Sydney coach John Longmire is dealing with the worst injury crisis of his tenure, with Isaac Heeney ruled out for the rest of the AFL season and co-captain Josh Kennedy to miss six to eight weeks.
Heeney was undergoing ankle surgery on Monday afternoon after rupturing a medial ligament and tendon tunnel and will be in a moon boot for eight weeks.
Kennedy has sprained a medial ligament and will be in a knee brace for three to five weeks.
“He (Kennedy) has been fantastic. He and Isaac have been really good for us this year,” Longmire said.
“Isaac works so hard on his game; he plays a lot of the time with all sorts of injuries no one would know and he is as hard as.
“When he went down with an injury after the game I knew it was significant because he is tough.”
In his tenth season as Swans coach, Longmire couldn’t recall a worse injury situation during his tenure, especially in relation to his talls.
“We had a significant run last year at the back end of the year, but this is probably taking it to a new level,” Longmire said.
“You can handle injuries across your list, (except) when they come from one particular area like height – your defenders, forwards.”
He said Lance Franklin was still quite a few weeks off playing and fellow key forward Sam Reid probably hadn’t trained enough to be considered for Saturday’s SCG clash with Gold Coast.
Longmire said ruckman Callum Sinclair and youngster Tom McCartin were possibly the players with the best chance of returning from injury this weekend.
The Swans are languishing in 17th spot with two wins from six games and have lost their last three.
After blooding two players last week, Longmire foreshadowed having one or two more debutants in the team to play the Suns.
He joked he may have to give retired defender Nick Smith a ring to see if he can line up on the Suns’ exciting young forward Izak Rankine.
Birdman
Roar Rookie
haha. Clarko's call was correct (the umps had stopped calling HTB even when it was there) - the fact that the umps lost their minds in the following weeks and applied it inconsistently isn't down to Clarko.
Mark.
Roar Rookie
At least Horse doesn’t complain about umpires like his ex North teammate
Chief Keeffe
Roar Rookie
Come on Pinky, Lloyd is one of the best going around off half back. Rampe into the middle - maybe, was terrible on the weekend (must have been beaten in at least half a dozen one-on-ones) but would prefer to see a young guy in there. Would also leave us very small in defence.
Charlie Keegan
Roar Guru
Typically Syndesmosis injuries are not the type of injury you’d expect with a broken up season like this. I’d expect there would be a whole lot more calves and hamstrings going.
Kane
Roar Rookie
Kreuzer out has been a blessing for Carlton as it's given Pittonet a crack who has gone past him
ConnorJoyce
Roar Rookie
Heeney, Sloane out for the season and Kennedy for 6-8 weeks. They join Kreuzer, Howe, Heppell, Stringer, Rowell, Stewart, Prestia, Nankervis, Buddy, Dunkley, and Naughton on the sidelines. All out for at least another month, and the majority with ankle injuries. Building a very nice injured-lineup at the moment which is disappointing for footy fans as we want to see the best players out on the field. Definitely a question of whether the restart and broken up season is causing these problems (particularly the ankle injuries)?
Charlie Keegan
Roar Guru
Mills should go to the midfield otherwise that’s an indictment on horse and his coaching style. I also think they could reinvent Lloyd into a half forward or even push rampe onto the ball (he played that way for UNSW in the Sydney premier division).
Charlie Keegan
Roar Guru
Oh they’re finishing below the swans unless they can pull a win out of thin air
Charlie Keegan
Roar Guru
I’m not sure whether I should be glad the bombers have already played the swans this year. On the one hand Heeney was the closest they had to a key forward on the other hand essendon are essendon
Birdman
Roar Rookie
Expect the Swans to park the bus a lot more often in 2020 after that news.
Chief Keeffe
Roar Rookie
If Mills doesn't get moved into the midfield after this then Horse has completely lost it. Could be one of the only positives of this rebuilding year
6x6 perkele
Roar Rookie
If Adelaide finishes below the swans that'll be hilarious
Christo the Daddyo
Roar Rookie
It's getting to the point where the Swans will struggle to put a team on the park soon. High draft picks again at the end of the year I guess...