Former Sydney coach John Longmire has admitted the famous Bloods culture has taken a “big hit” as police investigate the events of Monday morning at East Melbourne's Pullman Hotel.
The quintet have been suspended until the end of the season, with the events casting a dark shadow over the standards that allowed for such a serious breach of trust to occur.
“We've been proud for a long period of time of (the culture). The culture of the footy club, it's taken a big hit. It's taken a big hit,” Longmire said on AFL 360.
“And it will take time for everyone to rebuild the trust in the football club and I think that's what the intention of everybody in the football club is to do.”
Longmire still works at the Swans as the Executive Director of Club Performance so was somewhat limited in what he could say but indicated football discussions were secondary as club executives dealt with the fallout of the events.
“The football aspirations weren't part of the discussion,” Longmire said.
“They were very much in the background, in the forefront were other people issues as they should have been.
“People issues have led discussions in the last few days, where people sat. Football discussions, premiership discussions were at the very back end of everything that was talked about. There were much bigger priorities with what happened in the last few days than the football discussions.”
Longmire coached in four losing grand finals during his tenure as Swans coach which gives him strong relationships with much of the playing group and he said he felt sadness and flatness as he became aware of what occurred.
He said it was hard to compare any previous disappointment he had held in footy to the events of recent days.
“Incredibly tough. I cant comment on the specifics of the incident or what happened but it's been incredibly tough for everyone involved both tight and closely associated with it and as you get further and further out with the layers of this so to say it has been a challenging few days would be a huge understatement,” Longmire said.
