A MAJORITY of AFL fans would view Saturday night's seven-point loss to the Crows in Adelaide as a major opportunity missed by the Sydney Swans.
Swans coach John Longmire is a man much more prone to adopting a 'glass half-full' approach.
While he concedes the defeat - which dropped the Swans to seventh and just one win ahead of Essendon and Melbourne in eighth and ninth respectively - was less than ideal, Longmire still likes the big picture for his young club.
Three straight defeats have seriously dented the Swans' faint hopes of a top-four finish and left them vulnerable at the bottom of the top eight, but Longmire isn't ruling anything out with eight games still remaining.
Asked about the Swans' capabilities now and in the future, Longmire said: "We're hoping the development of (young key position players) Sam Reid and Alex Johnson still keeps coming through.
"Shane Mumford and Kieren Jack, two of our top three in the best and fairest last year, haven't played much at all over the last eight or nine weeks.
"So we're hoping we get those players back in the mix as well. The flow-on effect from that is pretty big if they start putting good, consistent games together."
Longmire also singled out exciting midfielder Gary Rohan who has missed the past nine weeks with a knee injury but could be forced to extend his stay on the sidelines.
Rohan hobbled off the field during his return in the Swans' reserves on Saturday.
"There's a few other things we need to bring into the team, but we don't say we're in or out of anything in regards to where we finish on the ladder," Longmire said.
"We want to be as competitive as we can week-in and week-out, that's all you can control.
"We'll sit down at the end of the year and work out what we see in a couple of years, but we just want to be as good as we can be this year and that's what we're working towards."
Longmire is hopeful Jack (ankle) will return this week against the Suns on the Gold Coast, while Craig Bird took a knock to the back of his knee against the Crows and will need to get through training.
Both could be vital against Gold Coast and its captain Gary Ablett, who has tortured the Swans in the past.
"Roosy (former Swans coach Paul Roos) actually asked me a few times sitting down on the boundary line 'what can we do about Gary?'," Longmire reflected.
"I must admit I had nothing left in the kit bag.
"He's a highly talented player and it's something we'll look at.
"Hopefully if Kieren comes back into the team, or Craig Bird's done some good jobs for us this year, we've got a few players we hope could do a role for us if needed."
That's Longmire's typical approach: moving straight onto the next challenge in front of him.
Sitting around dwelling on chances missed or ladder positions is not in his repertoire.
"We need to make sure we address a few things that we can control without worrying about the ladder," Longmire said.
"It's something that you can't control, obviously if other teams win or lose, but we can control what we do at training, our mental attitude into the games, that's what we can control.
"We can talk about our lost opportunities and failure to convert the pressure into scoreboard pressure, but the reality is we have to make sure our performance is more consistent over four quarters."
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily of the AFL or the clubs
