Where to next for Sydney coach John Longmire?
After suffering his fourth grand final loss from five appearances, going down to Brisbane by 60 points, the Swans may be asking the exact same question.
And now, with just a year remaining on his contract, there are suggestions the coach could be mentally exhausted.
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According to leading AFL reporter Damien Barrett, the Swans will complete a major review of Longmire’s game plan and how it failed.
“To be smashed now twice inside three seasons (in grand finals)… Add the 2016 and 2014 grand finals to the losses that he’s had as a coach of this footy club,” he said on Nine’s Sunday Footy Show.
John Longmire during his 2024 post grand final press conference. Getty
“I expect this footy club to fully debrief this one and I think some big conversations will be had.”
Longmire took over as Swans coach in 2011, going on to win the 2012 flag.
But the coach has since suffered four grand final losses in 2014, 2016, 2022 and 2024.
The latter two losses were by 81 and 60 points, which has set off alarm bells as to how much mental strength the coach has left.
It has drawn comparisons to a former Geelong coach, who also suffered a string of heartbreaking grand final losses that mentally rocked the leader.
“It got the better of Malcolm Blight – 1989, 1992, 1994, demoralised in grand finals (and he) left,” Barrett said.
“The Cats made the grand final the next year (1995) under a different coach (Gary Ayres and lost).
“These types of results, now that we’ve had two (grand final losses) inside three years, can have a massive effect as the way you view yourself and the way your club views you.
“His game plan has fallen down badly, really, really badly, embarassingly badly in two of the past three grand finals.”
It’s also left Matthew Lloyd concerned that Longmire’s game plan is too predictable.
“There was no dare, there was no handball around the back. They were too safe,” he said.
“I just wonder, John Longmire, does he have to ask himself, ‘do I have too safe a plan?’.
“He can get me to grand finals, but it can’t win me grand finals.”