Sydney Worst Premiership Team Ever - The Australia

[goswannie14]

Originally posted by liz

It is typical of the stuff churned out by most footy journalists - ie devoid of any original comment or insight and trotting out the same old lines without much thought. But I don't interpret it as either overly critical or overly positive towards the team and its prospects for this year.

Yep, you're right Liz, and they do it for every other team in the competition. I don't understand the paranoia.

[Thunder Shaker]

Many punters are mugs and its the mugs that skew the odds. Mug punters know nothing; they think March champions are September champions, they plunge money on Richmond because they're in the top 8 after round 7 and ignore the Swans because the Swans have lost 3 or 4 in a row in the first 7 weeks. We are better than the mugs, so we should take the good odds on offer.

[hammo]

Originally posted by NMWBloods
I didn't read it as a season preview - it was an article about the odds on the premiers.

The Australian has been running an article every day counting down all 16 teams and a predicted finish, so that looks like a season preview to me. Sydney were 5th.

[NMWBloods]

Originally posted by hammo
The Australian has been running an article every day counting down all 16 teams and a predicted finish, so that looks like a season preview to me. Sydney were 5th.

If it's a season preview then it's a pretty ordinary one. But 5th place after H&A is not an unreasonable assessment.

[hammo]

Originally posted by NMWBloods
If it's a season preview then it's a pretty ordinary one. But 5th place after H&A is not an unreasonable assessment.

I certainly don't disagree with you that it was an ordinary preview.

[Go Swannies]

Originally posted by NMWBloods
As far as compared to other premiers, I think Swans 06 are better than Collingwood 90 and Essendon 93. At this point though I don't see them as better than any other premiership side I have seen in the past 30 years. That's not necessarily the huge insult that some see it as.

Last year we all agreed that the competition was very open. We had a fair run with injuries and some luck (both good and bad) and made the most of the Swans having less flaws than the other finalists. So we are premiers.

However, I think that this year we are in a better position than many other defending premiers. (And that's very different from saying we were better than other premiership teams - I agree with you on that NMW.) We certainly haven't imploded as Port did last year. In fact, we are rather like the Lions in 2001 with just about every premiership player (except Ball) still playing. If the players who lifted at the end of last season (LRT, Amon, Jude) maintain that level and others (Goodes, Hall, Pebbles, Nicky D) play to their potential I think we have a very good chance of being in with a chance of back-to-back.

For a lot of teams, there are many players who see a premiership as the moment to bow out. For most of the Swans (even the perennial Willo) it seems to be merely part of the progression from battlers to established champions. So I love the team being written off because it's like applying a cattle prod to their collective self respect. And now they know what they can achieve.

It's possible that they will dominate the competition because, like last year, there aren't many teams that can stop them. And won't that drive the Melbourne media nuts?

[Wardy]

Originally posted by Go Swannies
Last year we all agreed that the competition was very open. We had a fair run with injuries and some luck (both good and bad) and made the most of the Swans having less flaws than the other finalists. So we are premiers.

However, I think that this year we are in a better position than many other defending premiers. (And that's very different from saying we were better than other premiership teams - I agree with you on that NMW.) We certainly haven't imploded as Port did last year. In fact, we are rather like the Lions in 2001 with just about every premiership player (except Ball) still playing. If the players who lifted at the end of last season (LRT, Amon, Jude) maintain that level and others (Goodes, Hall, Pebbles, Nicky D) play to their potential I think we have a very good chance of being in with a chance of back-to-back.

For a lot of teams, there are many players who see a premiership as the moment to bow out. For most of the Swans (even the perennial Willo) it seems to be merely part of the progression from battlers to established champions. So I love the team being written off because it's like applying a cattle prod to their collective self respect. And now they know what they can achieve.

It's possible that they will dominate the competition because, like last year, there aren't many teams that can stop them. And won't that drive the Melbourne media nuts?

Good to have you back David!!! I guess I have the same feeling now as I did last year - so perhaps the "doubting thomasina" thing worked - I mean they did win the flag afterall!!!

stay safe in PNG next week David.

[NMWBloods]

Originally posted by Go Swannies
SNIP

Yep - I pretty much agree with that - all good observations.

The open competition is a very important factor and is a key reason why I think we have the potential to win again.

The age of the team is also a plus.

[stevej]

Originally posted by Thunder Shaker
Many punters are mugs and its the mugs that skew the odds. Mug punters know nothing; they think March champions are September champions, they plunge money on Richmond because they're in the top 8 after round 7 and ignore the Swans because the Swans have lost 3 or 4 in a row in the first 7 weeks. We are better than the mugs, so we should take the good odds on offer.

Yep TS. I remember last year after the Wiz cup (or whatever they call it) Carlton were better odds to make the finals than we were!! Couldn't believe it when i saw it!!!

[JF_Bay22_SCG]

I find all this hacking out of our Premiership win completely unfair. Footy in 2005 is completely different than it was even in 1996. I think you will find that even the best attacking teams of the 80s & 90s would struggle to beat us the way we get behind the ball tire teams out with multiple ball-ups then pounce on them in the last quarter of matches.

To win the 2005 premier we simply didn't have to be the best team ever. We didn't even have to be the 'best' team in 2005. We just had to win the games that matters when they mattered. We nearly well blew it with a flat mistake-riddled effort against Geelong. But the advantage of keeping scores low is that even when we are playing terribly we are often not losing by that much. As teams like Brisbane St Kilda & to a lesser extent even Adelaide & Richmond even found out (despite still beating us on the scoreboard), we have the knack of turning games like no other team in the League. That laid the platform for our flag win.

We managed to beat teams with players like Robert Harvey Austinn Jones & Ben Cousins & Chris Judd respectively. (We would have beaten them in Perth had it not been for the maggot umpires as well, but there is no point crying over spilt milk; we got our own back. The Good Guys won in the end. (Seeing all the cocky Eagles fans NOT in their colours avoiding looking at us after the GF at the casino was extremely enjoyable!)

This cronic lack of respect will only come back to hurt our critics in 2006. They still see us as the 'sad news Swans'. Well, we are champions now. And we still have a few more noses to rub in the dirt it seems.

JF

[Old Royboy]

If the statements were qualified to say Sydney are one of the least talented premiership teams I could hack it, even though others have correctly pointed out there are contenders in that category also. The reality, as we all know is that Sydney was one the BEST teams to win the premiership.

This is precisely why we are as good a chance as anybody this year. I think that highly talented teams are more prone to a post premiership fall because they are easily lulled the feeling that their talent will drag them through. I don?t think our blokes will suffer from any such illusions, they know it was the emphasis on TEAM which got them there last year and is the only way they will contend for a repeat.

Premiership sides which fail the following year generally do so because their attitude is wrong, the player turnover is high or they have bad luck with injury. For our side you can scratch one and two, and add a fitness/medical staff which who?s injury management is second to none.

[Roscoe]

Our tactics of strangling teams and tiring them out then running over them in the last quarter ( Brisbane - bazzas' goal after the siren and the final against the Aints) reminds me of the famous
Muhammad Ali "rope a dope dope" tactics to beat George Foreman in Zaire 1974

Ali was regarded as "the greatest" and the way he controlled
that bout was thought to be "tactically brilliant"

Are we not the greatest(reigning premiers??) with one of the smartest coaches in the game ?

[Reggi]

Cats Most talented and tougher

Ineresting that (unlike us) there are no doubts on the cats - more talented and tougher than ever.............

[katie-scarlett]

"...Thanks to Davis"

kudos Mr. Denham.

[NMWBloods]

It's hardly a scintillating endorsement of Geelong.

It's not the journo's fault the public discounts the Swans - you're shooting the messenger.

Geelong is at $6.50 and the Swans at $11.