Sydney Swans senior coach John Longmire says his side will take plenty of learnings following their nine-point loss to ladder leaders Melbourne in Round 8.
Following the tightly contested affair, Longmire said that the Swans could take plenty out of the high pressured match.
“Every game you go into, whether you win, lose or draw, you always learn something out of that game. We learnt a lot coming out of it,” Longmire said on Monday.
“It might have been the highest-pressure game of the year, it was fierce from both teams.
“Melbourne are playing a really strong brand of footy, contested and strong defensively.
“We learnt that, and that’s what’s required at the pointy end at the moment, on a wet, slippery night on the MCG.
“The effort was really high from both teams and we had a real go.” Longmire continued.
“We have a bit of work to do with some method of different things, and there are always things we can improve on, but the effort is a baseline that gives you a good launching pad. As long as we have that effort every week, we will be in most games.”
After the tough and physical encounter against the Demons, Longmire said his team had pulled through well with no injuries.
“Everyone pulled up pretty well. It was good to get them through the game, and importantly now give them an opportunity to keep on training,” Longmire said when asked following the return of Lance Franklin and Dane Rampe.
“We have made six, five and four changes over the last three weeks so there have been players coming in and out a little bit. We missed a couple of key forwards on the weekend, with Reidy and Isaac out, but we would like to be able to settle it down a little bit,” Longmire added.
“We have had some coming back from injury, which is a good thing, but we would just like to be able to get a group together and just make two or three changes a week and get into that groove.”
“Sam Reid is still a couple of weeks away, he hasn’t done any training with the group just yet but he did a bit of work on the weekend.”
In great news for Swans members and fans, the Swans VFL will play a curtain closer to the Swans Round 9 AFL fixture against Collingwood. The AFL match kicks off at 1:45pm followed by the VFL game at 4:45pm.
Click here to view the Match Day Hub to see all the activity around the SCG in Round 9.
