Kangas have no place to hide
19 April 2004 Herald Sun
Tim Morrissey

THE Kangaroos picked a fine time to humiliate themselves.
Footy fanatics go off



Standing up: Swan Adam Goodes out-positions Kangaroo Leigh Colbert to take one of his 10 marks, this one over teammate Barry Hall.
Picture: Ray Strange



A record 14,891 fans turned up to the Roos' second home at Manuka Oval yesterday.

They left feeling embarrassed for the part-time Canberra tenant.

Leading by 25 points late in the first quarter, the Roos became a rabble as Sydney kicked the next 12 goals on the way to a 51-point victory.

One of the reddest faces belonged to Roo stalwart Anthony Stevens, who was reported by umpire Mathew James for striking Swan Adam Goodes in the third quarter.

"At three-quarter time I asked (the players) to save the embarrassment, to actually win the final quarter, which they did," Kangaroos coach Dean Laidley said.

"I thought the first 20 minutes we played to instruction, then after that, for whatever reason, we stopped doing the things we were doing that made us so good in the first 20-odd minutes.

"I'm not going to go into detail about those instructions, but I thought our work ethic just dropped off. I just thought we stopped working hard for our mates."

The Swans crushed the Kangaroos' perfect start to the season, with Jason Saddington the unlikely wrecking ball.

Saddington has been sent forward after struggling in defence. Yesterday he became another goalkicking weapon for the Swans, booting 4.1 and grabbing eight marks.

Saddington's performance up front gives coach Paul Roos a wide choice of scoring options in the forward line, with Michael O'Loughlin and Nick Davis both likely to return to the side for Saturday night's Anzac Day game against Melbourne at Telstra Stadium.

"I thought Saddo was outstanding today just his ability to compete third man in, a couple of really good marks," Roos said. "Just his workrate was outstanding, his pressure skills. It was a real plus for him and a real plus for the club because good forwards are very hard to come by.

"It's something we wanted to try for a while and when a player is struggling a little bit it is easier to experiment with him in a different position."

Take away the Swans' slow start and it was close to a flawless game by Sydney and easily its best performance this season.

"It looked like (the Kangas) were going to kick 40 (goals for the game), thankfully it didn't happen," Roos said. "We started to get around the ball and started to get in and under and we started to win the football. It was pretty simple."

All but two Sydney players finished with double digits in disposals, with Ben Mathews (31), Nic Fosdike (30) and Jude Bolton (26) leading this amazing stat.

"We do need quality contributors across the board and we got it today," Roos said.
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