Having watched the Swans’ past 13 games from the sidelines, O’Loughlin said he had noticed that forwards had been forced to work much harder to generate scoring chances.
Hawthorn pair Jarryd Roughead and Lance Franklin, and Carlton goalsneak Eddie Betts lead the League goalkicking with just 16 goals after five rounds.
That’s an average of just over three goals a game, equating to a 22-game tally of 66 goals.
In contrast, Franklin won last year’s Coleman Medal with 102 goals.
“You’re talking about some great players in [Brendan] Fevola and Buddy [Franklin] who haven’t had quite as big an impact as they’d like, considering their [efforts] last year,” O’Loughlin said before training at the SCG on Wednesday.
“It’s hard to get a kick, so I’ll have to work that one out on the weekend – me and Barry [Hall] will have to try to get over that.”
O’Loughlin attributed the star forwards’ reduced output to the increased use of zone defences by several teams as they attempted to emulate Hawthorn’s success in 2008.
“But that’s league footy – people improve and teams do things in their power to win games of footy,” he said.
“We’re no different. We’ve put things in place in our team to get over Richmond this weekend.
“It is difficult to kick goals and every time I get it, it’s going to have to be a straight kick for goal, because you don’t get your hands on it too often.”
The Swans have endured a form rollercoaster this season, alternating losses on the road with convincing home wins against Hawthorn and Carlton.
O’Loughlin said the players had addressed the reasons for the club’s inconsistency in meetings this week.
When pressed about the outcome of the meeting, the 32-year-old declined to elaborate but he was confident of an improved result against the Tigers.
“I think our intensity is a focal point that’s been spoken about a lot over our losses, and the consistency is just up and down. One week we’re playing well, the next we’re all over the place,” he said.
“We’ve addressed that over the last couple of days, we’ve had a great discussion about it and hopefully this week we’ll be up and running and we can maintain that.
“It was left to too few against Fremantle and I think you’ll see a pretty good effort from the guys this weekend.”
