What can\u2019t be lost in Swans saga as club great applauds alleged victim\u2019s \u2018courage\u2019<\/a><\/p>\nBut it was his concession that the Swans\u2019 revered \u2018Bloods culture\u2019 had been dented that was most telling. <\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people, not just me but a lot of people, that have been involved in this club \u2026 for a long period of time have been really proud of that (culture),\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe culture of the footy club, it\u2019s taken a big hit. It\u2019s taken a big hit. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019ll take time for everyone to rebuild the trust in the football club, and that\u2019s what the intention of everyone is to do, to get to work and rebuild the trust in the football club.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked if he\u2019d been left wondering about the culture\u2019s fragility, Longmire said: \u201cI\u2019ve certainly been one to profess that not every organisation is perfect, but we hopefully make more right decisions than wrong ones. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd in the end, we\u2019re dealing with humans, and not everyone gets things right. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd trying to deal with that on a daily basis over a long period of time, we generally think things have been right for a long time, but we also haven\u2019t got things right, like any organisation. <\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone\u2019s human; everyone makes mistakes. This is a big one, and we\u2019ll have to learn from it and get to work on rebuilding the trust.\u201d<\/p>\n
Banned Swans out of All Aus contention | 00:19<\/p>\n
Gerard Whateley asked the 14-year former Swans mentor whether the recent days had been amongst his worst in footy. <\/p>\n
\u201cYeah,\u201d Longmire said. \u201cI\u2019m not just speaking for myself, but speaking for a number of people closely associated with this club. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s not many that you think you could compare to this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Longmire coached Sydney in 333 games between 2011 and 2024. He coached Heeney for 10 seasons, Blakey for six, and Warner for five. <\/p>\n
He said that, like the people closest to the players, he had \u201cmixed emotions\u201d including \u201canger\u201d towards them. <\/p>\n
\u201cI guess I\u2019d be like the players\u2019 partners or families \u2014 you go from shock and disappointment, maybe even a bit of anger in that, a bit of those emotions,\u201d Longmire said. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut then you try and get back to the \u2026 you also care about people. Trying to get that balance right is very tricky. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo the shock and disappointment of the Sunday night, and then understanding that you also want to care for people that are going through the most stressful of times. <\/p>\n
\u201cTrying to get that balance is a challenge for everyone, but you try and let everyone go through it and work there, and you try and just be there as much as you can. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no doubt that shock, disappointment and anger is part of it, but so is care \u2026 the mixed emotions going through everyone\u2019s body at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
John Longmire opens up on the revelation of the Sydney scandal on AFL 360.Source: FOX SPORTS<\/p>\n
Longmire said that like most people, shock was his first reaction upon learning of what had happened. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt took a while for that to sink in, and then incredible disappointment, and then just deep sadness,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI guess, like everybody, whether you\u2019re closely connected to this, or further out in the layers, or you\u2019re a supporter or member, the emotions I don\u2019t think have to be guessed too much. <\/p>\n
\u201cThose emotions were all a part of it; it was just incredible, deep sadness in the end, and that\u2019s probably where we\u2019re still sitting.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 56-year-old talked through the Swans bosses\u2019 process before arriving at the sanction they revealed on Wednesday morning. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a really difficult position to be in for anybody, to be able to weigh up all the associated parties to this,\u201d Longmire said. <\/p>\n
\u201cFirst and foremost, it was the care for the people involved, then partners, families, and trying to get that balance right \u2014 supporters, members, corporate partners. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s just so many layers to it, and trying to get it all right has been the clear focus on what we\u2019ve been trying to do over the last couple of days. <\/p>\n
\u201cUnderstanding that everyone\u2019s going to feel a little bit differently about it, everyone\u2019s going to sit in it a little bit differently, and we have to respect that as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
‘Ashamed’ Swans bosses front media | 18:50<\/p>\n
Asked about the on-field repercussions of the club\u2019s action, Longmire was quick to point out that the \u201cfootball aspirations weren\u2019t part of the discussions\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey were very much in the background. The forefront were people issues, as they should have been,\u201d Longmire said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe people issues are the things that have really led the discussions over the last few days, and where people sat. <\/p>\n
\u201cFrom there, we work our way out. The football and premiership discussions were at the very back end of anything that was talked about. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere were much bigger priorities in what happened over the last few days than the football discussions.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Swans go into the final round of the home-and-away season locked into second spot on the ladder, preparing for two home finals. <\/p>\n
But without Heeney, Warner and Blakey in particular \u2014 all ranked inside the top 20 for AFL Rating this season \u2014 Sydney\u2019s premiership chances are suddenly grim. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s flattening for a lot of people; the coach, the captain, the players \u2014 men\u2019s and women\u2019s \u2014 partners, families,\u201d Longmire said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s flattening for everybody. It\u2019s a challenge for everybody to be able to get through and be able to put one foot in front of the other and get things right. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe feel for everybody that\u2019s involved in this, either closely or further out, and then we look at our supporters and members and feel deeply for them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sydney premiership coach John Longmire conceded the Swans\u2019 culture has \u201ctaken a big hit\u201d. It comes after five…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":860805,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-860804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860804","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=860804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/860805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=860804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=860804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=860804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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