Roos kicks off 2009 with a twin spin

[ernie koala]

It hasn't taken long..not a ball has been kicked and Roosey is already spinning a double negative of excuses...
1. Had to play the older players because all the young uns he would of picked are injured. ie Schmidt, Smith, Laidlaw , Vespa
Am I really to believe all these 4 would of been selected if fit..Going on Roosey's selecting form, I think not.
2. Players aren't getting enough hype (melbourne style) here in Sydney, to be up for round 1.
The obvious solution would of been, take the squad to Melbourne today, go to tonights game, train at South Melbourne lakeside oval tomorrow in front of some south melbourne faithful... even watch tomorrow nights gf replay together at their hotel...
It certainly beats sitting in Sydney whinging about it.

[royboy42]

Enjoy the season Ernie!

[liz]

1. Had to play the older players because all the young uns he would of picked are injured. ie Schmidt, Smith, Laidlaw , Vespa
Am I really to believe all these 4 would of been selected if fit..Going on Roosey's selecting form, I think not.

Who knows? Decent chance that some of them would have been. Vez I am pretty sure would have been in the team. Schmidt quite probably based on what he is capable of. But hard to tell given he hasn't been fit for about 15 months now.

Smith and Laidlaw are the two more doubtful calls.

Looking at the selected team, the only one who might well have been in is Barlow, but he's been under an injury cloud for the past week or so. O'Dwyer doesn't look far off but he hasn't had a pre-season where he's set the world on fire.

[ernie koala]

Who knows? Decent chance that some of them would have been. Vez I am pretty sure would have been in the team. Schmidt quite probably based on what he is capable of. But hard to tell given he hasn't been fit for about 15 months now.

Smith and Laidlaw are the two more doubtful calls.

Looking at the selected team, the only one who might well have been in is Barlow, but he's been under an injury cloud for the past week or so. O'Dwyer doesn't look far off but he hasn't had a pre-season where he's set the world on fire.

Liz, I agree with all the above. I just get ticked off that I'm now hearing the excuse of injury for not selecting a younger team. Rightly or wrongly the Swans pick their young players sparingly and belatedly, compared to all other clubs. I'm not looking to get into another discussion re; recruiting....but....Have a look at round 1 teams, to see how many new players( many from last years draft), let alone young players, are listed for all other clubs.

[ShockOfHair]

I didn't read it as any kind of spin - Roos just observing there's more hype in Bleak City, and the irony of the older blokes being healthy and the young ones breaking down.


Battle-weary guns a concern for Roos - AFL.com.au

[Legs Akimbo]

Who knows? Decent chance that some of them would have been. Vez I am pretty sure would have been in the team. Schmidt quite probably based on what he is capable of. But hard to tell given he hasn't been fit for about 15 months now.

Smith and Laidlaw are the two more doubtful calls.

Looking at the selected team, the only one who might well have been in is Barlow, but he's been under an injury cloud for the past week or so. O'Dwyer doesn't look far off but he hasn't had a pre-season where he's set the world on fire.

Brabazon?
Meredith?

[chammond]

Have a look at round 1 teams, to see how many new players( many from last years draft), let alone young players, are listed for all other clubs.

Is that a good thing?

I would have thought that it would be embarassing to any team to be so short of depth that you are forced to play immature youngsters in round 1 . . . and it smacks of desperation.

The Swans softly-softly approach with youngsters makes much more sense - give them time to mature and introduce them gradually, and only when they've shown enough to deserve a shot at the big time.

Throwing 3 or 4 untried youngsters into the team in round 1 would be suicidal for the team, and probably for the youngsters involved . . . and for what? To make the team more "interesting"??

[AnnieH]

Is that a good thing?

I would have thought that it would be embarassing to any team to be so short of depth that you are forced to play immature youngsters in round 1 . . . and it smacks of desperation.

The Swans softly-softly approach with youngsters makes much more sense - give them time to mature and introduce them gradually, and only when they've shown enough to deserve a shot at the big time.

Throwing 3 or 4 untried youngsters into the team in round 1 would be suicidal for the team, and probably for the youngsters involved . . . and for what? To make the team more "interesting"??

Scaring me enough to change my tip from the hawks to the cats!!

Why don't we play round 1 before everyone starts whinging.

[Flossie]

Scaring me enough to change my tip from the hawks to the cats!!

Why don't we play round 1 before everyone starts whinging.

Totally agree with this post. Lets keep the pessimism on hold for at least one game. I go into every season with high hopes and until I am proven otherwise I will stay positive about the Swans chances for the season.

[ShockOfHair]

Lets keep the pessimism on hold for at least one game.

Or Baz drops his first chest mark.

[liz]

Is that a good thing?

I would have thought that it would be embarassing to any team to be so short of depth that you are forced to play immature youngsters in round 1 . . . and it smacks of desperation.

The Swans softly-softly approach with youngsters makes much more sense - give them time to mature and introduce them gradually, and only when they've shown enough to deserve a shot at the big time.

Throwing 3 or 4 untried youngsters into the team in round 1 would be suicidal for the team, and probably for the youngsters involved . . . and for what? To make the team more "interesting"??

It is an interesting question/dilemma. All players are inexperienced at one stage in their career but the bullet has to be bitten if they are ever to graduate. Carlton played 4 - I think - debutants last night and it didn't seem to be an issue with the team. Robinson and Garlett, in particular, looked at home. (Mind you, they were playing against some non-existent opposition.) I am almost tempted to look at the Blues list to see who missed out - ie were the Blues forced to play a decent chunk of youngsters because of injuries and/or because they have lots of youngsters and so some had to miss the team, or whether they omitted workmanlike but seasoned players to give these guys a shot.

In the case of the Swans, Roos cast his hand fairly early in the pre-season when, after the NAB Cup game, he reverted to a relatively mature squad for the rest of the matches. Barlow, Vez and White were the three he seemingly identified as non-regulars from last year who he saw as integral parts of the senior team early in the season. White is in, we know why Vez isn't, and it is impossible to tell whether they would have played Barlow had it not been for the foot problem he's had for the last week or so.

The other players who featured in the later senior pre-season games almost seemed to be there as an afterthought, to make up the numbers. MOD and Braba, who got a game in most of the matches, seemed to be thrown on very near the end of games, meaning they weren't really much of a chance to earn themselves a starting senior spot. But watching both of them last weekend against the Sydney development squad team, they were both standouts in the context of that game but they didn't really strike me as in the form that would make them stiff to miss out on senior selection.

The sparing use of Laidlaw and Smith in the pre-season surprised me at the time, but we know now they are both injured. Do we know how/when they sustained those injuries? It could well explain why they've barely been seen during the pre-season.

As Roos mentions, he has been hampered significantly at the selection table by they lack of physical durability of many of our 3rd/4th year players. In addition to those above, Schmidt is still out with worryingly persistent knee problems, Murphy has had niggles that mean he is a way off being match fit, and Currie is overcoming groin problems. It won't do either of those two a favour to even think about playing them in the senior team until they can get a month or two's solid football into their legs.

Which really just leaves Meredith and Thornton of those who look reasonably fit and are said to have had good pre-seasons. Yet Thornton is coming off a minor injury niggle himself, and is also restricted by being on the rookie list. My guess is that they have him pencilled in for the rookie spot that will open up from round 12, regardless of long-term injuries, and always planned to give him half a season to get back after the knee injury.

Meredith, I suspect, will get his chance reasonably soon. He looks decently fit and his outing in the NAB Cup game certainly showed he knows how to win the ball. He may need a little "luck" in the sense of a spot opening up through injury but I reckon if he gets a run of a few weeks in the team he'll do pretty well and may prove hard to dislodge. With him again, though, he missed almost all of last season, so I can understand them being a bit reticent to rush him in.

[CJK]

Bah to well thought out posts. Where is the outrage!!!!!!

[caj23]

I'm disappointed to see some of the same old names out there (Ablett in particular), but the simple answer is none of the young guys that are available for selection really put their hand up and demanded it during the pre-season warm up games.

[Mr Magoo]

Bah to well thought out posts. Where is the outrage!!!!!!

Thats comes on sunday if we lose to the saints and those same players we thought to be useless selections prove to be so.

[Primmy]

Playing youngsters before their time has proven either good or truly bad in other clubs.

We appear to be ok. Look at Kirky! Wasn't he about 90 when he got his first game?