SWANS V ROOS - MATCH REPORT
Liz Read - 25 May 2003

After four wins on the trot, the Swans wandered down the road to Manuka Oval this week to take on a Roos team that, in recent years, they have had the wood over. A late fitness test saw Cresswell ruled out of the game, joining O'Loughlin and Saddington on the sidelines. Stevens came into replace him, while Wells came in to the Roos squad in place of Shannon Grant.

Unfortunately your reviewer was caught unawares by the earlier start time than normal and the first quarter was over by the time she wandered downstairs to turn on the TV. So all I can tell you about the first quarter is that Hall and Harvey each kicked three goals and the Roos lead by 11 points by the change.

The Swans were kicking into a swirling wind for the second quarter and it seemed to be causing them problems. Numerous kicks went straight to the opposition, virtually uncontested. The Roos dominated across their half back line and were looking dangerous on the rebound. In fact, they were looking dangerous all over the ground. The Swans were somewhat fortunate that they weren't punished more on the scoreboard, conceding only two goals.

A brilliant kick by Schneider almost got the Swans score ticking along but he was adjudged to have marginally crossed the boundary line on his approach to goal. It was left to Nicks, late in the quarter, to snare Sydney's only goal for the quarter.

The third quarter opened pretty much where the second had left off. Even with the help of the wind Sydney were unable to penetrate the Roos' defence. Schneider again looked the player most likely with a couple of snaps registering behinds, but otherwise the forward line was pretty barren. North Melbourne's delivery into their forward line was far more potent and they added four majors to stretch the lead to 40 points. A late goal to Davis was all the Swans could muster.

To their credit Sydney put on something of a charge in the final term.
Their delivery through the midfield improved considerably and they kicked the first 3 goals of the quarter to reduce the lead to just 19 points. (Admittedly they were helped by some ordinary kicking at the other end, with the Roos registering five behinds in a row.)

However, the self belief never really seemed to be there, even when they were kicking goals, and when Drew Petrie finally snared one for the home team the game was over.

Brady Rawlings was superb for North Melbourne. He completely cut Williams out of the game while helping himself to 24 disposals of his own.

The Swans defence again looked midget compared to their opposition and, under these circumstances, performed creditably. But when you only manage two goals in two quarters of footy you are always going to struggle to win a game. Poor turnovers coming out of defence hit the Swans badly and the forwards were given very little to work with.

Schneider was lively while on the ground and Maxfield was definitely the pick of the midfielders. Goodes worked very hard but made some costly skill errors, while the rest of the midfield generally looked flat.

While not a disastrous loss, this game demonstrates that the Swans have some way to go yet to becoming a consistent team. To be fair, this is something Roos has been reminding us of weekly. The loss of Cresswell was significant, and Roos himself will probably acknowledge that, when the hard-running, free-wheeling game plan fails to fire, the team doesn't currently seem to have a plan B.

Next week will be a huge challenge, coming up against the inform Tigers whose height - especially if Stafford recovers - will definitely stretch our defence. The Swans will need to rely on far more than the "Subi-curse" if they are to snare that one.