one thing that i find really comforting

[penga]

looking around at different "expert's" opinions on where sydney will finish apart from Walls' prediction, everyone has us bottom 4... for years now we have been talked up during preseason and then dropped our form and played the usual crappy unconvincing style during the main season... who can forget ben mathews saying "we can go top two" at the beginning of last season... well the one thing i find comforting is that imo whenever we are the underdogs we have a better chance of winning... in 2000 when we played essendon at the scg i knew we would be better off if we were down at half time we would have a better chance of winning... we then turned around in the 3rd to keep the bombers scoreless (if not scoreless, goalless) and nearly won the game from the then unbeatable bombers

my point is this, the swans as underdogs play a much better game even under eade, we were always so much more attacking. so now that we have roos as head coach with his attacking style of game and everyone expecting us to lose almost every single game i think the swans will attack every game with vigour rather than an unsubstantiated confidence...

and even if we do finish bottom 4, what have we lost (apart from games)... we will have lived up to everyone's expectations, and we will see some new faces come into the game...

im looking forward to "season proper" for 2003

[NMWBloods]

Playing better as underdogs than frontrunners certainly has been a feature of Sydney, who sometimes seem to believe their own press. In 97 and 98, every time we were touted as possible challengers to the flag, we fell in a heap. I feel a lot more comfortable too, with us downplaying our prospects.