Two-time premiership coach Malcolm Blight has offered a word of advice to John Longmire on how to approach the 2023 season after his side were on the receiving end of a Grand Final thumping to the Cats last year.
In a highly anticipated season that history shows is threatening for the Swans, Blight believes there’s an opportunity for Longmire to find out what went wrong for Grand Final losers of the past.
Since the 2000 season, five out of six teams who lost by 60 or more points in the Grand Final didn’t make the top four the following season. Of those six teams, four of them failed to even finish in the top eight.
But the South Australian can see how a young Swans side can prevent history repeating itself after an 81-point defeat of their own.
“They weren’t ready… you know deep down after (the game), the other team were so much better, so much more organised in lots of ways and mainly in games played,” Blight said on SEN’s Sportsday SA.
“I think what John Longmire will learn... he’s been a terrific coach for a long time, he will find the mystery tag that maybe a Mark Williams missed after the 2007 one and maybe Leon Cameron missed after their whacking that GWS missed. I reckon there’s some learnings from that.
“If I was part of that now, and I know John Longmire actually reasonably well, I would go and actually talk to two or three of those coaches - and I’m sure they’d give him the time - to actually say, ‘what do you reckon we did wrong or right, after those floggings in Grand Finals? What could we have done or what would you have done differently from what you’ve learnt?’
“That’s what I’d be doing if I was John Longmire.”
The Swans finished 15th and 16th in 2019 and 2020 respectivley before surging up the ladder again to quickly challenge for a premiership.
Sydney will face Gold Coast away from home in Round 1, where they hope to kick-start their 2023 campaign with a fourth straight opening round victory.