Week 2 - Hawks/Roos
Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2007 11:11 amThis might fire the boys up, win or lose you will see a different Roos side this week -
KANGAROOS great Glenn Archer has vowed to find personal and team redemption this weekend after admitting he shamed the blue and white jumper on Sunday.
As the Kangaroos try to re-load after their 106-point humiliation to Geelong, Archer said the mental scars would be gone today and all energies would be put into playing Hawthorn on Saturday night. But the loss haunted him yesterday.
"When you play like that you basically are disgracing the jumper you're playing for," Archer said.
"There have been many games when I've walked off and thought I didn't play well, but there's been only a couple of games I've walked off and thought, 'No, you probably didn't deserve to wear the jumper today'. It is such a crap feeling.
"I've played a lot of finals and most of them have been OK, but Sunday's wasn't too good.
"No doubt it was my worst final.
"In the end I was angry, frustrated, knowing that, personally, it was one of my last games. Secondly, I was frustrated with the way the whole team played, we just let them waltz through us, do whatever they wanted to do to us in the end.
"I'm still a bit flat, but I'm getting better. I'm getting better as I get older getting over games like that.
"Moping, whinging, feeling sorry for yourself isn't going to help, you've got to move on straight away."
The veteran Kangaroo and his teammates were mesmerised by Geelong's final three quarters, drawing a furious response from coach Dean Laidley. Laidley locked out all club and coaching officials and supporters after the game and delivered a brutally honest assessment to the team.
Archer was dragged in the first quarter and had his opponent, Paul Chapman, kick three of Geelong's first four goals.
The Cats admitted post-match they had Archer in the gun.
They dragged him back to the goalsquare to try to exploit any pace deficiencies and stop his most powerful quality: to cut off kicks and be the third man up in contests.
"Laids gave it to us and deservedly so, absolutely, you can't put up a performance like that and not expect to get a roasting," Archer said.
"(But) there's nothing we can do about it now," Archer said.
"No one means to go out and play like that, sometimes it just happens like that.
"We know we can bounce back. We were in the same boat in 2000. We played Essendon in the first final and lost by 125 points and then we played Hawthorn the next week and beat them by 10 points.
"It starts with the players. The coach can't do much more than what he's doing. It starts at the first bounce on Saturday night.
"We can train our bums off during the week but the only place to fix it is out on the ground and you'll know in the first five minutes if we mean business."
The Kangaroos lost all confidence after the quarter-time break, which meant the players were caught in the twilight world of chasing and blaming and, during the second half, mental and physical exhaustion.
Archer said that during the final quarter, when the Cats piled on seven goals, he wanted to "dig a hole and crawl into it".
'It's a confidence thing," he said.
"It just spread through the whole team at quarter-time and before you knew it the whole confidence in each other was shot."
Archer joined skipper Adam Simpson, Brady Rawlings, Corey Jones, Drew Petrie, Daniel Pratt and others for a post-game wind-down at Simpson's house. It included a couple of beers, but not many.
"It was good," Archer said. "Usually I go straight home, but I decided to go have a couple quiet beers together and be with each other instead of being on your own."
Kangaroos officials yesterday said it was up to the middle-tier players to respond but Archer was adamant it started with senior players, such as Brent Harvey, himself, Shannon Grant and Drew Petrie.
"Everyone has to stand up but it's got to come from the senior blokes, the ones that have been there before should know what to expect in a final," he said.
KANGAROOS great Glenn Archer has vowed to find personal and team redemption this weekend after admitting he shamed the blue and white jumper on Sunday.
As the Kangaroos try to re-load after their 106-point humiliation to Geelong, Archer said the mental scars would be gone today and all energies would be put into playing Hawthorn on Saturday night. But the loss haunted him yesterday.
"When you play like that you basically are disgracing the jumper you're playing for," Archer said.
"There have been many games when I've walked off and thought I didn't play well, but there's been only a couple of games I've walked off and thought, 'No, you probably didn't deserve to wear the jumper today'. It is such a crap feeling.
"I've played a lot of finals and most of them have been OK, but Sunday's wasn't too good.
"No doubt it was my worst final.
"In the end I was angry, frustrated, knowing that, personally, it was one of my last games. Secondly, I was frustrated with the way the whole team played, we just let them waltz through us, do whatever they wanted to do to us in the end.
"I'm still a bit flat, but I'm getting better. I'm getting better as I get older getting over games like that.
"Moping, whinging, feeling sorry for yourself isn't going to help, you've got to move on straight away."
The veteran Kangaroo and his teammates were mesmerised by Geelong's final three quarters, drawing a furious response from coach Dean Laidley. Laidley locked out all club and coaching officials and supporters after the game and delivered a brutally honest assessment to the team.
Archer was dragged in the first quarter and had his opponent, Paul Chapman, kick three of Geelong's first four goals.
The Cats admitted post-match they had Archer in the gun.
They dragged him back to the goalsquare to try to exploit any pace deficiencies and stop his most powerful quality: to cut off kicks and be the third man up in contests.
"Laids gave it to us and deservedly so, absolutely, you can't put up a performance like that and not expect to get a roasting," Archer said.
"(But) there's nothing we can do about it now," Archer said.
"No one means to go out and play like that, sometimes it just happens like that.
"We know we can bounce back. We were in the same boat in 2000. We played Essendon in the first final and lost by 125 points and then we played Hawthorn the next week and beat them by 10 points.
"It starts with the players. The coach can't do much more than what he's doing. It starts at the first bounce on Saturday night.
"We can train our bums off during the week but the only place to fix it is out on the ground and you'll know in the first five minutes if we mean business."
The Kangaroos lost all confidence after the quarter-time break, which meant the players were caught in the twilight world of chasing and blaming and, during the second half, mental and physical exhaustion.
Archer said that during the final quarter, when the Cats piled on seven goals, he wanted to "dig a hole and crawl into it".
'It's a confidence thing," he said.
"It just spread through the whole team at quarter-time and before you knew it the whole confidence in each other was shot."
Archer joined skipper Adam Simpson, Brady Rawlings, Corey Jones, Drew Petrie, Daniel Pratt and others for a post-game wind-down at Simpson's house. It included a couple of beers, but not many.
"It was good," Archer said. "Usually I go straight home, but I decided to go have a couple quiet beers together and be with each other instead of being on your own."
Kangaroos officials yesterday said it was up to the middle-tier players to respond but Archer was adamant it started with senior players, such as Brent Harvey, himself, Shannon Grant and Drew Petrie.
"Everyone has to stand up but it's got to come from the senior blokes, the ones that have been there before should know what to expect in a final," he said.
