Roos versus Eade

[Hartijon]

Wallace will be available next year.

I would not go that far! Let's get Roosey or Horse to change tactics that have never worked against the Dogs when they have their run on.I mean it's happened 3 times in a row and still the coaches have no strategy??

[swansrock4eva]

"It?s just up to the players to dig themselves out."

As a response to an unanswered 13 goal deficit I find this coaches response not only unsatisfactory but highly revealing as well.What could he have done?

1.Flood the forward line of the Bulldogs.Fill it with Swans players,force ball ups and stoppages to stop the momentum
2.Instruct the Swans to stop handballing at every opportunity and hold possession,kick backwards if necessary to stop the momentum of the Dogs
3.Run Jolly/MOK/Hall as loose men in defence
4.Swap personell.get Bevan away from the goal front,(sorry Connolly)take Ablett off
5.instruct the players to go man on man
6.Instruct players to just hang on till 1/2 time then regroup.just force the ball wide,hug the boundary,deny the Bulldogs the corridor

Roosey can't explain how the Swans can go from solid good performance against Geelong to crushing performance against us yet we outscore them in the second half. It sure looks like game preparation to me or are the Dogs that good for 4 games in a row? Time to wake up to Eade who unfortunately is not a great guy like Roosey,is not loved by the players like Roosey but is a better coach.

1 and 5 are virtually mutually exclusive when a running team just runs flat out - if you flood them, you have to accept there will be loose men of theirs in the midfield and their defense while you try to stem the flow at the half forward/forward line by overcrowding. And running man on man against a fast, hard team is not an answer for us because we comprehensively get beaten on foot on a regular basis.

We don't know what Roos asked the players to actually do - you can't blame him if the players just lose their heads and fail to adhere to the game plans and structures. And bombarding them with position changes, instructions and anger mid-quarter isn't going to fix it either - it will only fluster them further and cause even MORE mistakes.

Not saying he wasn't totally outcoached anyway, but there are times when a coach can do bugger all but sit in the box and watch plans unravel because his men just aren't doing what they need to do - this sadly was one of those times.

[Lohengrin]

"It?s just up to the players to dig themselves out."

Credit for wins but no responsibility for losses? Sounds like a CEO!

[connolly]

Wallace will be available next year.

Please not even as a joke. Dick wanted him in 2003 and the Wallet has a five year plan

[connolly]

Not saying he wasn't totally outcoached anyway, but there are times when a coach can do bugger all but sit in the box and watch plans unravel because his men just aren't doing what they need to do - this sadly was one of those times.

The problem wasn't that we didn't have enough players behind the ball. The counter strategy that is used against us particularly by Geelong, Collingwood and the Doggies is now so obvious that a counter to the counter is long overdue. Roos has tried to transform the game plan to a run and carry strategy, with a lot of possession between the quarter and half back lines. The Bullies played a very disciplined man on man defense which applied pressure to the ball carrier and had forwards running with our receivers. It was patently obvious at the start of the second quarter that the pressure was creating skill errors and Roos yet again refused to change the game plan. He had O'Keefe in the midfield, he should have played him in his traditional role as wing/half forward, placed Goodsey as a midfielder with a commission to lead into the wings or back into the corridor. We had to try a come out of defense by kicking long to the wings and position players who are good enough to beat their opponents at the contested ball. At the same time a very defensive midfield configoration should have been set up. McVeigh was killed at the stoppages, Jude and Kirky had a heavy tag and we couldn't win the ball at the stoppages. Rhyce Shaw should have been moved into the midfield at the fifth minute mark of the second quarter, McVeigh played as a small forward and Ablett or Jude played in defense. Could we have played any worse? Hardly. Nothing was tried because Roos beleives that the game plan is sacrosanct on match day. Eade gave him a master class on match day coaching.

[Melbournehammer]

The problem wasn't that we didn't have enough players behind the ball. The counter strategy that is used against us particularly by Geelong, Collingwood and the Doggies is now so obvious that a counter to the counter is long overdue. Roos has tried to transform the game plan to a run and carry strategy, with a lot of possession between the quarter and half back lines. The Bullies played a very disciplined man on man defense which applied pressure to the ball carrier and had forwards running with our receivers. It was patently obvious at the start of the second quarter that the pressure was creating skill errors and Roos yet again refused to change the game plan. He had O'Keefe in the midfield, he should have played him in his traditional role as wing/half forward, placed Goodsey as a midfielder with a commission to lead into the wings or back into the corridor. We had to try a come out of defense by kicking long to the wings and position players who are good enough to beat their opponents at the contested ball. At the same time a very defensive midfield configoration should have been set up. McVeigh was killed at the stoppages, Jude and Kirky had a heavy tag and we couldn't win the ball at the stoppages. Rhyce Shaw should have been moved into the midfield at the fifth minute mark of the second quarter, McVeigh played as a small forward and Ablett or Jude played in defense. Could we have played any worse? Hardly. Nothing was tried because Roos beleives that the game plan is sacrosanct on match day. Eade gave him a master class on match day coaching.

I agree with much of this. In both the saints and this game we got the ball around half back often enough but players looked up, decided not to kick it to the relevant contest on the wing, sought to hand pass to players under pressure or behind the ball but in no better position, turned the ball over and conceded goals.

ball would go back into the centre, we'd be beaten there and the event wouldbe repeated.

[Melbournehammer]

and our lack of leg speed is palpable in these situations - no-one seems capable of leading into space fast enough to put distance between them and their man

[stellation]

The problem wasn't that we didn't have enough players behind the ball. The counter strategy that is used against us particularly by Geelong, Collingwood and the Doggies is now so obvious that a counter to the counter is long overdue. Roos has tried to transform the game plan to a run and carry strategy, with a lot of possession between the quarter and half back lines. The Bullies played a very disciplined man on man defense which applied pressure to the ball carrier and had forwards running with our receivers. It was patently obvious at the start of the second quarter that the pressure was creating skill errors and Roos yet again refused to change the game plan. He had O'Keefe in the midfield, he should have played him in his traditional role as wing/half forward, placed Goodsey as a midfielder with a commission to lead into the wings or back into the corridor. We had to try a come out of defense by kicking long to the wings and position players who are good enough to beat their opponents at the contested ball. At the same time a very defensive midfield configoration should have been set up. McVeigh was killed at the stoppages, Jude and Kirky had a heavy tag and we couldn't win the ball at the stoppages. Rhyce Shaw should have been moved into the midfield at the fifth minute mark of the second quarter, McVeigh played as a small forward and Ablett or Jude played in defense. Could we have played any worse? Hardly. Nothing was tried because Roos beleives that the game plan is sacrosanct on match day. Eade gave him a master class on match day coaching.

It was quite frustrating, wasn't it? In all honesty I was watching on tele so it was hard to see, but do we know if anything major tried in the second quarter at all?

[Hartijon]

and our lack of leg speed is palpable in these situations - no-one seems capable of leading into space fast enough to put distance between them and their man

You only need a metre which a sideways movement will give even a slow player.The kicker must be good enough to put the ball on your chest,not too high or low or slow! Conolly's point about pressure on the handballers out of defense means the kicker was underpressure and couldn't find a chest after playing around with handballs for 5 minutes,few forwards will still be leading.
We have already had a couple of Plan B's.My plan C is what to do when all your plans fail and you are getting rolled.Do what Leo did regularly in these situations in 2005. Soak up time..kick to the edge of the boundary line,promote stoppages(hell we used to be good at this). If you deny the opposition the ball for 2+minutes they lose momentum then you can go back to the plan..