Sydney - a way forward ?

[Bloodstained Angel]

Here's a few suggestions of where to take the club over the next few seasons.

Our present approach of fiddling around the edges and re-jigging what is essentially a whole squad of 'utility' players, just so we can scrape into yet another finals campaign just isn't working.

I want the Swans to get into a Gf and win a flag, its been freakken 68 years and I'm sick to death of this sh^t....

1) Paul Kelly

the way forward for Kell is to releive him of the captaincy and play him off the bench as an impact player untill further notice. Anyone remember how Doug Hawkins was able to extend a great career and really make a difference on the field when he shifted to the bench ? same would apply for Kell I reckon. By starting off thebench, Kelly could extend his career for another 4 or 5 seasons.

2) Bye Bye Stafford

Patience has run out with this handbag - 1 kick and 2 handballs was his total stats for Saturday night. He is simply not interested in playing football it seems. Fine mate - see ya later.

3) Sack the recruiting department

Ricky Barham and co. have made far too many wrong calls over the years. The list of total duds these guys have persuaded us to take on would make your eyes water. Lets sack the lot of them and start all over again with people who know talent when they see it.

4) You must want to play for the club.

No use drafting people who are not interested in playing in Sydney for the Swans. WE've just had to put up with too much bullsh^t with the likes of Anthony Rocca, Scott Russell, etc etc to draft reluctant players into a place like Sydney. Only draft those players that actually want to play for us (radical I know !)

5) No more Dad's Army

Lets face it - we have the oldest list in the Comp and it shows. For the end of season trading period, lets do whatever it takes to secure at least 3 top ten draft picks and then use them to pick up young talent. If it means doing something risky like trading Jason Saddington to Femantle (or whatever) then so be it.

6) Season ruined before it even starts

Lets have a pre-season program that actually prepares the squad for the season. Instead of playing total rubbish trial games on rock hard country ovals where all we seem to achive is to injure all of our players. We lost alot of guys through serious injury in the trial game Ansett Cup period, lets not have a repeat again this year shall we ?

also - get the footy balls out nice and early and do skills drill after skills drill instead of dumb namby-pamby 'games' such as orienteering around Centennial Park and other such nonsense. Our skill levels are a disgrace - lets fix that with hard work on the track during the pre-season.

7) sorry Plugger

The guy might be the best full foward the game has ever seen but he is no goal kicking coach, thats fior sure. Our kicking for goal has gotten even worse this year. "Do it like I do it" is just not good enough Plugger - you need a much more scientific approach than that.

8) Lets be honest with ourselves

And stop thinking the Swans are highly skilled ball-players that can match it with the likes of Essendon or some of the other skilled teams. We are not skilled. Our strength lies in our good coaching and fantastic team discipline. Our wins are created from hard work, not superior skill. It is a lesson we simple do not wish to learn. Blame for this must be sheeted home to the Coaching staff.

cheers

 

[BMD]

Agreed (mostly).

The list needs a real clean out at the end of this year - too many time servers taking up space (Simon Feast anyone?).

Sydney needs a real injection of youth - young possible key position players of the future especially. I will be pissed off if they recruit any 27-28 year olds to patch up the list AGAIN this year. We do not need a bit of tinkering to become one of the top teams we need a clean out.

Our recruiting over the last few years (probably since '95) has been poor. I do feel that they have woken up and will not draft anyone who doesn't want to come at least.

Greg Stafford must go - if he had've gone last year we might have got someone pretty useful for him but I fear his value has dropped this season - he's been dead ordinary.

Kell I think will become an impact player for us - maybe he could relinquish the captaincy. Who do you think would get it, BSA? I favour Matthew Nicks personally.

The skill level must improve - this is the biggest gap between the Swans and the top teams - it was painfully obvious against Essendon in particular. This is a reason we really struggle in wet conditions.

To be fair, we've only got a limited control over our preseason fixture - the SCG's never available so they end up travelling all over the countryside so Dale Lewis can break his arm again.

How to fix the week to week consistency I really don't know. If the evil Swans turn up and lose to Geelong on Sunday, they won't make the finals.

 

[Bloodstained Angel]

Nicks would be a favourite of alot of supporters to be new captain BMD.

However he has already said he doubts whether he has the fitness or endurance to go another 100 games so if we made him Captain it would be for a strictly limited period.

Michael O'Loughlin is young, fit and already an on-field leader. He has already said he would like to be new captain. He's only 24 and has a long time in the game ahead of him, could be a worthy candidate but sometimes I wonder whether a forward would be our best choice really.

My favourite at the moment is Jared Crouch - he has 'Swans Captain" written all over him I reckon.

Not a great communicator, or 'leader' as such, Crouchy is a fearless ball winner who is hard at the contest and has genuine toughness. Doesn't injure easily, he's now a permamnent fixture in the starting linup.

Crouchy will lead by example and let his hands and feet do the talking - in the time honoured tradition of Bob Skilton and Paul Kelly.

a worthy captain methinks

cheers