SUSPENDED Roos star Brent Harvey refuses to buy into talk of Sydney's "soft start" to the season and knows if his teammates don't turn up with the right attitude on Saturday they will get blown away.
The Kangaroos host the reigning premiers at Blundstone Arena, missing veteran Harvey, 34, who is sidelined until Round 7 after two separate reports in last year's elimination final loss to West Coast. North Melbourne dropped its opening round clash to Collingwood and blew a 41-point lead against Geelong last Sunday.
The Swans, however, have beaten the bottom two sides from last year in Greater Western Sydney and Gold Coast, to start their premiership defence.
Collingwood president Eddie McGuire is just one who has criticised the Swans' perceived easy start to the year.
But Harvey is adamant there are no easy weeks in AFL.
"I don't think there is a soft draw in any aspect of football any more, because every team you come up against, if you drop your guard you are going to get beaten," he said yesterday during a visit to Bellerive Primary School.
"Even [for] the bottom teams, that is just the reality of football. [Sydney] are the reigning premiers. You take them lightly and you are going to get belted.
"We know what to expect every single time you play against the Sydney Swans, and that is a one-on-one, hard contest and it is something we will be waiting for."
Harvey admitted last week's loss to the Cats, who trailed by seven goals at one stage late in the second quarter and only hit the front in the dying stages through a free kick and 50m penalty to Jimmy Bartel, was a bitter pill to take.
However, he was confident the club could open its account and the panic button had not been reached for.
"Against Geelong, we probably shot ourselves in the foot and lost it being 41 points up. It is something we don't want to get in the habit of, losing games where we have been up by a fair bit," the 346-game veteran said.
"I'm sure the message Brad [Scott] was sending, was we played some really good football and if we keep playing like that, wins will come.
"They are all must-win games.
"We don't want to drop any games, but in saying that, it is Round 3 and there have been plenty of teams that have come back from round three to make finals."
Saturday's game is a near sell-out, with only a handful of tickets remaining.
No comments:
Post a Comment