*Even better than I can put it. When in doubt - handpass backwards. If still in doubt turn the ball over.*

Bollocks!

There's no need to let a boof-head like Walls influence your judgement of the game. Do you really think the team plays badly deliberately?

Do you think Roos instructs his team to miss handpasses, kick passes to the opposition and kick behinds instead of goals? Of course he doesn't.

The big difference from last year is that the Swans can't kick straight. They'd only have to convert a couple of the behinds they've kicked per game to turn around that low scoring statistic.

The tactics of slowing the game has won them more than they've lost. Notable wins are Brisbane this year, and the Port final two seasons ago. It's nothing new. It's up to the opposing teams to counter the tactics. They're not a team of superstars, but they've generally played above themselves.

What's in it for the Swans to play 'attacking football' and lose every game? How do think that will progress the code in Sydney?

For a better idea of my thoughts, see http://www.aeran.info/weblog_afl/archives/2005/05/afl_media_boof.html .

"There's no need to let a boof-head like Walls influence your judgement of the game"

I don't. I use my two eyes to see what happens to this team when they are put under pressure by quality sides. 8 times out of 10 they play the same way they played against St Kilda, going backwards, turning the ball over and putting teammates under pressure with poor disposal.

Yes a few times the players stand up with win like we get against Brisbane in 03 and 05 and of course the Port final in 03. But those wins hide the truth about this team and why we won't win a premiership anytime soon - we rely on a crapshoot that our opposition fails to turn up to play against us and we take advantage of that.

Alot of Swans fans fail to see the big picture when they look at current form and week by week results, they just think one day things will click and all of a sudden we'll be flying the Premiership flag off the Sydney Town Hall.

"What's in it for the Swans to play 'attacking football' and lose every game? How do think that will progress the code in Sydney?"

So how do you think the current style will do anything but hurt the code in Sydney. Yes winning helps, but at the end of the day the Swans need to win a premiership to do more to promote this code in Sydney than anything before it. You seem to think that by not playing attacking football we stand to win something, well I've got news for you WE WON'T.

Also the reason we should play attacking football is so if we lose and lose badly at least we know where certain players sit as to their quality to deliver the Swans a Premiership.

By playing this dour style of play we don't promote the code in Sydney, we won't grow it, we won't win a premiership and we won't be able to make decisions that help in a persuit of glory because we don't know if players are suitable to premiership winning style of football.

Kick Straight isn't going to make this team anymore of a premiership team than if we allow the players to play to a style that suits them.

"8 times out of 10 they play the same way they played against St Kilda, going backwards, turning the ball over and putting teammates under pressure with poor disposal."

Well, they've won six and lost five so far.

I agree they're not a team of superstars, and it shows. But you intimated that it was Roo's doing in your original article. "Problem with what is being said is that Roos is unwilling to change." That was echoing Walls and in my opinion it's not correct.

"So how do you think the current style will do anything but hurt the code in Sydney." They're doing something right. I go to most games at the SCG and I see crowds of around 25000, and they have a membership of about the same number. Compare that to the early years. I've been attending games since since they first moved to Sydney. In the late 80s and early 90s a crowd of 10k was good, and most of those were the opposing team's fans.

"Also the reason we should play attacking football is so if we lose and lose badly at least we know where certain players sit as to their quality to deliver the Swans a Premiership." I think it's pretty obvious who the drones are regardless of the playing style.

Deliberately playing tactics that will lose games is lunacy, attacking footy or not. Sydney is a one team city. When they play badly, it reflects badly on the whole place, and interest wanes very quickly. It's happened before, and it almost caused the team to fold.

The game is on a knife edge here. One bad season and the crowds will halve and the club will be in debt.

Who do you replace the 'certain players' with? We have to play *really* badly to gain the benefit of good draft picks, and that's the problem. I don't think we have the luxury of taking that path, unlike the Saints and the Cats. The AFL is making it tougher for the Swans (and the Lions) to hold players as they're phasing out the salary cap consessions. Watch the Melbourne clubs' mafia scream if the AFL even thinks of another assistance measure.

It's a dilemma. That's why the team is persuing a home grown youth policy, but it's very risky. What's the alternative? Buggered if I know.

[Addendum to be deleted if you post my comment]

May I make a couple of suggestions in good faith about your blog? Let comments be published immediately rather that have to wait for approval. If it's abusive you can alway delete it later. Blogging is all about spontaneity and it's a pain for your readers if they have to wait days for the comments to appear.

If you have problems with spam then I suggest MT blacklist plug-in. I use it and it works fine.

One last thing, allow some HTML in the comments. Makes it much more readable if you can use the a, i, b, and blockquote tags. It's a setting in the blog configuration.

"They're doing something right. I go to most games at the SCG and I see crowds of around 25000, and they have a membership of about the same number."

But think that our membership total is 25,000 with at least 6,000 - 7,000 of those being Melbourne based members which the club makes no profits on, so really our true membership total is basically under 20,000 and the smallest in the league.

"Deliberately playing tactics that will lose games is lunacy, attacking footy or not."

Who said that if we play attacking football that we will lose??? What I suggested is that we play a more attacking style and see how that goes. If we win doing it great, if we lose, well that puts us in a positon to decide what we need to do as a football club to build a playing side that can win a premiership.

Regardless of the state of the game in Sydney, one thing is for sure, the way we have played this year won't a) win us a premiership and b) slowly lose us support in Sydney because at the end of the day Sydney people want to be "entertained". Lack of success will drive people away if we don't stop with these negitive tactics and only use them WHEN we really need to use them.

"The game is on a knife edge here. One bad season and the crowds will halve and the club will be in debt."

Thats bullshit and you know it. Finishing 12th in 2002 didn't halve our crowds and the only reason we even posted a loss that season was because of over spending and the 3 games out at Telstra Stadium costing the club too much money. At this stage the club has no debt to speak of and thats despite posting a $1.5 million loss in 2002.

"I don't think we have the luxury of taking that path, unlike the Saints and the Cats."

Of course we don't but then again we won't find ourselves in the positions the Saints found themselves in. The Cats on the other hand didn't bottom out and re-built their list with only one Top 5 pick between 2000 and 2004. They show how you can spend a year or two just outside the Top 8 and still benefit from the draft as long as you do your scouting well.

Sooner or later the Swans will bottom out big time unless steps are taken now to correct the slide and by trying to hide the limitations of this list by playing negitive football will have a greater impact long term, than just one year out of the finals (which I'm not suggesting will happen this year)