It has taken them 12 weeks but they have decimated the confidence of the playing group. Dean Cox can’t coach on the available evidence at Sydney. The Swans are now an embarrassment and a pale reflection of what they were under John Longmire. The jury is no longer out and the Cox hand over has been an almighty failure. Injuries, as an excuse, just don’t cut it anymore. There are plenty of AFL sides with similar levels of injured stocks and playing a hell of a lot better than the Swans. Right from the season opener, the Sydney team has been falling short and getting progressively worse.
Head Coach Cox Making A Mess Of Swans
The last 2 efforts against good sides, Melbourne and Adelaide, have been absolute shockers. The wins the Swans have had have been only just victories over lesser sides, apart from North Melbourne. They have lacked system and signs that the team have a winning methodology. Cox looks all at sea in the coaches box and has no answers to the strategies of superior sides like Collingwood, Hawthorn and Brisbane. The red and white team have lost their confidence and ball movement skills. That is down to poor coaching in my book. Errol Gulden aint superman and spiderman rolled into one, he’s just one very good player not playing for the Swans.
Swans Physical Conditioning Too Light
Apart from the coaching calamity, the playing group are too physically light weight, in my opinion. None of them can tackle effectively and very few can break tackles. Their body types look like distance runners rather than AFL footballers. Are the physical conditioning settings right? I wonder? The Swans appear physically less than their opponents, especially in terms of upper body strength. Hayden McLean is too thin. What is the story there? He gets pushed out of the way too bloody easily in contests, as do too many Swans’. Overhead marking is piss weak at the Swans. Yes, technique plays a big role in all of these AFL skills but so too does physical conditioning in terms of size. Sydney might be able to run all day, but they are not strong enough in the contest. It makes us appear weak and the team is playing like that. Adelaide and Melbourne laughed at how bloody easy it was to beat the Swans in all phases of the game.
The Cox Swans Are An Embarrassment
Dean Cox can’t coach by the evidence proffered after 12 weeks in season 2025. Not sure about the rest of the coaching group but they are a part of this shit show so far. I don’t see the improvement. Do you? Isn’t the idea when you appoint a new coach to get something better, a lift? I don’t see any lift. Do you? It is bloody disgraceful the way the team is playing in 2025. Sides blanket Heeney, Blakey and Chad, and the Swans don’t fire a shot. Too bloody easy that stratagem. What is Dean Cox doing about that? Bugger all, as far as the results indicate. Not good enough Sydney.
“In fact, I wonder, as I imagine many Sydney Swans fans and members wonder, why Luke Parker is no longer a Swan? Right now, we are going so poorly we could really do with such a senior midfielder playing well.”
Key Swans’ Players Lose12 weeks To Suspensions in 2025
How does an AFL club, with injuries to multiple senior players, allow suspensions to cost them a further 12 weeks of lost key players to top it all off? Where is the steady hand on the tiller? Sydney has rarely had a playing group discipline problem during the Longmire and Roos coaching stints. What is the go here? Head coach not up to the task, perhaps? Piss poor showing Sydney Swans. You let the 2005 AFL Premiers down big time. In fact, it was so dire had to stop watching in the last quarter and I have never done that before.
“A RED-HOT Adelaide has asserted its premiership credentials with a 90-point demolition job over Sydney at the SCG on Saturday.
On a night celebrating the famed Bloods culture, the Crows mauled last year’s beaten grand finalists, slamming through 12 unanswered goals on their way to a 21.5 (131) to 5.11 (41) victory at the SCG on Saturday.”
- (https://www.afl.com.au/news/1332534/murder-by-crows-leaves-swans-season-teetering)
- Gee Taylor Adams was bad on the night. He was not alone, however, with plenty of underperforming mates out on the SCG in the red and white.
Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump.
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