The Sydney Swans VFL side were valiant in their loss against the their Round 11 clash with Geelong, going down by nine-points at the SCG on Sunday afternoon.

It was a tightly contested affair against the third-placed Cats outfit, with the red and white remaining within striking distance for the entire contest.

Swans VFL senior coach Damian Truslove was proud of the side’s effort, showing plenty of character in the defeat.

“I was just really proud of the effort,” Truslove said.

“Geelong have won seven games straight, now eight, and they are going really well. It was always going to be a tough challenge but we stuck to our plan really well, which I was proud of.

“We come at them in that last quarter, but we just couldn't quite get across the line.

“There was a lot of character shown there, which is a real positive,” Truslove added.

“We adjusted a few things at half-time. The boys bought into the message and stuck to the plan again. They gave it everything they had, but at the end of the day we were probably beaten by a slightly better team.”

Joel Hamling continues to love life playing as a forward, with the premiership defender booting five goals. Hamling is yet to make a senior debut for the Swans since crossing from Fremantle last October, but he led the way with eight marks and 5.3 in front of goal.

Ben Edwards dominated in midfield with a game high 30 disposals and seven clearances, while Jake Bartholomaeus had 24 touches and two clearances.

“Hamling was good. He gave us an option deep forward when we got the ball into him quickly. He looked really dangerous, so he kicked five goals through and it was a good effort,” Truslove said.

“But I thought a lot of our small forwards put a lot of pressure on today, which was good.

“Ben Edwards is one of our VFL boys, had 30 possessions and worked really, really hard. Shipley was doing a great job on Parfitt until he did his hamstring, unfortunately, while Caleb Mitchell had a solid game and Jaiden Magor off half-back gave us a bit of run.

“There was probably 10 or 12 players that played solid games which was good.”

Ruckman Peter Ladhams stood up with a game high eight clearances in his 23 disposals, while he also had 20 hit outs.

Aaron Francis had 18 disposals in his return to the VFL after a stint in the senior, while small forward James Lugsdin continued his impressive season with two goals.

Mid-season draftee Tom Hanily had 12 disposals in his first game for the club.

“He was really good Tom,” Truslove said.

“He works really hard up and down the ground as a half forward. He tackles well. It's always hard coming into a club where he doesn't really know too many people, but I thought his effort was fantastic.

“And he's just going to get better each game now.”