Sydney coach John Longmire hits back at Damien Hardwick’s criticism of his tactics
Damien Hardwick went after Sydney’s supposed negative gamestyle post-game. Despite an apology from the Richmond coach, John Longmire has blasted him for breaking the unwritten coaches code.
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Fired-up Sydney coach John Longmire has hit back at Damien Hardwick, labelling comments from his Richmond rival about the Swans tactics as “completely unnecessary and unwarranted.”
Longmire received an apology from Hardwick over phone on Sunday night, but it did not stop the Swans boss from vehemently defending himself again publicly on Monday as Sydney also reeled from the devastating double blow of losing Isaac Heeney for the season and Josh Kennedy for up to eight weeks.
The Swans coach blasted Hardwick for contravening the unwritten coaching code of not dumping on other clubs – a trend Longmire feels has crept into the AFL this season.
Longmire said Hardwick’s assertion that the Swans had flooded behind the ball a cheap shot, but also factually incorrect.
“The comments after the game from Damien were completely unnecessary and unwarranted. They just weren’t correct,” said Longmire.
“We didn’t play an extra defender, Richmond bring a player up around the ball and have been doing it for a long time. We just held our six defenders in place.
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“If Damien didn’t want to do that he could have brought his forward back in and just played 6-6-6 and the issue would have been done.
“I’m not sure it’s my role to walk up to Damien’s coach’s box, knock on the door and say ‘what would you like us to do?’ That’s how it happened.”
Longmire was filthy earlier in the year when Hawthorn’s former fitness coach questioned whether star forward Lance Franklin was overweight.
Now he has been left dismayed by Hardwick’s actions.
“I thought that coaches were really collegiate and I was hoping that would still be the case, but we’ve got to be careful, I reckon, as an industry that we don’t drop into this habit of potting other people and finger-pointing,” said Longmire, who said he was entitled to defend himself on Monday.
“It’s a bit of a challenging time for all of us and I just think we need to take a deep breath and help each other through this.
“Damien called me straight after the game, apologised for the comments, which is appreciated, but as I said to Damien, they’re out there.
“Now you’ve got to have a press conference and talk about it.
“From my angle, we did not go in to play an extra number behind the ball, and you can look at all the stoppages and the majority of the times, we might not have got every one right but the majority of the time, that’s what the plan was.
“Now in an off-ball sense, the best team in the last three years at getting support behind the ball has been Richmond, with their wingers and what they do has been outstanding, fantastic.
“I guess from my perspective I’ve been around the coaching industry for a long time and I try not to make comments on other teams. But we’ve just slipped into a bit of a habit of having strong opinions on other teams. It’s just unnecessary.
“He just said he was frustrated. I said, OK, if you’re frustrated, just bring your forward back from up around the ball, which you normally play, and play six forwards in front of the ball. Done.”
HARDWICK BLAMES SWANS FOR ‘HORRENDOUS MATCH
Michael Whiting
Richmond coach Damien Hardwick did not hold back when asked about Sunday’s snorefest at the Gabba that featured just seven combined goals between the two teams.
After kicking three goals in the first 10 minutes of the match, the Tigers kicked just one the rest of the way, defeating a Sydney outfit bereft of ideas forward of centre by eight points.
“Oh, it was a horrendous game of football, there’s no doubt about that,” Hardwick said.
“It was hard to watch, it was hard to play, it was incredibly frustrating.
“Unfortunately, it’s sometimes how games pan out. You have a lot of players in one 50, they can’t get out and we can’t score.
“We had 50-odd inside 50s (53 to be exact) for four goals, which is farcical in nature.
“(It was a) horrible game of football.”
Richmond simply couldn’t find a way past Sydney spare Callum Mills after quarter-time.
Mills racked up 29 disposals – all in the final three terms – including 15 intercepts.
Hardwick said he was “absolutely” concerned by the standard of the game, taking a veiled swipe at his opponent.
There’s not much I can do,” he said.
“I’m sitting there, we’re attacking and got 75,000 people in our forward 50, so it’s pretty hard.
“We’ve got to figure out how to negate it.
“It’s probably happened a couple of times this year.
“It’s become a tactic in the AFL, the foldback mentality is keeping sides in games and it’s creating the game we’ve got tonight.”
Hardwick took some blame for his team’s inability to score, saying he didn’t prepare the Tigers well enough to deal with the spare defender.
Richmond never really looked like losing.
“I didn’t think we were much chance of scoring, but they were no chance of scoring.
“They got two goals from 50m penalties but outside that they kicked one goal for the game.
“We set up to try and win the game and not to lose.”
Missing five players from the team that Melbourne seven days earlier, Richmond lacked cohesion.
Skipper Trent Cotchin (hamstring) will miss at least another week, while defender David Astbury (knee) is a chance to return against North Melbourne on Saturday.
“You just bank the wins and move on. We’ve got to get better though, there’s no doubt about that.”
Until Sydney gets some experienced personnel back from injury, scoring is going to be a major problem, coach John Longmire said.
Despite a late flurry in the wet Gabba conditions yesterday, the Swans never truly threatened in their eight-point loss to Richmond.
They kicked just three goals for the day, two to Coleman Medal frontrunner Tom Papley.
To add insult to the loss, co-captain Josh Kennedy is expected to miss some time with a medial ligament injury to his left knee, while Isaac Heeney (ankle) will also need further assessment.
In a match his Richmond counterpart Damien Hardwick described as “horrendous”, Longmire said there was not a lot more Sydney could do.
“We just didn’t have the scoring power in front of the ball, the experience in front of the ball to get through,” he said.
“I thought the last five or six minutes we were a chance … but they set up so well off the back of turnover.”
Longmire is relying on a mosquito fleet forward line, with Nick Blakey and Jordan Dawson its tallest members.
Lance Franklin (hamstring), Sam Reid (calf), Callum Sinclair (knee), Tom McCartin (concussion) and Sam Naismith (knee) are among the tall options sidelined.
“We’d like to score more, clearly,” Longmire said.
“We need some players back. That helps with a bit of structure and a bit of system.
“We lost another two tonight and Isaac is one that can give you some shape in front of the ball.
“Hopefully we’ll get some players back soon.”
One man that didn’t play because of form was Aliir Aliir, a late scratching for the impressive Robbie Fox.
Longmire said Aliir was not playing up to standard and stayed in Sydney to work on his game.
Fox came in and did an excellent job on the much bigger Tom Lynch, restricting him from touching the ball in the first half.
Lynch’s only impact came with a third quarter goal after a contested mark on Dane Rampe.
TIGERS CRAWL INTO THE EIGHT AFTER UGLY ARM-WRESTLE
Michael Whiting
With five forced changes from the team that defeated Melbourne last week, it probably shouldn’t come as a shock that Richmond battled for cohesion.
Even when rain swept across the Gabba from the second quarter onwards – conditions that usually suit the frenetic Tigers – they battled to score and put the Swans away.
With an undersized backline, Sydney locked up Richmond’s forwards by using Callum Mills as a spare defender.
It was dull football but Richmond could not solve the riddle.
However, their own organised defence was rarely tested, conceding just 11 scoring shots, and two wins on the trot now puts them back into the top eight with plenty of room to improve.
TOM TURNS THE TIDE
Tom Lynch has had quite the week.
After breaking his finger against Melbourne seven days earlier, he made a late dash to Queensland to join his teammates on Monday night.
The former Gold Coast captain looked like he might be in for a big day when Sydney decided to replace Aliir Aliir just prior to the match with the smaller Robbie Fox.
It wasn’t to be though, as Fox kept Lynch without a touch in the first half, halving any aerial ball that came their way.
However, with his team struggling to kick goals, Lynch stood tall in the third term taking a powerhouse contested mark against Dane Rampe and converting from 45m.
It turned the tide and Richmond never looked back.
New glove, no problem for @TomLynch19 🥊#AFLTigersSwans pic.twitter.com/5LQROTLQP7
— AFL (@AFL) July 12, 2020
TIGERS’ NEW-LOOK MIDFIELD
Losing three of their midfield prime-movers was going to change the dynamic in the middle of the ground for the Tigers.
No Dion Prestia (ankle), no Trent Cotchin (hamstring) and no Shane Edwards (left in Melbourne) exposed some younger, less experienced heads to the coalface.
Shai Bolton took his chance with both hands, finishing with 14 touches and a goal, although he faded as the game wore on.
Jack Graham was strong (16 touches), despite giving away a reversed free kick for slinging Will Hayward to the turf, while Marlion Pickett (11) had his moments.
Dustin Martin kicked an early goal but had little more influence.
WAS CALLUM MILLS WEARING A RICHMOND JUMPER?
The Tigers kicked the first three goals of the match and it looked like getting out of hand for Sydney.
With Callum Mills failing to get near it in the first quarter, coach John Longmire threw him behind the ball in the second as a spare defender.
For the next two quarters Richmond proceeded to kick it to Mills again and again … and again.
Not only did he sweep up ground balls, but he took intercept marks, and along with Isaac Heeney looked the most likely source of anything positive from the Swans.
Mills finished with a game-high 29 disposals, 15 of which were intercepts.
Ouch. pic.twitter.com/uPnFLwsN3C
— 7AFL (@7AFL) July 12, 2020
RICHMOND 3.3 3.5 4.7 4.10 (34)
SYDNEY 1.3 2.3 2.5 3.8 (26)
GOALS
Richmond: Martin, Bolton, Lynch, Riewoldt
Sydney: Papley 2, Rowbottom
BEST:
Richmond: Short, Lambert, Broad, Vlastuin, Bolton, Graham
Sydney: Mills, Heeney, Cunningham, Lloyd, Fox
INJURIES:
Richmond: Nil
Sydney: Kennedy (knee), Heeney (ankle)
VOTES
3. Short (Richmond)
2. Mills (Sydney)
1. Lambert (Richmond)
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Originally published as Sydney coach John Longmire hits back at Damien Hardwick’s criticism of his tactics