Senior coach John Longmire speaks to the media ahead of the Swans Round 17 fixture against Western Bulldogs on Friday night at the SCG.

Read all the key quotes from this afternoon's press conference (Monday, July 4, 2022) below.

On Isaac Heeney's injury:

He’s pulled up fine, he’s all good. It was a knock during the course of the game, he looked after it really well afterwards and he’s okay today so he should be fine this week.

He essentially just got a bad knee to the top of his quad, and so that can hurt during the course of the game and particularly if you come out of half time and it’s cooled down a little bit, but he’s looked after it and pulled up well.

On Josh Kennedy's hamstring injury:

It’s been seven weeks, I think our original estimation was eight weeks after he hurt his hamstring. We’ll see how he is this week, we would like to see how his training progresses. There’s a couple of important steps he still has to make in the ramp up. He has been training for two weeks doing ball work but this week is an important week for him so we’ll see how he goes.

Just competing and tackling, and getting up and down off the deck just normal stuff you’d expect him to do during the course of the game. That’s just a matter of us and the medical staff sitting down and working out this week whether he’s done enough to be able to play or whether he needs another week.

It may be another week, I’m not saying he’ll definitely play this week. We’ll see how the week progresses. It’s an important week for training, we may get later into the week and feel he needs to do more but we haven’t got that information in front of us at the moment.

Reflecting on the Swans defeat to Essendon:

We’re still disappointed that we played some really good football during the course of the game and let it slip. That’s the reality of AFL football, it’s really tough and you need to have that consistency, not only from game to game but quarter to quarter. We let that one slip and Essendon to their credit were very good in that last term and took their chances. We got 16 points up in front and they were still able to take their chances and go on and win the game, so there’s some important things to learn to come out of it and we’re still striving for that consistency to get better.

On the Swans struggles with consistency:

Each of the instances as to why we’ve dropped away have been for different reasons from a technical perspective. Last week we were really good at it against the Saints, just the concentration for the full 120 minutes to make sure you keep doing the same thing. The opposition are going to get momentum at different times, it’s happening in every game across the competition now. We just need to make sure we continue to do what we need to do as a team, that gets us into good positions during the course of the game. That’s where we’ve just dropped off at different times and the opposition, in particular on the weekend when they kicked accurately, they were able to make the most of it. We kicked 2.8 in that third term, when we had 20 inside 50’s and were well on top. That’s been a bit consistent as well as far as where to make the most of our opportunities when we get the moment, and make sure we don’t go away from what we know works when the opposition has go it.

On the top eight:

We don’t focus on internally as a footy team. We know it’s important, but nothing is more important than getting your process right and that’s what we’ve always focused on as a footy club, is to make sure we get our process right. We understand where it sits in a ladder perspective, the players understand, the club, the supporters, everyone understands that. What we actually focus on are the things we can control, and that’s what we need to put our energy into, is looking after that step by step and making sure we get our preparation right this week - our review meeting today, our training on Wednesday. It’s a short week, the Dogs have a couple of days up on us, and we need to make sure we make the most of our preparation this week in a short week to take on the Doggies on Friday.

On where Longmire believes the Swans sit amongst the top teams:

We’re still striving for that consistency. Before the weekend’s game we had won three out of four. We lost the game against Port, and we didn’t take our chances on the weekend when we needed to. We’re still striving for that consistency, I’ve mentioned it a few times, and part of that is taking our chances when we get them. In the overall scheme of things we’re striving for that in quarter, in game consistency that we need to have to be competitive against any team in the competition and that’s something different every week. Overall we need to show that type of maturity that the best teams do.

On the Swans match-up against the Western Bulldogs:

The Dogs played really well against us last time at Marvel Stadium, and through their midfield were able to play really well, they were able to take their chances and we’re conscious of what they can do at their best.

We look at their best and what they do at their best. We got a taste of that earlier in the year when we played them down there, they were very good. Their midfield is A-grade. When you give the ball enough chances into their forward line with Naughton and co, they can be really dangerous. We realise what they’re capable of and we’ll plan for their best, and we need to be at our best.

On whether the Swans can match it with the top teams:

Any teams ‘good’ is really good, and that’s what separates the best teams year after year is their ability to play at that level week in week out, and they don’t drop too far from that during the course of the game. That’s what we’re still striving for.

We need to make sure when opposition teams get their momentum swings, is that we keep striving and finish off our work when we get it.

Some of our players are still learning and growing through that, and we need to make sure we continue to strive for what that looks like in a result sense. First and foremost, we have to get our process right and we need to make sure we keep teaching our players in those moments to take those chances in the contest, in the chase, play really strong based team footy.

Once we pick the team, we don’t care if they’re first year players, second year players or 15-year players, it doesn’t matter. We need to get to that stage we have the consistent performance no matter what the player’s age is. It can take a bit of time, naturally we can be a bit impatient, but we have to keep striving for our best every week and setting the bar high. That’s what we do internally and that’s what we’ll continue to do.

On Chad Warner’s form:

From the moment he walked in, it was a tough time. He had a couple of Covid-interrupted seasons. In the first year, he was coming through the reserves in that system and we thought when we looked at him he had a really good talent. He’s just continued to flourish. He’s powerful, he’s a real competitor, he goes forward and can kick goals. He’s tough in the contest, so for a young player that’s played under 30 games, we’ve been thrilled with how he's going.