SYDNEY was not the first, and will not be the last side to end up on the wrong end of a massive margin against North Melbourne, but Sydney coach Scott Gowans admitted his side just had to get better. From on-field communication to dealing with pressure under immense heat, the gap between the benchmark side and a young team hoping to reach that level was evident for all to see.<\/p>\n
\u201cStill a bit raw at the moment I suppose,\u201d Gowans said after the final siren. \u201cWell we came up against a good side is the number one thing that comes to mind. Then you always want to pit yourself against the best and they are clearly the best team and there\u2019s a lot that we didn\u2019t get right today, but it wasn\u2019t through lack of trying. \u201cSo it just shows you we\u2019ve got a lot of work to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the Swans only trailed by two points at quarter time, Gowans said the danger signs were there, they had just not been hurt on the scoreboard. However with North Melbourne kicking eight unanswered goals and 11 of the next 12 majors, the signs became reality before too long.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first quarter there was a lot of things still flagging in the first quarter, we were way behind on uncontested ball and our groundball differential was too high so it was almost like you were waiting for the dam wall to burst,\u201d Gowans said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did do some things in the first quarter that we liked, but it\u2019s sustaining it for longer and it\u2019s been a bit of a trend this year for us that we have good moments in games, we just can\u2019t put the four quarters together.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Swans coach said the team continued to have promising moments, but could not remain at the same level for four quarters and against a team like the reigning premiers, that was always going to be an issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe difference when you play North Melbourne and you have a bad patch for 10 minutes is they kick five goals and then the game\u2019s gone,\u201d Gowans said. \u201cThen of course the mindset changes, and being an inexperienced sides, its one of the lessons to learn is how do you get that mindset back in your favour and we\u2019ll take a lot out of it from a learning perspective, but does it make it any easier at the minute?\u201d<\/p>\n
Sydney conceded the most disposals and inside 50s in an AFLW match during the loss to the Roos, while Gowans said the players noticed the amount of voice out on the ground from the North Melbourne players and how \u201cin-sync\u201d with each other they were.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey (the players) spoke about North\u2019s voice on the ground and how they\u2019re just so connected and how they just seem to be so in-sync with each other which is a good reflection because that\u2019s what we\u2019ve got to get to, so we take that out of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe other part is just their skill level, their skill level under heat and we laid 70 tackles and our pressure was okay, they\u2019re just able to execute under that pressure and that\u2019s a sign of a good side and credit to them. We\u2019ve got a lot of work to do over the next 18 months.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Swans started the season like a house on fire to win the first four games, before shock losses to Collingwood and GWS Giants raised the alarms which were backed up by a spirited defeat to Adelaide, and now a genuine shellacking at the hands of the Roos.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell it\u2019s just part of the journey that we\u2019re on,\u201d Gowans said. \u201cWe want to be successful team, we want to be successful and not go up the ladder and have to rebuild, sustained success is what we\u2019re after. The lesson that you take from today is the journey\u2019s not in a straight line, it\u2019s going to have its bumps and its potholes and we\u2019ve hit a big pothole today and it\u2019s how we respond.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to a really good response, as we did from the Giants game against Adelaide and we need to do that against Carlton. The journey is a tough one, but it\u2019s one that we\u2019re really looking forward to and it starts this week against Carlton.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gowans said his side had not changed its focus \u201cat all\u201d of preparing for a grand final, and having that same mindset going into every match. The need to snap a four-game losing streak begins with the a home contest against the Blues.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a great opportunity to get home, Pride Round at Henson Park,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ll clearly put on a better show than that. \u201cCome up against a side that we\u2019re probably equal with as far as the journey that we\u2019re on, and it\u2019s really important that we put on a good show and not to put on a good show, but actually compete for longer in moments where we are challenged, that\u2019s probably the lesson out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SYDNEY was not the first, and will not be the last side to end up on the wrong…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194290,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-194289","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}