Sydney coach John Longmire had no problem with his Brisbane counterpart Justin Leppitsch querying the Swans’ contentious use of the stretcher in the final minutes of Sunday’s AFL thriller.
Leppitsch was furious following the Lions’ three-point loss, suggesting the Swans may have intentionally called for the stretcher to treat forward Callum Sinclair so the umpires would halt play at a crucial point in the match.
The ball was in dispute and deep in the Lions’ forward line when Sinclair dropped to the ground down the other end of the field with what appeared to be a serious knee injury.
The league admitted on Monday that the umpires had made an incorrect call.
Longmire said he took no offence to Leppitsch’s reaction.
“It’s really difficult after a game to know exactly what happened,” Longmire said on Tuesday.
“Callum did hyperextend his left knee and had a scan yesterday, so you don’t know that at the time and it’s very difficult to get everything right immediately after the game.
“We move on from that pretty quickly.”
Longmire confirmed Sinclair had not sustained any ligament damage, suffering only bone bruising and was in contention to play Essendon at the SCG on Saturday.
“We’ll see how he goes on Thursday, if he’s able to get through training on Thursday he’ll be selected obviously,” he said.
The makeshift Bombers have just one win from six matches and have lost seven of their past eight against the Swans, however Longmire still wasn’t expecting a walk in the park.
“If you look at their names on the board they’ve got quite a bit of experience smattered through their team,” he said.
“There’s probably five players that played on the weekend that have played in grand finals, and some exciting young players.
“They’ve actually had the third-highest disposals in the competition this year, so they’re getting plenty of the footy.”
In a boost to the Swans, defender Nick Smith could bounce back from a sore knee while speedster Gary Rohan (hamstring) got through his first match this year in the NEAFL on Sunday, having come off the long-term injury list last week.
Longmire hinted Rohan was a chance of returning to the senior squad, while Sam Reid (hamstring) could get back on the park in some capacity as soon as next weekend.
mattyb
Guest
Hear hear to all the comments above and to you again Maggie which I have acknowledged previously. Some extremely poor comments have been made regarding this non issue. Some people do tend to take the game so over seriously they put non issues ahead of player welfare.
Angela
Guest
Thankyou Maggie. Sometimes you just have to keep saying things over and over again until the truth sticks. This fracas was also reported in a dubious manner in the Australian. The piece gave the Leppitsch quote column inches which came within a whisker of defaming Longmire. Nice to see the mighty Longmire pour oil on troubled water and refuse to be drawn. The idea that Longmire would order a stretcher to gain a deliberate advantage is laughable and now the wrong decision has been squarely laid at the feet of the umpires it would be nice to hear an apology from Leppitsch.
jax
Guest
While it is disappointing it's par for the course at AAP unfortunately.
Stewie
Guest
Although as I say that, Emma Kemp is an AAP Journalist. Hmmm, well that's just disappointing.
Stewie
Guest
Hear hear. It's all well and good letting anyone write, personally I love hearing such a wide variety of views. However the downside of such a system is that, well, anyone can write :P I guess you just have to take what's written acknowledging that the majority of writers aren't professional journalists.
Momentbymoment
Guest
That was a minute of my life I will never get back.
Maggie
Guest
And a postscript to my comment above: as the writer chose to report yet again that Leppitsch suggested that the Swans might have called for the stretcher as a ploy to halt play, then she should have also reported that the AFL has said that the Swans did nothing wrong (but that the umpires erred in their timing of the play stoppage, as is stated in the article).
Maggie
Guest
Really this topic has been done to death but if the Roar is going to report it again the writer needs to get the facts right. "The ball was in dispute and deep in the Lions’ forward line when Sinclair dropped to the ground down the other end of the field ......." That is simply wrong. The ball was in the possession of a Lions player in the Swans' goal area. Sinclair was running towards the Brisbane player when Gardiner heavily bumped him from behind, squarely in the back, knocking him to the ground awkwardly and thereby injuring his knee. That then allowed the Lions to clear the ball down to their forward area. And if John Longmire did have a problem with what Justin Leppitsch had said he would not vent it in a press conference. Longmire is a master of restraint, diplomacy and sportsmanlike comments. Leppitsch could learn a lot from watching Longmire's press conference videos.