AFL Grand Final 2024: Inside the Sydney rooms after Grand Final disaster against Brisbane Lions
Sydney’s stars say the pain of Saturday’s Grand Final loss to Brisbane is worse than 2022, opening up on the “hollow” realisation of another missed opportunity. LACHLAN MCKIRDY takes you inside the Swans rooms.
Sydney players have admitted Saturday’s devastating 60-point grand final loss to Brisbane felt “worse” than any of their previous three defeats as they were left to rue a lack of pressure and an inability to handle the weight of expectation.
The Swans were comprehensively outplayed by the Lions, who led at every turn and thoroughly deserved their premiership triumph. But it came on the back of a performance that left the likes of Chad Warner and Errol Gulden at a loss for words.
The club’s two, young All-Australian midfielders were the first to front the cameras post-match with Warner conceding that they couldn’t comprehend their sub-standard showing. He also felt that the defeat was more disappointing than two years earlier when they experienced a similar loss to Geelong.
“I don’t know what to think,” he said. “We’ve been in a bit of a delusional stage, then a crying stage and then a moving on stage.
“The funny thing is we actually started well for once. It was pretty much our pressure which was at 158. I don’t know the last time we would have done that, to be honest. Probably never done it in our career since I’ve been here.
“It’s obviously similar (to 2022). But I think this time it’s a lot worse. Coming in, I felt a lot more prepared than last time. I felt like we had to win a lot more than last time as well.”
Sydney’s pressure rating of 158 was the third-lowest ever recorded in a grand final. It was also well below their season average of 180. Warner sensed that Brisbane’s ability to easily find uncontested marks, a statistic they won 141-85, played a big factor.
“Obviously they were really good at absorbing our pressure,” he said.
“The way they were able to take a lot of uncontested marks, the more the ball was in the air, the less pressure you can put on.”
“In finals and grand finals, if you don’t match or win at the contest, you generally won’t win the game,” Gulden added.
While John Longmire’s side was in the game early, it always felt like the Lions had the upper hand. That fact came as a surprise to the players as they were confident they had done everything that was required in the lead-up to be in a position to win the game.
“We’re at peace knowing our preparation was as good as it’s been,” captain Dane Rampe said.
“Unfortunately, I’ve been in this position a few times, but I’m completely at peace with our prep. Which is what makes it so hollow, we don’t know where we went wrong apart from obviously what we did today.”
“Mentally, we went into the game great. Physically as well,” Warner said. “I guess the footy gods have something else to say.”
“It sucks a fair bit. But that’s sport at the end of the day,” Gulden added. “That’s why the highs are so good and the lows are so shit.”
Most of the players in the Sydney rooms sported faces of disbelief and bewilderment. Even at half time, they felt they were still in with a chance – “We know that we can probably pile on goals like no other team in the comp, and we genuinely believed,” Rampe said.
Yet their attention now has to turn to 2025. Their premiership hopes have disappeared for another year, with the cup set to fly directly over Sydney on the way back to Brisbane. What happens in the five months before the first ball is bounced next season is completely up to them.
“Unfortunately, we’ve been here before,” Gulden said. “And I feel like last time it made us closer. Fingers crossed it does the same.
“We’re an extremely tight group. Everything we go through and experience, all the emotions we’re gonna feel, we’re gonna feel together. We’ll use it to fuel us.”
“At the end of the day, life moves on. It’s not the end of the world,” Warner added.
“But I think we’ve shown time and time again, the Swans can back it up. The reality is you’re not going to get anything by sooking and sitting there, saying woe is me. We’ll be back next year.”
HEENEY’S GRAND FINAL INJURY PAIN REVEALED
— Daniel Cherny
Sydney star Isaac Heeney played through the finals series with a stress fracture in his ankle.
The banged-up Swans midfielder revealed the extent of his ailment in the sullen Sydney rooms following Saturday’s 10-goal grand final hiding at the hands of the Brisbane Lions.
For the second time in three grand finals, Heeney was subdued, finishing the match with 14 disposals and a goal to be a non-factor in the outcome.
In many respects Heeney typified his side’s plight. After a magnificent home and away season and two excellent lead-up finals, he finished the match in mothballs after exacerbating the ankle damage early in the game.
Making his stunning qualifying final against Greater Western Sydney and strong preliminary final showing against Port Adelaide all the more remarkable was that Heeney had entered September hampered.
Abbey Holmes caught up with Isaac Heeney as the Sydney Swans arrive at the MCG#AFLGFpic.twitter.com/ovabmDKqgn
— 7AFL (@7AFL) September 28, 2024
“I had a stress fracture in my ankle for the whole finals series. So I’ve had to manage that and after the Port game I was pretty sore. I had to get through the week, I felt good going into the game and hurt it when I got run-down tackled late in the first,” a bare-chested Heeney said after Swans player filtered out of their post-match meeting with coach John Longmire and into the arms of waiting family and friends.
“In the end it was too far a deficit and I wasn’t moving well and they said ‘you’re done.’ So that’s frustrating itself as obviously we had Loges (Logan McDonald) go out too and a few of the boys were pretty sore.”
Hayward gets the first! 💪@Toyota_Aus | #AFLGFpic.twitter.com/9sXsA9j2v2
— AFL (@AFL) September 28, 2024
Heeney wasn’t certain whether he would need post-season surgery.
“I’ll go see the doctors and scan it and we’ll go from there,” he said.
Heeney struggled to put his finger on why the Swans had so badly let themselves down on the last Saturday in September in what was their fourth grand final loss in 11 seasons, three of which have been by 60 or more points.
The 28-year-old has played in three of those losses – to the Western Bulldogs in 2016, Geelong in 2022 and this shellacking.
“It’s one of those days. But it’s happened now twice in two years. Obviously happened also against Port earlier in the year,” Heeney said.
“It was just not up to standard. I think we’ve got to review this one, we’ve got to figure out the specifics as to where we went wrong and why it went wrong again. We’ll be back bigger and better and this team’s a very united group. We love each other and we’ll be back next year bigger and better and more mature.”
He said the defeat was a bitter pill to swallow given the Swans had been the strongest side across the home and away rounds.
“It’s a bit numbing at the moment,” Heeney added.
“It’s a tough one, especially when you see them receive it, you’re like ‘we’ve been the best side all year’ and we just couldn’t really match it on the day that really counts. It’s upsetting.
“They were just harder and better than us.”
LONGMIRE AT A LOSS AFTER ANOTHER GRAND FINAL SHOCKER
— Ed Bourke
Sydney coach John Longmire was at a loss with his side’s inability to apply pressure against Brisbane, which he said was the root cause of a second grand final capitulation in three seasons.
Longmire refused to compare the 60-point defeat to the Swans’ previous grand final appearance against Geelong as he defended the decision to pick Logan McDonald, who was subbed out shortly after halftime.
He said the Swans’ pressure rating of 158 – the third-lowest of a grand final team since the records began in 2011 – had cost them badly as Brisbane was allowed to score freely throughout the game.
“Clearly disappointed … I don’t think we gave it our best shot, compared to what we’ve been doing,” Longmire said after the game.
“We didn’t seem to move to the level we’ve been moving at with the ball. We didn’t seem to use it well enough. We blasted it away a bit too much, didn’t use our numbers around the footy … and then were beaten at ground level.”
He said McDonald had done “everything he was required to do 100 per cent” in the lead up to the game but the Swans coaches had “needed to make a call” as he went to halftime with only a single possession.
Joel Amartey and Hayden McLean also went goalless with seven disposals apiece, but Longmire stopped short of saying the Swans needed to target key forwards ahead of next season.
“That’s one of the areas … I think we got beaten in the midfield today, which was one of our strengths. We didn’t have many winners today, in front of the ball, or at the source.”
Longmire praised victorious Brisbane coach Chris Fagan, who he called an “A-grade quality person”, and lauded the Lions’ efforts to win three consecutive interstate games to seal the flag.
He said the pre-finals bye, which meant the Swans’ preparation only included two games in the last month, had not helped their cause.
“Look, I’m not going to put it down to that, but (the bye is) not the advantage it once was,” he said.
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