Sydney Swans senior coach Scott Gowans spoke to the media on Thursday ahead of the side's Round 5 clash with Collingwood at Victoria Park on Saturday. Find out what he had to say about the season so far, finals ambitions and team changes.
On the season so far
“Obviously, we are going very well, the overall standard of the competition has lifted as well, which is great, and the footy is exciting. It is heading in the right direction for us, and we have a big month and a half coming up to really solidify where we finish on the ladder. We have made it pretty public that we want to make finals and be there towards the end of the finals as well, so all on track at the moment but of course still aware we are just heading into Round 5”.
On the progression to the finals
“We've taken it step by step each round, and our focus is definitely on grand final eve and preparing for that. And should that happen, then we know we are prepared for it. If we're fortunate enough and good enough and play some finals and do make that , it's not going to be a shock to be there on grand final eve. We are on track, and we still talk about it, but we have broken up each week down to a step and each each step is different based on who you're playing, where you're playing, and the style of the game we want to get a look at. So we are still trialling things, and all changes are based around that were heading for the grand final.”
On making changes
“Yeah, we're still making changes, we still feel like we have a way to go. Theres a number of things we would like to try in the next four weeks to be able to say that we've got enough up our sleeve. Were starting to see the connection with the players, you have to remember we have nine new members to the squad, which is a lot in a squad of 30 and you can just start to see the synergy coming together, so that is really pleasing”.
On what has lead to the successful start to the season
“It's more to do with the way we train, we've completely changed the way we train, and we're really big on match stimulation, but you just can't do match stimulation, but you can break them down. So the way we move the ball or how we set up the field for our contest shapes everything, like that is done with everyone involved, rather than breaking off into different groups. I think that has been an eye opener for me, it's the first time I've ever done it, and it seems to be working really well because what it does do is build connection.”
On the challenge of Collingwood
“They are a very experienced side, an inaugural team and they’ve been in form in that they haven't won many games, but they were really competitive against Melbourne and North Melbourne, and that 1st quarter against North Melbourne last week was very good and if your able to hold North Melbourne off defensively that's probably their weapon. I imagine it will be a bit of ping pong early on and then it will just be a team that can break away and actually score from that contest.”
On the side using outside speed
“Yeah, we do, that's our weapon, no matter what we do, we will always try to get speed on the ball, and it just may look a little different week to week, whether we go wide as we did on the weekend. We're also happy to go through the corridor as well, so it's getting those methods right and the balance of when to turn that on and off.”
On who might come into the side this week
“We're going to try and get Amelia Martin back in the team we just have to finalise that. Amelia has been in our system, she's in the academy, so she knows the way we structure our game plan-wise. And then the other part of it is her speed and her agility in the forward line, as quite a key position and the other thing is she has a beautiful kick, very clean with marking, and she kicks accurately and that's a big thing, we haven't kicked accurately this year so it's really important we do that.”
