Sydney coach John Longmire reviews his team’s three-point win over the Crows at Adelaide Oval on Friday night.
On their overall performance…
“We got it right at the right time. Clearly, we got the first quarter right. We jumped out of the blocks and started really well. That certainly helps when you’re on the road and against a quality team. That was a really good start for us.
“They’re always going to get their momentum swings, because they’re such a good team. They went really hard in those second and third quarters… it was an absolute arm wrestle. Two good teams in pretty good form, going at it hard and we were able to get it right in the last five minutes.”
On Adelaide’s inaccuracy hurting them in front of goal…
“They had 20 inside 50ms more than us… but we’ve been on the wrong end of that (in the past) as well. Certainly, you can’t escape that fact. They’re a good team.”
On what they did right in the final minutes…
“I think the players thought through it well and won some important balls. Whether it’s our leaders or some of our young players, (simply) winning some important moments in those instances where you’re playing away and they’ve got the momentum in the final quarter. When the crowd’s behind them and they get a couple of goals in front, to be able to hold them at that and get the goals back was a sign of strong maturity in our team.
“It was probably a number of little things. I’d have to go back and look at it again. (Tom) Papley’s goal was obviously crucial… we took a couple of intercept marks that were important and helped us get the momentum back and a couple of our young players did that well.”
On building confidence away from home…
“Just to be able to know we can play a good standard of footy away. That’s a good sign, but you still have to deliver… you still have to go and do it. It’s one thing to talk about it – I’m never big on the fact of talking about it – I think we’d much rather go and do it. So, whilst it’s good to be able to do, we need to do it again and again and again.”
On Sydney’s fast start…
“It’s a credit to the players. They’re able to get themselves into the right mindset. They’re confident of their preparation during the week to be able to get into a mindset of looking forward to that first bounce and getting on with the job.
“We’ve also had games where we’ve started slowly in the first five or eight minutes of a game and been able to wrestle it back and get going. Particularly on the road, it’s always good to do that.”
On coming back from their 0-6 start to the season…
“We believe that if we play a really strong brand of footy for four quarters that we’re more than competitive. We weren’t in that first six weeks and we’ve got to finish off the season really strongly next week back at the SCG, then we’ll reset.”
