AFL 2022: Sydney coach John Longmire won’t question umpires over free kick count against the Western Bulldogs

Going down by 11 points wasn’t the worst thing to take for the Swans, with injuries and half the free kicks of their opponents.

Sydney players weren’t at their best against the Western Bulldogs. Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images

Sydney coach John Longmire shrugged his shoulders unsure what difference talking to the AFL would make after a seriously lopsided free-kick count in his team’s 11-point loss to the Western Bulldogs on Thursday night.

The Bulldogs should arguably have won by more if not for some poor goalkicking, but the 31-14 free kick against his team gave Longmire pause for thought.

But he ruled out talking to the umpiring officials.

“I’d have to go back and have a look, but what can I say?” Longmire said when asked about the umpires’ performance.

He conceded the Swans would have “pinched “ victory if they had come from behind on a night his team was “off the pace”.

“I’m not going to sit here and say that if we had have pinched it, it would’ve been deserved,” Longmire said.

“It would’ve been great to pinch it and we got within a kick.

Swans coach John Longmire said there was no point talking to the umpires. Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images

“It looked like we were off the pace, we weren’t up at that hungry edge that we needed to be that we had been for the first two weeks.

“When you dip just below it, we got what we got tonight against a really good team, so it’s a lesson for us.

“To be able to get in that space even though we weren‘t playing well … but it was a bit of the Doggies missing some shots.”

Of more concern was the knee injury to ruckman Tom Hickey, who left the ground in the third quarter and didn’t return.

“I’m sitting here at the moment and it’s a suspected medial,” Longmire said.

“That’s all I’ve got. I don’t know any more than that. I’ll have to wait and see.”

Tom Hickey looks on after being subbed from the match. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

But Longmire said defender Nick Blakey was “OK” after taking a heavy bump from Bulldogs ruckman Tim English that could be scrutinised by the match review panel.

“I think he’s OK,” Swans coach John Longmire said of Blakey.

“I just spoke to him on the way through the rooms and he seemed OK.”

Longmire also poured cold water on suggestions that Buddy Franklin was a chance of being rested against the Bulldogs and stressed there were no plans to rest the 35-year-old in the short term.

“He was never going to be rested tonight,” Longmire said.

“This year he’s had a much better pre-season … we’d like to play him in blocks of games and we usually work through whatever that looks like at the time.

“If he needs to have a spell, he’ll have a spell. We want him to get through the season.”

Originally published as AFL 2022: Sydney coach John Longmire won’t question umpires over free kick count against the Western Bulldogs