybe Sydney should hold a screaming of one of Andrew's games to give their team a laugh at who's criticizing them."

[Ruda Wakening]

Originally posted by Go Swannies

Idiot, maybe Sydney should hold a screaming of one of Andrew's games to give their team a laugh at who's criticizing them."

Dunno about that. If Andrew D was still playing Roos would probably draft him.

[NMWBloods]

Roos should perhaps watch the Richmond v. Port game and pick up some tips from Wallace!!

Port were comfortably beating Richmond who were struggling and looked like they were going to get pumped.

After quarter time Richmond started to apply some pressure and locked the game down across the ground. Didn't mean they forced stoppage after stoppage, but rather made it more difficult for Port to get easy uncontested possessions.

Richmond kept driving the ball forward but continued to make mistakes and made few inroads early on. However, their persistence paid off and eventually managed to get a few goals, mainly through good leads and passes after forcing turnovers, some solid contested marks, and a great crumbing goal.

This gave the team confidence, the crowd lifted, and it added extra pressure onto Port. You could see a huge swing in momentum and it just mounted as Richmond continued to work hard and their forward thrusts were becoming more and more effective, the players were growing in confidence, and Port's was disappearing rapidly.

When you are losing the only way back into the game is to kick goals - not create more stoppages. When you need to generate some confidence and momentum, it is more likely to come from a goal than by forcing another ball up.

Port lairised early and made mistakes no doubt, but Richmond took their chances and ran away with it.

There is a big lesson here for the Swans.

[hammo]

Roos has been saying today that the criticism of the Swans has only been coming from Melbourne.

I suppose the truth may hurt and he's trying to take the us vs them mentality.

[liz]

Originally posted by NMWBloods
Roos should perhaps watch the Richmond v. Port game and pick up some tips from Wallace!!

...

There is a big lesson here for the Swans.

Maybe Wallace watched the Swans' performance against the Lions and emulated that. It was hardly a "Wallace Original".

It's much easier to achieve against teams like Brisbane and Port who were / are well down on form, cohesion and confidence themselves than against the form team in the competition on their home fortress when you're getting smashed out of the middle because you don't have to a ruckman.

I'm not trying to defend the Swans' performances for the past month - or longer. They have clearly been well down on what is expected from a team that, despite Roos' protestations, does have a decent mix of skill and work rate. But turning a game around like the Swans did against the Lions and Richmond did against Port requires a capitulation from the opposition. While I don't think the Roos, Crows or Dees played anything other than decent, solid football against us, its not always possible just to turn things around when you're as down as we are here.

People are going to jump on me, I know, for defending Roos. While I continue to support his as the team coach and believe he will be good for the club in the long term, I'm as frustrated by others that a couple of the youngsters haven't been given a go and I hate his continued downplaying of the team's natural ability in the press. And yes, he does need to try something different. But it isn't as easy as just pushing a button.

[NMWBloods]

Did you watch the game?

Port were looking very very good in the first quarter and a bit. Nothing like the last quarter of our win against Brisbane when they looked dead on their feet. Port did not simply lie down and capitulate straight away. The game was nothing like the last quarter against Brisbane.

[liz]

Originally posted by NMWBloods
Did you watch the game?

Port were looking very very good in the first quarter and a bit. Nothing like the last quarter of our win against Brisbane when they looked dead on their feet. Port did simply lie up and capitulate straight away. The game was nothing like the last quarter against Brisbane.

I'm confused as to which team you think capitulated. You seem to be saying both - but that they were different.

The manner - and maybe the cause - of the capitulation may have been different but surely both did?

[NMWBloods]

Editing error - fixed now.

I think the difference was that Brisbane were dead on their feet and ripe to be run over the top of. Port was cruising and collapsed under the pressure of Richmond. Not to suggest that it was purely Richmond's pressure and not Port capitulating, however I think comparing our win to Richmond's win is drawing a bit of a long bow.

One other thing - Richmond were able to kick goals for three quarters in a row. Something we can't, which was actually one of the key points of my original post. They kicked goals, they won the game.

Look at Fremantle. A few weeks ago they were being slammed for terrible sidways, lack-of-purpose football and this week they play an attacking, direct stlye of game and the beat a quality opposition by kicking over 20 goals.

Again, these are things we could learn from.

[benny_w]

If they think that the brand of football that the Swans play is an attractive brand of football, they are sadly mistaken. What happened to the open style of football that got us within 1 quarter away from a GF spot in 2003.

Please Roosy for the sake of the future of football in the harbour city, please go back to that particular brand of football so we can start winning games again and kicking more than 10 goals in a match.

[liz]

Originally posted by NMWBloods


I think the difference was that Brisbane were dead on their feet and ripe to be run over the top of. Port was cruising and collapsed under the pressure of Richmond. Not to suggest that it was purely Richmond's pressure and not Port capitulating, however I think comparing our win to Richmond's win is drawing a bit of a long bow.

Maybe the Lions were dead on their feet because they'd spent the first half applying relentless pressure to the Swans and causing most of the Sydney errors. (I don't think pressure is the whole reason for subsequent games' low skill level but I do think it was a huge cause of the Brisbane first half.)

The Swans were able to withstand it and find something at the end, as well as being able to pounce when the opportunity came.

You're probably going to point out that the Lions would have had the game wrapped up by 3/4 time had it not been for poor goal kicking. You'd be right but they didn't and hadn't. Similar comments could have been made about the Swans and their round 2 game against the Roos.

There is so much to be critical of in the Swans' season so far, why can't you at least give them credit for hanging in there in that game, being prepared to take a few risks and pulling it off.