SYDNEY Swans coach John Longmire says the lessons the club learned from its disappointing Grand Final loss to Hawthorn last season will help drive the team forward in 2015.
The Swans finished the 2014 home and away season on top of the ladder and were widely tipped to beat the Hawks on the last Saturday in September.
But it wasn't to be. The Hawks blitzed the Swans in the first half, opening up a seven-goal lead by half-time with Longmire's men never recovering.
It has been 100 days since the Swans watched on as Hawthorn held the premiership cup aloft with Longmire saying the defeat is behind them as they look to the future.
"We need to move on to make sure we continue to have a good pre-season and a good 2015," Longmire told the Daily Telegraph.
"We certainly don't sweep it under the carpet. We've looked at it, addressed it and learned from it. Ultimately that's what you do whether you win or lose. As disappointing as what it was we need to learn from it.
"The fact we had the best year in the history of the club as far as the win-loss ratio and to end on such a disappointing note, we need to continue to get better."
Despite the Grand Final defeat, there won't be radical changes to the Swans' game plan this year.
"We have to be careful we don't throw the baby out with the bathwater," Longmire said.
"We believe we play a sustainable and successful brand of football week-in, week-out over the course of the year. To be as consistent as we were last year means we do something right — that has to acknowledged.
"We fell short on Grand Final day and we need to use those lessons that we've learned. We have talked about it, but we need to do something about it."
There hasn't been much change to the Swans' core group that played off in last year's Grand Final, with veteran defender Nick Malceski the only loss after he signed with Gold Coast as a free agent.
The Swans' trade ban meant the club was unable to replace the experienced Malceski but Longmire is confident the playing group will still continue to improve and be competitive in 2015.
"What we will do is continue to work to get better," Longmire said.
"We'd like to have a consistent season like we did last year and make sure what happened in that last game doesn't happen again.
"We are confident with our squad and in particular our leaders that we have a group which want to improve and are very disappointed with what happened in the last day of the season.
"What happened on the last day of the last game of the season will drive us as coaches to continue to get better. We will be doing our best to give ourselves another in the finals again."
