Longmire takes the reins
New Sydney Swans coach John Longmire talks about the season just gone, and his hopes for 2011…
JOHN Longmire has taken the reins as senior coach at the Sydney Swans following the retirement of Paul Roos.
Since the Swans season ended with the semi-final loss to the Bulldogs, Longmire, a former North Melbourne champion forward, has been hard at work putting the building blocks in place for season 2011.
In the first of a two part series on sydneyswans.com.au, Longmire tell us how the Swans can improve next year.
Who are some of the emerging players - like Kieren Jack and Heath Grundy this year - we should be watching for in 2011?
We’re hoping that the whole list keeps improving but we saw some signs from Brett Meredith at times this year and we think he can be a really good AFL player. He has had a few injury concerns but we like what we see when he plays at senior level. Craig Bird is another who missed the majority of this year with a stress fracture in his foot but he is one that we will be looking to get back, have a good preseason and be a real contributor next year.
All across the board our younger brigade need to keep improving, but I think the key is a combination of both young and old improving. You have a good year when some of your more senior players improve. A good example of that was Jude Bolton, who a couple of years ago, at age 27, who really took the next step and improved. From that point of view, it’s not just up to our younger players to improve but also for our senior players to keep striving to get better. There has been plenty of examples in the past where that has happened.
What areas will the team need to improve next year to be vying for the top four?
We really need to improve just to stay where we are. There’s no doubt that the teams around us and below us will be improving and it has already been highlighted that we are a fair way off the top teams this year, so we have a big step to make. We understand that and we have a big pre-season ahead to make sure we take those steps.
We really need to improve across the board. From our ball movement to our defence, it’s being more consistent in contested ball and it’s getting our tackling efficiency up to a more consistent level. We were a bit inconsistent in some of the areas that really matter to us this year. There’s no doubt at the back end of the year after the Geelong game, we had a really good run with contested ball and our key indicators were right up there, but the challenge is to make sure we’re more consistent in those areas. There were periods of time this year where we had disappointing losses against Melbourne and Richmond and a couple of others where we really fell away in those areas, so we need to maintain that for entire games, and then put it together in blocks and hopefully the whole season, because that’s what good teams do. That is certainly the challenge for us.
What style of football can we expect from the team next season?
The fundamentals of what we believe in regard to the defensive aspects of the game will remain the same. If you look at the teams that concede the fewest points against, they are the teams that are in the top four and playing in preliminary finals, so you have to make sure you have a very strong defensive aspect to your game. That’s not just your back six, but players work rate when they don’t have the ball. All the good teams really value that and it’s something we’ve valued for a long time. The contested ball situation still stands up, you simply need to win the majority of your 50-50 contests. So there are no surprises to what we will be working on next year. We’re looking forward to getting our new coaching group together after the season and we will review everything we do and look at ways we can improve.
You recently promoted Stuart Dew to an assistant coaching role. Tell us about that appointment?
We’re really rapt to have Stuart on board. He came here in a development role 12 months ago and has worked with a lot of the younger players that have come through and been able to play senior football, so he has a good relationship with them. He comes from two very successful programs in Port Adelaide and Hawthorn, winning premierships at both clubs. He is fresh out of the game and he has a very good football brain so we’re really excited to have him as an assistant coach.
The Swans were very active during trade week last year. What do expect this year?
We’re always open to getting new talent, whether that’s through the trade period, the draft or the pre-season draft. We will be keeping an open mind going into this year, but you wouldn’t think it would be as hectic this year as we simply don’t have as many spots available on our list.
Are you confident the strong leadership at the Club can continue despite Brett Kirk’s retirement?
The great thing about Brett Kirk, it has been well documented how good a leader he is - but I think one of the things he really took pride in was ensuring that the next generation of leaders was coming through and that is something he worked hard at. We’re confident we have a group of players here that can keep driving this team, on and off the field to be the best they can and we’re really looking forward to those players standing up and having a big say in the direction of this football club.
