Swans coach John Longmire addressed the media ahead of training at the SCG on Tuesday.
The Swans will face the Geelong Cats at GMHBA Stadium on Saturday afternoon as they look to return to the winners’ circle.
Here are some key quotes from the press conference.
Midfield rotation
“There’s been significant change in the midfield group over the last 12 months. Jones, Heeney, Papley have all been rotated enormously through our midfield. It started at the start of last year and has been consistent and ongoing and will continue to be. We have to put the last couple of weeks in some sort of context and understand that the evolution of our midfield group is ongoing. It’s certainly been evolving over the last 12 months in a significant way as far as the number of players going through that midfield group.”
Ruck situation
“Callum’s done a pretty good job for us this year in the ruck. He got beaten on the weekend by Sam Jacobs who’s beaten a number of good ruckmen in his career. I don’t think it’s unusual for Jacobs to have a win the ruck scenario. Our challenge then is our next variation in the mix. We’d love to get more game time in the reserves level with Aliir Aliir and Darcy Cameron and just keep trying to improve our depth in that area.”
Injury front
“Dan Hannebery won’t play this week. He’s got a groin issue that affected his performance against Adelaide. It’s a new injury. It’s different to the one that he had last year. He had a significant groin issue last year that he had for the whole year. This year it is a groin strain so he’ll be out this week and we’re not sure after that how long he will be out. Lance Franklin will also be out this week because he has a bruised heel. It happened over in Perth in Round 1 at Optus Stadium and he hasn’t done any training of any substance since then. We’ve been trying to get him better week by week. He won’t be playing this week and we’re not sure after that how long it will take to respond.”
Crows contest
“The Crows were better than us at winning the ball consistently in the first half and particularly in the first quarter. We started to even things up a little bit after that point in time and get better at it. There’s a few little things involved. Hannebery won’t play this week. He’s got a groin issue that affected his performance against Adelaide so he won’t play this week. But we continue to develop those players that play in those roles, like Ollie Florent and a number of those guys coming through who are getting game time now.”
Firm Optus Stadium surface
“We had probably the most amount of players cramp in that Round 1 game as we’ve had. I don’t know if it was the difference between our pre-season training venue and that surface. But the feedback we got was it was pretty firm. Obviously we don’t play there every week. I’m not sure of the conditioning aspect of playing on there. There’s a theory that if you play on there or train on there that you get used to that type of ground. I’m not sure what the Perth clubs think of that, but our boys were a bit sore afterwards and Lance is going to miss some time.”
