The Sydney Swans are entering another challenging week of the 2024 AFL season with preparations underway for Friday night's clash with Collingwood.
Following last week's win over Melbourne, senior coach John Longmire appeared in his weekly press conference on Tuesday, March 12 to reflect on Opening Round and discuss the upcoming match.
On Isaac Heeney’s Opening Round performance
“He’s played a fair bit of midfield footy in the past and he’s been there in the course of many games over the last couple of years. He probably had a bit more time over the weekend. He’s really hard in the contest and an incredible runner. But his ability to go from inside and out and keep his run up for the entire four quarters was really important. We feel that we have some options that can go through there and all of them can run which is an important aspect to the games. Certainly last week and again this week will be important.”
On Heeney’s leadership ability
“He’s been good. Last week we had six 23 and under midfielders and will probably have the same again this week against another really experienced midfield group. He’s the older one (that’s not that old) but his ability to help in the contest and really lead the way the game’s played – win at the source and run at the source – has been important.
“Wherever the team needs him he’ll adapt and be a presence for us. We don’t expect him to be the best player every week. He played his role really well and other weeks there will be others that need to step up. That’s the way it goes.”
On Brodie Grundy
“In Sydney [the attention] is not too bad, it’s a bit different. He’s an experienced player so he understands all sides of the spectrum so he’s able to go about his work here. He’s able to keep a pretty level head, he knows what’s going on. He understands last week was a big game and this week is a big game but he’s comfortable in his approach to games.”
On being tested early in the season
“We know that we play two top forward teams at the start of the year and I’m not sure anyone else does that. That’s a tough start. If you look at Collingwood’s numbers – I felt the Giants were terrific – Collingwood had more inside 50s, more scoring shots and did a lot right. There are things they can take out of that game that were actually pretty good. We go into this week knowing it will be a huge task. It will be a massive crowd and hopefully a lot of Swans supporters buy their membership this week and get along to the game as well.”
On the forward line set up
“It depends on a number of things, what the opposition’s best set up is, what happens on ball, how much time is played. It was a really tough night here, it was really humid and tough for tall forwards. The conditions might be a bit different this week. We just have to wait and see. We’re confident in the flexibility we have in our team to be able to throw a number of different groups forward.”
On Sam Reid and Peter Ladhams
“Reidy played in our VFL team on the weekend and when he’s ready to play he’ll play. We want to make sure he gets the best possible preparation knowing that when he’s confident hopefully he’s ready to go and play a bit of footy for us free from injury.
“Pete’s ability, as we saw in the practice game against Brisbane, is that he’s able to get some time in the ruck. We understand we have a couple of options if we need to but those guys have done a pretty good job for us in the last few weeks as well.”
On Taylor Adams recovery
“He’s ok. He’s still a couple of weeks away. He’s out of the brace so he’s getting around the place alright, but he’d just love to be out there playing and training. He’s not able to do that just yet.”
On players’ insight on old teams
“It’s about knowing what [the opposition] do really well. We’re fully aware of what Collingwood do really well. Taylor has a huge amount of respect for his ex-teammates. We’ve got to make sure we ring our strengths.”
On developing young players
“We recruit well to get the right players in. That’s very important but we have faith in our players – it doesn’t matter what age they are. If they come into the system and they show some ability to work and learn that they’ll pretty early on. We’ve done that for a number of years now and we’ve been one of the younger teams in the competition over the last four years. We’ve got a lot of footy into some young players and we’re still young. We’ve got a really good young group and they’re important in our performances now. Geez they’re learning a lot and playing good footy.”
On Matt Roberts
“He played well last year until he got injured so we’ve had faith in him. He’s smart, he competes well. That’s what we’re pleased about. We know he’s a good ball user and smart midfielders that’s gone back but he competes well, overhead and at stoppages. Those are things he’d done well and what’s shone through. He’ll have his hands full this week with some handy midfielders in front of a big crowd. But that’s all part of it.”
