Sydney coach John Longmire has lauded the competitiveness of his star forward Lance Franklin, but admits his struggling side need more out of their younger AFL players.
The Swans are 0-2 following a 26-point home loss to Adelaide on Friday.
They have kicked kicked just 17 goals and scored only 127 points across the first two rounds.
While Longmire felt Sydney competed better than they did in their first round loss, he lamented their frequent errors which limited their scoring opportunities and caused them to lose possession against the Crows on Friday.
Sydney's best performers were veterans with Josh Kennedy and Luke Parker toiling hard in the midfield and Franklin providing a spark up forward.
Franklin, who didn't play a pre-season game after undergoing groin surgery, looked sharp, kicking 3.3 and booting two long distance goals from close to the boundary line.
"He just competes so hard that bloke," Longmire said.
'He was able to look free with his kicking, he hasn't been like that since he had the operation at the end of last year and it's as freely as he's moved and kicked, so hopefully he pulls up well."
The 13 players aged 24 and under, in whom Longmire has invested so much faith in this season, mostly drifted in and out of the game
It was expected Callum Mills and Isaac Heeney would spend more time in the midfield this season, but both were mainly deployed elsewhere on Friday.
Longmire explained Heeney played primarily up front be was carrying a sore ankle into the game, while Mills stayed on the halfback line to help cover the loss of injured key defender Heath Grundy.
Asked if he needed more out of his youngsters the coach said: "that's probably a fair comment.
"They are not going to be in the upward trajectory all the time, there's going to be some times when they dip and it's not just always onwards and upwards.
"Sometimes that plateaus a little bit and you go backwards a little, but they just need to work through, that's part of an AFL career.
'When you've got a few of them, they just need to work through it together and get going."
Longmire knows what a bad start to the season looks like and what's needed to turn it around, after Sydney were 0-6 in 2017 but still rallied to make the finals.
"When you've been in it for a while, you know that you just need to keep working through it, it's shoulder to the grindstone," he added.
