Sydney's 0-3 record is the club's worst start to a season in 18 years but coach John Longmire believes his side isn't far away from getting the results it’s striving for.

The Swans lost a second straight match at the SCG when they were upset by Collingwood by one solitary point on Friday night, and must head to Perth next Thursday to try and defeat West Coast to keep their season alive.

Longmire fielded nine players with less than 15 games experience against the Magpies with the likes of Jarrad McVeigh, Isaac Heeney, Dane Rampe, Kurt Tippett, Tom Papley and Gary Rohan all missing through injury, and said after the loss that it's been a frustrating opening to the year.

"It's a really tough one with things you can't control," he said.

"Whether its compartment syndrome (Papley), or glandular fever (Heeney), or a bloke tripping over a fence (Rampe).

"Sometimes you can worry about that, but in the end I've just got to focus on the things I can control and who is available, and make sure we get the little things right for longer during the course of the game.

"We've done some things really well and some players have played really well, we've just been inconsistent during games, and we saw that on display tonight."

The story of the Swans' defeat could be told in an extraordinary first quarter against the Pies, with the visitors dominating every aspect of the match.

Nathan Buckley's side won the inside 50 count 23-2, had 62 more possessions, and kicked four goals to one in the opening term, and really should have been much further in front.

The home side managed to work their way back into the contest and leveled the scores late in the final quarter, but found it too tough to come back from their disastrous start.

"We can’t lose that first quarter by as much as we did, then win the final three and expect to win the game," Longmire said.

"We won on the scoreboard from quarter-time onwards, the problem was we lost the first quarter by 21 points, and that certainly had an impact.

"We were a bit rushed, not as composed as we should have been, and tried to play on too much when we were under the pump, and it was costly.

"We addressed it after quarter-time and adjusted quite well, but we just didn't get our noses in front."