Form turnaround needed
Sydney Swans defender Ted Richards says hard work is the only way the team can turn their form around
Despite kicking two of the first three goals for the match, the Swans only managed four more goals despite going inside 50 on 66 occasions.
North Melbourne, on the other hand, made the most of their opportunities, scoring 13 goals from 48 inside 50s, including six final quarter goals.
Speaking to SwansTV after the match, Richards said the Swans were extremely disappointed with the loss, particularly after their comprehensive win over Adelaide in round three.
“We’re really disappointed with today,” Richards said.
“I thought we took a couple of steps forward last week and had some real positives and we were hoping that we could just build on that.
“The Kangas got a jump on us and we weren’t able to pull it back.”
The defender highlighted the Swans’ efforts in the final term and said it was disappointing not to be able to run out the match when the game was on the line.
“At the end of the game we were just really disappointed, especially with that last quarter,” he said.
“The game was there to be won and the challenge was there and they were able to score goals on us.
“They scored six goals in the last quarter and that’s just not good enough.”
Richards added that the Swans’ pressure around the football did not match that of their opponents, who won the contested ball count 172-163 and produced 21 spoils to Sydney’s five for the game.
“It was just about competing and those 50/50 balls,” he said.
“I’m not sure what the stats were on hard-ball gets and contested ball and things like that, but (North Melbourne’s) ability to win the ball when it was 50/50 and make it theirs was just one of many things that they got over us.
“That ability is a basic fundamental of football and that’s one of many things we were pretty disappointed with.”
The loss sees the Swans’ win-loss record fall to 1-3, with the team set to host 2013 grand finalists Fremantle at the SCG on Easter Saturday.
Richards said the team would undergo a brutal review process this week, and would need to work extremely hard to turn around their poor start to the season.
“Our start is what it is, and we’ve got to dig our way out of it,” he said.
“It just starts with hard work.
“We’ve got to work our way out of this and we’ll have our game review tomorrow and I’m sure we’re going to see a lot of disappointing things.
“We’re all going to be pretty annoyed and disappointed in ourselves about how we played today and we’ve got to turn it around.”