ALL SIGNS point to it being a minor blip on Sydney's radar.
While the raging premiership favourite has lost three of its past four games, the manner of the defeats – and the narrow margins – suggest this is not something that will be buzzing too brightly on John Longmire's radar.
The Swans have lost four matches this season by margins of five, one, two and two points. They also lost their final game of last season, the elimination final defeat to Carlton, by six points.
According to Champion Data, 16 points is the lowest cumulative margin for any team's most recent five defeats in V/AFL history. It's also the first time any side has lost its opening four games of a season with a cumulative margin of 10 points or less.
In one respect, Sydney's inability to close out tight games could be seen as worrying. In another sense, such numbers suggest the Swans could quite easily be 18-0 and absolutely flying, rather than 14-4.
It's also not out of the ordinary for a genuine premiership contender to stutter at this stage of the campaign. Collingwood lost three of four games at a similar point last season, then won four straight to win the flag. Melbourne won only one of four matches late in 2021, then peeled off seven consecutive wins to claim the premiership.
But, in close contests over the last month, have the likes of Fremantle, St Kilda and then Brisbane shown a blueprint for how to beat Sydney? If they have, it revolves around forcing the Swans slow and wide.
Sydney wants to control the ball and change angles to force its way through. But, on the weekend, Brisbane forced 22 long down-the-line kicks. It was easily the most of the season for the Swans, way above an average of 11 that ranks as the third-fewest in the competition.
Champion Data also notes only six per cent of Sydney's kicks from defensive 50 went through the corridor in last Sunday's defeat to Brisbane. That was well below an average of 24 per cent, that normally ranks as the second-most in the League.
From this, Sydney generated just 48 inside 50s all game – the club's second lowest total of the season – but those entries also came from far less dangerous places on the ground.
That's because, according to Champion Data, Sydney only entered the forward 50 from the corridor 33 per cent of the time. That was its third-lowest number for the entire season and below an average of 43 per cent, which ranks fractionally behind Carlton as the second-most in the competition.
The culmination of that slower, less dangerous ball movement was how often Sydney retained entries inside its forward 50. Champion Data notes the Swans' retention rate of 44 per cent on Sunday was their third-lowest of the year, well below an average of 54 per cent that had previously ranked No.1 in the League.
Forcing a side to go slow and wide isn't necessarily a revolutionary tactic to winning games of football. But when that side has the type of talented, explosive jets like Isaac Heeney, Chad Warner and Errol Gulden, it might be an opposition's only hope.
