When the Swans line up against Hawthorn in this week’s qualifying final, the team will be missing a wealth of finals’ experience including the likes of Adam Goodes, Rhyce Shaw and Lewis Roberts-Thomson, but Longmire said his ‘different look’ team will not be fazed by the absence of senior players.
“It’s a completely different team in a lot of aspects,” Longmire said on Monday.
“It is a different look but what we do know though is whether it’s Tom Mitchell or Ryan O’Keefe, the same things still apply in finals footy, which is about winning contested ball and being hard and strong and playing both ways.”
The coach said he believed the Swans’ last month of football had prepared the less experienced players for finals football, adding that the challenge of facing three top eight sides in four weeks was the perfect preparation for the intensity of football in September.
“Hopefully some of those players who weren’t part of our campaign last year have had a good taste over the last couple of weeks,” he said.
“The benefit of playing Collingwood, Geelong and Hawthorn and those teams in the back few games is that there shouldn’t be any surprises as far as the intensity is concerned.
“To get that experience into some of those younger players in particular will hopefully hold them in good stead.”
While a number of key players will be forced to sit out the start of the finals series, Swans co-captain Jarrad McVeigh said the hunger to succeed is just as strong amongst this year’s group.
Speaking alongside Longmire at the Swans finals launch at the SCG this morning, McVeigh said those who missed out on the Swans’ success in 2012 were the players driving the team forward this year, including Ben McGlynn, Gary Rohan, Andrejs Everitt and Jesse White.
“There are a lot of guys who didn’t play who are very hungry,” McVeigh said.
“Guys like Benny McGlynn and Gary Rohan and those types of guys who saw what happened, they’re hungry.
“We do get that feeling now that we’re back to September and we get excited and we all know what it takes to get there.”
The co-captain said the Swans were ready for Friday night’s challenge against the minor premiers and a big game down at the MCG.
McVeigh added the Swans would draw on the experience of winning over in Adelaide in last year’s qualifying final before they go into battle with the Hawks.
“We love playing away as a group and we will mention that throughout the week,” he said.
“There is nothing better than playing away against a really good team and having a good win.
“When you look at the players and you know that it’s on and it’s just you guys out there on your own, there is no better feeling than winning away.
“We’ll take that into this week definitely.”
The Swans are expected to regain Kurt Tippett, Dan Hannebery and Nick Smith for Friday’s final, with Lewis Jetta also in the frame for selection after making his return via the reserves on the weekend.
Longmire said the match committee would decide on Jetta later in the week, following the Swans’ final training session in Sydney on Wednesday.
“We obviously need to sit down in match committee and work out what we do with him from here,” he said.
“It’s a decision we need to make whether we can bring him in and whether we bring him in as a sub or do we give him another two weeks training and look towards next week.
“That’s a decision we’ll make probably in the next couple of days.”
