New Swans Coach Dean Cox Reveals Insights from Grueling GF Review

Longmire surprises Swans with visit | 00:35

New Swans coach Dean Cox has revealed the club delivered some “home truths” during an intense seven-and-a-half hour probe into what went wrong in the 2024 Grand Final.

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And as they move forward, Cox emphasised the importance of learning from it.

The Swans will be looking to bounce back from a disastrous 60-point loss to Brisbane in last year’s decider under long-time coach John Longmire in an otherwise dominant season from minor premier Sydney.

Instead of brushing over the performance as a bad day, Cox said the club wanted to go through the game with a fine tooth comb on day one of pre-season to address it then and there.

“We just had to watch it,” Cox began on SEN radio. “We pushed the (pre-season) program back a day.”

“For us it was about making sure we reviewed it. We sat down and spoke about what happened, we identified it as a playing group and a coaching group. What went wrong, what we wanted to focus on going forward and then everything started rolling from there.

“It was a tough day for the players reflect on — and certainly watch — the performance that they put in. From there it was about trying to learn from every experience you possibly have.

“We had a really harsh one on Grand Final day and we had to learn from it.”

The day turned particularly sour for Sydney in the second quarter, where Brisbane stacked on seven-straight goals to lead by 46 points at half-time.

But Cox said there was a particularly big focus on the first minute of the game, which took over an hour to examine.

“We broke up into two different rooms,” Cox said of the review.

“One thing we wanted to do was watch it from a different perspective again. And the players involved to be able to talk through what they were feeling and also to call out what was happening.

“The review took all day — it took seven and a half hours. On top of that, the first minute of the game took over an hour to get through that.

“That’s when the conversation started. To the players’ credit, they dove right into it and wanted to address it as quickly as possible and learn from it. That was their messaging all the way through, they wanted to get this done.

“Once the day finished we walked into the next day and we’re set for 2025 and beyond now.”

Asked specifically how the feedback was given to players, Cox admitted there needed to be uncomfortable conversations.

“There were some home truths, which was needed and the understanding of situations.

“We tried to address everything we possibly could. Would we have gotten everything right? Probably not, but I think we needed to make sure that we started the day with a review and a reflection upon what happened. The ability to move forward can only happen from that.”