Concussion issues continue to linger at the Sydney Swans, with no return date in sight for a number of players.
Sydney AFL and AFLW players Callum Mills, Justin McInerney, Errol Gulden, Lucy McEvoy, Cynthia Hamilton and Bella Smith have joined forces with drag queen Joyce Maynge for the club’s new Pride campaign ahead of the Swan’s round 15 clash with St Kilda.
Both McCartins remain on the sidelines, with Tom’s return more imminent. His symptoms continue to improve but not enough to be considered for selection against Carlton, again leaving the Swans vulnerable to a forward line containing two Coleman medallists.
The need to negate both Charlie Curnow and Harry McKay, however, was secondary for Longmore and the Swans when it came to Tom, who won’t even be considered for selection until any and all symptoms are gone.
That may not be until after Sydney’s bye in round 12, which would mean more than a month on the sidelines for Tom.
“His (symptoms) are lingering for a bit longer than we hoped. It is what it is,” Longmire said on Wednesday.
“You can’t do anything about it, you have to let the symptoms resolve completely.
Tom McCartin and brother Paddy McCartin have both been concussed. Picture: Phil Hillyard
“He‘s doing a bit of exercise. Hopefully, he’s able to ramp that up through the bike period and then we’ll see what happens post bye.
“But it’s something that if you look at the stats over the last few years, obviously concussion issues are really rising throughout the competition, players have been missing from every club.
“And we’d have to be mindful that that’s just a trend across a competition at the moment. Unfortunately, it has happened to some of our key players.”
Paddy’s name has been removed from the Swans injury list as he continues to see specialists to work on his return.
The list will, however, have ruckman Peter Ladhams on it for a “number of weeks” after confirmation he sustained a significant lateral ligament injury to his ankle last week against North Melbourne.
Longmire couldn’t confirm if fellow big man Tom Hickey would be ready to face the Blues either after missing last week’s win over North Melbourne, also with concussion.
Sydney has battled to just four wins from 10 games this season while enduring a horror injury run that Longmire said could prove a valuable learning experience.
“Sometimes you just go through those runs, and then you learn some things through that period about yourself,” he said.
Sydney coach John Longmire said the club’s horror injury toll was a learning experience. Picture: Phil Hillyard
“It‘s not always onwards and upwards, but you’re still learning and that’s what we’ve got the opportunity to do.
“We’ve been without our key defenders for a large part of this year, so we have to keep making do. Aaron Francis has come in and done a pretty reasonable job.
“(Ruckman) Lachlan McAndrew played last week, and he’ll play again this week. That’s what we’ll take out those games, that we keep learning.”