Following a tough match at GMHBA Stadium on Saturday night, senior coach John Longmire appeared in a virtual press conference on Monday (April 23).
On Round 6
“We had seven key position senior players out on the weekend. Cameron and Hawkins are outstanding but that’s the reality of it. We won’t have Fox available this week – he failed his HIA. We just have to get it done and deal with what we can control. Whether that’s a young squad like we had on the weekend, against a really experienced, hardened team, or player availability. You’ve just got to get on with it and do things that the game requires and what we served up over the course of that game was unacceptable.”
On team structure
“We have player availability issues that are tough to ignore that we’d be a better team without. But we’re looking at not so much that fact, we’re looking at the fact that we’ve got to compete from contest to contest. We’re boiling it down to that. That’s what we need to do with this team, is to keep on reinforcing those requirements.”
On player availability
“We’re not sure with Franklin, Rampe and Tommy McCartin just yet whether there will be any availability this week. We’ll just have to wait and see.”
On Callum Mills playing defence
“We lost Joel Amartey last week, so we needed a key forward and we need key backs but that’s the situation we’re in. We’ve got Gould who only played his second game on the weekend coming on from sub and playing on Tom Hawkins and at different times you need a few senior players who need to help with that. We’d rather not play him there but we needed to.”
On Matty Roberts’ injury
“He’s getting a scan today but he will be [out] a few weeks.”
On the GWS Giants
“I think they’re showing some really good signs and they’ve got some terrific players. They’ll be competitive, the games we play against the Giants always are, so we expect that this week. They’ve shown a different style of play that they’ll be throwing up and we’ll have to be on our game to counteract that.”
On Tom Hickey
“We’re mindful that Tom is 32 and coming back from three soft tissue injuries in a row. We’ve got to make these decisions on what the team needs and what we’d like in a structural sense. But also, what players can actually do and if they’re right to play.”
The Sydney Swans are gearing up to go head-to-head with the GWS Giants in Derby XXV this weekend. The cross-town rivalry will be reignited this Saturday at 2.10pm. Tickets are on sale now – get yours today!
