Sydney co-captain Jarrad McVeigh believes Hawthorn forward Luke Breust was right to say the lopsided second half of last week’s AFL grand-final rematch was unbefitting of a final.
The Swans were level at halftime of last Friday night’s MCG qualifying final, but fell away horribly and suffered a 54-point defeat.
Breust remarked this week that it “didn’t really feel like a final”.
“We had so many uncontested marks,” he said.
“You normally expect finals footy to be pretty congested and a lot of contested footy.”
Rather than take it as a slight on the reigning premiers, McVeigh conceded Breust was on the money and that the poor performance had left everyone at the SCG embarrassed.
“I think a few of the comments were ‘it was an unfinals-like game’ and … that really gets at us and they are probably right in saying that,” McVeigh said.
“They had a lot of uncontested ball and that’s something that we haven’t been known for.
“We’re filthy about the way we played … we were embarrassed.
“We were really embarrassed with our performance and a few of the comments coming out of Hawthorn, you know they probably felt the same way as we thought.”
When asked about Breust’s comments on Thursday, Swans coach John Longmire admitted “there wasn’t the pressure that we usually apply”.
McVeigh was confident the Swans would bounce back on Saturday night in the sudden-death clash with Carlton at ANZ Stadium
“One thing I know about this team is they don’t give up and they’ll always come back when the big games are on,” he told radio station SEN.
The 28-year-old said he’d be right to take on the Blues, despite suffering a knee injury against the Hawks.
“I was probably fortunate that it wasn’t as bad as we thought in the beginning.”