A nightmare AFL grand final day for Sydney coach John Longmire was made even worse when his post-match press conference was interrupted by the raucous sound of Brisbane’s celebrations next door.
Longmire had only just sat down to face questions from the media after his side suffered a second grand final thumping in three years when he had to pause the press conference to allow the overbearing sound from next door pass.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: John Longmire interrupted by Brisbane celebrations.
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“John, what’s your overriding emotion after that one today,” Longmire was asked first as he sat down.
The coach started answering: “Ah, clearly disappointment. I don’t think we gave it our best shot compared to what we’ve been doing, and didn’t do what was required on the day.”
That was all smooth until the second question came and Longmire had to stop.
“Where do you think it go away from you, the game itself?” he was then asked.
Longmire replied: “I don’t think we put enough pressure on around the…” before stopping what he was saying to look to his left, in the direction of the Brisbane rooms.
A door was opened and the ecstatic sound of the rooms spilled out into the media conference room.
Longmire stopped mid-sentence and turned to Swans media manager, Tom Chadwick.
“Are there any more coming, ‘Chaddy’?” he asked, before another loud cheer from next door was heard.
“Do you want us to wait? Are there any more coming in?”
Another few moments passed before Longmire and reporters in the room did their best to get the press conference back on track.
After being the top side since round nine and looking like they had their ducks in a row, the Swans were swamped in the second term on Saturday at the MCG and slumped to a 60-point hammering from the Brisbane Lions.
It follows their 81-point humiliation against Geelong two years ago.
Since Longmire coached them to an epic grand final win over Hawthorn in 2012, Sydney have lost their past four deciders.
The Hawks reversed the result in 2014 and two years after that, the Western Bulldogs memorably broke their premiership drought to win the 2016 grand final by 22 points.
It’s not quite the Colliwobbles, but whoever lost on Saturday was going to face despair given Brisbane had gone down in last year’s grand final.
That it is two heavy losses in three years compounds the hurt for Sydney.
“I don’t think we used our run enough from the start. We blasted away a bit too much,” Longmire went on over the noise next door.
“Then we were beaten at ground level and they were able to get it back, go back through us a bit too easy.
“We didn’t put enough pressure on around the ball.”
Sydney’s fate was sealed when Brisbane went on a seven-goal romp in the second term, giving them a decisive lead of 46 points at the main break.
Nothing worked. Isaac Heeney, so influential in Sydney’s two finals wins, finally succumbed to the stress fracture — Longmire called it a stress reaction — he had been carrying in a shin and had a bad day.
But Longmire has backed Sydney to rally, noting they have done it before after grand final heartbreak and have the resilience to do it again.
“It’s a hard thing to do — you’d much rather get in the ring and have a swing than be standing outside, looking in,” he said of making grand finals.
“Ultimately, we’ve been able to get ourselves in the position where we’ve had an opportunity and we haven’t got it done today. We didn’t pass the test.
“We have a group of people, right across the footy club, who are able to do that. It’s very hard to win it if you’re not in it.”
This is also the second time, after the Bulldogs in ‘16, that a club has beaten Sydney for the flag after coming from outside the top four.
It will put renewed focus on the pre-finals bye, introduced in 2016. As the Lions built up a head of steam with three-straight games ahead of the grand final, Sydney had the week off after winning their qualifying final.
“I’m not going to put it down to that, but it’s not the advantage it once was,” Longmire said of earning the double chance by finishing in the top four.
– With AAP