Swans 'lose hunger, can't win AFL flag' - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

Swans 'lose hunger, can't win AFL flag'

By Tom Wald 09/07/2006 07:45:57 PM Comments (0)

That was the wash up after Adelaide systematically dismantled the reigning premiers 15.11 (101) to 8.14 (62) in fine conditions at the SCG.

"We have lost the edge, the challenge for the footy club to go again and win it again after last year is at the moment, beyond us," Roos said.

"If we can improve, we can get that opportunity back but as we sit here now, we are clearly incapable of winning the premiership ... can that be changed? Can we get that hunger back?" Roos is normally protective of his players but this result left him trying to work out whether they had the drive to make an impact in September again.

"We were terrible, I suppose the most concern is the lack of hunger," he said.

"You have a hungry team in Adelaide against a team that won the premiership last year and has lost the hunger." The result continued the South Australian club's (12 wins, two losses) domination of the Swans, having won six of seven matches during Roos' reign.

The Swans (8-6) again suffered the yips in front of goal and have now lost three of their last four matches heading into next week's match against West Coast in Perth.

"Next week we have the Eagles so you just hope the challenge of the opposition just continues to get the best out of your players, today we were not able to do that," Roos said.

It was Sydney's biggest loss of the season, eclipsing a 27-point defeat to Essendon in round one.

However the Crows deserve plenty of credit for the way they took control of the errant Swans with a six goal-to-one second term.

Sydney's spearhead Barry Hall was kept goal-less for the second straight week and he and Michael O'Loughlin both failed to convert straight forward set shots and combined for 1.7.

Such misses were always going to be costly against the efficient Crows, who had many stars on the day.

Tireless midfielder Simon Goodwin was best on ground with 27 touches and a goal while Graham Johncock, Trent Hentschel and Ben Rutten all performed strongly.

Adam Goodes, Jarrad McVeigh, Lewis Roberts-Thomson and Luke Vogels were the best contributors for Sydney.

Adelaide coach Neil Craig admitted being such strong flag frontrunners was new territory for the Crows, who won both their titles from outside the top three.

"I think we are playing good football and we don't shy away from that and our guys are very proud of that as they should be," he said.

"But we still continue on, still a lot of games to go and a lot of things can happen." Craig's men have only lost two matches this season, a two-point home loss to the West Coast in round one and a three-point defeat to Richmond at Telstra Dome in round eight.

The Eagles, who have hardly been convincingly recently, appear to be the only real danger for the Crows at the moment with the men from the west having the running strength to stretch Adelaide's ferocious press defence.

West Coast has won three of their past four clashes with the Crows and the match on July 29 in Perth looms as a possible minor premiership decider.

But before then the Crows have home matches against Hawthorn and the Kangaroos to deal with.

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