Swans midfielder Luke Parker addressed the media ahead of training at the SCG on Thursday.
Sydney is set for a clash with Geelong at GMHBA Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Here are some key quotes from the press conference.
To bump or to tackle
“We’ve been taught to always tackle. We’ve had a few contests where we’ve gone to bump and the person’s been able to take the ball and ride the bump and run away with the ball. We had a few of those on the weekend and we know, for one, the safer option is to tackle and it’s probably more effective in slowing the game down and not letting them ride through the bump and run off with the ball.”
Bouncing back from the Crows loss
“For us it’s about getting back to basics. I was down on form and Josh Kennedy was down on form as well. We can’t have too many players having an off game in the one game. We had a pretty low percentage of tackles against Adelaide and lost the contested ball and ground ball. When you get those things wrong or lose those battles it goes a long way to losing the game. That’s where we will need to improve but I don’t think it’s a crisis – it’s a pretty easy thing to change.”
Mid-game feedback
“During the game we get messages sent down and we’re able to watch vision at quarter-time and half-time and three-quarter time. We prefer to change things during the game rather than come in Monday morning and realise what’s going wrong. On the weekend we had a poor performance but then in the second half we actually turned things around and matched them in the midfield and got back in the game. For us it’s about the consistency across the four quarters.”
Geelong’s star midfield
“They have one of the best midfielders in the competition. There’s probably no better test than down there against some of the stars of the game. It will be great to test ourselves and we’ll bounce back.”
Lance Franklin’s substitute
“It’s pretty hard to replace Buddy – a six-foot-six animal with incredible skills. It depends on whether we want to go for a different look and be a bit more unpredictable. There are a lot of blokes putting up their hands – Nic Newman, Dan Robinson, Ben Ronke. I think there a few boys who can slot in and play a role.”
The impact of balancing playing as a midfielder and forward
“Playing forward affects your time in the midfield but that’s the way we’ve had to adjust in terms of rotations. With not having as many rotations from the bench you’ve got to go forward and rest forward and get dangerous down there rather than going off every four minutes and going straight into the midfield. We want to become dangerous up forward and make sure we’re not just resting forward and not providing an option, but make sure we’re making the most of it up forward.”
Playing with a ‘smaller’ forward line against the Cats
“We have a forward line that we know is pretty quick and can put a lot of pressure on the opposition. If we can get it in there and get it deep and lock it in there it will go a long way because a lot of ours scores have come from repeat entries and turnovers and our pressure, so that will be at the front of our mind.”
