While this Saturday night’s semi final against Carlton is a step away from that game, coach John Longmire still has confidence that his team can make a similar impact in this year’s finals series, despite last week’s qualifying final loss.
“We’re clearly in a different place (than we were last year), that’s clearly the case, but that doesn’t mean we’re necessarily in a worse off place either,” Longmire told media at the Swans final training session on Thursday.
“We’ve got some players in the team who are new, we’ve got some players that we think are going to be terrific players for this footy club and can still play some good footy this year.
“That’s what we’re focusing on and we think our best is still good enough to match it with the best teams.
“That’s what we need to bring this week against Carlton, and we’re confident that if our best players play well, and everyone else in the team contributes, then we’ll win.”
But Longmire said talk is cheap and the only way to make amends for last week’s disappointment at the hands of Hawthorn was on the field this Saturday night.
“The first half (against the Hawks) we’d like to think was more of a reflection of us, and the second half we weren’t pleased with,” Longmire said.
“We believe we’re better than that when we apply that real, hard defensive pressure and we need to this week.
“What happened last week has happened, but it doesn’t matter what I say, it’s what we do this week that is important.
“Our challenge now is to not so much talk about it, it’s to put it into action this week.”
The Swans will face a selection headache when the finals teams are named at 6.25pm tonight, with dual Brownlow medallist Adam Goodes pushing his case to make a return in Saturday night’s semi.
Goodes has completed full training this week, showing positive signs, and remains firmly in the mix for selection.
Despite the hype around Goodes’ potential selection, Longmire said the 33-year-old’s inclusion was far from the team’s only focus this weekend.
“We’re here to make a decision on whether (Goodes) plays or not,” Longmire said.
“Is that our focus going into the game? Absolutely not.
“Our main focus going into the game is putting enormous pressure on Carlton for four quarters, not a half like we did last week.
“Whether Adam plays or not we’ll make that decision this afternoon, but our main priority is to get our pressure skills up to the standard for four quarters, which we know we can do.
"Adam will be part of the decision-making process.
"It's a combination of everything. It's how his knee feels, it's how confident he feels in it, has he done enough training.
"We’ll sit down and come up with a decision this afternoon.
"The facts are this is his first week of training and we're going into a final.
"The other side is it's Adam Goodes, who is a champion player and has got incredible mental strength.
"It's not a cut and dried argument either way. We have to make sure we make the right call and back it in when we do."
Longmire also said that Lewis Roberts-Thomson was likely to make his long-awaited return via the Swans Reserves in Sunday’s NEAFL Eastern Conference Grand Final at Canberra’s Kippax Oval.
“He certainly will be a consideration to play in our reserves this week and that’s what we’ll probably look at,” he said.
“He’s putting his name up for selection, and if he gets through training today, we’d look to play him in our reserves this week.”
