SYDNEY coach Colin O'Riordan says the Swans are "lost for words" after in-form ruck Ally Morphett became the club's fourth player to suffer an ACL injury this year, leaving its tall stocks severely depleted.

Morphett injured her right knee in the opening minutes of Sydney's 55-point loss to North Melbourne on Sunday while contesting a ground ball directly in front of the benches. After moving awkwardly, she went down in severe pain, with follow-up imaging subsequently confirming the diagnosis.

Speaking to media on Wednesday, O'Riordan said Morphett had remained a positive presence around the group despite the setback.

"Ally's going as good as she can be going. She's obviously devastated, but she's out in the team meeting, and we just did a review on the game," he said.

"The way Ally shows up every day with a positive impact on her teammates is a credit to her, and that hasn't changed this morning. She's putting on a really brave face but obviously devastating for her. 

"That's probably the word you'd use; just devastated for her."

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O'Riordan confirmed Morphett will meet with a specialist later this week before the club finalises a rehabilitation plan.

Morphett is the fourth Sydney women's player to suffer a major knee injury this year. She joins key defender Alice Mitchell, who ruptured the ACL in her right knee during June's pre-season training, draftee Alex Neyland, who also suffered a right ACL injury the following month, and key defender Brenna Tarrant, who went down during training in September.

“Yeah, it's not great, to be blunt," O'Riordan said of the club's staggering injury list.

"You're lost for words, to be honest, because you're still trying to process Ally's [injury], and this just happens to be every single tall has now done their ACL.

"So, it's not great, and it gives us a lot of food for thought as a coaching group about what the team looks like this week. It's just something for us to think about, but overall, it's just devastating for all four of them."

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Morphett’s injury forced an immediate reshuffle against North Melbourne, leaving draftee Maddie Quinn to shoulder much of the ruck workload as the Kangaroos capitalised on Sydney's lack of height to dominate aerial contests.

"We have a couple of options we can look at," O'Riordan said.

"Obviously, we saw Taylor Smith play a lot more ruck at the weekend, and she was really good. Maddie Quinn played a lot more ruck at the weekend with a lot more game time, and again, she was really good. 

"So, we have a couple of levers there we can pull. We have a couple of people who didn't play seniors at the weekend that we can look at, but it's just on us as coaches to come together and see what that looks like for this weekend and beyond."

While trying to address their height shortage in the ruck, O'Riordan acknowledged any solution would come with trade-offs.

"I think putting Taylor in the ruck, you probably rob Peter to pay Paul a little bit, knowing that we now have an undersized forward line," he said.

Taylor Smith during round seven between Sydney and Brisbane at Henson Park, September 27, 2026. Picture: AFL Photos

"But again, this is the circumstance we're in. Unfortunately, that's the reality of the situation. We have four key-position players out with an ACL, and that's just something we have to work through. Maybe we need to tweak our game style a little bit to allow us to move the ball more effectively. We probably bombed it in a lot at the weekend and didn't use our numbers when we could. So that's on us as coaches to coach this week and hopefully change it up a little bit."

While the club is reviewing its internal protocols following the spate of knee injuries, O'Riordan also called for greater AFLW-wide support and resources to combat what he believes is a growing competition-wide issue.

"We always have discussions, whether it's with the medical team, high performance, or coaching," he said.

"We always look inward really quickly after every event, whether it's a small injury or, in this instance, four substantial injuries, to assess what we could do to prevent it.

Colin O'Riordan talks to players during Sydney's clash against Greater Western Sydney in round five, 2026. Picture: AFL Photos

"We're confident that we have a lot of preventative measures in place, and I think with ACL injuries, sometimes you have the ones that you can control and the things you can't control.

"Unfortunately, I think you see it in the wider competition. I think there are 27 players this year having the injury, and I think that's probably the concern as a competition. As an AFL, are we happy with 27 in round eight of the competition? What can we do more as a collective, I think, to understand it more? What resources need to go into this?

"We're obviously suffering with four of them, but I think there's probably a discussion point that needs to be had about what it looks like going forward and what level of support can be given to prevent this, because yes, we have four, but the fact there are around 27 players across the competition who have suffered the injury is, in my eyes, just astronomically high."