NED LONG'S days as Collingwood's substitute are numbered, with coach Craig McRae praising the former Hawk as a midfield "beast" after a breakout showing.
Long was among the pivotal players on the ground for the Magpies in their 31-point win over Sydney on Friday night in their Gather Round clash, extending their streak to 10 straight wins at Adelaide Oval.
MAGPIES v SWANS Full match coverage and stats
He had 29 disposals (17 contested), nine clearances, 10 score involvements and six tackles as the Pies' midfield, with Nick Daicos, Scott Pendlebury and Steele Sidebottom also important, slashed through the Swans. It came on the back of Long being the Pies' starting substitute for three of their first four games of the season.
"I don't think he'll be sub for a while. His game was remarkable right from the start. His contest work is so strong, he's such a beast at the contest and if he's not winning it himself he's getting it back," McRae said post-game.
"We just rewarded him inside (the rooms after the game). It was hard to tell him a couple of weeks in a row he was the sub but tonight it was 'Just go and enjoy it, mate' and he's elevated our midfield.
"He's had a full pre-season, a year of growth in himself and we believe in him enormously. He complements our group right now, he adds pressure and you saw tonight he's going to be hard to stop when he plays like that."
As will McRae's Pies, who were far too good for the Swans across the evening, showing class and polish in attack, speed across the ground and boasting an array of experienced players all in good form. It sees them head to Brisbane to face 2024 premiers the Lions on Easter Thursday next week in one of the heavyweight bouts of the season so far.
"It's going to be a great game. They're going to be hard to beat. We'll stay here for a minute, we've got six days to get ready for that. We'll watch Brisbane tomorrow and go up there with good confidence," he said.
Swans coach Dean Cox said his side "couldn't fight our way through" the Pies' plans, saying the lopsided contested marks across the night – the Swans took one contested grab for the game to Collingwood's 11 – showed one team's predictability and the other's inability to capitalise on opportunities.
"Our games swing a lot with what pressure we can put on the opposition. Whether that's defensively to force them long down the line to not take marks or if we're in a scramble type of situation to then put enormous heat on. When we did that, they absorbed better, they got through us then we ramped it up and started to get some ascendancy back towards the back end of the second quarter but couldn't do it for long enough," he said.
After last week's strong win over North Melbourne, Cox said the Swans would look towards their senior stars to lift.
"It's probably a little step backwards. One thing we always want to pride ourselves on is to always be in the contest and giving ourselves every opportunity to win a game of footy. But one thing I've always done is say the players who are representing the club, no matter what the name tags suggest, we need to play our way and play to a system that gives ourselves the best chance," he said.
"Some of the kids are learning their way through that and some of our experienced players need to help them a little bit more through that by performing the way we know they have in the past."
Sydney's long injury list added a new member as well, with the first-half hamstring injury for key forward Joel Amartey. With the tall goalkicker likely to miss at least several weeks, the Swans will decide this week whether Logan McDonald has enough conditioning under his belt to return to the senior side following his long recovery from an ankle injury.
"There's a VFL bye this week so they'll have a big session back home. He had the one game last week and then miss this one, we'll have to discuss that when we get back about what it looks like with him ahead of the ball," Cox said.
