A spirited Sydney Swans outfit received praise from senior coach John Longmire, following their Round 8 defeat to the Melbourne Demons at the MCG.

In a tightly contested clash that eventually saw the Swans go down by 9 points, Longmire said the side never stopped fighting.

Building a 12-point lead to start the game, before going goalless in the second quarter, the Swans fought throughout the third quarter to be just 10 points arrears before a goal by Callum Sinclair to start the fourth to bring them to within four

But Melbourne held on to remain undefeated as they secured their eighth win of the season.

"Ultimately, we're here to win, and regardless of who we're playing, we want to get the points, but we had a crack," Longmire said.

"If we had a bit more polish in our front half, maybe we might have been able to get over the line.

"I thought our boys had a real crack, and they didn't at any stage stop, they kept coming and coming and coming.

"If we look at the second half – we went in at half-time and they'd clearly had a better quarter than us – but then we got going again and we had a real crack in that second half, got to the stage where it gave us a chance to win, and we genuinely thought we were in with a real chance there in the end.

"To their credit, they're clearly the best side in it at the moment, so they found a way at the right time and that's what the difference was.”

The Swans brought plenty of pressure, with the wet weather providing an extra test.

"I thought it was a high-pressure game, and the conditions lent themselves to that as well. If you look at the pressure from both teams it was pretty much through the roof, so there was a lot of pressure in slippery, wet conditions," he said.

"We won three quarters of the inside-50 count. They were more efficient and effective going forward and the probably out-scrambled us in the second quarter."

However Longmire said the team always has belief.

"I think they they just wanted to get going again, they have belief our boys," he said.

"There have been a few times this year we have been challenged. We have two of the better teams of the competition the last two weeks and we have been around the mark and challenged in those games enormously."

"We are learning about the fightback, what we need to do and that it's never out of reach."