Swans style of play (again)

[CureTheSane]

I've been saying it all year, and Robert Walls tonight agreed with me.

One Trick Pony

Swans have been drilled into a game plan and whilst it's worked the last couple of years, it's over.
Team have learnt how we play and are able to combat it.
Goodes was impossible to match up on until teams learnt how to play him.
Eade got us to a GF with innovative play, but other teams got onto that too.

The issue now is whether Roos has the ability to change our game plan.

The questions is not whether it needs to be changed anymore, it's if they CAN change it and be successful.

There may be an argument that this is the style of play we need to be successful in finals, but we have to actually make the finals first.

Now to some of the individuals.

Hall needs to stop using lubricant to wash his hands.
He just can't mark the thing.
Is he fit?
He works hard around the ground still, but on the RARE occasions the ball actually gets to him, a washed up has been like Wakelin kicks his butt.

O'Keefe is a shadow of his former self.

O'Loughlin I feel is playing better than he did last year, given the trying circumstances.

Bolton has no impact.

Spider and Jolly are a 50/50 proposition every week.

I don't need to run through all the players I suppose, they all APPEAR to be well down on form.
Or maybe it's just that they are being stifled by an outdated game plan.

At least I am in a position of not having to pretend to go and get a beer to leave the ground at 3/4 time - I get to turn the TV off

[Zlatorog]

I would rather call it a one-dimensional. This the style of play you get when you have "Cortinas" in your team. Now the questions is how do you replace them with something better like "BMW's" for example.

[Legs Akimbo]

It has to be a quandry for Roos. Sticking with the style of play has bought us a premiership and a near miss for another one. In both previous years, people were saying the same thing - change the way you play.

For what it is worth, I think three things have changed....

1. Some of the rule changes of the last few years have take effect
2. Some of the other teams have worked our how to beat us at our own game. When we get beaten it usually looks the same
3. Our core players are starting to show their age and slow down - opposition teams with pace and run trouble us.

[573v30]

Roos has to make changes, starting with that hairdo.

[CureTheSane]

he did.

just watch the QBE ad

His haircut is MUCH better now according to him

Maybe he's still a decade behind.

I guess I can't talk....

[lwjoyner]

Agree chabges needed. See my post. Forgot Bevan as another example of one to go.

[Hazcam]

Someone posted the other day stats as to why the magpies would win, one of them was when the crowd was over 55k-odd they seemed to win. Again, the margin makes it flattering to the swans as it had done against the crows earlier this year (17 points).

Basically, the teams that are beating Sydney of late are beating them at their own game.
* Contested footy
* hard tackling and team work in defence
* run off halfback

It's a case of Sydney now changing the way they play and playing like Geelong is...long and direct through the corridor, back your skills and rely on the stoppage style of footy in defence.

In the games against west coast in rd1 and the bombers recently the swans were behind by up to 35-40 points at times and ended up losing by 1. The only reason they got close was because in the final qtr they played right down the guts and kept the forward line open. Why cant they do this every week? They have fresh legs to come back and lose by 1 point i'm sure they can do it for the best part of the game.

I recall one match vs the Roos on a Sunday a few years back (2005 i think) we were ahead 60-7 halfway through the 2nd qtr. It was 12 goals to 4 at 1/2 time and we managed only 3 extra goals. In trying to protect the lead we ended up reducing our winning margin...go figure??

If it was Geelong they'd have belted them...and they did (vs tigers, saints etc).

It was interesting that collingwood was 3.25 to win today, similar odds to essendon when they beat us by a point (so angry grrrr). To be honest, at 1/2 time it was 6.11 (47) to 2.1 (13) had it not been for some shabby set shots by the pies 11.6 (72) would have been more realistic of the state of play. Sydney were well and truly buried, no 2 ways about it.

Don't have a go at me for saying this but........the 2007 grand final will be between west coast and either collingwood/geelong/hawthorn and if our bloods end up making it then i'll publicly apologise on this site! (serious)

In summary: collingwood's young 2nd string side played the type of footy sydney (and adelaide during home and away of 2005) played to win the flag and make the grand final.

final word: hmmm, $10 million fight nights seems pretty inviting to big bad bustling brutal barry hall. at least he gets lee way in the ring unless the WBA changes the rules just as barry turns pro to not allow uppercuts or head shots!

hey at least the free kicks we're kinda even for once altho we got some dodgy frees against.

thanx 4 reading folks. nyt.

[AnnieH]

At least I am in a position of not having to pretend to go and get a beer to leave the ground at 3/4 time - I get to turn the TV off

agreed cts. i wish i was at home ... they shut the bar at 3/4 time!!!!

[tez]

Why we persist in going for short passes in a crowded forward line, which invariably lead to a loss of possession beats me. Is there a clause in
BBH contract that means that all goals must be kicked by him. If we
direct forward play through him, have a sweeper to clean up the dropped
and spoiled ball.