The Sydney Swans 2021 season came to an end following a heartbreaking 1-point loss to the GWS Giants in Saturday's Elimination Final.
The Swans finished the regular home and away season in sixth position, with 15 wins this season, just percentage keeping them out of the top four.
Following the completion of the 2021 season, coach John Longmire sat down to review the year that was.
Longmire reflects on the challenges faced, the optimism ahead of 2022, the support from our members, and his pride of the entire football club.
Read what he had to say below.
POSITIVES TO TAKE OUT OF 2021
It’s pretty raw still. When you get beaten by a point in an Elimination Final it takes a bit longer than a few days to get over it. I am sure I am just like the supporters, as far as disappointed the season is not continuing. It felt like we still had a bit more to give.
Congratulations to the Giants, they were able to get the job done and we couldn’t quite get it done. I am sure over the coming weeks we will be able to sit back as a collective and appreciate some of the things we were able to do.
It was an extraordinary year. Three of four times we were packed up with 2-3 hours notice and told to move, and you look at some of the challenges we had this year and the ability for us as a footy club to overcome those challenges and keep ploughing forward. It makes you very proud to be a part of this club.
Whether it’s the players who were just magnificent and gave everything right until the final siren or our staff, you feel very proud of the entire footy club.
OPTIMISM AHEAD OF NEXT SEASON
There is a lot of optimism ahead of next season but I have also been around long enough to know you have a lot of work to do.
I don’t say that to take the sting out of things, it’s just the facts that to get back to 15 wins between now and this time next year, there is a lot of work.
There is no doubt we were confident over the off-season, even coming off five wins. Our experience last year in the hub was a pretty positive one but also we were confident if we got our best players back on the park, and got a decent pre-season into them, we would be competitive.
We had the extra bonus of some of those younger players coming on and playing some footy that we probably didn’t expect, so from that perspective we were really pleased with the progress of the last 12 months.
But once again, with a major asterisk, that we didn’t quite get what we wanted to in the end and that’s always a disappointing factor.
RESILIENCE
It takes an entire club, whether that’s your board, your executives, staff, players and then in this case, partners and families. We went on the road for over 9 weeks last year without our families, and we were on a significant amount this year without them, so to be able to have them on for a period of time was fantastic.
They went through two-weeks of hard hotel quarantine and we left them up in Brisbane to come down to Melbourne in a moments notice, so there is some unbelievable background stories to every person that has been involved.
Even though it has been a tough time and challenging, we feel as though we have got a lot out of it and our players, staff and families have had a really positive attitude to everything that has come our way.
It certainly helps when you put it into perspective of what the community has been through and with all the challenges we have had, we have still had our jobs and that’s been a real positive.
TO THE MEMBERS AND FANS
It’s something we had a taste of, at the start of the year, to be able to play in front of our members and fans was a wonderful experience.
We are really fortunate as a footy club that we have got supporters all over the country, and that has been a positive to come out of it too. The crowds that we had back in Sydney and the energy that our players were able to feel from that and then to go on the road, go to a place like Geelong and play against the West Coast Eagles and have what felt like a home crowd, in front of our Victorian members and supporters was a wonderful experience.
We had a great turn out in Queensland and again in Tasmania, so we have felt very fortunately and lucky in a footy club sense, that we have a broad base of supporters all over the country.
We really appreciate you [the members and fans] for turning up to the games when you were able to, and then when you weren’t able to, watching us on mass on television.
We can’t wait to have the opportunity to play in front of our members and supporters next year, in what we hope is a packed SCG, down in Melbourne at the MCG or wherever we play because it’s so important and the players really missed that energy that you guys give.
