John Longmire is set to coach his 300th senior game this Thursday night when the Sydney Swans face the Western Bulldogs at the SCG. The senior coach appeared in a weekly press conference where he discussed the upcoming milestone and strategy heading into Round 18.
On Longmire’s 300th game
“I understand it’s a significant number, but it’s not front of mind right now. Once the season is over, I’ll sit back and reflect on it. At the moment, I’m very much in the here and now and with the Thursday game I haven’t had the time to think about it."
On Longmire’s future of coaching
“We’re fortunate. We’ve got some great young kids coming through that we feel are the next wave for a consistent and competitive team. That’s the exciting thing, making sure those guys come through. We’ve got a great coaching group and a fantastic football club. I’m very lucky to do what I do. The bottom line is though, I’m looking at this week against the Western Bulldogs – how do we beat them and how do we play at our best.”
On the challenging season
“There’s been plenty of challenging seasons. We’ve had a couple of seasons of COVID. There are always different challenges every year and it’s a different story every year. For instance, this year in 11 of 16 games we’ve been in front at three-quarter time. We just haven’t been able to finish as strongly as we would have liked to. The rationale into why is what we’re looking into.”
On Round 17
"Everyone wants one answer but it's never one thing, it's always a combination of things. We've done a lot right for lots of parts of the games this year but we haven't put that four quarter performance in as often as we would have liked. On the weekend again...the reality was their senior players were fantastic in that last half got them over the line and so there's been something different every week. But we've got to be a bit more consistent there's no doubt about that."
-
00:29
Mark of the Week - Round 17
Logan McDonald takes two huge contested grabs for Mark of the Week, presented by Qatar Airways.
AFL
Mark of the Week -
00:50
Goal of the Week - Round 17
Some huge tackle pressure from Tom Papley leads to a Lance Franklin goal in the second quarter.
AFL
Goal of the Week -
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
On Lance Franklin's return
"We gave Lance the best chance to feel good going into the game. That was his first game in three weeks...he was charging around and looked fantastic. Hopefully he gets going after a few days and then we'll see how he goes this week. It was good to get a couple of players back who had missed a fair bit of footy for us."
On Joel Amartey and Sam Wicks
"They're a chance to make a comeback this week. With Joel and Wicksy putting their hands up to come back into the team, we'll work through that with our main training session tomorrow but it's good to see that they should be available."
On 2024
"I'm certainly not thinking about next year yet. I'm really confident in the team this year and this week. I think we've had some challenges this year there's no question about that. With our ability and training and getting the players back, a strong finish to the year is what we'll be aiming for that and where that leads us, who knows."
On Chad Warner
"Unfortunately we don't have the availability of Chad and it would have been great to have him as another midfielder. We've got a young midfield group and we need some more midfield depth. It's unlikely he will play this week unfortunately. He is such an important player for us but hopefully he is available next week and we take it from there."
On Jake Lloyd
"He's ok. Unfortunately we lose him this week. I think he was one of our best players last week. Up until he went off he had 10 possessions and he was going really well. But he's bounced back ok, he's fine and started to do exercise."
Thursday night footy is back! Join us at the SCG this Thursday night as we take on the Western Bulldogs. Use 'HORSE300' for $30 reserved tickets. Terms and conditions apply.
