The Sydney Swans secured a dominant 53-point victory over the Western Bulldogs at the SCG in Round 17 with head coach John Longmire praising the victory off the back of the side’s relentless pressure. 

The Swans flew out of the blocks, recording their best first quarter since 2018, including seven goals, eight behinds as they built an early 37-point lead after the first term. 

Longmire said that their sustained pressure across the board was important to lead to points and a real positive to come out of the game. 

“It was built on the back of our enormous pressure. 88 tackles, Callum Mills had 15 tackles, Sam Reid had 13 tackle and we had high pressure acts across the board and just played a really strong pressure game of footy,” Longmire said in the Swans post match press conference. 

“Off the back of that we were able to score but it was off the back of the enormous pressure we were able to sustain the entire game and it was a real positive to come out of the game.”

Longmire was pleased with the Swans four quarter effort, with consistency being a particular focus for the side over the past few weeks.

“We have arrested the slow starts over the last couple of weeks, and we were able to get out of the blocks, but once we were able to hit the scoreboard, we just kept on with that enormous pressure and to maintain it for the course of the game it was really important.” Longmire said.

“If you are able to sustain that pressure for four quarters, particularly against their midfield which is elite who have been able to kick some big scores over the last couple of weeks off the back of getting plenty of ball, we were really pleased with that.”

John Longmire expects the Sydney Swans to be without ruck Peter Ladhams for a couple of weeks with a broken hand, however was impressed by Sam Reid and Joel Amartey who were able to fill the void after he was subbed out of the action.

Longmire said teammate Tom Hickey had trained this morning and remained positive of his availability next week.