Barry bemoans Swans lost confidence

Sydney co-captain Leo Barry says the reigning premiers are down on confidence after two rounds of the AFL season.

The Swans have suffered unexpected losses to Essendon and Port Adelaide and find themselves as one of only three clubs without a win.

Barry, who etched himself into club folklore with that famous last-second mark in last year's grand final, admitted that the reigning premiers were playing without the self-belief that carried the team in 2005.

"Collectively, we haven't got the confidence we had last year and that's something we have to address and continually work at," Barry said.

The defender revealed that while his team was suffering under the weight of expectation, it was something they had to get used to.

"With the amount of media scrutiny we've had so far, there's increased expectations in that respect, and then supporters want to have another successful year as well," he said.

"But it's early on, and being premiers obviously there's a lot more focus on the group, so in that respect we've got to get some better performances on the board and quieten down a few people who've been criticising us."

Sydney will again be favoured when they front up against Carlton at the Telstra Dome this Saturday, but with difficult matches against Melbourne, Geelong and Brisbane following, Sydney faces the prospect of falling well behind the lead pack.

"The fact that we've lost two games, pretty much anyone can criticise the team as much as they want," said Barry.

We are the first to admit our form hasn't been good and we haven't got that continuity in our game plan and style at the moment, but we're only one game from turning it around and getting back the winning formula."

The defender was measured in the assessment of his own form, after conceding six first-quarter goals to Bomber Matthew Lloyd in round one.

"It's certainly been very patchy, the first game in that first quarter was pretty disappointing, but I played reasonably well for the rest of that game," he said.

"Even (last) weekend, myself, like a lot of our other defenders, have probably been conceding a few more goals where in previous years we hadn't been doing that."

Despite the Swans suffering from a lacklustre pre-season - they only won one game before losing their first two regular season matches - Barry denied that the club was suffering from any premiership hangover.

"It's difficult to say, but we've put in place everything to avoid such an occurrence, and after all, it's only round two," he said.

We know we've got the team and the game plan to get back on track and that will be demonstrated by a better performance this weekend."

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