Swans coach John Longmire wants final quarter fix ahead of Magpies clash
Sydney is under pressure to identify the source of its recurring final-quarter woes before it faces the team that does it best.
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Sydney coach John Longmire admits his side needs to tweak its approach to final quarters after being chased down by an opponent for the second time this season.
GWS piled on four consecutive goals to consign the Swans to a heartbreaking one-point defeat in the Sydney derby last weekend, and Longmire said the same issues that popped up in the close loss to Port Adelaide were again partly responsible for the late-game slump.
Longmire said untimely drops in intensity and a lack of on-field experience were contributing factors to both losses that have left the Swans a game out of the top eight.
“We’ve had a couple of times where we’ve been 20 points up halfway through the last – on the weekend there was different things at different times,” Longmire said.
“We dropped away in our contest and on the weekend we gave some simple goals away and we weren’t efficient going forward – that’s been a bit of a pattern.
“Part of that is player availability, part of that is youth, part of it’s to keep learning and systems that we have to keep teaching our players.”
Round 8 opponent Collingwood looms as a stern test of the Swans’ resilience late in games, with the Magpies riding a wave of belief following two emphatic close wins over Essendon and Adelaide, booting 10 goals to one across the final quarters in those games.
“They’ve got a system, but they also have belief. Their record of being behind at three-quarter time and coming over the top of teams stands out,” Longmire said of the Magpies.
“There’s no question about that. They’ve reinforced that over the journey and they did it again last week.
“That’s a credit to way they play and the way they’ve been coached, so we’ve got to be mindful when you play Collingwood, like every team, that we play to the 120-minute mark. We can’t afford to play to the 100-minute mark.”
Longmire said defender Robbie Fox was a chance to play on Sunday after missing last week with concussion, lamenting that the Tasmanian would have been a “great” direct opponent for matchwinning Giant Toby Greene if available for the derby.
“We’re out to win and learn, we don’t want to lose and learn,” Longmire said.
“We looked at the last three or four minutes of the (GWS) game that we didn’t get right. “When Rampe and Fox are not there we still have an opportunity to get things done.”
Longmire said he would consider bringing ruckman Tom Hickey back into the side to play in tandem with Peter Ladhams, who he thought was “terrific” on his own against the Giants.
He said there was no update on luckless key defender Paddy McCartin except that he was “progressing and improving every day”.
“He’s coming into the club every day and is feeling better every day,” Longmire said.
Originally published as Swans coach John Longmire wants final quarter fix ahead of Magpies clash
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