Senior coach John Longmire expressed his disappointment his side weren't able to come away with the win, running out of legs late despite a gallant effort against the Lions.
Going down by 32 in the end, the Swans came within two points in the fourth quarter before the Lions pulled away.
Longmire was quick to acknowledge the quality of his opposition, as well as his young side's ability to run with them for a large part of the contest.
"They’re a top two team for a reason - we came into this game as the youngest team for the round, and we keep on learning from quality opposition teams and we kept on learning tonight," Longmire said.
"If you told me going into this game we lost the inside 50's count by four, won the ground balls, won the contested balls - I'd take that. There’s a lot we did right."
Longmire also sang praise for his side's pace when moving the ball, as the Swans looked to take the game on in the fourth.
"We took the game on, we wanted to win it, not save it," Longmire said.
"Sometimes as a young team sometimes you get it right, and sometimes you get it wrong - they were just able to kick a few easy goals in that last 15 minutes. I regret that period we could’ve hit the front, we gave ourselves a real chance."
In greasy conditions at times, Longmire also expressed the importance of converting opportunities going forward.
"You’re not going to have a lot of connection on wet windy nights, we just need to take some opportunities when we have the ball in our front half and kick some more goals," Longmire said.
When asked about his side's consistency, Longmire explained that with a young side comes a stage of learning.
"We’ve had a couple of games where we’ve been able to play competitive footy for an extended period of time. We’ve got five players who’ve played less than 10 games," Longmire said. There are some things we’re doing with our list - with one player over 30 tonight we’re working really hard to get another group together to have another crack - it might not always work and it may fluctuate, but we’ll try get that right."
The Swans midfield gave the Lions a run for their money throughout the contest, a view shared by Longmire.
"We thought the kids did a reasonable job. They’re (Bris) as good a midfield going around at the moment, with a potential Brownlow medallist," Longmire said.
"We had Aliir Aliir and Joel Amartey (on debut) in the ruck so I think our boys did well in there to give us an opportunity and able to hold their own."
As the Swans prepare to take on the Cats in the final round of the season, Longmire noted that his side relishes the opportunity to take on quality opposition.
"It’s an opportunity for us, I know we’re young, but we don’t accept losing and that will continue into next week - our team spirit has been terrific."
