Swans can't afford to play catch up
Swans defenders Nick Malceski and Ted Richards said the team can't afford to keep giving teams leads after being defeated by the Crows tonight...
Defender Ted Richards said the Sydney Swans can’t afford to play ‘catch-up footy’ against quality sides like the Crows.
The Swans trailed Adelaide by 28 points in the second quarter, and despite several fight back efforts, went down to the Crows by five points.
Richards said the team allowed the Crows; forwards too much leeway in the opening term.
“They got the jump on us early and they took some really good, strong marks and some of their players are really good set shots for goal, so you can’t give them those opportunities,” he said.
“That contributed to their first quarter start, where they got the marks inside 50 in the first quarter and kicked the goals.
“We were always playing catch-up footy after that.”
The full-back said he was disappointed in his own performance, following an outstanding effort against Hawthorn’s Lance Franklin last weekend.
“Personally I think that’s the most goals I’ve had kicked on me and just felt my one-on-ones were a bit off,” he said.
“I wasn’t able to get the strong spoils I have in previous weeks.”
Fellow Swans defender Nick Malceski told SwansTV that the team failed to produce a consistent four quarter effort in tonight’s game.
“We didn’t play the footy we wanted to play,” he said.
“I reckon we had glimpses of it through the game, but I think they beat us in the contested footy and tackles, and that’s one area that we really pride ourselves on and we just got beaten in that area, so it was disappointing.”
Click on the video player above to watch Nick Malceski speak to SwansTV after the game
Malceski said the team will be putting the loss behind them, and will turn their attention to the Swans’ first match for the season in Melbourne, against Richmond at the MCG.
“(The message after the game) was more to move onto Richmond and make sure we bring the way we want to play including contested footy,” he said.
“We’ll obviously go through the tape on Monday and work out what we need to work on and then we’ll go from there.
“We just need to bring our hard brand of footy that we know we can do and that we did in the first five rounds.
“It was just disappointing we couldn’t do it tonight.”
