Sydney are gone, they will be bottom four next year and with the poor league they feed through in the NSWFL, their juniors will be at a severe disadvantage.
Go through their list and its not pretty for them (not pretty for us either).
Hall - Finished, should hang up the boots and take up Boxing
O'laughlin - How old is he now, 32?
Davis - Just so lazy
Everitt - Gone. 32 and struggles around the ground, dominates alot of center bounces but cant keep up.
Bolton - Over-rated.
Barry - getting slower as time wears on, still good in a wrestle but will get smashed on a lead
LRT - HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!
Fosdike - Poor skills and slow
Dempster - Shocker, wouldnt even have him at Essendon
Schneider - Had one good year (2004), cant do a thing since.
Bevan - Comical watching him play
Crouch - unless he is a tagger he provides very little to them.
They have some real problems. Their game plan has been worked out and with their lack of skill and pace through the middle, they will be show up alot. Malceski looks to be a good player for them, but there aint much else.
And getting back to the league their reserves play in, how much of a benefit will it be to the kids who play for the Swans reserves, where they field 1-2 less players on the ground and still win by 20+ goals? They may have to revert to what they did a few years back and align themselves with a VFL team or a QAFL team.
Roos is kidding himself
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jimmyc1985
- Champion of Essendon
- Posts: 5869
- Joined: Wed Aug 30, 2006 11:33 pm
- Location: Position A
The position they're in now very much reminds me of where we were in 2002. They won a Premiership 2 years ago, made the GF last year, and got bundled out this year before Preliminary Final stage. It's crunch time for them and they need to honestly assess what's what.
Some evidence points to the fact that they're still capable of 'doing it'. This year, they lost 2 games by a point (against us and WC) and snatched a draw from the jaws of victory in another (Brisbane). If they'd won 2 of those games and lost one instead, they would've finished on 14 wins and been 4th on the ladder, and things would be very different; we'd all be saying "here go Sydney again". This year, they had an average run with injury (Hall, Kennelly, Crouch, Barry struggled with various injuries all year), whereas in 2005 and 2006 they had a phenomenal run with injuries. In light of this, they may think they're good enough to give it one final hoorah next year, providing they get a good run with injuries and win the close ones instead of losing them.
On another view, they're now in terminal decline like we were in 2002 and are in for a long, lean period. If that's the case, the hard calls have to be made - we're Exhibit A in the case against muddling along for 3-4 years by topping up with old farts in a deluded belief that we were still a chance at winning the flag when, in truth, we weren't. If they believe the glory days are over, they need to take a leaf out of the Brisbane/Port book: make the hard calls, cast aside the guys who aren't up to it anymore, make some savvy trades and rebuild on the run.
Personally, i think Sydney fall into the latter category - they're not going to be able to do it anymore. They need to make a few hard calls and delaying the inevitable now will, more than likely, lead to some serious legacy issues in about 2010.
This is where things get problematic for Sydney - rebuilding for them is harder than it is for any other team, as they have a crap feeder system which produces insufficient talent to build a team from. The team they as it stands currently was built around a number of clever trades (Hall, Ball, Jolly, Richards (he's been OK for them), Everitt), a couple interstaters and even an international (Kennelly). They've introduced very few players in the last 3 years, partly because there's been no need to change a winning formula, and partly because none of their young players are at AFL level. They could look at trading a few of their mid-tiers like Buchanan, Fosdike, LRT for a few drafts, but then they'd be left with a similar problem to us: a chasm would open up between their old players and their young players, and there wouldn't be much in between.
It will be interesting to see how they go over the next three years, whatever they choose to do. Roos said after last night's match that they're not going to go for a 'slash and burn' approach because the team cannot afford to bottom out - basically, he intimated that all the Sydney bandwagoners would jump ship if they did, and that would be commercially bad for the club. He's in between a rock and a hard place as i suspect the AFL are extremely keen to see Sydney stay at least competitive (there's a plethora of evidence to support that!), but deep down i reckon he knows that their glory days are over.
Some evidence points to the fact that they're still capable of 'doing it'. This year, they lost 2 games by a point (against us and WC) and snatched a draw from the jaws of victory in another (Brisbane). If they'd won 2 of those games and lost one instead, they would've finished on 14 wins and been 4th on the ladder, and things would be very different; we'd all be saying "here go Sydney again". This year, they had an average run with injury (Hall, Kennelly, Crouch, Barry struggled with various injuries all year), whereas in 2005 and 2006 they had a phenomenal run with injuries. In light of this, they may think they're good enough to give it one final hoorah next year, providing they get a good run with injuries and win the close ones instead of losing them.
On another view, they're now in terminal decline like we were in 2002 and are in for a long, lean period. If that's the case, the hard calls have to be made - we're Exhibit A in the case against muddling along for 3-4 years by topping up with old farts in a deluded belief that we were still a chance at winning the flag when, in truth, we weren't. If they believe the glory days are over, they need to take a leaf out of the Brisbane/Port book: make the hard calls, cast aside the guys who aren't up to it anymore, make some savvy trades and rebuild on the run.
Personally, i think Sydney fall into the latter category - they're not going to be able to do it anymore. They need to make a few hard calls and delaying the inevitable now will, more than likely, lead to some serious legacy issues in about 2010.
This is where things get problematic for Sydney - rebuilding for them is harder than it is for any other team, as they have a crap feeder system which produces insufficient talent to build a team from. The team they as it stands currently was built around a number of clever trades (Hall, Ball, Jolly, Richards (he's been OK for them), Everitt), a couple interstaters and even an international (Kennelly). They've introduced very few players in the last 3 years, partly because there's been no need to change a winning formula, and partly because none of their young players are at AFL level. They could look at trading a few of their mid-tiers like Buchanan, Fosdike, LRT for a few drafts, but then they'd be left with a similar problem to us: a chasm would open up between their old players and their young players, and there wouldn't be much in between.
It will be interesting to see how they go over the next three years, whatever they choose to do. Roos said after last night's match that they're not going to go for a 'slash and burn' approach because the team cannot afford to bottom out - basically, he intimated that all the Sydney bandwagoners would jump ship if they did, and that would be commercially bad for the club. He's in between a rock and a hard place as i suspect the AFL are extremely keen to see Sydney stay at least competitive (there's a plethora of evidence to support that!), but deep down i reckon he knows that their glory days are over.
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Mrs Mercuri
- Champion of Essendon
- Posts: 7035
- Joined: Thu Aug 31, 2006 3:12 pm
- Location: Melbourne
I heard on the VFL telecast today that Sydney are looking to pair up with Port Melbourne again for next season. They used to have an alliance some years back which worked well and i think they want to try it again. The swans youngsters just aren't getting decent games in the local nsw league so don't be surprised if the swans reserves are in the vfl next season.
i also think sydney will miss the finals next season, their list just seems too old at the moment.
i also think sydney will miss the finals next season, their list just seems too old at the moment.
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Mrs Mercuri
- Champion of Essendon
- Posts: 7035
- Joined: Thu Aug 31, 2006 3:12 pm
- Location: Melbourne
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Essendon4eva
- High Draft Pick
- Posts: 868
- Joined: Fri Sep 01, 2006 4:37 pm
