Good article

[Dutchy]

Roos fly flag for tradition
By Patrick Smith
May 10, 2007 LOCALS were howling for an inquest into the death of Victorian football not long into the season.

Commentators pondered what artificial aids the AFL might consider to give the Victorians some hope. A four-goal start perhaps against any side not based in Melbourne or thereabouts.

West Coast could play with 22 players normally, but when pitted against Melbourne clubs no more than nine players would be allowed on the ground at any given time. Some coaches thought it appropriate that Chris Judd have a free-kick awarded against him every four minutes. Even if he was on the interchange bench. Or out injured.

AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou was asked if he was concerned. He wasn't, even suggested it may have been an overreaction. Form and winning might prove to be something quite cyclical, offered Demetriou. Clearly, the fool knew nothing.

After three rounds Melbourne, Richmond and the Kangaroos were winless. So was Fremantle, but who the hell cared about them? Worse, Western Bulldogs, the team anointed to break the non-Victorian stranglehold on the premiership, had won one match and that was against the Nutters down at Geelong. Didn't count.

No, Victorian football was all but dead. The stench was too much for the Kangaroos and they were putting plans to rot not at Arden St but up on the Gold Coast. But not before they sacked coach Dean Laidley, who was only warming the match-up board for Wayne Carey's buddy John Longmire.

And Robert Walls thought this a very good idea because he had written that Laidley was a dill as a coach anyway.

If there was any hope, it rested with Essendon and the master coach Kevin Sheedy. The Bombers had won the first game against Adelaide at AAMI Stadium, beat Fremantle at the Dome and were clobbering Carlton at the MCG until the boys got ahead of themselves a tad and the Blues ran over them to win by three points.

Tomorrow night the Bombers play the Kangaroos and much has changed. Collingwood, Hawthorn and Geelong are all in the top six on the ladder. And Essendon and the Kangaroos have won as many matches as Adelaide and Sydney and one more than Fremantle. Maybe that Demetriou dude isn't so silly after all.

Most importantly, the Kangaroos have won their past three games. They have beaten Brisbane at Carrara, then they beat the Nutters by 16 points followed by another 16-point win over last year's grand finalist Sydney. Essendon has lost three of its past four games. Laidley's future at the Kangaroos seems assured, speculation bubbles about Sheedy's contract at Essendon. Football has been turned on its head in three weeks.

That the Kangaroos lost the first three games was a disaster. No team had worked harder or longer in the pre-season than Laidley's men. Losing Nathan Thompson to a knee reconstruction hurt but the side had been finely tuned before the season start nonetheless. They should have got off to a flyer. And they would have, too, if Shannon Grant had kicked straight from 15 metres in the first round against Collingwood.

Some observers said that the players had worked so hard before and after Christmas that it would be crucial that the Kangaroos win all their early matches because fatigue would hit hard towards the end of the year. That remains to be tested.

Right now the Kangaroos are one of three teams to have won their past three games. The others -- West Coast and Port Adelaide -- sit first and second on the ladder. Laidley appeared on the front page of the Herald Sun last Saturday wearing Groucho Marx eyebrows and glasses with cigar in hand. The other side of the usually grim-faced coach. In a way it was symbolic of what has happened with the Kangaroos.

The coach has liberated the players. The game plan is less laborious and structured. Meticulous care of the ball in the back half has given way to a more direct game, where the ball is still fiercely fought for but driven into the forward line at speed. There Laidley has Aaron Edwards looking as though he could become the figurehead forward lost when Thompson's knee went on him pre-season. And Matt Campbell is a small forward who not only kicks goals (three last week) but can keep the ball in (six tackles).

Essendon has lost the sizzle that so excited everyone at the start of the year. Like the Kangaroos, the Bombers worked hard through the pre-season. And they played a lot of matches. They had a heavy schedule of pre-season and NAB Cup competition. The heavy workload is telling. You can hear hamstrings snap by the minute.

A week ago yesterday, Sheedy ordered match practice because of the long break after the Anzac Day game against Collingwood. Three players did their hamstrings, including skipper Matthew Lloyd.

Suddenly Essendon's young players who delivered all that dash early look drained or are injured. Leroy Jetta's resting a sore groin, Courtenay Dempsey can't get on to the ground because of a hamstring, Jason Laycock lumbers about the place like a man who has played too much football and it is only round seven.

Jason Winderlich made a moderate return from hamstring soreness and Angus Monfries is not nearly as influential as he has been. And the Bombers badly miss David Hille (another hamstring) in the ruck because it forces 19-year-old tall defender Patrick Ryder to double his workload.

Veteran James Hird played on this year because he felt Essendon could make the finals. It is exhausting him as Sheedy pushes him into the midfield, looking for some authority at the fall of the ball.

The experts might be right and the Kangaroos will run out of puff by the end of the season. As for the Bombers, the worry is that they have already.

[smac]

Agree Dutchy, quite well written. Sums things up reasonably well also.

[Dutchy]

Im not usually a P Smith fan either!!

[smac]

I usually avoid the bloke, but didn't see his name when I started reading - the style was familiar, but the quality was surprising.

[Hondo]

Very good article ..... I haven't seen much of the Roos but Dutchy's stats and now this article confirm a new, more direct game plan is in place and seems to be going well. I bet they would have taken 3-3 at the start of the season.

If West Coast can stay injury-free they will be very hard to beat.

Injuries are de-railing a few teams - Melbourne, St Kilda, Adelaide (injury list up to 18 now I hear). They had Jamie Charman on the radio and he was commenting on how few injuries they have and said the Crows are now where the Lions were 2 years ago - needing two hands to count all the missing players. As Malcolm Blight says sometimes those football gods aren't always friendly.

[Dutchy]

Watch the Roos tonight and would be interested in your thoughts...they are finally on FTA!!!!

[Hondo]

Watch the Roos tonight and would be interested in your thoughts...they are finally on FTA!!!!

They looked good Dutchy. Definitely look like they are moving the ball long and direct to goal at every opportunity. Very impressed with young guys like Harris, Firrito and Swallow. They also seem to have covered Thompson well. They are a real chance for the 8.

Bombers returning to pre-season expections IMO. How did they beat us in round 1?

[Dog_ger]

Crows to win in Brisbane

8 points

[McAlmanac]

The first half of the article is typical Patrick Smith sarcastic cr@p. The second half is a decent analysis that could have been written by any of the Herald Sun's stable of footy hacks. Patrick Smith doesn't actually attend sport - he writes everything from home . He is a tool.

[Coorong]

The first half of the article is typical Patrick Smith sarcastic cr@p. The second half is a decent analysis that could have been written by any of the Herald Sun's stable of footy hacks. Patrick Smith doesn't actually attend sport - he writes everything from home . He is a tool.

You only have to listen to him on KB's show to realise that

[sydney-dog]

Sheedy showed last year the Bombers had one Game plan which revolved around Llyod and again the Bombers can not find a way to win without Llyod

No Doubt in my mind the Essendon F C has become a bit stale, it is time for change

[Hondo]

The word from the Footy Classified show and repeated on 5AA this morning is that the Bombers' Board may be looking at one of the biggest decisions in the club's history at the end of the year if they don't make the 8.

Sheedy is a great coach but only 2 premierships since 1985 is a very long stint and maybe it's time for a change. Early days tho he might surprise by the end of the year.

[mighty_tiger_79]

going on something Hird said earlier in the year, is if they dont finish in the top 4 let alone the top 8 then i think major changes will be made..........

[stampy]

i reckon sheeds would jump before he was pushed