Sydney defender Ted Richards says the Swans will need to improve in every area next year as they prepare for the uncomfortable task of watching last Saturday's AFL grand final horror show.
It shaped as a morose Monday at an inner-Sydney pub for the Swans as they continued searching for the reasons for their passive performance in a 63-point hiding by Hawthorn.
Richards conceded it would probably take the players a long time for Sydney to recover from such a mauling.
"Yeah, because you work so hard for so long, for so much effort and we didn't get there and we're not happy with the way we played," Richards said on Monday.
"We'll have meetings over the next few days and we'll review the game because that's part of the process.
"It's going to be hard to watch, but it needs to be done."
While the Swans still seek answers for what happened on Saturday, Richards said the process of moving on had started.
"Your thoughts naturally already start to think about next year. A positive is that we improved a lot from 2013 and we need to step it up again for 2015," Richards said.
"Some of our football this year has been as good anyone going around.
"It's just disappointing we weren't able to play well in the final and I think Hawthorn pretty much beat us in every area.
"So it's not just one area that I think we can improve in. I think we need to improve in all areas."
Richards acknowledged that some good could come from the season.
"If there's one lesson, it's just how hard it is to get there and how hard it is to play on the day," he said, adding that he was hopeful stalwarts Adam Goodes and Nick Malceski would both continue with the club next season.
Forward Goodes, Sydney's 351-game appearance record holder, has yet to decide whether to stretch his senior career into a 17th season.
"I'm biased. He's such a champion on and off field. I'd love to selfishly have him around playing at the club," Richards said Goodes.
"But I can understand that with everything he has achieved, he might decide that that's enough.
"He didn't have a pre-season and then he goes and plays the way he has ... he's an absolute champion, so hopefully he does play on."
All-Australian half back Malceski, a 10-season, 176-game Swans stalwart who was one of their few good players on Saturday, is off contract.
"He said halfway through the year that they are going to chat at the end of the season about his contract for next year," Richards said.
"He's played well and now he sits down with the club and hopefully he stays."
Share
