WHILE losing on the eve of the finals is never ideal, there is only one appropriate response.
And Sydney Swans coach John Longmire was happy to deliver it after the 34-point loss to the Geelong on Saturday at Simonds Stadium meant the club was travelling to Adelaide to play in the qualifying final after finishing third.
"Obviously a win today would have kept us in Sydney next week but we go to Adelaide…we have played pretty well over there before and we know what is in front of us," Longmire said.
While the Swans were in top spot a fortnight ago, Longmire took the glass half full approach when assessing their form going into the finals.
"We actually thought we played some pretty positive football (in narrow losses to Collingwood and Hawthorn). I think you have got to be mindful of just looking at the win-loss," Longmire said.
He said there were positives and negatives to come out of every game and for much of the three losses in the past month, the Swans had been very competitive.
While hard to argue against Longmire's logic, the fact Geelong kicked eight unanswered goals between the 13-minute mark of the third quarter and early in the last to quickly turn a six-point deficit into a 44-point margin showed some urgent remedial work was needed.
The Swans will need to get back to basics and look to its leadership group to drive a quick turnaround.
The first point on the agenda will be tackling. The Swans went into the game averaging eight more tackles per game than its opposition during 2012. Against the Cats it lost the tackle count 68 to 89. Geelong's pressure contributed to the Swans' inability to find run out of defence and resulted in the safe ball movement that Longmire bemoaned after the game.
"Too many times we got caught just going pretty safe and I think in the end good teams make you pay if you continually do that," Longmire said. "We just weren't as aggressive as we would probably like with our ball movement, which ultimately costs you inside 50s which costs you opportunities to score."
The Swans had just 41 inside 50s compared to Geelong's 71, the lowest amount of inside 50s recorded by the Swans in a game this season. The fact it scored 23 times, particularly with Sam Reid missing, was a credit to them.
Swans co-captain Jarrad McVeigh said the team would learn from the loss but then quickly turn its focus to Adelaide.
"We're focused on Adelaide for this week," McVeigh said "That's all we can control."
The Swans recent record against the Crows is not pretty. It has won two from 14 encounters since 2001, although the past two margins have been no greater than seven points.
It has won just one game against the Crows in that time at AAMI Stadium, the venue for next week's game. That win was in 2010 and contained 15 of the Sydney Swans' players that took on Geelong on Saturday.
Only twice since 2000 has a team lost in its last round and won the flag, the most recent being Collingwood in 2010 when it lost to Hawthorn by three points. The Brisbane Lions lost to Port Adelaide by six points in 2002 before winning the flag.
So the portents are not good. But nor are they binding. The Swans have earned third spot with good performances against strong opposition.
As the players warmed down voices could be heard urging the group to regather itself quickly for the finals. There was no time to dwell on what had happened.
"If someone had asked me at the start of the year if you finished top four would you take it … I think most people would probably tend to agree we would have taken it," Longmire said.
