Sydney veteran Rhyce Shaw expects the Swans out of sorts leaders to lift this weekend and drag the rest of their winless AFL team along.
One of the fancied premiership contenders before the season started, Sydney have lost to GWS and Collingwood in their first two games.
They face an equally hungry side on Saturday in Adelaide with the Crows also making a 0-2 start.
One of the Swans eight-man leadership group, defender Shaw conceded some of them, himself included, had been down on form, but expected them to bounce back.
“Definitely. I think our leaders are really good, we set the tone for the team,” Shaw said.
“At the moment, we haven’t done that, we’ve done it inconsistently.
“As always, we’ll try and put our best foot forward this week and if we can do that, it will go a long way to pulling the side along and getting a win.
“If we can move the ball quickly from defence, it helps our forwards and if the forwards can defend, it helps our defence as well.”
He acknowledged Sydney were having some chemistry issues as they adjusted to changes to their lineup this season.
“It’s not as fluent as normal, but I suppose that comes with new players,” Shaw said.
“We had a big turnover last year, but we’ve worked really hard in the pre-season to get that right.
“It just hasn’t worked consistently this year, so I’m hoping that it comes good this week.
“We’re really looking forward to the challenge of Adelaide because we’ve had some good battles with them over the years.
“Both teams are 0-2. It’s a a tough game, but it’s not the end of the world if you start 0-3, there’s still 19 games to go.”
Shaw tipped Nick Smith to get the job on new Crow Eddie Betts, who has been Adelaide’s most productive forward this year.
While happy to see more of his younger sibling Heath since his move to cross-town rival GWS, brotherly love is being stretched in some areas.
“It’s pretty hard, especially when he comes over and eats all your food and talks lots of crap about how much they beat us by,” he said.
“I’m loving having him up here and he’s a good kid and I wish him all the best this year,”
