d, who ran into space on the right and from corse178's blog
In Melbourne this week, the town has been painted red, white and blue in honor of the Bulldogs. Seahawks Jerseys Authentic China . You would scarcely know the Sydney Swans, minor premiers and constant superpower of the AFL, are playing let alone that they produced the best 30-40 minutes of football we have seen all season to start the preliminary final against Geelong.The most pragmatic of Sydney supporters would understand all this. Western Bulldogs won their first and only premiership in 1954, when Robert Menzies was Prime Minister; it is the longest current losing streak in the sport, so no one in their right mind can deny the team from Melbournes west a little sympathy this week.The fairytale is well and truly alive for Luke Beveridges team but, of all people, the Dogs coach will know precisely what he is up against at the MCG on Saturday.It is a system rather than merely a team. It is a culture of excellence that probably began in the summer of 2002-03 and has survived the test of time. It is the reason why the Swans have played finals in an astonishing 18 of the past 21 AFL seasons, and three of the past five Grand Finals.The names change but the system does not. Hence, Kirk and the Boltons and OKeefe and Barry passed it on to McVeigh and Jack and Heeney, Aliir and Mills seamlessly. It is the Sydney way, the culture of the Swans, and it does not deviate.At the end of 2002, when Paul Roos took over from Rodney Eade as coach of Sydney, the players and staff had their usual camp at Coffs Harbour. This time they had Ray McLean, now well-known as the inventor of the Leading Teams organisation as well as the concept of the leadership group in football, on board. Roos and McLean had crossed paths at an airport, and the coach was impressed with McLeans ideas.The players gathered in a room at the Novotel at Coffs, McLean pinned butchers paper on a board, and they talked about how they would like to be viewed as a team. The key words they came up with were: HARD, DISCIPLINED, RELENTLESS.They promised to have open dialogue between each other, pointing out each others frailties but not in a personal way. Stuart Maxfield was made captain and a group of leaders elected. So-called expected behaviours were penned. A young player suggested they start referring to themselves as The Bloods, after the old South Melbourne teams of the previous century.Now a lot of teams have picked up the idea since, and many have had slogans and buzzwords. Essendon -- infamously -- liked Whatever It Takes, and painted out the sign on the wall at Windy Hill when newspaper photographers took a liking to it at the height of the ASADA scandal. Hawthorn chose the four pillars from Kokoda -- courage, endurance, mateship, sacrifice.But the experience is that slogans and buzzwords are worthless if they are not adhered to. What is important is that Sydneys players stayed true to this over more than a decade, winning flags in 2005 and 2012 and going ever so close in 2006.When do you see a Swans player pull out of a contest? When would a man in red-and-white take a selfish shot at goal, or give a needless 50-metre penalty?A player like Lance Buddy Franklin comes into the club as one of the games biggest stars, and on big money, but he fits into the mould, he chases down opponents when he is without the football, he passes off to teammates in a better position.Of course it is not perfect, all this.The performance in the 2014 Grand Final was abject. When Barry Hall found himself regularly suspended for on-field violence, moving outside the standards set under the culture, he was moved out. And he was arguably their best player at the time. The point is that players are called out when they step out of line. Not by the coaches, so much, but by their teammates, and eventually, they find a way to get better.Around that time, a difficult period for the club, they changed the third word of the code from relentless to united, and in this the Swans are like a military unit. It explains why they can draft in a Luke Parker with pick No. 40 and he is runner-up in the Brownlow, or why they can win a preliminary final with nine rookie-listers in the team and just two top-10 picks (Franklin and Gary Rohan). The secret of the Swans is that players get better under their watch.Commentator and analyst David King called the Swans the AFLs audit, and it is an apt description. To win a Grand Final, the Dogs will have to beat the system. Authentic Shaquem Griffin Jersey . Walcott is available for Saturdays home match against Southampton as Arsenal looks to extend its two-point lead at the top of the Premier League. The Gunners are currently the second highest scorers in the league but Wenger insists Walcott will add something extra to his team. Authentic Tre Flowers Jersey . Ouellette, from Montreal, already has three Olympic gold medals since joining the team in 1999. http://www.cheapseahawksjerseysauthentic.com/ . In the lead up - which seemed to begin the moment Mike Geiger blew the whistle in Houston last Thursday night - the Impact rumour mill went into overdrive. The speculation went into meltdown mode, of the golden nugget variety. MOENCHENGLADBACH, Germany -- Celtic fought back to earn a 1-1 draw at Borussia Moenchengladbach through a penalty by Moussa Dembele on Tuesday and keep a slim hope of advancing in the Champions League.Dembele was pulled down by Julian Korb as the Celtic forward was running toward the goal to earn the penalty, while Korb was sent off. Dembele sent goalkeeper Yann Sommer the wrong way to level the score in the 76th but Celtic could not use the man advantage to score the winner.Moenchengladbach had taken the lead through captain Lars Stindl in the 32nd.We had a lot of chances to score and I think we deserved better than a draw, Dembele said. Penalties are a lottery -- sometimes you miss, sometimes you score. Tonight I scored and I am happy, but as I said we deserved better from the game.The draw left Moenchengladbach at four points after four matches in Group C, while Celtic remained bottom with two points. Manchester City beat Barcelona 3-1 in the other match, but Barcelona remained top of the group with nine points. Manchester City has seven.Both Moenchengladbach and Celtic have matches against Barcelona and Manchester City remaining and are likely to fight for a slot in the Europa League by finishing third in the group.It will be difficult to finish second in the group after Manchester Citys victory, but as long as theres mathematically still a chance of a second-place finish, well keep trying, Sommer said.. Authentic Jacob Martin Jersey. Moenchengladbach went ahead after Scott Sinclair had hit the post with a curling shot.Maybe we should have come away with a better result. Hopefully we can now take that same kind of performance into the last two games, Sinclair said.The goal was created by Thorgan Hazard, who ran into space on the right and sent back a perfect cross for Stindl to volley home. Hazard was back after three weeks out with a knee injury.Stindl could have doubled the lead in the 53rd when he was fed a through ball by Andre Hahn. But his weak shot was smothered by Celtic goalkeeper Craig Gordon.Fabian Johnson then had a narrow miss for Moenchengladbach, which was piling up the pressure. Hazards attempt from an acute angle was tipped over by Gordon, before Hahn fired against the crossbar.On the other side, Dembele had a good effort saved by Sommer.Substitute Callum McGregors shot went wide late in the match as Celtic wasted its best chance for a winner.I thought we should have won the game, Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers said. We were the best team, but I am really proud of the players tonight. I said we needed to play with personality and the personality we showed was outstanding. We were brave on the ball, had speed on the counterattack and we had chances. An outstanding team performance. 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