Swans co-captain Callum Mills says his team has been left “embarrassed” and “shattered” by its Grand Final horror show, declaring the poor performance was the senior players’ responsibility.
The Swans on Saturday suffered their worst ever Grand Final loss as Geelong recorded a thumping 81-point win at the MCG.
John Longmire’s team finished with 8.4 (52) for the game – its lowest score for the season – while it conceded 20.13 (133) – the biggest score it’s conceded this season – to Geelong.
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The Cats comprehensively won the disposal (+91), mark (+62), contested possession (+41) and inside 50 (+33) counts.
“That was really disappointing. We were smacked in contested ball, didn’t play the way we needed to win and the hard part was there wasn’t much fightback,” Mills told reporters post-game.
“We feel pretty embarrassed to be honest.
“We got a couple of things structurally wrong that hurt us with goals and we went away from the things that worked and they were the consequences.”
Mills was held to an equal season-low 13 disposals, while fellow senior players Isaac Heeney (13 disposals, 1 goal) and Lance Franklin (0.1 from 5 disposals) were well below par.
“It was definitely not the young players. I think us as leaders take ownership of that performance,” Mills said.
“We weren‘t at the standard of what we needed to be on Grand Final day. It’s shattering to be honest.”
Asked what coach Longmire said to his troops post-game, Mills said: “A lot went wrong today and there‘s not much to do other than say that we got a lot wrong and we didn’t play the way we wanted to and credit to Geelong they were really good.
“I’m proud of us for having a crack in terms of this year and getting here. We‘re disappointed with the way we did (finish) it, but we’ll be back.”
It was a horrible way to finish a promising season for the Swans, which had won nine straight games coming into the Grand Final and finished third on the ladder at the end of the home and away season.
Few expected the Swans to finish inside the top four this year, let alone a Grand Final, with many pundits believing the Swans exceeded expectations.
But asked if its promising season had been soured by Saturday’s loss, Mills said: “It does a bit, especially now. We feel like we’ve let our supporters and fans down and the club as well.
“We’ll take our whack which is deserved and we’ll stick together because we’re a tight group and we’ll do it together.”
Mills said he was hopeful the Swans would “use this as fuel and use it to move forward together”.
“Absolutely it’ll be hard not to think about this game (over summer),” he said.
“We let ourselves down and this will be in the back of my mind for a long time to come, that‘s for sure.”
