‘The best teams can expose that’: Longmire blames intensity drop for Swans loss

Inconsistent effort left Sydney’s young midfield exposed against the Demons, but their size is not an issue, John Longmire says.

Melbourne’s seasoned midfield trio of Christian Petracca, Clayton Oliver and Jack Viney had far more influence than the Swans midfield in round 3. Picture: Michael Willson / Getty Images

John Longmire says the Swans’ midfielders are not as “mature and hardened” as the Melbourne group which cut them apart on Sunday at the MCG.

Sydney suffered its second big loss in two games at the Melbourne venue, with a significant deficit in contested ball against the Demons similar to how last year’s grand final unfolded.

Christian Petracca (187cm, 94kg) and Clayton Oliver (189cm, 88kg) were dominant in Melbourne’s 50-point win after the powerfully built Patrick Dangerfield did the damage last September, but Longmire said big-bodied opponents will not be a weak spot for the Swans if they can deliver more consistent effort.

“It’s tough in this game to be consistent every week; you need to make sure your highs and lows are smoothed out a little bit,” he said.

“The Melbourne midfield are three years on average more mature than us; we need to look at those guys and understand they’re a mature, hardened team.

Longmire says Sydney’s midfield, which includes the relatively lightly framed Errol Gulden and Chad Warner, can easily compensate for a lack of size when at their best. Picture: Phil Hillyard

“We think we’ve taken a step in that journey and our players are learning all the time, but you’ve just got to keep at that level … sometimes when you drop off a little bit, the best teams can expose that.”

The Swans will face Port Adelaide at the SCG on Saturday night, an opponent they have been unable to beat in their last six encounters.

Longmire said the Power, who are coming off a bruising Showdown loss, would present an “exciting challenge” with a similarly mature midfield group to the Demons.

“They’ve got some hardened, mature bodies and we need to make sure that we play that sort of level of intensity for four quarters that’s been lacking the last couple of years against them,” he said.

Longmire suggested Will Hayward was unlucky to give away a 50m penalty for dissent on Sunday, but he warned the forward to avoid making comments to his opponents as well as to the umpire. Picture: Michael Klein

“We look at other things we can hopefully get better at, which is the contested ball and our pressure around the footy that dropped away.”

Longmire weighed in on the AFL’s defence of umpire interpretations of the dissent rule, saying players simply “had to get on with it” after a decision they did not like because a 50m penalty was too costly.

Will Hayward was penalised for dissent against the Demons, but Longmire said the Swans forward’s words had been directed at his opponent and that the umpire had misread the situation.

“We understand it’s a big penalty, so if a decision’s right, understand it … if it’s borderline, it’s a big penalty,” he said.

“You can’t say anything that leaves it up to interpretation for that particular umpire, so we’ll work on what we can control, but as I said to Will, don’t say it to the player.”

Originally published as ‘The best teams can expose that’: Longmire blames intensity drop for Swans loss