Swans champion Jude Bolton reveals coach’s scorching note
Swans legend Jude Bolton has revealed the absolutely brutal match review notes sent by Paul Roos. It was enough to scare even Ryan Fitzgerald.
AFL
Don't miss out on the headlines from AFL. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Ryan Fitzgerald is just glad he wasn’t there.
Swans champion Jude Bolton has revealed the merciless match review notes former coach Paul Roos once sent his players — and the note is quickly spreading across social media.
Bolton posted the notes players were given following a loss to West Coast in 2004.
Bolton, a two-time premiership player with Sydney, started the conversation by writing on Twitter: “Fair to say Paul Roos was hammering us”.
He’s not wrong.
Watch Vixens vs GIANTS in The Suncorp Super Netball Preliminary Final LIVE & FREE with Kayo Freebies from 7PM AEST Saturday 25th June. Join Kayo Freebies now, no credit card required >
In the notes posted by Bolton, Roos is absolutely clinical in his ice-cold take down of his playing group.
“I want to make this point very clear, as I said after the game, this is your time in football, not ours,” Roos wrote.
“I have enormous faith in the group and will work as hard as I can to contribute to your success — but equally if I can not contribute to the group and the club, I am wasting your time, my time and the club’s time and money.”
He goes on to challenge his players to do the hard work by pushing themselves without needing to be prodded by the coaching staff.
“All the coaches are is a resource to the playing group,” he wrote.
“The only reason we exist is to make you successful.”
Suggesting his players had been “continually” do the wrong thing, Roos went on to tell his players: “We appear to be wasting everyone’s time”.
He saved his most scathing criticism for the end.
“At the moment, we have 6-10 players playing against 22 — clearly that doesn’t work,” he wrote.
“Equally, we know if all buy in — we will win. You decide if you buy in.”
Roos’ famously adapted a “Leading Teams” coaching philosophy which demanded his players be brutally honest with each other — and that’s exactly what comes across in the words posted by Bolton.
In responding to footy commentators and fans on Twitter, Bolton revealed the rocket was given following the team’s Round 8 loss to the Eagles in Perth. The team had lost four consecutive games. After getting the written serve, Sydney won six of their next seven games and went on to win an elimination final at the end of the season.
The next year the Swans went on their fairytale run to win the 2005 Grand Final, ending the club’s 72-year premiership drought.
Roos’ style might have worked, but that doesn’t mean it’s not brutal.
Nova radio star Fitzgerald, who played with the Swans and Adelaide Crows before his retirement in 2002. Fitzgerald left the Swans one season before Roos’ arrival.
“This is fascinating. Thank f*** i had left by then because I would’ve received this review every afternoon,” Fitzgerald wrote on Twitter, responding to Bolton’s post.
This is the last thing i say to my kids every night before they go to bed. https://t.co/sBKGc3bg9epic.twitter.com/kDiVpuU1Xw
— Ryan Fitzgerald (@FitzySA) June 23, 2022
Bolton also confessed to media commentator Adam Spencer that he himself was not in Roos’ good books at the time.
“I was definitely part of the problem,” he wrote on Twitter.
“Couldn’t get near the footy during that run of 4 straight losses. Team responded winning 6 from the next 7 games though.”
The champion midfielder said Roos’ spray is actually exactly what the team needed to hear.
“Shows we probably needed a reality check,” he said.
“Then we got into gear together… even though 2004 wasn’t a successful year, it put the club on the right track.”
Bolton got to enjoy a second premiership with the Swans in 2012 in their upset win over Hawthorn before his retirement in 2013
Originally published as Swans champion Jude Bolton reveals coach’s scorching note
Track Watch: Key Dee down, more battling injury concerns
An important Demon had to be carted off the training track after going down with a painful injury, as the Dees count the cost of some stars being MIA during pre-season.
‘Poison’: Call to have great stripped of status
Football personality Sam Newman’s recent comments have landed him in hot water and calls are mounting for Geelong and the AFL to act.