Gold Coast coach Stuart Dew is not expecting any post-Grand Final blues from Sydney ahead of their round one match on Saturday night, describing the Swans as a club that doesn’t "dwell on the past".
History suggests teams that cop a heavy Grand Final defeat one season, like Sydney's 81-point loss to Geelong six months ago, can battle the following year.
Greater Western Sydney was hammered by Richmond in 2019 and did not make the finals the next season, Adelaide suffered the same fate after its 2017 loss to the Tigers, while the Western Bulldogs had to claw every game last year to sneak into eighth place after Melbourne dominated them late in 2021.
But Dew, who was an assistant to John Longmire for seven seasons before taking the Gold Coast job ahead of 2018, does not expect a similar outcome for the Swans.
"I think each group is different, every situation is different," Dew said on Wednesday.
"Having known the way they go about it, particularly John, I'm not expecting a hangover.
"They're not a footy club that dwells on the past.
"They've shown resilience. They lost the '14 Grand Final, they lost the '16 Grand Final and they've kept fronting up. Not dissimilar to Geelong.
"I think when your footy club is at the pointy end of questions being asked whether they're going to bounce back from a Grand Final or prelim (loss), it's a pretty good spot to be in, isn't it?"
Gold Coast will christen Heritage Bank Stadium on Saturday night with the return of key forward Ben King, who coincidentally played his last match at AFL level against Sydney in 2021 before rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament the following pre-season.
Despite King playing just half of one pre-season match against GWS, Dew said the 23-year-old would be fine to run out a full game in his return.
"We made a couple of choices around one of the trials, given the amount of work he's done," he said.
"He's played a fair bit of match play. We mapped this out from a long way back.
"I think his general time on ground is somewhere between 80 and 100 minutes and he's going to be able to deliver that."
Dew said wingman Brandon Ellis was still battling a calf injury and needed more training to be considered for selection.
