Dean Cox said Charlie Curnow and Jai Serong were made unavailable on medical grounds as Sydney prepared for its Round 10 clash, with the coach stressing the club would not gamble on form for either individuals or the team. Speaking at his weekly press conference on Wednesday afternoon, Cox said he hoped both players would miss only one week.
"These ones are a bit more cautious. One thing we don't want to do is flirt with form for individuals and also the team, and that was a decision medically to make them unavailable and to get them back as quickly as we can, and hopefully that was only the one week," Cox said.
The selection squeeze goes beyond those two. Cox said he would not rule out using all four forward options at some point, but made clear that setup would not be used "at the minute." The club, he said, would wait until after training before deciding what shape best suited the three players available, and he promised to be direct with anyone who misses out. "You want competition for spots," he said. "All I can do is be really open and honest with the players about why they're in or why they're not playing, and that's what I'll do later on today with some players if they don't make it."
The discussion also brushed into the longer term. Cox said Sydney wanted Joel to stay and that conversations would continue, while acknowledging free agency was part of the equation. "We want Joel here. He knows that, his management know that," he said. "You know, the dialogue with the football club will always continue. And we also understand the dynamic and the nature of free agency that happens, and Joel's apart of that. That'll always be spoken about until hopefully he signs with our football club."
Cox was also asked about John Longmire and whether the former coach might return to the game. He said he had not spoken to Longmire about coaching again, but said he remained grateful for the chance to learn under him. "I'm forever indebted to the opportunity he gave me," Cox said.
The Swans coach spent part of the session looking ahead to the opposition, describing them as a highly experienced side that had played plenty of football together and ranked third for defence. That has sharpened Sydney's own message after what Cox described as a dip in defensive standards over the past couple of weeks. "We're challenging the playing group is to get back to playing the defensive brand of football that we know we can play," he said, adding that the team's defensive intent had not been at the level it should have been.
That point has become a central focus of the build-up to the Marn Grook clash with Collingwood at the SCG. Cox said Sydney expected the same from its opponent no matter who was selected, but made clear the Swans had to reset their own pressure and structure from the first bounce.
He also confirmed one player was fine after needing a rest halfway through the game, but said that player, who had shown at the start of the year how important he can be, would need a couple of weeks to get right and perform at the level the side requires. For Sydney, the immediate questions are about selection and health. The larger one is whether the response arrives quickly enough to match the standards Cox says the Swans already know they can reach.
