Worrying stats behind Swans’ upset loss

John Longmire needs to quickly get to the bottom of what was behind Sydney’s disastrous third term against Fremantle on Saturday that cost the Swans the game.

He’s also keen to put a finger on why the Swans weren’t able to stop the Dockers when they got on their roll.

The Swans’ two-point loss to Fremantle was their fourth defeat in six games. They will finish the round in seventh spot on the ladder, just one win and percentage ahead of the ninth-placed Dockers.

Sydney hosts Carlton next Sunday and the Blues should expect to face a side dead keen to win contested possessions.

Because they couldn’t do it in the second half at Optus Stadium on Saturday and will focus this week on making amends.

Sydney led by 15 points at halftime, having held an 83-76 advantage in the contested possession count at the main break.

But they were monstered in the third term and trailed by 13 points at the main break.

“The ball lived in their half,” Longmire said. “They took six contested marks, we took zero. “They were able to win the 50-50s, break even in front of the ball or win it.

“They were able to keep the ball in their front half; we weren’t able to do that.

“We got smacked by 20 contested possessions for the quarter; and that will generally do it.

“We reset at three-quarter-time, but we didn’t fix it during the course of the quarter.”

Fremantle turned the game on its head in the third term.

They had 97 possessions to the Swans 75; 42-25 contested. They went inside their 50m area 21 times to the Swans seven.

If they had kicked more than 4.5 to 0.1 for the term, the game could have been over at the last break. A late goal to Adam Cerra gave them a 13-point break going into the final quarter.

Sydney was able to straighten the ship in the final term and three goals from Lance Franklin in the quarter almost got them over the line. They regained the lead, twice, but fell short by two points.

The Swans actually did well to get so close, considering they lost the contested possession count by 14 and have so few inside 50s. Against Geelong in Round 7, the game went a very similar way, and the Swans were able to fall over the line by two points.

Not helping the Swans’ cause on Saturday were injuries to Robbie Fox and Tom Hickey.

Fox was forced out of the game with a scratch to the eye.

Hickey was left sore in the middle of the ground just four minutes into the game, due to soreness of an already injured knee.

He has played four games since missing one with a PCL injury that was expected to see him sidelined for up to eight weeks.

The Swans expect him to push through and play against the Blues.

“It has happened a couple of times since he came back from his PCL,” Longmire said.

“It hurts him for a patch and then he is able to get through that. Hopefully it will happen less and less as his knee gets stronger.

“Next week? Don’t know … we think he’ll be right. It’s happened before.”

Longmire has coached the Swans since 2011. (Photo by Daniel Carson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)Source:Getty Images

Good job, Lobb

Rory Lobb is finding his best touch as Fremantle prepare to mount a challenge to return to the top eight.

His four goal, nine-mark performance got the Dockers over the line against Sydney at Optus Stadium on Saturday night.

It was his best game this season, having missed the first four rounds due to a knee injury.

And it was arguably his best performance since being lured West from Greater Western Sydney.

It would also rate high as far as being one of his most influential contributions in his 112-game career.

Coach Justin Longmuir was full of praise for the key forward.

“I thought he had some really good moments last week (against Essendon),” he said.

“I think his training standards have been first class.

“He’s been imposing himself on the contest and all that sort of stuff in training.

“It’s great for him to impose himself on a game tonight.

“I thought his contest work was great, and when he didn’t mark them the ball came to predictable areas and allowed our smalls to get to work.”

Lobb finished with 18 possessions.

The Dockers win ended a three-game losing streak.

It wasn’t pretty though.

The two-point margin came despite having dominated contested possession and having a season-high (for the Dockers) 69 inside 50s.

They still managed only 12 goals.

It’s an issue that Longmuir says they need to continue to work on and need to improve on ahead of next Sunday’s away clash with Port Adelaide.

“It’s been a bit of an issue the last couple of weeks getting bang for buck,” he said.

“We had 20 inside 50s in that (third) quarter (and kicked 4.5).

“We’ll keep working on that.

“There were some snaps and gilt-edged opportunities we can make more of.

“We’ll keep working on that, but I felt we kicked the ones we had to this week.

“In the end it was enough.”

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