Sydney players have begun to feel as though they have let down first-year coach Dean Cox, with last year's grand finalists having won four of their first 12 games in 2025.
Having lost their past two games, including a 90-point loss at home to Adelaide, the Swans are staring at a rare season short of a finals finish.
The situation has quickly mounted pressure on Cox, who stepped into the senior coaching role in place of John Longmire over the off-season.
As for Cox's playing group, the team has taken on the responsibility of the poor start and is hoping to turn the tide at the midway mark of the year.
"He's obviously a big part of what we're doing. We're really feeling for Coxy," veteran Dane Rampe said.
"As players, we feel like we've let him down. He's been nothing short of exceptional since coming in.
"Now it's on us as players to kind of row the boat for him and show him what he means to us. Give him something that is a little bit of a reward for what he deserves.
"We're still really upset with what we've been dishing out the last couple of weeks, but looking forward to the opportunity to rectify that.
"We've got a week off after this one, we can really reset and go again, but looking forward to making the first step towards recovery for what's been pretty disappointing so far this season."
Sydney's horror loss to Adelaide made further headlines in the wake of the result as Crows defender Wayne Milera referred to his opposition's on-field connection as a "rabble".
While the Swans haven't given Milera's comment much attention, Rampe conceded the Crows backman's view wasn't far from the truth.
"We haven't really spoken about it much, to be honest," the Swans defender said.
"I don't want to comment on his comments, but it wasn't too far from the truth, was it?
"We've got our own things to worry about, other than, you know, Wayne Miller's comments after the game. So we just worry about what we can control.
"We need to go back to competing. We've shown in glimpses in games that we can put it together for a quarter or maybe two, but it just hasn't been consistent, and that's been a little bit of a theme throughout the whole year.
"That's our challenge. That's the challenge for our group. Are we going to get it right straight away? Probably not. But we're going to go down trying and swinging if we do."
Sydney will look to return to the winner's column on Saturday afternoon at the MCG when they take on Richmond.
