Swans at the crossroads
Ryan O’Keefe believes the Sydney Swans come back from the split round facing a make or break period as far as the club’s 2009 ambitions are concerned
O'Keefe, 28, said the Swans' 11-point loss to Hawthorn on Sunday left the club with plenty of work to do in the second half of the season after falling out of the top eight.
"We're definitely at the crossroads. It's either going to go one way or the other," a disappointed O'Keefe told afl.com.au after the game.
"It's hard to tell, really, which way it will go. A week off now can be good because we probably need to break the momentum of losing.
"Hopefully we can all get refreshed, back to the drawing board and really attack the second half of the year."
The Swans have not won a game on the road this season, losing to St Kilda at Docklands, the Brisbane Lions at the Gabba, Fremantle at Subiaco, Geelong at Skilled Stadium, the Western Bulldogs at Manuka Oval and now Hawthorn at the MCG.
It is the worst start the Swans have had on the road since 1995, when it took until a round 15 trip to the MCG to face North Melbourne for the side to record its first win away from home for the year.
O'Keefe was at a lost to explain why the Swans' travelling form, which saw them win five and draw one game last year, had deserted them this season.
"Footy is a confidence game so once you've got a couple of wins up away from home, you can get a bit of a roll on.
"Hopefully we can just get one win away and that will kick start it and help us get a roll on."
He said winning contested football this year was something that had eluded the Swans too often.
Against the Hawks, they managed to win the contested possessions count 129 to 111, but still lost the game.
"It didn't win the game for us but it was good we were able to tick that part of the game plan off,” O’Keefe said.
"There's a lot of other issues we need to fix, like sticking to our game plan. We went away from it in certain parts of our game and turned the ball over and it cost us.
"Hawthorn is too good a side to give that opportunity to and they just went back and kicked goals."
O'Keefe said the challenge of the second half of the season would start as soon straight after his team’s week off, with a clash with Collingwood at Stadium Australia.
The Swans have not beaten the Magpies since round 13, 2005, and have lost the past three matches at the big Sydney arena.
"It's a big blockbuster for us as well so we've got to make sure we step up to the mark and really kick-start the second half of our year," he said.