As we prepare to face the Melbourne Demons, senior coach John Longmire spoke to the media this morning (Wednesday, March 29) ahead of the upcoming Round 3 at the MCG.
See all the key topics following the Swans Round 2 victory over Hawthorn, updates on Lance Franklin, the latest injury updates and all the news ahead of the upcoming game.
Read the key quotes below.
Round 2 performance
It was a pleasing performance. The first couple of weeks, we have been disciplined with our footy and gone about it the right away. But we know the challenges don’t get less.
Melbourne this week, we know it is a big game at the MCG against a top, high quality team.
The Melbourne Demons
We look at every week and there is no bigger challenge than the next game. Melbourne, because of what they have done over the last couple of years, they are a high quality team and you look at their players, they are outstanding and their midfield is as good as any going around. Their defence is extremely well structured and they play a really good, quality brand of footy that stands up at the business end. It is a big test, we are not shying away from that, we know it will be a tough one.
Seeking improvement
We are always working on things and there are plenty of areas we want to improve in. The good thing from last week was they didn’t have so many effective clearances so we want to make sure we keep applying enormous pressure around the ball and if things don’t go well, we are able to recover our position and get into a strong position to attack off the back of it.
Injury update and players returning
Clarke and Fox are not coming back this week. Those guys trained and trained well today but they are not back in contention at the moment.
At this stage, it is Lance to be the only one coming back from an availability sense.
Jacob Konstanty is coming along okay and has just started to do a little bit of training now. We don’t want to push him too hard, a first year player, so he will come back into the program slowly.
Sam Reid started off a bit slowly but he had a good session today. He didn’t do the training session but had a good running session so we are hopeful he is starting to turn the corner. He is still a few weeks away, we want to get some good training under his belt now.
Harry Cunningham playing forward
He has played numerous roles over the years and to his credit, he has been able to adapt. He played a lot of footy as a half forward early in his career, so it is not completely foreign to him, so to have him available in our team to play any role we need, we find really beneficial.
Managing the young list
We have a good group of leaders but we have also turned over the list a fair bit over the last couple of years. On the weekend, we were the 17th youngest list for the weekend. We have some terrific young players that have played a fair bit of footy together now and they give you a real boost and enthusiasm. A new group coming through, they give you plenty of cheek and have a real enthusiasm about them and I enjoy working with them.
One of the challenges they are learning, is how tough the competition is week in week out, and we have had a good start to the season but they come up against Melbourne this week in a another tough one.
See the full press conference below.
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