Sydney Swans coach John Longmire addressed the media ahead of training at the SCG on Monday.
The Swans overcame the Bulldogs on Saturday and will face the Adelaide Crows at the SCG on Friday night.
Here are some key quotes from the press conference.
The tightness of the competition
“It’s an incredibly tough competition. We say every year that it only continues to get closer and closer. In the Dogs game there was a point in it with 30 seconds to go and it just highlights what’s happening across the competition. There were a couple of one-sided games on the weekend but generally across the competition it’s pretty tough. It will be really tough again this week. We play a quality team back here at the SCG, hopefully in front of a big crowd and we look forward to that.”
Oliver Florent’s rise
“He’s had some continuous footy. It’s only his second year. We sometimes have unrealistic expectations of young kids to come in and dominate every week but they’re finding their feet still. He got a taste of it last year and he’s had a good pre-season and he’s played this year and played a consistent brand of footy. He’s actually really hard for a young player, a couple of times going back in packs and hard over the ball and that’s a really good quality to have as a young kid. We know he has some gears as well so he’s one of those classic hybrid midfielders – he can play outside and inside. I’m sure it will hold him in good stead.”
Adelaide’s loss to Collingwood last Friday
“There’s an opposition that turns up too. It can get lost when you have an off day that the opposition did well and they have a say in it as well. Collingwood, to their credit, were fantastic last week. We know Adelaide are an absolute gun, quality football team and from the grand final and season they had last year to the football they played against Richmond a couple of weeks ago was A-grade.”
The injury front
“Lance Franklin is all good. He continued to play after that knock and had a bit of bruising on his arm but is fine now. Sam is okay after his surgery. They went in to see if he needed an operation and they did operate on him and we feel at this early stage it was a good decision to operate. Hopefully that will help him in his comeback. The duration of the injury hasn’t changed. We’re certainly not going to rush him after the surgery. It wasn’t operated on just because we wanted to get him back quicker. We’re still conscious of making sure his rehab is right.”
Gary and Amie Rohan
“He and his wife Amie are going really well, considering the challenges they had last week. They really appreciated what Luke Beveridge said after the game and commented on how the whole football community comes together as one whether they’re supporters, clubs, coaches, players in challenging times. Unfortunately we have experienced it a couple of times now and there’s no better place to be than the AFL industry.”
