Swans coach John Longmire has hit out at Collingwood rival Craig McRae’s “home ground” comments in the wake of last Friday’s defeat labelling it an “extraordinary admission” form a coach whose team plays 17 games in Melbourne.
McRae has been criticised for labelling two contentious deliberate out of bounds decisions which went against the Magpies in the final minutes of the clash a “circus”.
He also suggested a 50m penalty in the closing stages was missed by the umpires and would have been paid “if it was at the MCG”.
“There’s definitely an advantage for the home ground,“ McRae said after the three-point loss which all but ended Collingwood’s finals hopes.
“I thought it was a 50m penalty, to the letter of the law.
“There was a lot of deliberate tonight too. That was a bit of a circus. So I’m sure they’ll (the AFL) come out and justify that too.”
But on Monday Longmire was quick to call out McRae’s hypocrisy with a stinging rebuke even suggesting the Magpies were aided by some controversial calls in last year’s heart-stopping grand final win over the Brisbane Lions.
“It was an extraordinary admission from a coach of a team that has the biggest home ground advantage in the AFL,” Longmire said.
“This year they play 14 games at the MCG, they play three at Marvel, that’s 17 games essentially in front of their home crowd and they play finals and obviously the grand final on their home deck.”
“I wonder what Chris Fagan (Brisbane coach) thought of those comments. That was my initial thought, I wonder what Chris Fagan thinks of this.
“It’s a pretty extraordinary admission from the club that has the most and the biggest home ground advantage in the competition.
Longmire didn’t hold back his contempt for McRae’s skewed view pointing out how Collingwood was the beneficiaries of a similar non-call against North Melbourne in round 15 when the Magpies won by a single point.
“I was at a North Melbourne and Collingwood game earlier this year when a couple of Collingwood boys went over the mark and it could have been a 50 and it wasn’t paid,” he said.
“I just think, from the coach of the team with the biggest home ground advantage including finals at the MCG, geez.
“You don’t often hear it from the team with the biggest home ground advantage. I can’t say whether I agree with it or not because I am going to stay out of it.”
He even offered another dig at McRae’s comments saying “we travel every second week, not like other teams”, responding to a question about his giving his players two days off before last Friday’s win.
Longmire said one of the reasons his team was able to come back from 27-points down in the final quarter to defeat the Magpies was because his team didn’t focus on the “what ifs” when it comes to umpiring decisions or other results.
“I think it’s important to not live in the what ifs, you need to live in the moment, and I think that’s what we did on the weekend,” he said.
“It was 27-points down in the last quarter and we maintained our ability to live in the moment. That’s the main focus, and an important thing to keep hold of.”
Longmire said the result was “reinforcement” for his players having surrendered top spot on the ladder for a week after losing three straight games.
“The players feel terrific about it,” he said.
“The feeling after the game was one of, not so much relief, but reinforcement of what we are able to do in an important part of the game. When you get reinforcement of that you feel better about yourself.”
Sydney will return to Melbourne on Friday night to take on Essendon at Marvel Stadium.
Source Agencies
