It may be a tall story, but Roos think Swans may come up short
Australian football By Ben Doherty
Wednesday, 14 April 2004
He won't be doing it himself, but the Kangaroos' vice-captain, Brent Harvey, reckons his side can stretch the Sydney Swans' defence for height when the two teams meet on Sunday.
At just 172cm, Harvey is unlikely to send shivers down the spine of any centre-half back on size alone, but the Roos have some quality tall timber up forward, which Harvey believes could prove the difference.
"Sydney obviously has a very strong forward line with [Barry] Hall and [Adam] Goodes, and their midfield, with the likes of [Paul] Williams, [Jude] Bolton and [Stuart] Maxfield is as good as any, but they're not tall in defence, and that's where we might trouble them."
Last week against Carlton, the Roos started Leigh Brown (193cm), Corey McKernan (197cm) and Drew Petrie (197cm) in the front six.
Between them they contributed six goals, but more importantly, straightened up the Roos, offering leading targets for the midfielders to kick to.
"I think we match up pretty well with the Swans all over the ground, the midfield match-ups especially will be very good, but I reckon we are a little bit taller up forward and we might be able to exploit that."
In Canberra yesterday for the announcement of a three-year sponsorship deal with ActewAGL, Harvey said the old footballing adage "winning form is good form" is one which rings true for the Kangaroos.
The Shinboners were hardly impressive in limping home against Carlton last week, saved by a contentious free-kick and the resultant goal by wunderkind Daniel Wells.
"After two good wins in the first two rounds, we didn't play anywhere near our best against Carlton," Harvey said.
"But we did win the game and I think that's important, the fact that we win even when we don't play our best. Those games are easily lost, so the win was really good for us."
With three wins from as many starts this year, the Kangaroos are travelling as well as anybody.
But still the talk - from the Melbourne media especially - is of "scrappy victories" won on the back of the famous "Shinboner spirit".
While Harvey said the spirit was alive and well at Arden Street, he believes the constant referral to it is selling his team short.
"We've got a lot of talent in this group, and I think sometimes that gets missed by a lot of people.
"When you can start a game with a bench of [David] King, [Daniel] Harris, [Daniel] Wells and [Eddie] Sansbury, it shows you have a pretty strong side.
"In previous years, we haven't had the luxury of giving blokes like Adam Simpson and Anthony Stevens a rest on the bench. Now they come to the bench for a spell knowing that whoever goes on will continue to play to the same level."
The Roos' depth is further highlighted by the fact players like Saverio Rocca - a 600-goal AFL forward - is languishing in the twos at Port Melbourne, along with the likes of Jeremy Clayton, David Hale and Shane Harvey.
Sunday's match is the first of a tough seven-week program for the Roos - last season's four preliminary finalists, plus St Kilda, await them, but the Roos haven't yet looked that far ahead yet. According to Harvey - digging deeply into the bag of footballing cliches - the Kangas are taking the season "one week at a time".
"The competition is too even to worry about when you play which sides, you have to put all your energy into your next game," he said.
http://canberra.yourguide.com.au/det...545&y=2004&m=4
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