Roos Dee-livers
Melbourne coach Paul Roos says his review of Saturday's win over Richmond has highlighted what an exceptional win it was for the emerging Demons. "Obviously for us to win the game of football we can't rely on one or two players, that's pretty clear," Roos told SEN. "I think the fact that we got really good effort, some really good performances from the majority of our players. I think it was our best performance of the year from that point of view. You can argue that Adelaide in Adelaide was a harder win but I just felt, (we) probably had better players across the board on the weekend against a team that last year played finals and obviously had a lot to play for so that was probably the most pleasing thing."
Finnis has a Little problem
Former AFLPA CEO Matt Finnis has questioned Essendon chairman Paul Little's comments about self-reporting on the Bombers supplement scandal. Little has previously said he felt self-reporting to the AFL stopped the Bombers from controlling the whole process, one that led to coach James Hird being suspended for a year and the club booted from the finals. But Finnis, now the St Kilda chief executive, wasn't a fan of the comments. "For us to suggest that if you become aware of something which goes to health and safety, which goes to potential breaches of integrity, I think we’d all rely upon the fact that clubs would put their hands up and talk to the right authorities about that," Finnis said in quotes from the AFL website. "We can’t lose sight of essentially what our moral compass is as an industry, as a league. These players were going to work in an environment which the club’s own independent report described as 'pharmacologically experimental'. “The players needed to share this information so people around them could make assessments as to the risks they were exposed to. Let alone in relation to their health, let alone in relation to any anti-doping rules."
Swans bounce back from Kangaroos
Sydney midfielder Luke Parker says the club's horror Round 4 loss to North Melbourne sparked the Swans' rise from pretenders to contenders this season. The Swans started poorly this year with losses to GWS and Collingwood but looked to have turned things around when they smashed Adelaide in Round 3. But a humiliating 43-point loss to North sat them on their rump yet again. Yet Parker said a clear-the-air meeting at the club sparked a revival that's now seen them win their last five games. "We sat down after the North game and had a look at it and made a few calls that really we needed to turn around," said Parker on the AFL website. "We needed to pick up our pressure. It was pretty basic stuff - our work-rate really needed to lift - since then it has."
Saints hurting
St Kilda coach Alan Richardson says the injury-hit club are looking forward to the week off after limping into their bye weekend on the back of a 38-point loss to Gold Coast on Sunday. The damage, though, could have been much greater for the Saints as they trailed by 55 at half-time before unleashing a six-goal third term, their best quarter of the season. But with several big names out with long-term injuries the week off has come at the ight time for Richardson's undermanned team. It's a good opportunity for us to rest up - get a little bit of work in, but work that means the guys will be potentially in better shape after the break," Richardson told reporters. "We have some really strong competition - we play three of the better teams in terms of ladder position straight after the bye and we're going to need to be in really good shape to be competitive. We need to make sure that we're right physically, so we'll review the game, they'll rehab tomorrow … then we'll have a reasonable hit-out on Wednesday and then they'll have a couple of days off. We'll be back on deck over the weekend to make sure we're ready to go."