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Sport Nation
Cornes: 2025 is just about a write-off for freefalling Swans
Lachlan Geleit • April 28th, 2025 10:53 am
Not many would have predicted that Sydney would find themselves 14th with a 2-5 record after seven games of footy in 2025.
After coming off a minor premiership and Grand Final appearance in 2024, the Swans have completely come off the boil under new coach Dean Cox.
One of the reasons behind Sydney’s demise has no doubt been the health of their list with all of Errol Gulden, Logan McDonald, Tom Papley, Callum Mills, Taylor Adams, Joel Amartey, Harry Cunningham and Robbie Fox currently sidelined.
With key players out, Kane Cornes thinks there’s a lack of on-field leadership at Sydney which was proven in Sunday’s 38-point loss to Gold Coast where they let in 12 consecutive goals after leading by 29 points more than halfway through the second quarter.
Having already dropped so far off the pace, Cornes pondered whether 2025 is already a write-off at Sydney.
“Sydney led by 29 points at the 21-minute mark of the second quarter and then trailed by 41 at the 13-minute mark of the third,” Cornes told SEN Breakfast.
“They conceded 12 goals in a row. It speaks to a lack of any ability to halt momentum and a lack of leadership.
“I thought their ball use was about as bad as you're going to see in the third quarter. Jake Lloyd was missing 50m passes with no pressure on him, (Matt) Roberts is supposed to be a good kick, just butchering the football.
“They're in freefall, Sydney. I think now it is panic stations for the Swans.
“They had this a couple of years ago, it might have been 2019 or something, where they just went right down, finished bottom four, and then bounced back up.
“I think they can do that (bounce again), but this is one of those years where you almost write it off.”
As well as being disarmed by injury, Cornes’ co-host David King thinks that the Swans got several positional moves wrong early in the season which has come back to haunt them.
“It's hard to do when you're shifting a coaching structure, and you're going into Dean Cox who is a first-year coach, and then all the injuries hit. He's just been rocked and ravaged by injury,” King said.
“He's been disarmed in a lot of ways, but they've simply got too much wrong. They got the (Tom) McCartin thing wrong for weeks and fought themselves on that one.
“This is (Isaac) Heeney’s role in at centre bounce and pushing forward because he’s their best forward. They’re wasting their time doing anything else, it took them a long time to correct that.”
The Swans will hope to get back on the winners’ list when they face the Giants in the Battle of the Bridge on Sunday at the SCG.
