One of Geelong's unsung heroes in Sunday's win over Sydney would have to be Mark O'Connor, whose ruthless tag on Swans superstar Isaac Heeney played a pivotal role in the Cats' 43-point victory.
Heeney managed just 15 disposals, his lowest tally of the 2025 season, with only eight being effective. O'Connor managed to win the mental game too, drawing two free kicks off of Heeney's frustrated antics.
While a disappointing outing for the 29-year-old, Swans senior coach Dean Cox saw the fallout of the match as a learning opportunity for the superstar as he continues to learn how to manage physical tags with greater midfield minutes, attending a career-high 74.4% of centre bounces this season.
"It's about trying to continue the process and not get frustrated, control what you can," Cox said post-game.
"[Geelong] played Isaac Heeney really well. At times he looked dangerous, but I think that's one thing we need to understand, and Isaac certainly has. He's been followed numerous times over his career and tonight was another one of those occasions.
"We can try and look after him and get him ahead of the ball, but then the ball doesn't get down there as frequently, so you try and move him back on ball to get him involved as much as you possibly can. Unfortunate it didn't happen tonight."
Cox admitted the Swans were aware of the possibility of a tag from O'Connor but were unable to manage it effectively. The first-year coach also explained his discussion with Heeney during the game which followed two costly free kicks to the Irishman, with Heeney involved in some extracurricular push-and-shove after being tackled.
"That's just about trying to control your emotions and not get frustrated. That was the only discussion I had with Isaac, is to worry about what he can control," Cox said.
"At times when players are close checking, frustration can get the best of you, and it happened a couple of times tonight.
"We probably knew he was going to follow, that's the good thing about O'Connor is he can play on-ball as well as behind the ball... they did a really good job and then when we got it forward, we couldn't get it forward enough and with enough speed on the ball to isolate one-on-ones.
"The Cats intercept marked more than we would have liked and their third man across helped dramatically."
Heeney and the Swans will look for redemption as they conclude their season next weekend at Optus Stadium against the lowly West Coast Eagles.
