Ahead of a match against North Melbourne this Saturday, Senior Coach John Longmire had his weekly press conference on Wednesday (May 17) to discuss Lance Franklin, the Swans' injury list and strategy heading into Round 10.
On Buddy Franklin
“Last week Buddy spent two days in bed, Thursday and Friday, but because of the competitor he is and that we didn’t have any other option he said he would play… Buddy is team first.
“He takes the best opposition defender every week which gives others the chance to shine… His ability to put himself out there and compete every week is at the highest level and always has since he’s been at the club.”
On the Swans’ injury list
“Marc Sheather will unfortunately be out this week. He has some stress in his foot again so he’ll miss the game. Tom McCartin won’t be in the team this week but Pete [Ladhams] we expect will be if he gets through training.”
On the team’s morale
“In the end you control what you can control. We go out there every week and look at the type of football we want to play, regardless of who’s available. You focus on that. We look at our shape, our contest, our pressure has been very good – something we’ve been able to hang our hat on – but we’re still inconsistent with that during games.”
On North Melbourne
“Look, they’ve had some injuries and they’ll have some players missing as well but it’s about us. We look at what North Melbourne are doing and what they can do but we’re mindful of making sure we can get our team going in four quarters. That’s what we’re focussing on at the moment.”
On what needs to be improved
“Our ground balls and the like have been okay, and we’ve had some free kicks against us that have been costly. We had some 50 metre penalties in that second term that really cost us. We’d like to be more efficient going forward and have less easy goals kicked against us. That’s what we’d like to be able to do and do it for longer. Unfortunately, we’ve had lapses in games and that’s what we’re trying to fix.”
On Angus Sheldrick
“We’ve got a couple of boys from the VFL that are coming in this week so he is in the mix.”
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