Sydney Swans senior coach Scott Gowans fronted the media on Wednesday, sharing his thoughts ahead of Sunday’s Pride Round showdown with Carlton.
On the loss to North Melbourne
“Well, the main takeaway is that they’re a very good side, but we’ve got a way to go, I suppose, in our preparation and just putting training years into our squad. And we sit 18th for years trained, pre-season’s done, and they’re up near the top. So it’s a big gap, and you can’t beat time. You just need time.”
On turning lessons into progress
“So we just took the learnings out of the North game, which were different from the Adelaide game. In the Adelaide game, we had our opportunities, whereas North, we’re just all over it. So there are things we took out of it from our numbers and the way we want to play. And then a little bit of resilience training as well, like holding up when they have massive momentum. What do you do? You know, we spoke about sometimes the answer isn’t just to try and throw a punch back the other way and go really quick. There’s a bit of composure in it as well. And so it’s just learning that you can’t replicate that in training or match them or anything like that. You need to play against these sides.”
On the hunger to improve
“It hasn’t actually been an issue getting the team up. They’re very motivated, and they just want to improve, and it’d be very different if I think we’re an older squad and you were losing four in a row, it would be very different.”
On training with a purpose
“Yeah, we train a lot of fundamentals, but we spoke this week just about when we do our fundamentals and how we do them. So we’ve changed that up today and did it under pressure, which we did at the start of the year, but you’re kind of messing with loads and things like that. And yeah, it’s a tough one in season to rectify, but it’s, yeah, again, it just comes down to just doing the work. And yeah, we have a few players that are managed load-wise. And so we balance up, is it more important to get a drill done with a game scenario versus a fundamental under pressure? So, you know, I don’t know if you noticed, but we had a few players that were in that category, and then there were a few players on the side doing the fundamentals. So it’s just got balanced, but there’s no doubt that the players are aware of where we’re at.”
On the must-win mindset
“Yeah, well, our theme for this week is the final start this week, and we consider it a knockout final, and that’s what we want to do. We want to have that pressure and we want to cope with that pressure because that is part of the learning. So yeah, we tackle Carlton and Henson in front of a big crowd and pride round, all that, and just hit them hard as we can, playing our way. And that’s, the scoreboard will take care of itself if we get that process right from the start… And then, you know, destiny’s in our own hands at the moment. We want to keep it that way. So yeah, it’s a really important game.”
On building composure in big games
“You know, we’re still ranked quite high for scores and shots at goal. And SSPI (Scoring opportunities per inside 50) is pretty good as well. So all that is tracking okay. It’s just when you come up against the better sides that we’ve been, I suppose, pressured in the way that we set up and we tend to collapse on the footy a bit. So we’ve got to hold structure a bit more. And then the Collingwood and Giants game are a different kettle fish to the last two weeks. So that’s all part of learning, isn’t it? And yeah, we’re satisfied with what we have structurally. It’s just a matter of finding the players that can play that structure the best and perform. And sometimes you can have a player play a structure and they do that very well, but then they have no impact offensively. And we had a little bit of that on the weekend. So we need to adjust from that point of view. But yeah, it’s actually a good week because the pressure comes off from the perspective that you’re not thinking top four or top of the ladder or anything. All you’re thinking is you just have to win. And as I said last week, to hunt is a really great thing.”
On celebrating Pride Round at Henson Park
“The crowd has been amazing and we just had an open training session with a few people here, and the buzz is really good and the girls thrive off that. So it’s important we do get a big crowd and celebrate Pride Round as it should be. And hopefully one day we don’t actually have to celebrate Pride Rounds, and that’s the ultimate goal, isn’t it? Just to have permanent equality with everything. But at the moment, it’s important to get the message through and if we can get another big crowd there, it’s tracking pretty well. So it’ll be a beautiful day. Come down and get a burger and a Coke and enjoy the footy.”
On going head-to-head with Carlton
“Carlton have been one of the big improvers this year, they have really sort of been on a similar journey in terms of bringing through a lot of young players and we’re just starting to see the benefits of that now. One, acknowledging that they are a very good football side and have been, they’ve just really haven’t put it together and they have this year, which is credit to them and very well coached and well structured. So yeah, that’s one. And then two, we just need to play our way and playing our way against anybody for four quarters will test most teams and we’ll fall back onto quarter one and quarter four against North and most of the game against Adelaide where you could argue we probably had the better of them statistically. So there’s lots for us to do, for concentrating on us rather than just Carlton, but yeah, we’ll just bring our best effort and just see which team wins. So hopefully it’s a high scoring game.”