‘Blood-less’ Swans picked apart after SCG ‘embarrassment’ as coach moves, list come under fire

There are loud concerns for Sydney following its 90-point belting at the hands of Adelaide on Saturday night, with unfulfilled magnet moves and list worries at the forefront.

The Swans have uncharacteristically conceded 131 points in consecutive weeks, capping a brutal fortnight for first-year coach Dean Cox and his staff.

Post-game, Cox called his side’s output at the SCG “unacceptable and embarrassing”, with senior midfielder James Rowbottom telling ABC in the aftermath: “Embarrassment is the first word that comes to mind.”

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Further, Adelaide defender Wayne Milera said post-match: “You could sort of feel it as a group … they were sort of a bit of a rabble, just hearing them on the ground.”

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The 4-8 Swans allowed the visitors 14 individual goalkickers on the night and conceded 12 unanswered goals leading into half-time — trailing by 65 points at the main change with just 1.4 (10) to their name.

“Two moments probably strike me more than anything else — they gave away two really silly 50-metre penalties that were really undisciplined,” triple Richmond premiership star Jack Riewoldt began on Fox Footy’s Super Saturday Live.

“And I think when you drop a player (Ollie Florent) that’s been a mainstay in your football club, that’s supposed to send the shockwave of ‘hey, we mean business here’.

“(But) then you’ve got Taylor Adams and Dane Rampe, who give away 50-metre penalties that are off the ball … that just shows ill-discipline — and that is not ‘the Bloods’.

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“Sydney, this current version, are ‘Blood-less’. There’s no mongrel in them. They won contested possession tonight, but it’s not a brutal style of Sydney brand that we know. And maybe that’s gone, that Sydney ‘Bloods’ brand of footy.

“They’ve got to reinvent themselves under Dean Cox and find something that works for them, because at the moment, sides are just picking them off, because their defence has huge holes in it.”

The comments prompted Herald Sun chief football writer Jay Clark to declare: “The transition from John Longmire to Dean Cox has gone poorly.

“They were a game clear on the top of the ladder at the end of last season, with a midfield that was pumping out numbers that we’d never seen before.

“We can say that there’s no (Tom) Papley and there’s no (Errol) Gulden, but let me quote Dean Cox: ‘This is nothing to do with injuries, this is about the way we’re playing’.

“So, this is a system issue more so than the talent (missing) issue … this has been a terrible year for the Swans.”

Chad Warner looks dejected after the Swans conceded 131 points to the Crows in a 90-point loss at home. They also conceded 131 points last week to Melbourne. (Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images) Source: Getty Images

Granted, the absences of Gulden and Papley in particular hamper the Swans’ ability to produce fruitful offensive chains, but Sydney isn’t the only side in the competition coping with notable absentees.

“You can’t hide behind this injury list,” dual premiership Kangaroo David King said. “Gulden, (Harry) Cunningham, (Logan) McDonald and Papley are the only four that’d make any meaningful change.

“Is that worse than (Collingwood’s) Dan McStay and Jordan De Goey? Is that worse than (Brisbane’s) Keidean Coleman, Brandon Starcevich and Lincoln McCarthy? He (Cox) doesn’t want to hide behind injuries, so what is it?

“Have you hidden behind the form of (Isaac) Heeney, (Chad) Warner and Gulden last year? … They didn’t think (their list) was good enough last year the mid-point of the year — they were blown away internally at Sydney about how good it was going.

“We’re now starting to see holes everywhere; the real list.”

John Longmire coached the Swans in 333 games and conceded 120-plus points only eight times. Under Cox in year one, it’s happened in consecutive weeks.

“I think what this does is it challenges the club now. The club has to take some risks with getting this list right,” King continued.

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“They have to maybe look at a gamble on Jamarra (Ugle-Hagan) that they may have been looking to have anyway, but now you say: ‘We don’t have the answer forward of the ball’.

“Because at the moment, I think some of these list holes have forced the coach into making decisions that maybe he wouldn’t have made otherwise.”

King called Cox trialling key defender Tom McCartin up forward at the start of the season “the error of the year” from a coaching perspective.

“The (Tom) McCartin to full forward (experiment) at the start of the year is unforgivable, for me,” he said.

“First four weeks of the season, you’re coming in, you’re trying to shore up what would be another tilt, another premiership opportunity. Coming off a grand final, you’ve got your first big full back at full forward.

“I think the use of (Nick) Blakey has been wasteful. He should be a free-wheeling half-back, like we see Josh Daicos and Dayne Zorko … you’re there as an offensive weapon. I think they’ve been asleep at the wheel with that move.

“That magnet is not being capitalised upon, and it’s left too much to Heeney, who, when he has a poor game, you get this.”

Their eighth loss of the year from 12 games consigned the Swans to 14th spot on the ladder.

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