Cox disappointed by Sydney's 'step back' against Collingwood

Sydney coach Dean Cox was disappointed that his team took a step backwards in their form against Collingwood in Friday night’s 31-point loss to the Magpies.

The Swans would lose 78-109 against Collingwood at Adelaide Oval.

While Sydney did have the lead throughout some points of the first quarter, Collingwood’s transition game would ultimately prove too much for the Swans to handle.

Scoring shots and efficiency inside 50 was also an area of the game that the Swans struggled with all night.

Sydney only managed 18 scores from their 56 inside 50s compared to Collingwood’s 29 scoring shots from 55 inside 50s with Sydney’s defensive structure falling flat in comparison.

Cox would note this in his post-game press conference.

“Some of our decisions and our execution wasn’t at the level that it needs to be,” Cox noted.

“On top of that, when we go inside 50 to score it, we were about 32 per cent inside 50 to their low 50s.

“And in the second quarter, for the early part of that, they were at about 80 per cent.

“So, we understand that first of all, we need to defend our 50 a lot better than what we did and when we get the opportunity to go forward, we need to play to our principles which allow us to have more efficiency when we do go inside.”    

On an injury front, forward Joel Amartey will undergo scans on his hamstring after being subbed out in the second quarter.

“He’ll have scans; obviously hamstring the severity, we need to find out,” Cox said.

“That certainly wasn’t ideal, he’s been pretty consistent for us.

“Very unfortunate for him that he is another soft tissue (injury), we’ve got to work through and support him.”   

The Swans will look to bounce back against Port Adelaide next week in a preliminary final rematch at the SCG on Easter Sunday.