SYDNEY'S below-par midfield performance not only starved its forwards of opportunities in last week's loss to the Western Bulldogs, but as co-captain Dane Rampe knows all too well, it put its defence under fierce pressure.
The Swans gave up 68 inside 50s against the Dogs in a 17-point loss and Rampe and his fellow backs were unable to contend with the home side's constant barrage of entries.
The Bulldogs won the clearances 41-32 and with Jack Macrae, Marcus Bontempelli, Tom Liberatore, Lachie Hunter and Mitch Wallis all racking up 26 disposals or more, the winners piled on 27 scoring shots at Marvel Stadium.
CHASING WIN NUMBER ONE Full preview of Swans v Crows
In comparison, Sydney's other co-captains and two best midfielders, Josh Kennedy and Luke Parker, could only manage 22 possessions each.
Rampe said the wave of Bulldogs offence was tough to stop, but he backed his own onballers to rebound in Friday night's clash with Adelaide at the SCG.
The Crows boast a star-studded forward set-up with Eddie Betts, Taylor Walker, Tom Lynch and Josh Jenkins giving them plenty of quality options.
"Our midfielders have put a lot of pressure on (the opposition) for a lot of years, and I have the upmost faith that they'll get back to their best," Rampe said.
"Obviously having to defend 68 inside 50s isn't sustainable over the course of the year, so we need to rectify that.
"Our hit and intensity were off (last week), as was our spread from stoppages.
"With the 6-6-6 rule you get pretty exposed when it's coming in hot and that’s a whole team defence mechanism, and we were well down in that area.
"The Crows have got a lot of really good players, particularly in the forward line, so we'll have our work cut out for us again.
"But we've shown in the past that we can bounce back pretty well.
"It's not the start we wanted to the season, but it's exciting that we get a chance to do something about it this week."
The Swans would normally be heavy favourites to register their first win of the season against the Crows given they're on their home deck, but a disastrous 2018 at the SCG forced them to search for answers.
Sydney won just four of their 12 home games last year, something Rampe said the players weren't keen to repeat in 2019.
"It's definitely something we've focused on (over the pre-season), we couldn't shy away from the fact that we had a really poor record at home last year," he said.
"We didn't want to jump too much at something we didn't know the reason for, but we did talk about it.
"It's just about coming with a really strong mindset.
"In the past, teams have come up here expecting a really tough contest, so we weren't able to match their intensity and physicality.
"But we had a really good record at home before last year, so we just need to match their intensity and better it."
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