“We just buggered it up today,” John Longmire said after the 2022 grand final. “It’ll take a long time to get over that.” That afternoon, they were a middleweight fighting a heavyweight. Geelong’s team was the oldest to ever take the field in a grand final. Half the Sydney team were 23 or under. They were a team still learning, and not quite ready. They were surprisingly passive, constantly rushed, and often pushed aside. With the exception of Chad Warner, their stars were barely sighted. In selection, in method, and in execution, they erred. “We hardly got anything right,” Longmire said.
It was a grim task, but they reviewed that game forensically – the lead-in and the first half in particular. But 2023 was a bit of a nothing year. They gave up a lot of three-quarter time leads. They’d go to sleep for 15 minutes and let games slip.
