“To go thinking any further than that is a bit of a step too far,” he said.
“The focus of everyone at the football club,his family and Paddy,is just to make sure he recovers and starts feeling well as soon as he can.
“Obviously people want answers of black and white,give us a time frame or give us this or give us that. The advice we’ve received is very clear – just focus Paddy and everyone around him on his recovery.”
Longmire admitted there was genuine concern during Saturday night’s game at how innocuous the contact was that caused McCartin’s concussion. But he reiterated the team of experts who have been involved in McCartin’s return to football would guide him on his next steps.
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“The starting point was[that] during the game absolutely I was concerned,” Longmire said.
“But we need to understand Paddy is a key part of this and his family. There is an expert team involved that have been involved all the way along the past three years and will continue to be involved with Paddy that will give us the specialist advice.
“Hopefully,there’s not too much speculation on the what ifs because that’s not healthy for him either. The most important thing,and best thing,for Paddy is to focus on his recovery and not get too carried away about the what ifs.”
McCartin’s younger brother Tom was also subbed out on Saturday night with a concussion,and Longmire said he was unlikely to have any other tall defenders at his disposal to come into the team for this weekend’s meeting with Richmond in Adelaide.
“We’re still working through[what our backline will look like],” he said.
“Unfortunately,Aaron Francis and Will Gould didn’t finish the training session we had on the weekend,so[it’s] not great timing from that perspective. But we’re still working through what it looks like,the availability of our players.
“We give an opportunity to[midfielder] Corey Warner this week,who will play his first game of AFL footy,so that’s exciting for him,to get a taste and run out there with his brother Chad.
“His running capacity has always been at a really high level. He’s got a great mix of speed and endurance. He’s got bigger and stronger over the summer,that was really noticeable when he came back. He’s been playing a number of weeks at our VFL level and been consistent,and running hard – that two-way running we like our players to do.”
With Tom Lynch out of the Tigers’ side due to injury,Longmire believed the Swans could cover Richmond’s talls with the defenders who played against Port Adelaide.
“Obviously,Tom Lynch is out,and we’re not sure what Richmond will do,” he said.
“We feel like we’ve got some flexibility with guys that can play on taller players. Nick Blakey is one who has got some real height about him,so he can play on some taller players if required.”
Meanwhile,Longmire said Oliver Florent required no consolation following his after-the-siren shot at goal which didn’t make the distance.
“He’s been fine,” he said.
“His game was absolutely outstanding last week,he was fantastic. Unfortunately,the ball dropped a bit short on him last week,[it’s] as simple as that. He’s been fine.”
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