FOLLOWING back-to-back defeats against two of the bottom three sides from last season, Sydney coach Scott Gowans concedes his side is still finding its best defensive mix. Conceding 17 marks inside defensive 50 against state rivals GWS Giants, Gowans admitted that “there’s a little bit in that” during the seven-point defeat at Henson Park on Sunday.

“There’s a few different things, one’s the inexperience and the other thing is the mix of players which we’ll definitely look at this week, because it is two weeks in a row so you can’t not make change when it’s two weeks in a row, so we’ll definitely look at that,” Gowans said.

“The other part of it is probably I felt like we were hampered a little bit by the Giants by their forward half were really good at chaining the ball and because our layers on the outside were collapsing, we got the turnover back it just didn’t work so we had nowhere to go.

“But again that’s a structural thing that we’re going to look at really heavily and train this week. I wouldn’t question the effort or intensity, our pressure numbers were great, we out-tackled them, it was just those moments of structural stuff that we’re just learning under heat and under pressure that’s cost us in the last two weeks.”

Having been such a strong structural team to start the season with four straight wins, Sydney has since dropped back to the pack after being pressured by the Pies and then outlasted by the Giants. Gowans said the desperation to win was overriding the composure to remain structured.

“That’s in it in a nutshell, I felt like we all wanted to help rather than just trust the structure and the plan, which is a great thing if you think of it from a point of view of everyone wants to help, but it’s not great from a team point of view,” he said. “So we just need to be able to hold structure in tight moments in front of big crowds, because that’s what we’re practicing for.

“We really collapsed in a little bit which played into their hands a little bit in that last term, whereas really you almost want players to spread the field a little bit more and open up options and make them defend us. We’ll get some really great learnings out of that vision.”

The Swans coach lamented his side’s lack of “basic fundamentals” where they ran at just 53 per cent disposal efficiency and produced 77 turnovers compared to the Giants’ 63 per cent and 68 respectively. Though the home team was often winning it at the source (plus-nine contested possessions and plus-13 clearances including a 10-1 centre clearance differential), Sydney struggled to convert the wins around the ball into meaningful inside 50s.

“Credit to Giants, I thought their structure around the outside of the stoppage and their layers was excellent, we just couldn’t penetrate it,” Gowans said. “We’d win the clearance and I think we won our fair share of post-clearance ball, to pick it up and give the hands and we were under pressure straight away so we couldn’t get our kicking game going.

“We adjusted, then it worked and we were able to get through by throwing an extra number up there, but there was lots of little chess moves from both teams. I think it was just whatever side that got the break on the scoreboard was probably going to hang on. “

When pondering his side’s change in form, he wondered if it had to do with being “the hunted” given the Swans had been strong favourites to beat both Collingwood and the Giants, rather than being on even footing with other opponents.

“We made some critical errors and again I just said to the girls you do forget that we’re the most inexperienced side in the competition, and when you’re hunted it’s a really hard way to play footy,” Gowans said. “We get a good block of games coming up now for a month where we’ll be hunting other sides and I think that little shift might get us going again, but frustrated but philosophical about we’re where at.”

Sydney certainly will transform into the hunter again with a Round 7 clash on the road against fourth placed Adelaide, before taking on the undefeated North Melbourne, then finals-bound Carlton and Melbourne over the next month.