Longmire confident Swans can keep stars

Updated October 02, 2012 20:34:48

Sydney coach John Longmire is confident potential salary cap issues won't break up his AFL premiership winning squad and is looking for improvement from his next generation to keep the Swans a step ahead of their rivals.

While the salary cap invariably makes it hard for a premiership winning club to retain all their key players, Longmire believes the Swans have some wriggle room because of all the highly paid stars that had retired or left the club in recent times.

"There's dual grand final players, premiership players, best and fairest winners, there's been a number of players that we've lost over the last three years," Longmire said.

"We think we've got some terrific young players coming through our footy team at the moment that have got a bright future ahead of them and we want to make sure that they are part of that future."

Longmire identified improvement from the clutch of youngsters already established in the side - and from others on the fringe - as a key factor in Sydney staying ahead of their rivals.

"We need the next generation coming through, the players that didn't play on the weekend, Benny McGlynn, Gary Rohan, there's a lot of players there," Longmire said.

"Tony Armstrong, Tommy Walsh, Trent Dennis-Lane, Jed Lamb, there's a number of players in that next group that we think can come through."

Longmire conceded Sydney could lose players who sought more opportunities at another club.

"We'll look at that over the next couple of days and clearly that's OK, I think in the end we're all big enough to look at the bigger picture," Longmire said.

"Some players may (leave) and some players may not, we're not sure at the moment."

He wouldn't comment on suggestions Sydney could chase Adelaide forward Kurt Tippett.

Longmire lauded the efforts of Sydney's emerging key forward Sam Reid, who he said had a fantastic game in last weekend's grand final.

"We feel he's developing along quite well, we think he can get better and we know he'll get better."

Longmire stressed he wouldn't rush dual premiership-winning 301-game midfielder Jude Bolton into deciding whether he wanted to play on.

Sydney has been an active player in trade week in recent years and Longmire didn't rule out moves from the Swans in this year's three-week period or in the free agency market.

"We don't close ourselves off to anything, but we are also mindful that we need to make some smart decisions at this time of the year," Longmire said.

"At the very front of our mind is we need to get better."

Delivering a premiership might seem the perfect time for Longmire to push for a contract extension, but he seemed embarrassed by the suggestion.

"I'm not quite bold enough to be doing that just yet, I'm still feeling my way, I've only coached two years," Longmire said.

He said the only Sydney player requiring off-season surgery was Irishman Walsh, who underwent a shoulder operation on Tuesday.

AAP

Tags: sport, australian-football-league, sydney-2000, nsw, australia

First posted October 02, 2012 20:33:12

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Swans' Longmire wins coaches award

Updated September 25, 2012 21:33:27

Sydney may not have had Brownlow Medal success, but the Swans have had an early grand final week win with coach John Longmire picking up the AFL Coaches Association award for coach of the year.

Longmire won the peer award, the Allan Jeans senior coach of the year award, in only his second year as a senior coach.

He received the award - named after the famous St Kilda and Hawthorn coach who died last year - on Tuesday night, four days before the Swans' appointment at the MCG for the grand final against Hawthorn.

Longmire took over in Sydney from premiership coach Paul Roos for the 2011 season. His team finished seventh and lost to Hawthorn in an elimination final.

Entering 2012, the Swans were not tipped by many pundits to challenge strongly for the flag, but the Sydneysiders had a roaring start to the year, going undefeated until round six when they lost a tight game to Adelaide.

Sydney was 8-3 at the half-way mark, and finished the home and away season with 16 wins, good enough for third spot on the ladder.

The Swans then smashed their two hoodoo sides, Adelaide and Collingwood, in the finals to earn a spot in the club's first grand final since 2006.

But it was the game style, as much as the results, that brought plaudits for Longmire's coaching.

He maintained the core of the hard-running, hard-tackling, defensive-minded style that had been the hallmark of the Swans under Roos, and added an extra attacking dimension.

Longmire introduced a more expansive style of play to make use of the blazing speed of Lewis Jetta and others, and used a range of scoring options from Sam Reid and Adam Goodes to converted defender Lewis Roberts-Thomson and midfielders Kieren Jack and Ben McGlynn.

In other awards announced at the AFLCA ceremony, Richmond's Brownlow Award place-getter Trent Cotchin (107 votes) won the player of the year award by eight votes from Collingwood's Dayne Beams (99), with Gold Coast's Gary Ablett and Adelaide's Patrick Dangerfield (92) in equal third.

Essendon captain and Brownlow medallist Jobe Watson came sixth with 89 votes.

Hawthorn and Carlton premiership coach David Parkin was named the fourth "Coaching Legend", following Hawthorn premiership coach John Kennedy senior (2009), Melbourne and North Melbourne premiership coach Ron Barassi (2010) and Richmond premiership coach Tom Hafey (2011).

The best young player award went to Essendon's Dyson Heppell, ahead of West Coast duo Jack Darling and Andrew Gaff.

Fremantle's Peter Sumich won the assistant coach of the year award and Collingwood's Craig McRae took out the development coach of the year award.

Tags: sport, australian-football-league, sydney-2000, nsw, melbourne-3000, vic, australia

First posted September 25, 2012 21:33:27

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Jolly key to Magpies' fortunes: Longmire

Updated September 20, 2012 16:13:07

Sydney coach John Longmire has labelled Collingwood ruckman Darren Jolly the most "potent weapon" in the Magpies' star-studded midfield.

Longmire says Jolly, a Swans 2005 premiership player who also helped Collingwood to the 2010 flag, will have to be nullified if Sydney is to break an 11-match losing streak against the Magpies in Friday night's preliminary final at the Olympic stadium.

The Magpies' use of part-time ruckmen to support Jolly has been viewed as a potential weakness, while the Swans boast two specialists in Shane Mumford and Mike Pyke.

But Longmire was at pains to point out that he viewed that aspect of the game more as a threat than an area to exploit.

Asked to nominate the Magpies' biggest midfield danger man, he picked out the ruckmen.

"It starts with Jolly. If you're talking about a potent weapon, he's an important player to their set-up," Longmire said.

Longmire says Jolly was a major factor in the Magpies' round 20 win over the Swans at the Olympic stadium.

"He was outstanding and he's in career-best form," Longmire said.

"He's one of the premier big men in the competition and has been for almost a decade now.

"I think that's a real challenge for our big blokes is to match it with Darren Jolly."

Longmire says the Swans planned to make only one change from the side that beat Adelaide in their qualifying final almost a fortnight ago.

Small forward Ben McGlynn has been forced out by a hamstring injury, with key defender Heath Grundy back from suspension.

Longmire says the club has not made a big deal of their long losing streak against the Magpies.

Nor were they anticipating an advantage from the Magpies having a much shorter break between matches and having to deal with the emotions of Thursday's funeral for former Magpie John McCarthy.

Longmire says the Swans' only focus is to play contested footy for the full match, noting the Swans midfielders let their Magpies opponents run too freely in the most recent meeting.

"It's just about hard work. Sometimes you go looking for different things and you try to do different things that may or may not work," he said.

"I know what does work and that's working hard for four quarters."

AAP

Tags: australian-football-league, sport, sydney-2000, collingwood-3066

First posted September 20, 2012 16:10:53

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Longmire wants more from Swans

Updated September 22, 2012 13:45:00

Sydney coach John Longmire says the Swans are producing the right sort of football at the right time, but will need to step it up even further in next Saturday's grand final.

And he says he will not be wasting any time reflecting on their achievement so far.

"You're constantly looking forward and that's probably the emotion at the moment," Longmire said after Friday night's commanding 13.18 (96) to 10.10 (70) preliminary final win over Collingwood at the Olympic stadium.

"What do we need to do tomorrow, that's all we're worried about at the present time.

"I'm sure the players are the same. There's been a few blokes in this boat before.

"You get the balance right. You enjoy the opportunity that we've got ahead of us. There's no point blocking it out completely.

"But you need to know when to switch on and when to switch off."

Longmire said he had been confident from the start of the year that the Swans were playing the selfless footy needed for success, but unsure if it would take them all the way to a grand final.

"I don't sit there at the start of the year and set any goals at all, other than we want to keep improving," he said.

"I think we've done that, the players individually have done that, the team's done it, but we need to go up another level this week."

With the Swans thrashing Collingwood in the contested possession count, laying more tackles and notching 31 scoring shots, Longmire was delighted with their form leading into the grand final.

"The pressure that we applied from the first bounce was outstanding," he said.

"When the ball was in our forward line I thought we applied really strong pressure and won the contested ball count by 28 in the end.

"That's the sort of footy you need to play at this time of year."

The Swans had one minor injury concern emerge from Friday night, with All-Australian defender Ted Richards rolling an ankle in the first term.

But he played out the last three quarters seemingly untroubled.

Small forward Ben McGlynn will push hard for a grand final return after straining a hamstring in the qualifying final win over Adelaide a fortnight ago.

"We'll give him the time that he needs this week and see how he goes," Longmire said.

AAP

Tags: sport, australian-football-league, sydney-2000, nsw, australia

First posted September 22, 2012 13:45:00

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Longmire praises Parker's toughness

Updated March 28, 2012 20:38:56

Sydney coach John Longmire has praised the courage of his talented teenage midfielder Luke Parker for playing on after his jaw was fractured.

While some pundits thought the illegal bump on Parker, which earned Giants midfielder James McDonald a two-game ban was the big statement to come out of last Saturday's first Sydney derby, Longmire thought otherwise.

"For me, the big statement out of the game was a 19-year-old kid who was cleaned up and had an injury being able to play the rest of the game out and play really well," Longmire said on Wednesday.

"That's the statement that really matters to me and really matters to Luke's teammates.

"He's a super-tough kid."

Parker, who suffered a hairline jaw fracture, was eventually substituted.

"We had to actually make the decision to sub him. He didn't want to be subbed - he wanted to keep playing," Longmire said.

"He's one of the toughest kids I've seen play at that age.

"He's 19, he copped a knock, didn't whinge about it, got up, dusted himself off and kept playing."

It was initially expected Parker would miss two to three games with his injury, but Longmire feels he may still play next week.

"Whilst he's hard and tough and fearless and will no doubt want to play, we'll make the right decision based upon how he feels next week and that's a decision that will be made by the medical staff," Longmire said.

Longmire hoped injured veterans Ryan O'Keefe and Rhyce Shaw, both of whom missed the GWS game, would resume training next week, with the former already doing some running.

Longmire admitted Sydney needed to improve on the form they displayed in their 63-point win over GWS.

"Can we play better? Yes we can, and we'll need to play better next week against Fremantle," Longmire said.

He suggested he would consider supplementing his ruck division by possibly adding Mark Seaby to counter the potential threat posed by Dockers' giant Aaron Sandilands.

"The good thing from our point of view is that we've got an option in Mark Seaby in particular that played really well (in the reserves) on the weekend. That gives us the chance to bring him in if we need to and that's something we'll consider next week," Longmire said.

AAP

Tags: sport, australian-football-league, sydney-2000

First posted March 28, 2012 20:38:56

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Swans lock in Longmire and Reid

Updated December 16, 2011 13:27:50

Sydney has extended the contract of coach John Longmire by two years to 2014 and locked in outstanding young key forward Sam Reid until the end of the 2017 AFL season.

Reid 19, made his debut for Sydney in the final round of the 2010 season and missed just one game this year.

He kicked 22 goals in 2011, second only to co-captain Adam Goodes, and won a Rising Star nomination.

"It was always my main goal to stay in Sydney, and that's what we were working towards the whole time," Reid told reporters in Sydney on Friday.

"To get a really secure deal is, fantastic, I was really happy with that."

Sydney chief executive Andrew Ireland, who had re-signed Sydney legends Michael O'Loughlin and Goodes to five-year deals in previous years, said the club was conscious of the changing nature of the sport.

"With the new teams coming into the competition, free agency and the like, it's really pleasing that Sam was agreeable to a long term contract with us," Ireland said.

"It's not easy to find quality key forwards and Sam has filled that role for us really well through the last season."

Longmire continues his association with Sydney, which started in 2002 when he was appointed as an assistant coach to Rodney Eade.

"I'm obviously really appreciative of the decision to extend my contract and I'm really excited by the group of younger players we've got coming through," he said.

"I think we've got some of the more talented younger players coming through that are going around."

AAP

Tags: australian-football-league, sport, sydney-2000, nsw, australia

First posted December 16, 2011 13:27:50

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Media Call: John Longmire

Published:Thursday, June 30, 2011 1:37 AESTExpires:Wednesday, September 28, 2011 1:37 AEST

Swans coach John Longmire says injured midfielder Kieren Jack is set to play against Adelaide this weekend.

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Media Call: John Longmire

Published:Thursday, June 2, 2011 12:10 AESTExpires:Wednesday, August 31, 2011 12:10 AEST

Swans coach John Longmire said the club will support whatever decision veteran forward Daniel Bradshaw makes about his career.

Tags: sport, australian-football-league, australia

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Media Call: John Longmire

Published:Tuesday, May 24, 2011 3:50 AESTExpires:Monday, August 22, 2011 3:50 AEST

Swans coach John Longmire say he has players pushing for selection for Saturday's AFL clash with North Melbourne at Docklands stadium.

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