Sydney coach John Longmire concedes his club made a mistake playing Sam Reid in the Grand Final, after believing he had overcome his preliminary final adductor strain.
The veteran forward-ruck had been a critical component of the Swans’ improvement in the back half of the season, which saw them come into the decider on a nine-game winning streak.
He held his spot in the 22, with 2020 No.4 draft pick Logan McDonald stunningly dropped and replaced by Hayden McLean, so McLean could do the work in the ruck Reid could not.
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The ploy backfired with Reid looking limited during the second quarter, and then being subbed out just after halftime, having recorded just four disposals with no scoreboard impact.
McLean had one goal from four disposals, plus three hitouts, as the Cats dominated in the ruck thanks to Rhys Stanley (27 hitouts) and Mark Blicavs (15).
Asked about the selection of Reid, Longmire told reporters: “We made a mistake there too. Not much went right.
“Well, we were obviously confident (in his body), that’s why we picked him, but we made a mistake.”
A downcast Longmire said the Swans “really let ourselves down, and our supporters down”, after allowing 11 scoring shots and recording just one in the opening term, and never looking like threats to recover from there.
“From the first bounce, the game looked as foreign as what we’ve played it this year. There’s no element we got right,” he said.
“Full credit to Geelong, they played a fantastic game, but we just didn’t give ourselves any chance whatsoever.
“We’ll look back and reflect on it and go through it and work out why, but leading up to the game there’d be nothing that stood out why (the result would occur).
“We obviously had a tough game last week but we felt like we recovered OK. We just mentally and physically weren’t in the hunt, and that was the disappointing thing.”
He added: “No aspect of the game looked like the way we wanted to play and we hardly got anything right, from the selection of Sam to the way the game looked, we just didn’t get it right.”
