Feeling Goodes ahead of Adelaide clash
By Alison Zell
Longmire and co-captain Adam Goodes faced the media yesterday and while they know taking on the Adelaide Crows in their home town won’t be easy, the Swans are confident they’re playing a brand of football that will stand up in finals.
“It’s finals footy, it doesn’t matter what’s happened in the last 23 weeks,” Goodes said.
“It’s just another challenge for our group and I think this year we’ve been able to overcome a lot of challenges which has been great.
“We take a lot of confidence out of the last month of football we’ve played going into this game.
“We spoke last night about what it’s like to play finals and play big games with big rewards and I think we’re just really looking forward to the way the group can respond as a team this week.”
Over the past month the Swans have faced tough games against fellow premiership contenders Hawthorn, Geelong and Collingwood and Longmire knows the Swans will need to step up to defeat the Crows at AAMI Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
“They’ll take some beating, especially if they get access to it around the midfield,” Longmire said.
“If you look at their midfield – Dangerfield, Jacobs, Thompson – they’re probably three starters in an All Australian midfield really.
“That is our biggest challenge this week, going to Adelaide, is making sure that we reduce their input and their influence and making sure we play the sort of footy we want to play.”
With key defender Heath Grundy serving a one-match suspension for striking, Longmire will be looking to young Swan Alex Johnson or Lewis Roberts-Thomson, who has played much of this season up forward, to cover the hole left by Grundy.
“Alex is a player that’s played for us down back all year and will take a role for us in our back six,” Longmire said.
“What that role is, is yet to pan out but whether it’s him or Roberts-Thomson, we feel as though we have some options in our back half.
“Ted Richards has obviously had a really good season as well and we feel as though we have some flexibility.”
The Swans were without star forward Sam Reid (glute strain) and tagger Nick Smith (tight hamstring) for last weekend’s game against Geelong but both are expected to recover in time to take their place in the side.
“Sam Reid and Nick Smith will both do some training today and they might not do the whole session but if they train a bit today and get through training on Thursday then they’ll both come into the team,” Longmire said.
“Having Sammy Reid in the team is a huge bonus for us,” Goodes said.
“It will be great to have Sammy back this week and there’s no doubt our forward line does operate a bit better with him in it.”