It's A Good Wicket

[rojo]

Prophetic voice of Caroline Wilson?

On Footy Classified tonight when the panel were discussing the Swans, one of them posed the question, 'Who is there under 25 around whom they can rebuild a team?'
Caroline in reply (bless her) commented that Barlow had played pretty well on Saturday. There were looks of astonishment and bemusement on the faces of the others and Grant Thomas could be heard to mutter ..... (being an EB fan I can hardly bring myself to repeat it) .... you've got to be joking.

[Legs Akimbo]

I think the point re Roos coaching flexibility is less about our game plan (which has undoubtably changed) and more about his ability to make telling positional and structural changes on game day in response to us being flogged.

On game day, Roos is the very model of the inanimate carbon rod.

[goswannie14]

I think the point re Roos coaching flexibility is less about our game plan (which has undoubtably changed) and more about his ability to make telling positional and structural changes on game day in response to us being flogged.

That's certainly what I mean when I say we have no "plan B".

[Mr Magoo]

That's certainly what I mean when I say we have no "plan B".

I gotta disagree with this no plan B thing that commonly is sprouted on the website.

Roos makes plenty of positional changes through out a game, with the likes of shaw getting an occasional run on the ball, okeefe playing either in the centre of half forward, ted getting a run occasionally up forward, grundy alternating, jude playing half forward as well as in the centre etc etc.

In overall structural terms what are you people suggesting Roos do. He cant just go "hey our high geelong style possession game isnt working, right everyone switch now to the hawthorn style rolling zone." Theses styles of game are worked into a team over a season or two and cant just be switched on and off like a tap.

If you noticed we did have a very different game plan on saturday night where we had a lot of players across the half backlines and through the centre. The only problem was when the execution of it fell down and we didnt free up players to stream out into the forward line we ended up booting the ball downfield to barry hall in a one on four or five situation. I think Saturdays game plan barely resembled our game plan of 2005 and 2006.

[hammo]

There is no doubt we are caught between wanting to play a game plan like Geelong and not having the players able to carry it out.

Over-possessing the ball is the cardinal sin for unskilled teams which was the 'bad Swans' on Saturday night. I thought we were far more effective when we went more direct.

[ernie koala]

For Roos to come out and say our players aren't classy enough....What a joke..He has shaped our list to suit his hardnosed conservative style of play.
These types of comments will only erode what self belief is still there.

[connolly]

Didn't he go to Ireland for radical knee surgery?

Its called a radical contract excission.

[connolly]

Do some of you actually watch how we play football or is it a bit beyond you?

Comments suggesting we have not changed our game plan etc etc in the last 3 years are totally off the mark.

For the first time ever we have had over 400 posessions not only once but twice this year and have gone close a couple of times.

You don't have to blind freddy to work out that we have tried to adjust our game style to include more handball and more run to move through the rolling zones, in no small way a similar style to Geelong.

Now for a variety of reasons this has not worked all the time this year (not going to go into that in this thread) but to summise that we have not tried to change our game plan is just plain wrong.

DST

We are trying to run and carry the ball. However, our game structure is still built around a rebounding half back line and this is where smart opposition coaches have countered us effectively. And Roos until last Saturday had done little to develop an alternative structure. He brought more pace into the midfield and we got more run out of the middle since Willo retired. The player that could have developed providing more mobility and dash out of the middle has languished in Canberra. Barlow. Whilst the pedestrian Ablett and truely awful Crouch have been persisted with. Unfortunately out "gun" future midfielder Bird is the without a doubt the slowest midfielder to play for us since Diesel Williams and Bull Richardson. In addition Fosdike has not been replaced. The kid most likely Brabazon has similarly languished in Canberra. I won't mention the Crouch fiasco again. We have been exposed consistently by fast midfields.

[UglyDuckling]

For Roos to come out and say our players aren't classy enough....What a joke..He has shaped our list to suit his hardnosed conservative style of play.
These types of comments will only erode what self belief is still there.

Thats not necessarily true if you look at the players drafted in the recent period it seems there has been a particular emphasis on getting players with good skills. The problem is they haven't made it into the senior team yet.

Vez, Dok, Hanneberry, Johnston, Thornton, Meredith, Gilchrist
These guys all have good skills but arnt in the team yet largely due to persistent injury.

It seems Paul Roos has identified the problem of not being skilled enough, drafted appropriately and now we are just waiting for it to pay dividends. Once these guys get a few seasons into them you may find that the game plan will work more effectively.
We are rebuilding now and it will take time for the changes that are made to start working and improve the team.

[dimelb]

I suspect another factor is Micky slowing down. Having Baz double- and triple-tagged is not new, but the Magic has declined and we don't have crumbing forwards (a constant gripe of mine). That's why I'd like to see Jesse White down the forward end more regularly, give Barlow a chance off the wing and going forward as a link/target, and people like Veszpremi and Jack picking up the crumbs.

[TheHood]

To be fair to Paul Roos, he has not been allowed to bottom out, he would love a mid-season trade opportunity to at least pick up another Barry Hall type trade.

I think there are a number of reasons we've not had the skill to perform, one of which as a coach goes longer, the game plan becomes more prescriptive and difficult to execute.

Not a career coach he says:

Roosy has been on the coaching panel at Sydney since 2001 and is contracted till 2011.

If that is not a career, then what is? Wallace just did 500 as player and coach. Roos has 523 odd games under his belt not including the 18 months as an assistant.

Longmire has been long publicised as the successor from 2009. Then with another hansom contract on offer to Roos, he has declined to change industries in the economic climate, kids in private school, heavy Randwick mortgage etc. Accepts another contract.

Deep down, I think that Roosy has coached-on for the wrong reasons, Sydney would have had the appropriate excuse to bottom out with Horse, take the earlier pics and sell a new message.

Like it or not, I now don't see Horse taking the reins (yeah I know) at Sydney. He is likely to move on and we'll be on the hunt and that might be by September 2009 at this rate.

[satchmopugdog]

No that was Malcennelly.

LOL

[T-bag]

Get Laidley. He is a great match day coach.