THE SYDNEY Swans overcame their share of adversity to make the finals in John Longmire's first season in charge, and they played like a team that had nothing left to give against Hawthorn on Friday night.

After farewelling champion skipper Brett Kirk and premiership coach Paul Roos, Longmire and the club embarked on a new era.

A huge hurdle was the fact veteran bookends Daniel Bradshaw and Craig Bolton were snatched away from him by career-ending injuries. 

That Longmire was then able to guide his squad into the finals and upset the resurgent Saints in the first week when so many had them sliding in 2011 is to be admired, but the coach cut a disconsolate figure after the 36-point semi-final loss.

"They all hurt," Longmire replied when asked how this finals loss compared to others in his experience.

"Ultimately it's pretty hard to be too positive sitting here after a loss in a final."

The intensity and work rate that saw the Swans prevail over St Kilda was sadly lacking for most of the first half at the MCG and Longmire said his team just couldn't muster the same level of intensity displayed by the Hawks.  

"They went pretty hard in that first quarter and we usually give a bit back a bit quicker than what we did," he said.

"There were probably a few sore boys in there that have been sore for a couple of weeks, but we just didn't have that same intensity for the first quarter that they showed.
 
"We were slow to get going and you just can't give good teams that have won 18 games for the year that sort of start. After half-time I thought we showed enormous character to get back into the game, but we hadn't done it early enough.

"We had to exert too much energy in that third quarter and it just wasn't enough."

Josh Kennedy and Shane Mumford were two constants for the Swans. Kennedy finished with 35 possessions and an amazing 16 clearances while Mumford managed 47 hit outs.

Longmire praised their performances and contribution to the team, which he said had been a big factor in what he, almost begrudgingly, admitted had been a positive season.

"The improvement from our list this year I thought was pretty good," he said.

"A lot of our players improved whether they were younger players right through to the bloke who played his 300th tonight [Adam Goodes].

"[But] tonight highlights that we need to keep improving."

The match was Tadhg Kennelly's 197th and last game for the Swans. He retires safe in the knowledge that the club is in good hands, but the competitor in him was still irked by the manner of the Swans' exit from the premiership race.

"My career has been great and all that, but we still lost," Kennelly said.

"It's been a good journey. It's always hard to finish and then finish like we did. When you're playing footy you don't want to give teams a start like we did. It was disappointing that we only played the one quarter really.

"When you come up against a team in the top four if you don't jump out of the blocks then they're away."

Longmire was reluctant to expand on his plans for improving the squad over summer, but said conversion, general skill execution and a mindset of bringing hardness to each contest would form the platform of his pre-season regime.

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs