The investigation into how the Swans could be so dismal on grand final day must be unsparing

This defeat was so bad, the performance so dismal that it far outstripped the Geelong drubbing two years ago. The margin wasn’t as big, but the consequences were greater. The investigation into what went wrong must be unsparing.

You can partly dismiss the first of those John Longmire-era grand final defeats – in 2014 and 2016 – because they were with vastly different teams than this. But you can’t dismiss the fact that, over the four losses in ’14, ’16, ‘22 and ’24, the average losing margin is nine goals.

Swans coach John Longmire now has a 1-4 record in grand finals.Credit: AFL Photos

You can’t lightly wipe a 10-goal belting on Saturday just two years after an 81-point thumping. Sixteen of the players from 2022 were out there on Saturday.

The team that was belted by Geelong two years ago had not finished top of the ladder, Geelong had. The Swans team that lost to the Lions finished on top of the ladder, theoretically the best team of the season. The team that belted them finished fifth.

In 2022, the Swans had a bunch of talented but young kids. Now they’re in the sweet spot for age and games played.

Unlike in 2022, this was a grand final against another non-Victorian team. No one had a complaint about the home ground or home state advantage.

Sydney had the extra week off, whereas the Lions had to come from outside the top four and play every week. Blaming the pre-finals bye and the week off after their qualifying final win would be an excuse the Swans would be wise to avoid. It might have played a small part, but it was not the reason for what happened on Saturday.

The Swans will console themselves with the fact they were there again. And that is fair up to a point – it is not a failed year to have failed on the last day. Other clubs would happily take getting that far – for a generation of Bombers, finals wins and grand final appearances are just something other teams do. But there’s a difference between being there and turning up. And Sydney didn’t turn up.

John Longmire said after the game: “We’d much rather get into the ring and have a swing than be standing outside looking in. Ultimately, we’ve been able to get ourselves into the position of having an opportunity, and we haven’t got it done today.” Which is true, except Sydney didn’t have a swing.

Defensively this was as badly as you can play. In a grand final, the Swans played with the intensity of a captain’s run. Taylor Adams, a midfielder of heart and energy, was recruited to the club at the end of last year to add grit and depth but was then once more left sitting in the stands when grand final day came. Adams has his faults as a player, but he is precisely the type of player you want and need in a grand final where the tone is set in the middle of the ground.

Coaches rely on their players to inform their legacy. John Longmire is a good coach, but he has now followed his one grand final win with four losses, and all by big margins. The inevitable review of what went wrong, which must be forensic and unsparing, cannot not look at the coach and ask what he and they could have done differently, as opposed to asking if he is the right person. They need to have the frank conversation with Longmire, and he needs to be frank with himself.

They knew what to expect from this Lions side. They knew the game Brisbane would play and they offered the Swans no surprises, but Sydney either went in without a plan to combat the uncontested kick-mark game, failed to understand what they were supposed to do about it, or just didn’t execute it. And that comes back to the coaches as well as the players.

In the most basic sense, you can’t hope to beat a game of uncontested marking when you play without energy and desire. But how you can play like that in the biggest game of the year, and for many of those players the biggest game of their careers, is a complete mystery.

Sydney were 10-2 at home on the SCG this year. Does their home-ground advantage have a Geelong-like effect of giving them an unrepresentative ladder position? Plainly, the quality of their star players distracted us from acknowledging the weakness of their lesser players. Then, their better players again failed to deliver anything approximating their best on grand final day.

This all sounds like smug hindsight, but that is only because games like Saturday’s provide such clarity about the team and club. Coaches say you learn more from losses than wins, and when they are losses like this you learn a hell of a lot.

Logan McDonald was subbed out late in Sydney’s preliminary final win and had next to no impact in the grand final.Credit: AFL Photos

The McDonald blunder

The selection of Logan McDonald was clearly wrong and smacked of desperation. Even an untrained eye could tell the player was not right in the first quarter with the ankle he rolled last week.

The Swans assured that he did what was needed to pass the test to play, but all we can judge the decision on is how the player played, and the answer is that he didn’t. He had zero influence on the game.

What could they have done differently if they didn’t pick McDonald? They could have gone back to Peter Ladhams, or they could have just played two tall forwards like virtually every other club does. Yes, that would have been a departure for them but if what you have got is broken, there is no point in persisting with it.

The game was not lost in the Swans’ forward line – it was lost all over the ground – but the absence of anything from any key forward didn’t help. McDonald couldn’t move and Joel Amartey and Hayden McLean were barely more mobile, which didn’t help Sydney’s pressure.

Brisbane Lions stars Charlie Cameron and Josh Dunkley with the 2024 premiership cup.Credit: Eddie Jim

Sydney’s slam Dunk

This is just a reminder that Sydney passed on their father-son access to Josh Dunkley, and he has now won two premierships in teams that defeated the Swans in grand finals– first as a Bulldog in 2016, and then on Saturday as a Lion.

Andrew Dunkley played 217 games for the Swans and so Josh was eligible as a father-son selection for Sydney, but at the time they were not convinced of the need for the big-bodied midfielder given the others they had there. And they had doubts on his kicking, but there was little trouble with that kicking on Saturday.

Dunkley comfortably won his position, which – when you consider that position was against Isaac Heeney, the most influential player of the year, the pre-game favourite for the Norm Smith Medal and the man who dominated the qualifying and preliminary finals – is quite the game. It’s reasonable to think the Swans would have found room for Andrew Dunkley’s son in Saturday’s midfield that was pushed around and lacked the strength and desire of Brisbane’s.

To the victors goes an apology

Apologies to Brisbane that this column has focused almost exclusively on Sydney, but when the size of the defeat is so devastating it makes the fallout of the loss so much more significant (and at least there’s no shortage of appropriate gushing in these pages or on these screens for the outstanding Lions game).

As opposed to Sydney, Brisbane didn’t have a bad player on the ground. Even Eric Hipwood, playing with a dodgy groin, kicked the goal of the game. Hugh McCluggage set the game up, Darcy Fort in his third game of the year ensured it was not lost in the ruck, and Callum Ah Chee was the best player across all the Lions’ finals.

Will Ashcroft still looks like a schoolboy – a chunky one with bouffant hair, but still a schoolboy – and he played a grand final like it was a school game. And his brother Levi, a probable pick No.1 were he on the free market, is about to join the club for trinkets and baubles in the draft.

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