Analysis 2026 - The Way Forward

[JackHiscoxWasFast]

Kiama Chris did a great job in helping turn our minds to the future rather than dwelling on the 2024 loss.

In order to keep the chatter going, thought I would create this given where we’re at.

In the past 2 years I called first for speed and then for contest and tackling.

I’m now calling for strength. We have not built up any muscles since we were rag dolled in the 2022 GF. Must recruit for strength.

I’m most disappointed this year cos I expected a cultural change. We didn’t get one. We need to make some tough calls on list and find creative ways to make Sydney a destination club.

Onwards and upwards.

I like strong players.

 

[Punts]

A true leader and a senior assistant otherwise cox won’t last

 

[wills2g]

do a hodge and gulden becomes a half back

he sets up all the play and does most of the yelling (either positive or negative) on the ground

 

[Jeffers]

Delist the deadwood youngsters (there’s a lot of them)
Be aggressive in the trade period.
Get bigger and get stronger. Learn how to tackle and kick a set shot consistently.

 

[GreyGooseGuy88]

A true leader and a senior assistant otherwise cox won’t last

We are talking to Goodwin

 

[Kiama Chris]

Thanks for the nod JHWF. You're absolutely right, focussing on the future is the most positive thing to do after a rather unsatisfying season.
Senior coach: Cox needs to find a level of calm consistency not yet apparent and make sure everyone is on the same page week in and week out.
Line coaches: in theory we have a senior assistant in Spike but it doesn't seem that way so it looks like we need one of those, a gun midfield coach and a gun development coach - at least.
Support Staff: Need a boost in the fitness/high performance area.
Leadership: perhaps we need to trade in a leader like the Crows did (albeit unintended) to take over sooner than later. Suggestions gratefully received.
Troops: trade in a gun KPF, arguably a gun KPD (personally there are only a very few I would consider) and a gun mid who will improve us. Draft the best KPF or mid available at the best pick we can arrange. Take the best of our academy kids. We can argue all day who should be let go but TBH it will be most of this year's OOC.
Trust and Cohesion: we had it, we lost it. We badly need to get it back. It needs to define us.
Grit and Determination: same same.
Cox has an awful lot on his plate, probably a lot more than he expected.

 

[Wheresbuddy]

I would caution against wholesale changes to our list in the off season for two reasons. The first is that there does not appear to be that many quality players on the move and those that potentially are eg NAS, TDK will not be coming to us. The second is that our draftees will no doubt take time to come on and of the academy kids, Carmichael looks to be the only one who could potentially be plug and play. The worse thing we could do would be to get rid of guys like Florent, Lloyd, Fox, Rampe, Campbell etc en masse and replace them with even worse role players. Think Brand, Menzel, Grey, Squizzy, Thurlow and (dare i say it) Adams. In the same way that some view our own through rose coloured glasses, some can also do likewise for opposition list fillers. We should only make list changes that have a high chance of working in our favour. For every JPK, Richards and Bolton, there are plenty of fringe players who stay there because that's what they truly are.

 

[Superstar swan]

We need a top to bottom review . From board to boot studders.

Recruiting and list management is the starting point.

Turf the strength and conditioning team. We are too small and too weak

Bring an on field leader into the club

Decent assistant to support cox

Hold players accountable

It really feels like the club has lost its way and identity. We used to be feared on and off the field . Ruthless, courageous , intense. Those days are long gone aswell as any respect the afl industry had for us

 

[Nuggetz]

There's a definite disconnect between our fwd group & mids. Kicking to outnumber, wrong options & players in the wrong position. Something is off with the line coaches because it's happened all season. I think we need to start picking guys in their preferred positions, having guys like sheldrick & rowbottom in the fwd line doesn't work.

 

[RedBloodBlackSwan]

It’s been a messy year for the swans.

It started with the last minute retirement of Longmire (I think he was pushed) and then the related insufficient coaching support for Cox.

We then had injuries to players, poor form of players, ill discipline by players and the poor state of the SCG turf because well why not. And we have continued our run of capitulations.

We are in a weird space where a lot has gone wrong but we also don’t look too far off it but it also for some reason feels like a chasm to the best. Out best is good, but we are way too inconsistent, and is out best enough?

What would I like to see going forward?

1. Humility - stop talking about our great culture and instead set out to re-earn the respect of the competition (we are no longer revered)
2. Renewed leadership - new assistant coaches and a refreshed leadership group (co-captains).
3. Physicality - tackling with impact. It doesn’t matter how small a player is, they can always tackle with impact if they have intent. This should be non-negotiable for anyone who wants to play seniors.
4. Smart recruiting - bring in a KPF (JUH), depth for KPD (2x, maybe also try Buller in defence) and hopefully strong body depth in the midfield - at least one recruit being a tough leader.
5. Ruthless list management - I ebb and flow on how broad this should be, but if it is doesn’t hurt then I don’t think we have gone far enough.

 

[Dangas]

Are the assistant coaches still good enough to support the vision Cox has?

Our depth is potato-like and reliability on our best to perform week-in, week-out is telling. When they are beaten by their opponent or not playing for what ever reason we get found out.

Key position players, more-so forward line. Someone to bring the ball done to ground and to "at-least" create a contest so teams don't crucify us from their intercept possession chain. We lack the finish, so many games this year we have had enough i50s to give us a look.

Amartey/McDonald not playing together was telling but they both are not elite footballers.

Someone can correct me if I am wrong but were we, for the most part in 2024, the best for score from turnover? This year I feel we would be bottom 6 for this stat, not enough pressure around the oppo, missed "full" tackles (I mean, how many times do players still get a disposal away whilst we are tackling, like we are a ragdoll).

 

[Nuggetz]

I hope we continue backing our handball chains, we'll only develop it through continued exposure within games. That's when we look like having some pace on the ball & look dangerous.

 

[Wheresbuddy]

I hope someone took the opportunity to show Mitch Duncan around our facilities yesterday. Great player from an excellent system. Could be a very good assistant.

 

[zyzzbruh]

Are the assistant coaches still good enough to support the vision Cox has?

Our depth is potato-like and reliability on our best to perform week-in, week-out is telling. When they are beaten by their opponent or not playing for what ever reason we get found out.

Key position players, more-so forward line. Someone to bring the ball done to ground and to "at-least" create a contest so teams don't crucify us from their intercept possession chain. We lack the finish, so many games this year we have had enough i50s to give us a look.

Amartey/McDonald not playing together was telling but they both are not elite footballers.

Someone can correct me if I am wrong but were we, for the most part in 2024, the best for score from turnover? This year I feel we would be bottom 6 for this stat, not enough pressure around the oppo, missed "full" tackles (I mean, how many times do players still get a disposal away whilst we are tackling, like we are a ragdoll).

Cox has taken a massive dump on our players strengths for the sake of being pragmatic. That's why our turnover and transition game has suffered. His vision is going to be our downfall. This squad is capable of winning it all, and if Cox continues with his current system and doesn't go back to what worked then he is going to absolutely cook our fortunes.

 

[zyzzbruh]

We are talking to Goodwin

**** me. Cox has already taken us halfway to playing like Melbourne we may as well get Goodwin to finish the job aye.

 

[zyzzbruh]

Delist the deadwood youngsters (there’s a lot of them)
Be aggressive in the trade period.
Get bigger and get stronger. Learn how to tackle and kick a set shot consistently.

Standards have gone out the door with Longmire across the board. Rowbottom is the epitomy of wanting to see size and strength. Before this year rowy was that. Strong through the core and powerful through his legs. Physically he looks like a shell of himself now.

Our decline is a mix of coaching + strength and conditioning standards.

 

[ashep]

Cox has taken a massive dump on our players strengths for the sake of being pragmatic. That's why our turnover and transition game has suffered. His vision is going to be our downfall. This squad is capable of winning it all, and if Cox continues with his current system and doesn't go back to what worked then he is going to absolutely cook our fortunes.

I think Cox has chopped and changed a little this year, but I don't think that's entirely unexpected in your first year and given the injury list he's had to manage.

I very much disagree that he can't get the best out of this group. We've played some very good footy over the past 2 months and in particular our transition game has been explosive at times - look at the Saints and Power games for example.

Time will tell where he lands but I expect we'll see a more definitive vision next year.

 

[zyzzbruh]

I think Cox has chopped and changed a little this year, but I don't think that's entirely unexpected in your first year and given the injury list he's had to manage.

I very much disagree that he can't get the best out of this group. We've played some very good footy over the past 2 months and in particular our transition game has been explosive at times - look at the Saints and Power games for example.

Time will tell where he lands but I expect we'll see a more definitive vision next year.

I can see how you might look at certain games as good performances - but even in those i personally felt like we still weren't clicking anywhere near the same capacity as we have previously. Something still just felt off and the good parts seemed fleeting.

Even with the good, overall our transition game and individual impact has fallen off a cliff. It's too much of a drop off for me to have any faith in what Cox is trying to integrate. imo there is no excuse for such a decline in our performances, even relative to injuries and coaching change.

The gap between our current footy vs our previous ability to dominate the comp is an absolute chasm. It would have to be a remarkable turnaround, and I expect nothing but.

This is a team coming off GF after dominating the H&A. It's an F- for Cox. With the injury and new coach excuse i'll upgrade it to an E-. But ultimately it's an F for the club. The injuries aren't an excuse for the decline in key stats that Cox has contributed to by admitting his shift in focus on what he expects from the team.

I just want to remind everyone that this is a squad who made a GF in 22 earlier than they should have, then made a GF last year after dominating the season which was probably at the point in development where people were expecting us to start challenging. These players have proven that they can be a scary good team and should only be getting better as our core players start approaching their peak athletic age - Horse found the sweet spot in getting the best out of his players – yet there seems to be this weird sense of justified complacency amongst our supporter base as if our current performance is a fair representation of the team’s ability. As supporters we can't stand for anything but top 4 spec performances from round 1 next year based on previous demonstrated ability. But I have a feeling people are going to get complacent with a slight improvement.

It's top 4 comfortably in 2026 or sack Cox for mine. The squad has proved that they can play to that capacity - so anything less is 100% unequivocally on the coach.

 

[mcs095]

Gee I look forward to a Summer of these sorts of massive rants to come

 

[melbournehammer]

I can see how you might look at certain games as good performances - but even in those i personally felt like we still weren't clicking anywhere near the same capacity as we have previously. Something still just felt off and the good parts seemed fleeting.

Even with the good, overall our transition game and individual impact has fallen off a cliff. It's too much of a drop off for me to have any faith in what Cox is trying to integrate. imo there is no excuse for such a decline in our performances, even relative to injuries and coaching change.

The gap between our current footy vs our previous ability to dominate the comp is an absolute chasm. It would have to be a remarkable turnaround, and I expect nothing but.

This is a team coming off GF after dominating the H&A. It's an F- for Cox. With the injury and new coach excuse i'll upgrade it to an E-. But ultimately it's an F for the club. The injuries aren't an excuse for the decline in key stats that Cox has contributed to by admitting his shift in focus on what he expects from the team.

I just want to remind everyone that this is a squad who made a GF in 22 earlier than they should have, then made a GF last year after dominating the season which was probably at the point in development where people were expecting us to start challenging. These players have proven that they can be a scary good team and should only be getting better as our core players start approaching their peak athletic age - Horse found the sweet spot in getting the best out of his players – yet there seems to be this weird sense of justified complacency amongst our supporter base as if our current performance is a fair representation of the team’s ability. As supporters we can't stand for anything but top 4 spec performances from round 1 next year based on previous demonstrated ability. But I have a feeling people are going to get complacent with a slight improvement.

It's top 4 comfortably in 2026 or sack Cox for mine. The squad has proved that they can play to that capacity - so anything less is 100% unequivocally on the coach.

this is simply not true. we dominated the first half of the season. we had the best injury run we will ever have. Ive posted before and done the maths. We had after round 14 a record that was like 5-5 but a % that was well under 100 (true the port and brisbane massacres didnt help but the north game was a positivbe from the otehr direction).

We dont have any players other than mccartin who can consistently mark the ball in a contest. mclean does it once or twice a match but they are fools gold. unless mcdonald turns into a contested marking beast we are screwed.

i have said it previously but reid was the guy in 2022. he played second ruck exceptionally well and continued to be the outlet kick that foiled off buddy. we have not got near replacing him. we havent replaced paddy with another marking defender and grundy for all of his strength in the contest (and hes been very good from about round 6 onwards) is a very poor mark - somethign tom hickey was excellent at.

last year was an outlier. it was the last hurrah for rampe who frankly carried the defence for about 4 seasons. he is noticeably slowing. ultimately we limped into the finals and we got over the giants through sheer determination in the QF but we were outplayed all day. we beat port who have showed this season that their position last year was absolutely unjustified. and we got absolutely pumped by brisbane.

this team has some absolutely glaring holes and they are often in the areas where we actually come up against better teams. big inside mids cause us immense problems - Tom Green dominates against us. even Ned Long dominates against us. well structured tall defences (adelaide, western bulldogs, geelong) mark the ball in the air against us because we cant compete. Tall forwards mark against us because we struggle to deal with tall forwards but it also means that we concede a lot of goals in and around the square because we dont have very many players who can kill the ball apart from blakey - grundy cant do that

i think we are much more likely to finish around where we are for a couple of seasons - absent heeney and gulden this team is a smallish bunch of triers. But we need to have three to four players lift from their currently competent level (sheldrick, campbell, florent - who played well yesterday - papley, mills) to be seriously good. and we need a full complement of tall forwards on the park playing every week to have any chance of top 4.

 

[Wheresbuddy]

this is simply not true. we dominated the first half of the season. we had the best injury run we will ever have. Ive posted before and done the maths. We had after round 14 a record that was like 5-5 but a % that was well under 100 (true the port and brisbane massacres didnt help but the north game was a positivbe from the otehr direction).

We dont have any players other than mccartin who can consistently mark the ball in a contest. mclean does it once or twice a match but they are fools gold. unless mcdonald turns into a contested marking beast we are screwed.

i have said it previously but reid was the guy in 2022. he played second ruck exceptionally well and continued to be the outlet kick that foiled off buddy. we have not got near replacing him. we havent replaced paddy with another marking defender and grundy for all of his strength in the contest (and hes been very good from about round 6 onwards) is a very poor mark - somethign tom hickey was excellent at.

last year was an outlier. it was the last hurrah for rampe who frankly carried the defence for about 4 seasons. he is noticeably slowing. ultimately we limped into the finals and we got over the giants through sheer determination in the QF but we were outplayed all day. we beat port who have showed this season that their position last year was absolutely unjustified. and we got absolutely pumped by brisbane.

this team has some absolutely glaring holes and they are often in the areas where we actually come up against better teams. big inside mids cause us immense problems - Tom Green dominates against us. even Ned Long dominates against us. well structured tall defences (adelaide, western bulldogs, geelong) mark the ball in the air against us because we cant compete. Tall forwards mark against us because we struggle to deal with tall forwards but it also means that we concede a lot of goals in and around the square because we dont have very many players who can kill the ball apart from blakey - grundy cant do that

i think we are much more likely to finish around where we are for a couple of seasons - absent heeney and gulden this team is a smallish bunch of triers. But we need to have three to four players lift from their currently competent level (sheldrick, campbell, florent - who played well yesterday - papley, mills) to be seriously good. and we need a full complement of tall forwards on the park playing every week to have any chance of top 4.

Your last paragraph in particular resonates with me. We need to get improvement from the tier below our gun midfielders. Compare us to the Lions. If you shut down Neale, Dunkley and McLuggage, Bailey, Berry and Ashcroft can still rip you apart. Clamps get put on Heeney, Errol and Chad, who is going to step up to take it to the opposition? Let's just say, the top teams would not be losing any sleep over Gus, Jordan or Rowie. Is there improvement in the above mentioned players? Are there better options from within? Who is there potentially available externally? These should be the questions (amongst many) that we need to be asking. Because until we get more from our midfield group, we will not challenge, especially at the pointy end.

 

[zyzzbruh]

this is simply not true. we dominated the first half of the season. we had the best injury run we will ever have. Ive posted before and done the maths. We had after round 14 a record that was like 5-5 but a % that was well under 100 (true the port and brisbane massacres didnt help but the north game was a positivbe from the otehr direction).

We dont have any players other than mccartin who can consistently mark the ball in a contest. mclean does it once or twice a match but they are fools gold. unless mcdonald turns into a contested marking beast we are screwed.

i have said it previously but reid was the guy in 2022. he played second ruck exceptionally well and continued to be the outlet kick that foiled off buddy. we have not got near replacing him. we havent replaced paddy with another marking defender and grundy for all of his strength in the contest (and hes been very good from about round 6 onwards) is a very poor mark - somethign tom hickey was excellent at.

last year was an outlier. it was the last hurrah for rampe who frankly carried the defence for about 4 seasons. he is noticeably slowing. ultimately we limped into the finals and we got over the giants through sheer determination in the QF but we were outplayed all day. we beat port who have showed this season that their position last year was absolutely unjustified. and we got absolutely pumped by brisbane.

this team has some absolutely glaring holes and they are often in the areas where we actually come up against better teams. big inside mids cause us immense problems - Tom Green dominates against us. even Ned Long dominates against us. well structured tall defences (adelaide, western bulldogs, geelong) mark the ball in the air against us because we cant compete. Tall forwards mark against us because we struggle to deal with tall forwards but it also means that we concede a lot of goals in and around the square because we dont have very many players who can kill the ball apart from blakey - grundy cant do that

i think we are much more likely to finish around where we are for a couple of seasons - absent heeney and gulden this team is a smallish bunch of triers. But we need to have three to four players lift from their currently competent level (sheldrick, campbell, florent - who played well yesterday - papley, mills) to be seriously good. and we need a full complement of tall forwards on the park playing every week to have any chance of top 4.

anddd this is exactly what i was talking about. We made 2 GF's in 3 years with the holes you speak of. Our holes can be shielded magnificently as demonstrated in those seasons. Every team has some sort of hole. Even during our slump last season i still went into every game with absolute utter confidence in what the team can produce. I expect to get that back next year and cannot accept anything less than top4.

We pumped port in the prelim and they were a top 2 side last year. You can't just say their position was unjustified because of their current position, they were 2nd best team last year. Such a weird take. That's no different to you saying Adelaide's current position is unjustified because they won the wooden spoon in 2020 -or collingwood shouldn't have won a GF because of how shit they were last year.

 

[SwansLakeside]

I'd just like them to get into the gym.
It was the U18s against the U12s against Geelong.

I never want to see a Geelong player laughing at a Swans player again.

I hope Coach Dean Cox

Dean Cox

Age

44

Ht

203cm

Wt

107kg

Pos.

F/R

Career

Season

Last 5

D

15.9

4star

K

8.9

3star

HB

6.9

4star

M

5.3

5star

T

1.5

3star

G

0.6

4star

No current season stats available

D

13.0

4star

K

5.8

3star

HB

7.2

5star

M

4.8

5star

T

1.4

4star

G

0.0

1star

puts 'a bit of stick about' during this comng pre-season.

 

[Superstar swan]

I'd just like them to get into the gym.
It was the U18s against the U12s against Geelong.

I never want to see a Geelong player laughing at a Swans player again.

I hope Coach Dean Cox puts 'a bit of stick about' during this comng pre-season.

Geelong arnt the only ones .

The Bronx cheers from the scg home crowd when we scored a point against the crows had the whole football industry pissing themselves at our expense

 

[Day_night_honourer]

Kiama Chris did a great job in helping turn our minds to the future rather than dwelling on the 2024 loss.

In order to keep the chatter going, thought I would create this given where we’re at.

In the past 2 years I called first for speed and then for contest and tackling.

I’m now calling for strength. We have not built up any muscles since we were rag dolled in the 2022 GF. Must recruit for strength.

I’m most disappointed this year cos I expected a cultural change. We didn’t get one. We need to make some tough calls on list and find creative ways to make Sydney a destination club.

Onwards and upwards.

I like strong players.

Or even better I say, strong & fast players ideally.