Paul Roos’ brutal Sydney Swans list call after heavy grand final loss
With the Sydney Swans dealing with more grand final heartbreak, a club great has dropped a sledgehammer on the playing group.
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As the dust settles on the Sydney Swans’ latest AFL grand final heartbreak, a club great has dropped a sledgehammer on the current playing group.
Slight favourites and minor premiers heading into the clash with Brisbane, Sydney was well short of the energy and effort required in the 18.12 (120) to 9.6 (60) belting.
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It is a fourth consecutive grand final defeat for the Harbour City club, following losses to Hawthorn in 2014, the Bulldogs in 2016 and Geelong two seasons ago.
Paul Roos, the man who engineered the end of the Swans’ 72-year premiership drought back in 2005, believes there are some key areas of concern for the current list to confront.
Roos handed the coaching reins to John Longmire after the 2010 season and while the man known as “Horse” has a superb overall record, his former mentor believes they have moved away from a Sydney trademark.
“They’ve dramatically changed their game plan this year,” Roos told ABC Sport. “They are no longer a hard, tough, defensive team that is hard to score against.
“They are a team that’s hard to beat because they’re so talented, but they’re not hard to play against.
“They play a style which suits their home ground, which is further exposed on the MCG.
“How many times do we look at the screen (in the grand final) … very, very rarely there are more Swans players in the frame than Lions players.
“They didn’t even get numbers to the contest, which I think is the bigger concern.”
Sydney has shown an extraordinary ability to reinvent itself year on year and remains highly competitive.
Astute draft picks and trades allowed the Swans to keep competing for these grand finals without ever truly crashing to the foot of the ladder.
The Bloods haven’t claimed a wooden spoon since 1994 and a team that finished 15th and 16th in 2019 and 2020 respectively was back in a grand final by 2022, a scarcely believable turnaround in such a short period of time.
But a third flag this century to add to 2005 and 2012 has proven elusive and Roos has identified two key areas that need rectifying.
“There are two things that stand out for me. One is fixable with the current group which is game plan,” he said.
“They have to go back to contested defence. They can’t rely on talent to just win a premiership, not many teams can.
“The first thing for John Longmire and his coaching staff is to get back to a hard, physical, defensive team that doesn’t get goals kicked on them regularly in patches, we’ve seen that this year.
“The second thing is going to be harder and we had this conversation when I was coaching.
“We met with the leadership group after the finals series and said ‘guys, we’re going to have to make some changes and for us to get back to where we want to, we need to trade. We need to put people on the market’.
“The leadership group were fantastic and they knew it was going to be someone inside that room. They all agreed unanimously.
“It turned out that Jude (Bolton) had the most interest, but we couldn’t get enough for him to warrant trading him.”
The 61-year-old Roos didn’t appear to have any doubts about Longmire being the right man to lead the club forward, but he had a scorching take on the current list.
Namely, if there’s any inkling there are players that can’t perform their best in a grand final, there is only one option.
“That conversation now has to take place. They have to put good players on the market that change the narrative,” he said.
“Again, we’re talking margins. We’re talking about a great footy club.
“I’m not getting carried away like some pundits about John Longmire and culture and that sort of stuff.
“There’s no question that the talent in terms of management, their structure and the football club is there.
“But it’s two (grand finals) in three years with largely the same group. There are some holes in the organisation in terms of game plan and now potentially personnel.
“If John and the coaching staff firmly believe that there’s players in there that can’t perform on the biggest stage, you have to get rid of them.
“It’s a brutal industry, but that’s just the reality.”
Originally published as Paul Roos’ brutal Sydney Swans list call after heavy grand final loss
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