Sydney Swans coach John Longmire addressed the media at the SCG on Monday afternoon.

Sydney fell to a 43-point loss to Essendon at Etihad Stadium last Friday and is now set to meet Collingwood at the SCG on Saturday night.

Responding to drop in form

“What we need to make sure is we just get back to playing the strong footy that we know we can play. Clearly that’s what our objective is. We’ve got a choice. We’ve been thrown out of the ring and we’ve got a choice whether we want to get back into the ring and stand up or not. It gets down to that. Everything’s a choice in this game and we’ve got a choice in front of us right now. It’s not really just about the process for us, even though we know the results are important. It’s about getting our process right because the results then take care of themselves. What we need to do is get our day-by-day stuff right and our strong brand of footy returns.”

The availability of Jack and McVeigh

“Kieren Jack and Jarrad McVeigh are a chance to come back into the team. They’ve been training well and are both a real chance. We’ll see how they at training go on Thursday.”

Controlling the controllable

“Regardless of personnel that’s in there playing, we need to be able to contribute. There are things regardless of personnel, like laying effective tackles, putting pressure on the opposition, just doing the things we’ve done for a long time, that regardless of who’s there and their preparation, it’s a required level we’ve got to achieve.”

The focus ahead of Collingwood game

“We need to play a fierce brand of football. We need to put enormous pressure on the opposition. It’s very important to have effort when you don’t have the ball and then the offensive part of the game is built on top of that. If we get our pressure up on the opposition and they’re not moving the ball as well as they’d like that’s a good start. If we make mistakes on top of that so be it, but we need that part of the game up and going.”

Analysis of Essendon match

“We had 45 tackles, 41 missed and we had zero clearances to their six in the last quarter. There are things there that are just about competing to the level that’s required and being better than the opposition in that area for longer. That’s always the starting point. It’s always built on applying enormous pressure on the opposition. You look at what Richmond do and that’s their biggest strength. They play a consistent brand of football and it’s really hard – hard running, hard sprinting and hard at the contest. That’s always the foundation of good teams. If you’re really strong at the ball, strong at the man with the ball and strong in defence, regardless of game style that always stands up.”

Harry Cunningham’s 100^th game

“He’s a boy from Wagga, a New South Wales boy. He gives us that bit of speed on the outside that we really need and can play two ways. He’s had a pretty solid season this year. His first half of the year was particularly outstanding and he continues to play at a really consistent level. He’s a very important player to us.”