John Longmire fronts the media and chats on all the hot topics, including the latest on Lance Franklin, players returning from injury, facing Melbourne this Saturday and looking for consistency.
See the key quotes from John Longmire below.
On Lance Franklin
Yes we will challenge. We’re going to challenge the MRO view that it was an intentional strike. There’s not much more I can say outside of that at the moment.
I think his focus is generally on us winning, he’s a real competitor. I’m disappointed that the free kick was given away in that case, but generally he’s a real competitor that loves to win and really sets a good example for our team.
On free kicks in genera
It’s something we’ve been working on as a team, whether it’s Lance or a number of other players across the season. I think us and Richmond were on differential the bottom two by a long way in free kick differential so we’ve been trying to work on that and making sure that we don’t give free kicks away in any particular circumstance.
On Tom Hickey and Nick Blakey
We’ll see how they go during the week at training. Nick was sick on Friday so hopefully he’ll pull up well this week and get a couple of training sessions under his belt. Hickey we’ll assess on whether he does any training tomorrow, we expect him to be able to train on Thursday and then we’ll see whether he’s done enough to be able to play. We don’t have enough information yet to give an all clear on both of those guys, but obviously if Nick is ready and fit and is able to do a couple of training sessions he’ll come into the team and we’ll see how Tom’s toe goes later in the week.
On Sam Reid
We thought Sam did a pretty reasonable job for us on the weekend. It’s like any player in the team, we like them to be able to find that consistency from quarter to quarter, from game to game and it’s something that Sam has been working on.
Sam played an important role for us on the weekend, not only with his goal kicking but with other parts of the game that he was able to do for us and we’d like him to continue on that vein and play that role for us in the team that’s so important. It’s not always about kicks, marks and handballs, although that has a role, there’s particular things that Sam gives to the team from week to week and we have to make sure that we get that consistency that we’ve been striving for as a team.
On Chad Warner kicking out of bounds on the full-time siren
I spoke to him after the game, he said he didn’t hear the whistle I heard the siren and it was as simple as that from his perspective. Chad is a young player, he played a fantastic game for us on the weekend. We had seven players 21 and under, and he was an important part of that group. He heard the siren, and that’s why he did it.
On Melbourne’s form
Their ruck division and their midfield division is as good as any going around. They’ve got the experience of Gawn, we know what they can do in that particular part of the ground. We’re looking at that and what it looks like, but it also depends on Hick is alright to play, it’s no good just looking at the opposition strengths and picking a team if that particular player isn’t ready to go. We understand it’s a big part of what Melbourne do, their midfield, their rucks in particular are very good.
I understand a number of players are going to be coming back into the team this week, so it might be a different mix (to what Fremantle faced) that we’ll be up against this week. As we know Melbourne have set the pace over the last two years. It was a fantastic opportunity for us to play the Tigers here on a Friday night, who were really flying, and their game was really strong. They played a hard contested style right until the very end as we knew Richmond would. We know what Melbourne will do on the MCG on their home deck this week. It’s a great opportunity for our team to have a couple of big games against A-grade opposition and be tested, and we’re really looking forward to it.
On beating Richmond
We look at our process and making sure we focus on that. We’ve had quarters that have let us down, but in large parts of the game we’ve been really competitive and played some good football and it’s just been a quarter here or there that’s let us down. We’re looking at how to make sure that doesn’t happen because against the best teams it’s hard to come back from there. We were able to do it on the weekend and do it quite well but that’s not going to happen every week. We understand that there’s going to be inconsistencies at times. On the game on the weekend, we were 40 games less on average in experience than our opposition, it's not going to be absolutely perfect every week with some of the young players playing key roles for us, but what a great way to learn. Whether it’s last week against the Tigers here at a packed SCG, or this week against the Demons on the MCG with a big crowd again, for our blokes that haven’t played a lot of those games in front of big crowds the last two years with Covid, it’s a great experience.
On Swans consistency
I think a bit of it comes through experience. We played a team that had played a lot of football together, and so they know each other really well they’re an experienced harden team, and we’re still gaining that. We’ve got some players at the top end who are very experienced, but we’ve got a large group there, as I mentioned those seven players who are 21 and under, who are still finding about their footy in those games. They’re working it out and they’re working it out quickly which we’re really pleased about. When we see our younger players playing key roles, we’re thrilled with it. Are they going to get it right every week? Maybe not, but we’re really confident that the trajectory they’re on is a really positive one and they’ll keep learning and so far they’ve done a pretty good job.
