IT WAS somewhat fitting that after his team’s ANZAC Round clash with North Melbourne, Sydney Swans veteran Michael O’Loughlin was praising his side’s ability to “dig in”.

The Swans were again forced to head to the trenches late in Sunday’s thrilling draw with the Kangaroos at Telstra Dome, their army of experienced runners helping them pull back a late 17-point deficit to eventually share the premiership points.

But O’Loughlin, the most experienced Swan, said he and his teammates were looking for more despite it looking like North might pull away early in the last term.

“We’re pretty disappointed, obviously,” O’Loughlin said after the match.

“We were pretty poor at the start of that [last] quarter.

“They kicked a couple and got ahead, and obviously then we sort of dug in and we fought back. To have a draw, we just feel a bit hollow.”

Co-captain Brett Kirk, Amon Buchanan and Tadhg Kennelly were instrumental in getting the Swans back into the contest with their attack on the ball and run through the middle of the ground.

But it was O’Loughlin, who admitted to struggling earlier in the match, who did the damage with two left-foot goals in the final 10 minutes of the game.

He finished with three for the match – all coming in the second half – and showed all his experience in fighting his way back into the contest after an unusually subdued start. 

“My timing was a little bit off at the start of the game, I suppose, and I probably went to ground a bit much,” he said.

“I was falling over my own feet sometimes, so it was pleasing in the second half to be able to fight my way back in.

“If you’ve had a poor first half, you’ve really got to sort of dig in and contribute to the team.”

O’Loughlin said his side’s wayward goalkicking had cost it in the end, while he and his fellow forwards also have some other areas to improve this week in the lead-up to their clash with the Western Bulldogs.

“We thought it [the ball] came out of the forward line a bit too easily, and being a forward, we’ve got to work a lot harder to keep the ball in there to compete and provide a contest,” he said.

“I think as a forward line we were pretty poor at that today; the last couple of weeks actually.

“But like I said, to fight back … we dug in and we’ll take the draw.”