Despite a narrow defeat, the high flying Sydney Swans can take plenty of solace from a gritty performance on Thursday night, as they look to traverse a tricky period without two of their very best.
For the first time since Errol Gulden's drafting, the Swans fielded a side without either he or dual threat Isaac Heeney, and gave a brave account of themselves in a bruising loss at the hands of the Hawthorn Hawks on Thursday night.
"At times you're going to miss players that don't play, but we were into the game extremely confident that the 23 that did play could get the job done, and for parts of it, they showed that," Swans coach Dean Cox said.
The second-year coach identified a key reason for the loss in the immediate aftermath, when asked where the game slipped away from his side.
"Around the contest," he said.
"We went -30 in the second half. They (Hawthorn) outnumbered well, won the ball back in dangerous positions, and hurt us off turnover. To lose that (contested possession) in all areas of the ground - between the arcs, d50 and forward 50 is something we need to look at."
Boom recruit Charlie Curnow started the game in exceptional touch, with two first quarter majors, but was barely sighted after the main break, registering just the solitary disposal. A system breakdown may be the cause for the drop in production for the spearhead, according to his coach.
'The first half, we had some speed on the ball that worked well, and gave him some good looks inside 50. I think in the second half, our ability to execute, centre-forward, really dropped away," he said.
"17% scores per inside 50 in the last quarter, 38% in the first, and 9% in the second. Some of our entries, method and execution didn't help, and he's playing on some really strong defenders.
"It's something we've got to work through with him, and the side as well."
Cox fielded questions about the sustainability of his side's high speed offence, after appearing to come unstuck defensively when the Hawthorn inevitably won the ball back.
"I think it's sustainable, if, when the ball isn't in our area, we can do what we need to do to set up behind the ball. That's where we were inconsistent. If you are going to play fast, how you transition and what you do behind the ball is really important. We fluctuated too heavily in that space. We didn't defensively set the ground up when we were attacking," he lamented.
Sydney will now have the luxury of a bye to triage the shortcomings in their game that arose on Thursday night, before facing the lowly West Coast Eagles, in Perth, on the Easter weekend.
