Martin Blake on the Swans' approach to footy

[bandwagon]

ROK Lobster - I think your observation is spot on. If the opposition works hard enough to stop a man getting loose for that 20m chip pass, they have a good chance of forcing a turnover. Then quick movement into our undersized backline and goodnight!

[royboy42]

Nico...u need a Bex and a good lie down!

[connolly]

Yep pretty much what I said and you can add in the inabilty to kick goals from 30 metres dead in front. Did you see O'Keefe go back and slot one last night yet when he puts on the red and white he gets the DT's. I hope he is in the queue to the shrink after Bevo and Davo, or maybe he should shoulder them out of the way and take first dibs at the couch.

I'm genuinely puzzled by the Bevo reference. The kid is playing with a ton of confidence, is a goal kicking machine, hits red and white chests lace out and appears to have no relationship problems. And is universally admired by knowledgable Bloods supporters.

[ScottH]

I'm genuinely puzzled by the Bevo reference. The kid is playing with a ton of confidence, is a goal kicking machine, hits red and white chests lace out and appears to have no relationship problems. And is universally admired by knowledgable Bloods supporters.

There was an article a week or so ago, where it was mentioned that he is seeing a shrink to help him realise he is part of the team. To help with his lack of confidence.

[Mike_B]

I'm genuinely puzzled by the Bevo reference. The kid is playing with a ton of confidence, is a goal kicking machine, hits red and white chests lace out and appears to have no relationship problems. And is universally admired by knowledgable Bloods supporters.

There was an article a week or so ago, where it was mentioned that he is seeing a shrink to help him realise he is part of the team. To help with his lack of confidence.

Obviously the shrink is earning his keep then

[ScottH]

Obviously the shrink is earning his keep then

Well before the North game, he must have given him a double dose of counselling.

[SimonH]

Probably the best mainstream media article I've read on the Swans' playing style. So many of those who comment on how Sydney, give no appearance of having actually watched the Swans regularly, rather than just having seen a replay of the most boring quarter of our most recent heavily-criticised match.

Roos was on record way back in 2005 saying (I'm paraphrasing) that it was his job to coach, not his job to lecture those who didn't 'get it', on the style that Sydney are actually trying to play. He's pretty much stuck to that line ever since. Perfectly reasonable, but it does mean that Sydney lose the 'ugly footy' media debate where their style is IMO little or no 'uglier' than a dozen or so other teams in the competition.

In terms of our success, I would have thought the most important observation is as follows:

Sydney's opposition hit its targets with only 71% of disposals, the lowest in the competition. Forward thrusts break down under pressure. Opposing teams score from just 20% of inside-50s against Sydney, the lowest in the competition.

While I haven't seen the figures from 2005-7, as long as we stay #1 in the competition in lowest effective disposal stats for our opposition, we'll be travelling well. Of course our skills always need to be sharper, neater and cleaner-- just like every player needs to be as good as Adam Goodes when he's on song. But in the real world where not everyone is perfect all the time, if we stay #1 in that statistic, we know that we are hitting our targets more often than our opponents are hitting theirs.

Teams that can beat us consistently are teams that are very tough at the footy so cut down on our advantage there (the difficult part) and dispose of it better than us (sadly, for many other teams that's the easy part). This is why the Dogs' victory was something of an anomaly. They lost the tough footy, but were so much better than us in ball use when they did get it (including the most important kind of ball use-- kicking for goal), that they more than made up the difference. Only a very talented team of disposers of the footy, on a very good day out, can beat Sydney that way.

Generally, you have to have the first part where you get down and dirty in the packs and go at least 50/50 with JBolt, Kirk et al. Collingwood is a good case study because their recent dominance of Sydney has been regardless of form or ladder position. It's because they've had this in-close toughness with the likes of Burns, O'Bree, Lockyer and until 2007 Buckley. Gets their midfield pilloried as too slow against other opponents, but works a treat against Sydney. Even Harry O'Brien had 9 tackles in the 2007 elim final which was defined by a 68:37 tackle-count thumping in Collingwood's favour (compared with a relatively even 321:298 possession count).