JOHN Longmire knows his Sydney Swans need to play better than they did against Melbourne on Saturday night but he is relieved to have escaped a topsy-turvy opening six rounds with an even win-loss ledger.
The Sydney Swans have ridden a rollercoaster of form this season and finally strung two wins together with their 31-point defeat of the Demons at the MCG.
While Longmire was the first to admit the dour affair wasn't won prettily, it was a victory he happily accepted, as it steadied the Swans' ship heading into round seven.
"It's important to get back to the 3-3," Longmire said.
"We've been up and down from week to week, we've had a good win a few weeks ago against Adelaide then we went down then we had a really good week last week against Fremantle.
"It was good to get a little bit more consistency.
"We can still play better than what we did tonight, and we'll need to, but it was good to get the two wins in a row."
It was an arm-wrestle of a contest with the Swans' inaccurate kicking at goal –15 behinds blighted their score line – ensuring they didn't build a comfortable buffer at any time.
In the end, games like Dan Hannebery's 34 disposals and 13 clearances were the difference when the Demons couldn't shift up a gear.
"I think some of our players in the last quarter kept running and were able to find a bit of space to be able to get us over the line," Longmire said.
"[Hannebery] was probably one of the ones that showed composure on the ground and real run, particularly he was really noticeable in that last quarter, he just kept on running.
"When he's at his best, he's got a terrific combination of hard inside work, which is his clearances, he's very hard at the ball but he's got excellent outside run as well.
"That combination has made him a good player, an All Australian player last year.
"It hasn't been there for the first couple of weeks but it's been getting back to that sort of level we know he can play at."
Adam Goodes came on in the third quarter for his first game since round 13 last year.
Longmire said Goodes' five touches in limited game time was a positive after his return from a persistent knee injury and planned to start him on the field next week against the Brisbane Lions, pending his recovery.
"I thought when he came on he looked OK, he picked up the tempo of the game pretty well and seemed to move OK," he said.
"We were always deciding which way to bring him back … we decided to go the conservative route with Kurt Tippett and he still got injured so that didn't work.
"It's a good start. He's been out for a long time. We know he can get better and we'll certainly look at playing him in the 21 next week if he pulls up OK."
