COACH Paul Roos says his team has “two or three” clear areas to focus on this Sunday, when it takes on Greater Western Sydney at Spotless Stadium.
Reflecting on last Sunday’s dismal 93-point loss to the West Coast Eagles at the MCG, Roos said the post-match review on Monday produced a handful of areas that needed to be fixed immediately – but not all could be addressed within a week.
“When the game’s such a bad loss there are a lot of things that need to be corrected, so you can’t go over all of them,” he said on Dee TV’s Roos’ Views.
“As a team – coaches and players – getting together, we let the players do a review also – so, what are they seeing [from] the game? Were they able to execute or were they not sure on what we’ve been telling them to do? It’s a whole collective thing to get the players involved.
“But you can’t break down every part of the game and we’re trying to concentrate this week [against] the Giants on two or three things and really get that right and then move to the next level.”
Roos said one non-negotiable against GWS was that his side must play a contested brand of football.
“I think every team tries to present a competitive team,” he said.
“I think the young teams of the Suns and the Giants, when they evolved three or four years ago, their main focus was contested footy and a physical game. They’re the things that we want to present as a playing group and a coaching group as a collective.
“We want to be seen as a more competitive team than what we were last week.”
Roos said the players were bitterly disappointed with their round two performance on the back of several tough years at the club.
“It was a tough game and it was very disappointing from everyone at the club after a reasonable start [to the year],” he said.
“We felt we played well against St Kilda without getting the points, so to fall apart so dramatically was really disappointing. [We’re] just trying to focus on some of the real basic things that we need to do to compete at AFL level and they’re the things that we need to get better at.
“What we’re trying to do now is just move forward – we’re sick of what’s happened in the past.”
Roos said he was mindful of what the players had experienced in recent years, but he was adamant they needed to put the past behind them.
“It’s about now moving on and we’ve been really mindful of the group and where they’ve been,” he said.
“We’ve spoken to the players and they agree – it’s now time to forget the past, and the past is irrelevant.
“There are mechanisms you can use to try and get that out of their own minds – each and every individual. But I think from a coaching point of view, we’ve got to forget the past and move forward.”
Roos said it was a timely opportunity for the team to travel to Sydney this round.
“From a good point of view, travelling together gets you closer and gets you socialising together and eating together,” he said.
“A lot of conversations take place on road trips, which would not normally take place, so … it’s a real chance to continue to do the things that we want to do, and it’s good for the players to get together.”
Roos said this week’s clash was no more critical than any other, but it would be a challenge against the much-improved Giants.
“Every game is really critical and we know where we want to try and get to and that’s what we’ve really got to concentrate on – trying to get there as quick as we can,” he said.
“It doesn’t matter who we play, where we play – every game’s a challenge, but it’s also an opportunity to continue to improve.”
