Swans won’t panic, says McVeigh

Sydney co-captain Jarrad McVeigh says there’s no need for the Swans to panic after successive losses, as he prepares to face his old mentor Paul Roos.

The Swans head into next Saturday’s MCG clash with Roos’s Melbourne side off their first set of back-to-back losses in over a year.

A 14-point defeat away to Fremantle was followed by a four point loss to Western Bulldogs, which drops the Swans back into the mid-table pack, with a 3-2 record.

“It’s concerning to lose full stop, two in a row you never want to do that,” McVeigh said on Sunday.

“We were really motivated to put in a really good performance, we knew they were in good form.

“It’s not panic stations by any means. We’ve just got to get back to the way we want to play.

“I think our effort and our hardness has been there, it’s just the execution under pressure is what we’re lacking at the moment.”

Next Saturday’s game will represent the second time Roos will have coached against the club he steered to the 2005 flag, after the Swans defeated the Demons by 31 points at the MCG last year.

McVeigh said Melbourne were now adding flair in attack to the defensive improvements Roos had overseen.

“He’s gone down there and taught them the right way to play footy,” McVeigh said.

‘We’ll be ready for a big contest against them, we know Roosy.

“The way they play, it’s a very one-on-one contested style.”

McVeigh credited Roos with turning him into a two-way player.

“He was my first coach when I first arrived at the Swans, so he had a huge impact on my career,” McVeigh said of Roos.

“He taught me how the game is played and I had to learn a lot from him.

“Coming from the juniors you have a lot of attacking flair, but I had to tag there for a while and that taught me how to play on the best players.”

Swans’ coach John Longmire was non-committal about how Adam Goodes performed in his comeback game on Saturday, but McVeigh offered a more positive assessment.

“I thought he was good, he provided a lot of pressure and kicked a couple of goals and played his role for us.”

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