AFL grand final 2024: Sydney coach John Longmire defends call to play Logan McDonald despite ankle injury

Sydney coach John Longmire has defended his side’s call to play Logan McDonald in their heavy grand final defeat despite the WA-raised key forward only lasting for the first half of the game after coming in under an injury cloud.

The Perth product rolled his ankle in the Swans preliminary final win over Port Adelaide and took his place for the season decider only eight days later, having just one kick in the first two quarters before being substituted out of the game at the main break.

The decision echoed a similarly unsuccessful call from Sydney in the 2022 grand final to field Sam Reid, who was battling an adductor injury — which saw McDonald lose his place in the side and Longmire admit the move was an error post-game.

But Longmire said McDonald — who was only a limited participant in the team’s captain’s run on Friday — had passed every test required to take his place in the side.

“I haven’t spoken to the medical staff yet. He obviously wasn’t moving that well, so we needed to make a call at half-time,” he said.

“He did everything he was required to do (during the week) at 100 per cent, pulled up fine.”

Another defeat has seen Longmire’s win-loss record in grand finals worsen to 1-4, having backed up premiership success in his second year at the helm in 2012 with losses in 2014, 2016, 2022 and this season.

But he deflected questions about his individual history as a coach on the big stage, saying “it’s not about me, it’s about the footy club”.

“It’s a hard thing to do. You’d much rather get into the ring and have a swing than be standing outside looking in,” Longmire said.

“Ultimately, we’ve been able to get ourselves into the position of having an opportunity and we we were outdone today. We didn’t pass the test.”

“This footy club’s been pretty resilient to be able to show the ability to be able to get back there time and time again. It’s very hard to win it if you’re not in it.”

Longmire repeatedly lamented his side’s lack of defensive pressure, saying Brisbane’s desire at the contest was the difference between the two sides.

“Sometimes you’ve just got to start at the very basic level ... we didn’t get that right,” he said.

“Once you put more pressure on around the ball ... if they do win it, they go in a bit messy, and we’re able to turn it into an attacking move.

“They were able to score too easily, which made it difficult for us to be able to defend. If they win the ball, which is going to happen at times, it needs to go in a bit more scrappier and then we can get the ball back on our terms.”

WA-raised star Chad Warner said the mood in the Swans rooms post-game was “a lot worse” than after their 2022 defeat.

“Coming in we were, I felt, a lot more prepared than last time. I felt like we had to win a lot more than last time as well,” he said.

Warner said Longmire’s message after the game had centred on his side’s lack of defensive pressure.

“The funny thing is we actually started well for once,” he said.

“I don’t think we could’ve prepped any better. Mentally, we went into the game great, physically as well.

“I guess the footy gods have something else to say on this day.”

Warner’s fellow star midfielder Isaac Heeney, who was well below his best in his third grand final defeat, revealed after the game he had been battling a stress fracture in his ankle throughout the finals.