Sydney Swans coach John Longmire sits down with Swans TV for an extensive pre-season update.

In the pre-season update, the coach talks about the team’s focus over summer, the health of the list, players impressing on the track, Adam Goodes’s pre-season, the latest on Gary Rohan, next week’s Coffs Harbour camp plus much more.

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It was a really disappointing end to the 2014 season, how have you seen the group respond during the pre-season and heading into 2015?

It’s always about making sure we get the balance of identifying what we did well and what we need to improve on. We did a lot of things right in 2014 but also knowing and understanding the area we need to improve, which was highlighted in the last game of the year, so we’ve been working on making sure our transition is still up to speed and making sure we’re very strong defensively, particularly without the ball. Also making sure when we have the ball we actually get good reward for our inside-50s and improving on that which I think we can get better at.

Has there been a different approach to pre-season this year or any particular focus areas you’re working on?

The focus areas are always about improvement across the board. We want to maintain all aspects of our game and improve all aspects of our game but primarily the three sides of the ball is what we look at. We look at the actual contested ball situation and our stoppage work and how we can improve that. We look at our defence, whilst for the season anyway we were ranked very highly as far as points scored against, there are still some games we need to improve that. Also what we do with the ball when we’ve got it in our hands and going forward into our forward-50 and execution of our skills is another area where we can get better at.

At this time of year we’re always looking at the health of the list, how is the general health of the list and is there anyone at this stage that isn’t in contention for round one?

Generally the health of the list is pretty good. It’s always an interesting period when you’re in the January/February phase of training, just before the practice matches start, as it’s quite contested and you’re testing each other out but also hoping you don’t get any injuries. We think the majority of the players will be ready for round one at this point but there’s a long way to go and we’re going to try and make sure we continue to improve but we also understand that during that time to improve there can be some risks taken but really there’s only a couple who aren’t in the full training program at present.

One of those ticking along who is running laps is Goodesy, how’s he tracking as he enters another pre-season?

Goodesy’s coming along really well at the moment. He’s done a number of pre-seasons and probably this time last year we upped the ante in his training workload which set him back a little bit but we’re trying to maintain a couple of main training sessions a week with him, with the Wednesday session not doing as much, and he seems to be responding along to that really well. At this point, he’ll be doing some ball work next week and then he shouldn’t be far away from joining into full scale training in a couple of weeks. If he keeps along the progress he’s going at the moment, we’ll be really happy.

Last year it was players like Jake Lloyd and Harry Cunningham who really stepped up from the reserves and cemented a spot in the team, is there anyone who has put their hand up so far in pre-season or who are the guys you’re looking for to step up this year?

We’re looking for all players obviously to step up regardless of whether it’s Adam Goodes or an 18-year-old kid on the rookie list; we’re looking for everyone to improve. Dan Robinson is one player who has been playing half-forward/midfield for us as well during the scratch matches and the match simulation work and has been going along really well. He’s a very smart player and he can play a number of different roles for us. Brandon Jack is another who is putting some real pressure on, up in our front half that we’d like to continue him in that role over the coming weeks, he’s doing a really good job with that. Zak Jones is another who we saw play a bit of senior football and we’re really happy with what he did in 2014 and we’re really keen to see his improvement as a small defender/midfielder and he’s showing really good potential at the moment.

Is Zak one of the players who may have their hand up for Nick Malceski’s role given his departure at the end of last year?

Obviously losing Nick Malceski last year as an All-Australian defender is a bit of a challenge to fill his role but we’re confident we’ve got the players in our squad to be able to do that. Jarrad McVeigh in 2013 was an All-Australian halfback so he’s a player we know that can go back and play that role really well. Gary Rohan is a player who is developing in that role at all times and we’ve seen some good flashes of brilliance with him in that running halfback/defender role. Zak Jones is another good player who can go back and give us some real rebound. With those players, and players like Jeremy Laidler who played a lot of football last year, we’re confident that we’ve got the depth to be able to cover Nick.

Gary Rohan was one of the players who came into the team in the second half of the year and really made an impact, how’s his pre-season been?

He’s been fantastic to this point but unfortunately he got a bit of a sore hamstring late last week so his hamstring is a bit sore which will set him back for a couple of weeks but it will only be for a couple. It’s not too serious which is good news so hopefully he’ll be running by the end of this week and back into our full program in a couple of weeks. Up until that point he was going really well, showing that growth that we’ve been able to see over a full pre-season and he hasn’t been able to do many of those.

Mike Pyke, Tom Derickx and Kurt Tippett shouldered the majority of the ruck load last year, how are a couple of the club’s young ruckmen, Sam Naismith and Toby Nankervis, developing?

Toby Nankervis has been doing all of the ruck work, he’s a very resilient player, trains all the time and gives himself every opportunity to improve so we’ve been happy with how he’s going. Sam Naismith suffered a little bit of glandular fever at the start of his pre-season but he’s over that now and back into training although it’s not the full program so he needs to be doing a number of weeks before he gets his conditioning up to speed but we’re really happy with how he’s bounced back from that illness at the start of pre-season. The other ruckmen are training along pretty well at the moment. Tom Derickx has been doing most of it after the hamstring (injury that ended his 2014 season early) and we’ve had Kurt Tippett over the pre-season do more work in the ruck as well and he’s been very good.

Do you have an idea of how you may use Sam Reid in 2015?

Sam over the pre-season, he’s been playing a fair bit in defence and that’s for a couple of different reasons. One is we think he could actually be a good defender if we need him in that part of the ground but also to learn off some of the best forwards in the game. He’s been able to play on Lance Franklin and he’s learned a lot I’m sure from that so far and will continue to learn over the pre-season but also Kurt Tippett and other players who rotate through that part of the ground. So it’s twofold, if we feel the opportunity and think we need him down back he’s had that experience and know-how but when he’s up forward he’s also learned off some of the best. At this point, we’ll see how the pre-season pans out, but there’s a chance at times he’ll be playing down back.

How are the players from the Academy – Isaac Heeney, Jack Hiscox, Abe Davis and Jordan Foote – and the other new recruits going?

Our recruits are coming along pretty well at the moment. It’s always a massive jump up for young kids coming out of the under-18 system coming into an AFL program at any club. Our younger kids from the Academy have done a fair bit of training to this point. The only one who hasn’t done all the training is Jordan Foote who is coming back from a bit of a sore leg so he’s been a bit delayed but he’s been doing all of the running. Isaac Heeney’s had a little bit of tendonitis in his knee but he’s doing the program to a certain extent at this point in time and we’ll up the ante over the next couple of weeks. Jack Hiscox as we know is a great runner but he’s also doing really well on the training track as that high half-forward/wingman and picking up a lot of possessions. We’ve been pleased with Abe Davis at both ends of the ground as either a forward or defender. Those kids have been coming along pretty well. James Rose is doing a little bit more work in his program now and is coming along quite well. He had a bit of a sore knee before Christmas but he’s been able to pick his training up since then. Melican is a young kid who has really grown and is looking good as a key defender at the moment and Sean McLaren is another player that we think can play at both ends of the ground and is doing all of the training so those younger kids in particular we’ve been really happy with.

Obviously it’s a long road ahead for Alex Johnson, what’s the latest with Alex’s knee?

Alex Johnson has had, as we all know, an extremely tough run over the last couple of years. His last game was in the 2012 grand final and he was one of our better players. Unfortunately since then he’s had a number of real setbacks with his knee and it’s to the point now that we’re extremely conservative with him, we need to be, to make sure we give him the best possible chance to get over his injury. He’s actually not going to play this year at all. We need to make sure his knee is completely over any signs of infection and is right and resilient to be able to make sure we get him in the best possible shape we can. He’s been fantastic around the club, he’s been superb in our rehab group, he’s shown real leadership qualities and he’s been able to keep himself up mentally which is a real challenge and something that shouldn’t be underestimated. While it’s going to be really difficult for Alex and continues to be for him over the course of this year, we’re really hopeful and confident that he’ll be able to get over this setback and still be a really good player for the Sydney Swans.

A final one, last week it was the police academy, next week the whole group is off to Coffs Harbour for a training camp, what are you planning to get out of that.

We’re going up to Coffs Harbour to continue the work we’ve done up there on field and off field. We’ve got a really close relationship with the Coffs Harbour City Council up there. We’ve been up there for a number of years, we enjoy it, and it’s a great area to be in. We’ll be working on our football skills and trying to continually improve our pre-season. We’ll be doing some scratch match and practice match type work up there under real pressure on what we know is a great surface at the local ground up there. We’ll also be working on some things both in a game plan sense and also other areas of the football club we need to improve. It’s a good chance to get away for four days as a club, have a few laughs and enjoy our time up there but also make sure we train really hard and help set the foundation for 2015.