Saturday night made for a new experience for Sydney Swans coach John Longmire.
Not only was the Sydney mentor overseeing his team from the bench instead of the coaches’ box, a vantage point from which he’s led his charges in nearly every one of his 202 career games, he was engulfed by an interchange rotation full of fresh faces during the Sydney Derby XVII fixture.
And after directing Tom McCartin, Nick Blakey, James Rowbottom and a long list of other baby-faced Swans through the GWS clash, Longmire underlined post-match the need to be patient with the exciting young talent.
The Swans’ average age for Saturday night’s loss was 23, as opposed to the Giants’ 25, while Sydney’s games-played average heading into the match was 72 and its opposition’s 93.
Names like McCartin, Blakey, Rowbottom, Oliver Florent, Ben Ronke, Lewis Melican and Ryan Clarke are also among the 70 per cent of Sydney’s 46-man squad aged 24 or under.
And while Longmire said post-match he was “confident” in the emerging generation of Swans, he insists “it doesn’t always gel straight away”.
“I’m hoping our supporters can see that we’ve got a good young group coming through. Our NEAFL team had a good win today, so we think we’ve got some positive things coming through. It doesn’t always gel straight way, but we’ll keep trying to fast-track these kids as quickly as we can,” Longmire said after his side’s fifth loss from six games.
“I was on the bench and I was talking to different players to those from other years – and I really enjoyed that tonight. I didn’t enjoy the scoreboard, as our supporters wouldn’t have, but as far as teaching those younger players, talking to them and communicating during the game and at the breaks, the feedback we gave them was pretty strong about what we were doing right. But as I said to them after the game, we just need to sustain those standards for longer.”
The absence of a host of seasoned campaigners saw the Swans wheel out one of their youngest teams in a long time.
Jarrad McVeigh (322 games), Lance Franklin (295), Heath Grundy (256), Kieren Jack (250) and Nick Smith (211) all nursed injuries in the SCG stands, meaning Sydney was without more than 1300 matches’ worth of experience.
Among Sydney’s outfit were also two 2019 debutants in Blakey and Rowbottom, both of whom lined up in the Swans’ most inexperienced third of the ground, a Franklin-less forward 50.
But the Swans have featured in 20 of the last 23 finals series, and they haven’t missed out on September action since Longmire took control ahead of season 2011.
Longmire believes the Swans’ recent history has made for a great time to be a Sydney supporter, and says he hopes the club’s fans can remain faithful during both the ups and downs.
“We think that over a long period of time we’ve provided reasonable value for our supporters and we’ll try to keep continuing that,” Longmire said.
“It’s not easy, but hopefully our supporters understand that and get behind us with that. We think that over the last 15-20 years we’ve been having a good crack, and we’re still going to have crack, but we’re going to keep bringing through that next bunch of players so we can get better quicker.”
