His team lost by a little, but Sydney coach John Longmire insists the AFL’s ladder leaders will get a lot out of their first loss in ten games.
Just don’t tell Longmire the eight-point defeat by Collingwood at ANZ Stadium on Saturday night was the loss they had to have.
“I don’t believe in that,” Longmire told reporters after the Swans suffered an 11th straight loss to to the Magpies.
“Regardless of whether you win or lose, you always look at the games and you get something out of it, you get some real positive stuff out of it and you get some things to improve upon and that’s no matter what.
“They have been a good team for a long time and we’ll get a lot out of tonight.
“We’ll assess the game on Monday, and look at what we did well and look at the things that we can improve upon and hopefully learn and move on.
“That’s the bonus and the benefit of playing the really good teams.”
The loss means Sydney, facing the lowly Western Bulldogs at Etihad Stadium next Sunday, now only lead on percentage from Adelaide and Collingwood.
Structural and skill errors, bad decisions and inaccurate kicking were among some of the issues highlighted by Longmire and co-captain Jarrad McVeigh.
“Towards the end we just made a few structural errors which good teams don’t make under pressure,” McVeigh said.
“We improve on that and we look at that on the tape and improve for next week and we believe we can compete with the best teams now.”
Co-captain and talisman Adam Goodes wasn’t able to impose himself on the game, something Longmire acknowledged.
“I thought he was a bit quiet tonight,” Longmire said of Goodes.
“I might have had a word to him a couple of times during the course of the game, but it was more about the structural things and more about some different things that he could do.
“But I thought we probably had a few players that were a bit quiet.”
One Swan who excelled against the Pies was midfield dynamo Josh Kennedy, who tallied 40 touches, nine clearances and eight tackles.
“His effort for the entire game was just enormous,” Longmire said.
