From the Coaches Box – go out and deliver
In Cellarbrations' From the Coaches Box this week, midfield coach Leigh Tudor talks about bringing the right mindset Sunday against St Kilda
The players were really disappointed after the game and they knew what they’d done. We had a really strong review on Monday and the players knew exactly what happened and why, so they’ve had a good week on the track and we’ve talked about a few things and now it’s up to them to go out and deliver, and I’m sure they will. We haven’t had two bad games like that in a row for a while, so we don’t want to start now. I expect the team to bounce back and have a really good defensive mindset and not let St Kilda’s mids run around and do what they want to do when we take them on at the SCG this Sunday.
For a long time we’ve had very close matches with St Kilda, with the most recent being our 16-point win in round five over in Wellington. St Kilda and the Swans have matched up really well on each other for the last three or four years, so it could be another close contest.
The Saints have got a few young guys in this week, but will be missing Lenny Hayes and James Gwilt, but their best is still good enough. If you let Montagna, Dal Santo and Armitage run around, then they are going to beat you, so we have to have a really strong defensive mindset and play the way we want to play.
It will be fantastic to have Gary Rohan out on the park again this weekend. It was really exciting when Horse (Swans coach John Longmire) told the boys on Tuesday, everyone was really rapt. Hopefully we can win some hard ones in the midfield group and make sure we get Gaz a few touches, because it’s been an amazing story. He’s worked really hard and it’s a credit to him to get back so quickly really.
Gary will also add some speed to our side, which we’ve missed with the like of Lewis Jetta and Adam Goodes out this year. To have Gary in the side is really exciting because you know that he’s another one who can run and take on most blokes and beat them.
Finally, Sunday afternoon’s match is our last home match at the SCG for the season. We have really good supporters up here in Sydney so it’s always good to play at the SCG, so hopefully our midfield group can improve on last week and get things started from the very first bounce.