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The Swans were comprehensively beaten by Hawthorn in the grand final. They were dismal.
However, Swans fans should remain ever hopeful. They have a great team and were one of the best teams all year.
As Andrew Pridham has said this morning, a bad day doesn’t make a bad season.
Geelong in Round 11 were not defined by the 110-point thrashing the Swans gave them. Geelong finished by winning 10 of their next 12 games of the home-and-away season.
Regardless of the small margins, they found a way to win in hardship.
The Swans can learn something from Geelong and Hawthorn respectively. In 2012, the Hawks were beaten by the Swans in the big stage. The Hawks bounced back to claim the 2013 premiership and were the best team all year.
In 2014, Geelong experienced one of the toughest runs with injury. They were brilliant throughout the year, never conceding that the year would be lost because of injuries to key personnel.
The Swans cannot afford to drop with the talent they have. It would be delusional to think that all is over. The Swans cannot afford to be the Power of 2008. They lost the grand final by the biggest margin in history, which would affect their 2008 season as they dropped from second to 13th.
That year, the Hawks beat the Cats, who overcame every obstacle except the last. How did Geelong respond? By winning the 2009 premiership, finishing second in 2010 and being beaten by eventual premiers Collingwood in the preliminary final before capping off a premiership win in 2011.
Football history says it is possible to bounce back after such a defeat. Essendon lost by 83 points in the 1983 grand final. They would win the minor premiership and the cup the following year. In 1985 they backed this up, avenging 1983 by beating the Hawks by 78 points.
In football, resilience is king. Those who bounce back from adversity can achieve glory.
That is what the Swans must be able to do. Find heart and hope in what was, other than the final game, a strong season.
However, there are a few improvements that can be made with personnel and strategy. But what must be the cornerstone of 2015 for the Swans is hard work, gut-running and a never-say-die attitude.
Adam Goodes should go
As much as it pains me, the champ needs to go. The Swans play hard contested footy. Unfortunately, Goodes can no longer do that for four quarters. Yes, he can contribute in patches, but patches don’t win premierships. Consistency does.
As shown by the Hawks. They lost five games all season, by 20 points or less. The Swans lost one by three points and another by 10, but losses of 20, 32 and 43 as well.
Variety
The Swans need variety in attack. They were able to do so reasonably well against North Melbourne by chopping and changing the forward line. However, they were assisted by being able to play their own way.
Franklin, while having an awesome season, needs support. It is not an issue that he kicked more than 80 goals for the season. The issue is that the next highest was Kurt Tippett with 34 and playing only 14 matches of the season.
There needs to be a more even spread of goal kickers in order to challenge the opposition defence. There can be key targets, but there must be at least three potential targets. Goodes and Sam Reid did not provide enough this season as forward options.
Sam Reid
He has massive potential but goes missing in large periods of the game. He either needs to go or have a breakout season next year.
Maintain pace
The Swans have a number of fast young guns in the likes of Harry Cunningham, Gary Rohan, Lewis Jetta and Jake Lloyd. These members can break open defences, as seen with the best of Port Adelaide this season.
These men can be the pinnacle of attacking glair while also being able to chase and pressure opponents into turning over the ball.
Maintain what was done well this season
A lot of things did go right this season for the Bloods, things that generally didn’t show up on grand final day. These should be key indicators of what was done well but could be improved on too.
They were first in tackles, contested possession, inside 50s, second in disposals and third in clearances and points scored.
Better crumbing
The Swans lacked in potency at times. Plenty of times inside 50s went in and these two were the lynchpins of attack. In order to improve their goals scored per match and potency, smaller forwards need to be in place to avoid a turnover.
They averaged the highest inside 50s per game with 56.3, but were 2.7 goals behind the Hawks whom had only one less inside 50 per game. This is not a weakness to be improved but a strength to capitalise on.
Overall Swans fans, the team had a great season. Improvement can and should come. The key is resilience and learning from mistakes. To fight again another day.
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