Sydney Swans coach John Longmire has returned to the club this pre-season with a wealth of international sporting knowledge under his belt after attending the Leaders Sport Performance Summit in London earlier this month.

Not only did Longmire attend presentations from some of the world’s elite coaches, managers and sporting directors, the coach was also a key-note speaker at the London conference representing both the Swans and the AFL.

Speaking to Sky Sports Radio’s Big Sports Breakfast program on Thursday, Longmire said he felt there was plenty of interest in AFL on the international stage.

“I was absolutely rapt to be asked to go along and participate in the conference when there were so many legends in the room,” he said.

“I really enjoyed it and got a lot out of it.

“(The opportunity to present) came through the AFL, and I think what’s happening now is the AFL, and sport in general, is becoming better known throughout the world and people are keen to know what’s going on.

“(Hawthorn coach) Alastair Clarkson spoke last year, and I was lucky enough to be invited to speak this year.”

While there were a host of impressive speakers from a range of sports worldwide, Longmire said Arsenal FC manager Arsène Wenger was one of the most inspiring speakers at the conference.

“Arsène Wenger was very interesting,” he said

“To be able to last as long as he has in 18 years as the manager of Arsenal, when really the life span of a manager over there is 18 months, meant he was quite interesting to listen to.

“There is no surprise he lasted so long, he was fantastic.”

After enjoying two weeks overseas, Longmire has returned to the club in time for the beginning of the Swans pre-season program, which kicked off at the start of this week.

With last season’s Grand Final loss still fresh in his mind, the coach said he and the playing group wouldn’t be “sweeping the loss under the carpet”, but will continue to face it head on.

“We addressed it the Tuesday after the Grand Final when we actually sat down and looked at it,” he said.

“We addressed it then and I’m sure we’ll touch on it at different times during the pre-season to make sure that we learn from it.

“Every game you learn something and unfortunately no matter how good a year we had this year, we didn’t really contribute at all on the biggest stage and we were disappointed in that.

“Hopefully we can learn from that and get better.”

listen to ‘John Longmire on Big Sports Breakfast - Nov 20, 2014’ on audioBoom


While the club’s one-to-four-year players are already back training, three senior Swans – Jarrad McVeigh, Kieren Jack and Nick Smith – will take part in the first test of the International Rules Series against Ireland on Saturday.

Longmire said being chosen to represent Australian in the series was a great honour for his three players, who will line up alongside some of the best talent the AFL has to offer for the match.

“It’s a great opportunity for those boys to be able to mix with the very elite players from across the competition,” he said.

“They’ve really tightened up the selection criteria for the Australian team this year and you can only get a game if you’ve been an All-Australian player.

“That’s different to what it’s been over the last few years, so our boys are really excited to be able to play for their country amongst the best players in our game, so I’m hoping they learn a lot off them.”