Goodes a `weak' link
29 May 2004 Herald Sun
Tim Morrissey
WESTERN Bulldogs coach Peter Rohde says Adam Goodes, and his unstable right knee, could be the weak link in Sydney's backline tonight.
Goodes ruptured his posterior cruciate ligament 15 days ago at the opening bounce of the game against West Coast.
The Swans star made a remarkable recovery and played at centre half-back in the win over Hawthorn last weekend, but clearly wasn't at his athletic best.
Rohde is hoping the Bulldogs can exploit Goodes.
"(Goodes) is a very valuable player for the Swans, but even they would have to agree he's not quite 100 per cent and we can hopefully take advantage of that," Rohde said.
"He is a very athletic player for his size, but early in the (Hawthorn) game I thought he looked like he lacked a little confidence.
"I thought again very late in the match he also started to look a little bit sore.
"He's had another week to recover, so that's going to be to his advantage, but that sort of injury isn't going to correct itself in one or two weeks."
Rohde may have changed his opinion had he watched Goodes move with more confidence and speed at Swans training yesterday than he did a week earlier.
Rohde said the Bulldogs (3-6) were overdue a change of fortune and, having won four of their past five matches at the SCG, he was confident the turnaround could begin tonight.
"We've had a very consistent year in lots of ways. It's a funny thing to say when you've only won three games," Rohde said.
"But we were within 10 points (of winning) in our first three games, we've won three of our last five, so our form has been pretty reasonable all the way through.
"We need to put consecutive wins together. We had a win last week and we've targeted (the Swans game) as another one.
"For us to move up the ladder we need to put two, three, four wins together at some stage, which is something we haven't done for 18 months."
Bookmarks