Post by happybadger on Apr 11, 2018 1:36:56 GMT
We caught up with Rochdale Raptors' senior assistant Jamie Rooney at the Manchester airport, and our reporter boarded the charter flight to Cape Town to cover the match between Cape Town and Rochdale.
Q: First game, you were calm, and Theo wasn't...
A: Seriously, I wasn't - we didn't know exactly what we had, even after the preseason trial match. We agreed that Florida was below the mean, so some improvement was bound to occur no matter what we did as far as personnel, as long as we took care with training and tactics. But to beat Canberra so thoroughly, we have to remember that we're not as good as the score indicated.
Q: You mean the 22 points that Raptors yielded?
A: We have got to do better than this in a few rounds, because we aren't likely to win many shootouts in this league.
Q: Injuries, you had four niggling injuries...
A: And Theo elected to use only one paid physio, and only the free 50 form points - it's a long season, and we don't have a money tree to hand.
Q: Cape Town, what do you expect from them?
A: A bruising, very physical encounter, they had an 18-0 lead on Sydney after 50 minutes, and I think the Oilers were intimidated by the crowd at Capetown Stadium a little bit - the "War-ner!" chants were a bit ridiculous, but they had an effect, I'm sure, just a little bit.
Q: Do you think Raptors will be ready for that atmosphere?
A: There's only one way to find out - kick off...and there's only one way that Theo will handle this as a training topic - he will not mention it until the night before, at the hotel, because getting the tactics and strategy correct is more important, if we're not in the right place at the right time, the crowd won't matter.
Q: The walk-on song - what was that?
A: The video is at the end of this story - listen to the chorus...really, Theo chooses songs that reflect perfectly what he wants said, and often, even the most innocuous lyric means something...in this case, every word means a lot, even to a bit of a jaded former player like me - which is why this is going to be our walk-off song every other week - we didn't have one this week.
Q: Last question: Who was the woman that escorted Theo onto the pitch and to the sideline during the walk-on song? I know Dame Judi escorted you.
A: Google "Sandra Benes" (Rooney laughs)
Q: First game, you were calm, and Theo wasn't...
A: Seriously, I wasn't - we didn't know exactly what we had, even after the preseason trial match. We agreed that Florida was below the mean, so some improvement was bound to occur no matter what we did as far as personnel, as long as we took care with training and tactics. But to beat Canberra so thoroughly, we have to remember that we're not as good as the score indicated.
Q: You mean the 22 points that Raptors yielded?
A: We have got to do better than this in a few rounds, because we aren't likely to win many shootouts in this league.
Q: Injuries, you had four niggling injuries...
A: And Theo elected to use only one paid physio, and only the free 50 form points - it's a long season, and we don't have a money tree to hand.
Q: Cape Town, what do you expect from them?
A: A bruising, very physical encounter, they had an 18-0 lead on Sydney after 50 minutes, and I think the Oilers were intimidated by the crowd at Capetown Stadium a little bit - the "War-ner!" chants were a bit ridiculous, but they had an effect, I'm sure, just a little bit.
Q: Do you think Raptors will be ready for that atmosphere?
A: There's only one way to find out - kick off...and there's only one way that Theo will handle this as a training topic - he will not mention it until the night before, at the hotel, because getting the tactics and strategy correct is more important, if we're not in the right place at the right time, the crowd won't matter.
Q: The walk-on song - what was that?
A: The video is at the end of this story - listen to the chorus...really, Theo chooses songs that reflect perfectly what he wants said, and often, even the most innocuous lyric means something...in this case, every word means a lot, even to a bit of a jaded former player like me - which is why this is going to be our walk-off song every other week - we didn't have one this week.
Q: Last question: Who was the woman that escorted Theo onto the pitch and to the sideline during the walk-on song? I know Dame Judi escorted you.
A: Google "Sandra Benes" (Rooney laughs)
