Sydney coach John Longmire isn’t putting a line through his side’s finals chances just yet but concedes a big lift is needed if they’re to close a two-game gap separating them from the top eight.
Longmire, who’ll become just the 25th coach in AFL/VFL history to reach 300 games when the Swans battle the Bulldogs on Thursday night, says a poor record of late fade-outs is to blame for Sydney's struggles this season, rather than their bad run of injuries.
The Swans have lost four games they led at three-quarter-time, leaving last year’s beaten grand finalists 15th on the ladder and unlikely to feature in the post-season.
“Is it mathematically impossible?” Longmire asked with a laugh on Monday.
“We'll see how we go. We look forward to playing the Doggies. We've done some things right in a lot of our footy this year.
“We've got to put that piece together, which is the very important piece of finishing games often.
“We've been right in the hunt … against the best teams in the competition, (but) the fact is, the games don't go for three quarters, they go for four and we've got to play a bit longer than what we've been playing regardless of personnel.”
Ahead of the milestone, 52-year-old Longmire was asked if he planned on coaching until he was 70, but said he’d retire well before that.
But the 2012 premiership coach said developing the next generation of Swans remained his passion, adding he hadn’t yet taken his eye off delivering better results this campaign.
“We're fortunate we've got some great young kids coming through. We feel our next wave is a really consistent, competitive team,” he said.
“That's part of the exciting thing, making sure those guys really come through together with a great coaching group for a fantastic footy club. I'm very lucky to do what I do at this club.
“We certainly aren't talking about next year. I'm really confident in this team this year. I'm confident in the team this week.
“We've had some challenges this year, no question about that - availability and training and other things - but getting the players back and hopefully a strong finish to the year is what we want."
