How will Sydney approach the Dustin Martin challenge this weekend?
It’s one of the key questions heading into the Easter round of football, with the Swans’ clash against Richmond at the MCG on Saturday looming as one of the highlights of Round 3.
Longmire outlined just how tough it is to curtail the Richmond star, conceding that he’s likely to have a significant impact on the game regardless of the plan that’s put in place to curtail him.
“You try and tag (Dustin Martin) and then he goes forward and pulls you out of shape and then he comes back into the midfield,” he said on Sportsday.
“You might get your perfect match up in one area of the ground, but you might not get the perfect match up in the other end of the ground.
“You can spend hours and hours debating what you do and the reality is he’s a very high quality player and you try and get it as good as can knowing that he’s still going to have a pretty good day.
“You’re not going to get everything perfectly.”
Coaching great Leigh Matthews flagged Dane Rampe as one likely matchup, but urged Longmire to look at someone other than Callum Mills if the side do decide to deploy a hard tag.
“Dane Rampe is the obvious match up,” he said.
“But with Tom Lynch and Jack Riewoldt, they already have problems. At the moment (Martin is) getting the third defender.
“I still think (John Longmire) would be trying to find someone other than Callum Mills if he opts to go for a hard tag.”