SYDNEY Swans coach John Longmire has bemoaned the wasted opportunities squandered by his charges in their seven-point loss to Adelaide at AAMI Stadium on Saturday night.
In atrocious conditions at West Lakes, the Swans could only muster six goals against the Crows and missed several opportunities to run away with the result.
"It's pretty hard to win a game of footy when you kick 6.14," Longmire said following the Swans' third consecutive loss.
"You can't continually keep having the ball in your forward half and either miss easy goals or not have shots."
Too many goals went begging for the Swans during a tight final term, with gettable set-shots from Andrejs Everitt and Ryan O'Keefe ultimately costing the visitors the four premiership points.
"We just didn't take our chances when we had so much of the ball in our forward half," he said.
"You work hard to get yourself into a good spot [with] a fair bit of the play in your half of the ground and [when] you don't kick goals it makes it really hard to win a game of footy. It's really frustrating."
The Swans started well and led by 13 points at the 17-minute mark of the first term, locking the ball inside their forward 50 for most of the opening half.
But the visitors could not convert their opportunities and were unable to turn their dominance into scoreboard pressure as the Crows responded.
Adelaide booted five goals to the Swans' two after half-time to snatch the 7-point victory and break a six-game losing streak.
"We just had a lot of the ball but couldn't put the score on the board," Longmire reflected.
"Particularly in the second and third quarters, [there were] large patches of the game where we had the ball inside our forward 50 and couldn't kick a goal."
The Swans kicked their fourth goal through O'Keefe at the four-minute mark of the second term but had to wait until 17 minutes into the final quarter for their next goal, adding to Longmire's frustrations.
"We just worked so hard to have the ball there. Over a period of time it probably wears [the team] down a little bit if you can't kick a goal," he said.
Veteran Jude Bolton fought hard for the visitors with 25 disposals, 18 contested possessions and seven clearances, while Dan Hannebery (25 disposals, 10 contested) and Jarrad McVeigh (28 disposals, seven inside 50s) were also among the Swans' best.
The Swans have now lost their last three games but will still retain their position inside the top eight at the conclusion of the round. They will get the chance to reverse their poor form against bottom-placed Gold Coast at Metricon Stadium next Saturday night.
Max covers news from AAMI Stadium for afl.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_MaxPhillip
