Speaking to SwansTV on Tuesday afternoon, Longmire said the club has been hampered by lengthy injuries to senior players, including Lewis Roberts-Thomson, Rhyce Shaw, Adam Goodes, Sam Reid and Lewis Jetta, this season.
“It’s been a bit disappointing and a bit frustrating I guess for everyone with a few of those longer term injuries that we’ve had,” Longmire said.
“They have been a bit disappointing when we expected them back a little bit quicker … but unfortunately that’s what happens sometimes.
“It’s disappointing but hopefully they’ve still got a chance of playing and contributing for us in 2013.”
Longmire highlighted Lewis Jetta’s injury as a case in point, with the Swans’ forward expected to miss up to five more weeks with his ongoing shin injury.
“Lewis Jetta probably is still two weeks away at the moment from running, so that will take another two or three weeks from that point to get back into training and playing, and we’d expect that he is still another five weeks away,” Longmire said.
“He won’t be running for another two weeks yet, so we’ve still got to be conservative with him.
“We understand with the type of injury and the bone bruising that it is, that it can turn nasty if we don’t look after it, so our priority is to look after it, which we’ll be doing.
“As frustrating as what it is for everyone – him, us – hopefully we’ll start him running and training after that.”
There is likely to be some positive news out of the medical room this week, with Rhyce Shaw expected to play his first match since suffering an abdominal tear in round two.
Longmire confirmed that if Shaw passes a fitness test later this week he will play in the Swans reserves’ clash against the Gold Coast Suns reserves alongside Gary Rohan, who made his long-awaited return to the field last Sunday against UWS.
“Hopefully there is some light at the end of the tunnel with Rhyce Shaw getting back this week and Gary Rohan already playing,” Longmire said.
“Rhyce at this stage, if he gets through the rest of the week training, we expect him to play some game time in our reserves, which is fantastic.
“Obviously Gary on the weekend came back and his game time will increase.
“He looked fantastic last week and he’ll play some more game time this week and Rhyce Shaw will get some game time if he finishes the training sessions which we’ve planned to do for the rest of the week.
“Hopefully (Shaw) gets some good quality game time under his belt up on the Gold Coast.”
Looking ahead to Sunday’s clash with West Coast at Patersons Stadium, Longmire said it was disappointing that the Swans would be without small forward Ben McGlynn, who accepted a three-match ban from the Match Review Panel this morning.
Longmire said McGlynn, who also suffered a hamstring injury in the first half of last Sunday’ 129-point win over GWS, would be a major loss for his side over the next few weeks.
“He had some bleeding in his hamstring on the scan, so we’re not sure if that was caused through a knock or whether there is a small little tear there,” he said.
“It would probably mean a couple of weeks (out) anyway we’d say by how he is because he is still a little bit sore.
“It would have been nice to have him earlier than those three weeks.
“He’s had a fantastic season to date, so it is disappointing and he needs to make sure he comes back in pretty good knick after the suspension ends.”
