The view that ‘health is your best player’ couldn’t ring more true for the Sydney Swans.
Kangaroos legend David King on Fox Footy’s The First Crack highlighted just how healthy the first-placed Swans have been this season in a key role to their dominance over the rest of the competition, sitting three games and significant percentage clear in the No. 1 seed.
John Longmire’s side, currently missing only Callum Mills and Luke Parker, who couldn’t make the senior team when he was last available, has used just 27 players and had 16 players play every game.
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By comparison, the team sitting on top of the ladder after Round 14 the last five years had the following splits of used players and players that have played every game respectively: 28 and 15, 33 and 13, 21 and 13,30 and 13, 30 and 14.
It includes the Swans in 2024 having five weeks with no changes, five weeks with one change and two weeks with two changes, with just a total of four forced changes overall.
Such continuity and consistency with the same group playing every week is clearly so important than teams further down the ladder constantly tinkering with their mix.
“I don’t care what anyone says, forever in a day, health will be your best player,” King said on Fox Footy’s The First Crack.
“They’re the healthiest team in the competition right now and have been all season.
“The two best words in footy: no change. If you can have a settled line-up one week to the next, you build that shared experience.
“The backline build a rapport with one another and the forward line work out some symmetry and it becomes really unselfish as a group … and the midfield learn when you take one step one way more regularly than some other players.
“They’ve hardly lost a marquee player, I know they haven’t played without Mills and Parker, but the guys pushed out there have been there pretty much every week.
“They’ve really only had to play with six magnets and a sub every week.”
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King also pointed out that Brisbane has been the healthiest club over the last five years – a period in which the club has won more games than any other side and made the top four in four of those five seasons.
And now that Sydney has put itself in such a strong position, King believes Longmire can advantageously manage players to avoid further injuries and ensure they’re cherry ripe for finals.
“It becomes a tool you can use, I wouldn’t be surprised if John Longmire now starts to use that sub position as a man management area,” King added.
“You might bring the sub on start of the third quarter rather than wait and rest a Chad Warner for a half of football.
“This is something we need to start talking about because it is panels in front of the competition.”