The Sydney Swans return to the SCG this Friday night for a clash with Carlton. Ahead of Marn Grook - part of Sir Doug Nicholls Round - senior coach John Longmire answered questions from the media on Monday, May 13.
See what he had to say on playing Carlton, the challenge of team selection in Round 10 and the debate of extra time.
On the Swans’ ladder position
“It's been good to get some reward for effort, but it's been the way we've been able to do it. Our scramble pressure on the weekend was terrific, we felt that was a real positive. But it's about making sure you keep on backing it up, and that's what our challenge is every week.
“There's always areas of the game that we can get better at.”
On efficiency
“It certainly helps where on the ground you have your shots from…that's part of conversion - making sure you have your shots in decent parts of the ground. But on the weekend [Fremantle] missed some goals as well which helped a bit of a differential on the scoreboard. In the end it made a bit of a difference on the scoreboard and a lot of the other stats were probably fairly close.”
On playing Carlton at the SCG
“If you look at what Carlton have got, they've got a couple of Coleman medallists in their forward line, and they're the number one contested ball team in the competition. This week is a massive game here at the SCG and there's always another challenge to keep you on edge. We need to be on edge every week to make sure that we keep improving as a team.”
On Tom McCartin and Nick Blakey
“Tommy McCartin will be out. He's coming along pretty well, he was good today, but he'll be out of the team. Obviously, we're looking after Tommy and whilst he's feeling fine today, we'll give him another week.
“Nick is fine, so he'll be fine to play.”
On the Carlton forward line
“It's quite unique in the competition to have such two dominant key forwards like Carlton have. They're both playing really good football, but they're also surrounded by some smalls that can kick goals at ground level as well. If you look at their contested ball, the ability around stoppage, what they can do at centre-bounce clearances over the last month has been enormous…it's going to be a tough one.”
On team selection in Round 10
“We've been reasonably consistent through that midfield group and we'll see how this week lines up. There are players like Braden Campbell - it all sort of depends upon what roles are available, what roles we think we need in the senior team and it's obviously a bit early in the week to make much commentary about that.
“Luke Parker wants to play senior footy, that's understandable, his attitude has been terrific, again on the weekend he was superb with the way he went about it and how he's leading those younger players in the next tier down. But also understanding that he wants to play seniors, he's going about it in such a terrific way and getting even more respect from his teammates.”
On Robbie Fox
“Parker and Robbie Fox play completely different roles so we’re mindful of that. Robbie’s flexibility has been important. If you lose a tall during the game he helps with that, whereas if you bring another midfielder in obviously that doesn't help, and if you lose a defender. Those discussion go on during the week.”
On Callum Mills’ recovery
“I watched him run today; he looked good. I think at the start of the year we said around mid-year. But because he's been a bit delayed getting going it'll probably be a couple of weeks after that, how long we're not sure. So far, he's been running but not doing any of the training, so he needs to take that next step before he gets back in.
“His shoulder's fine, it's the calf. He just started getting back into training and into some full training and had a calf set back. He’ll be back just after the bye hopefully.”
On implementing extra time after a draw
“I probably don't have a really strong view on it, other than if we've given ourselves an extra game already over the last couple of years, it's another game. So, if you get in a situation maybe during the year where you have one or two, you play extra minutes on top of that. I know Chris Fagan said afterwards that he was pretty glad not to play extra time because they were gassed. I think we've just got to be aware of the pressure that you put on players. At the moment I'll probably sit in the camp just to leave it as is.”
Haven't got a ticket or a memership for Round 10? There are limited Marn Grook Blockbuster memberships available. Get a reserved seat to this Friday Night, PLUS general admission entry for any two other home games at the SCG.
