Sydney senior coach John Longmire has reflected on Friday night's elimination final loss to Carlton, including scrutinising the AFL's score review technology, as well as commenting on the state of the Swans' playing list going into next season.

Longmire's gallant brigade fell just six points short of a spirited Blues outfit that was desperate to win its first finals outing in ten years.

A Hayden McLean goal with under thirty seconds remaining brought Sydney to within a goal of Carlton, making for a cliff-hanging ending for Blues fans, though Michael Voss' men were able to hold their nerve, booking a semi-final ticket next week against the Demons.

Longmire, whose Swans reached a Grand Final berth last season only to be trounced by the brilliant Cats, addressed the media post-game and stressed the difficulty of 'backing up' every single year.

"I think even if you stay the same you're going forward in this competition, because it's so hard to just keep backing up," Longmire started on Friday evening.

"It's tough to do, it's tough to get to a finals campaign each year, and I'll sit back and reflect in a couple of weeks but right now I'm sitting here with the hurt of an elimination final.

"I thought we had a crack and I feel sorry for the players and the staff and the supporters, because I think we just didn't quite get there in the end."

With a touch over ten minutes of playing time remaining at the MCG, an Errol Gulden soaring shot at goal appeared destined to register a major and bring the Swans to within a goal until it was apparently nicked by the fingers of Carlton's Blake Acres.

Following a 'soft call' of a touched behind, a lengthy score review ensued and it was ultimately determined the wingman got his fingertips to the Sherrin.

Although, to the naked eye, and based on the limited video angles displayed via the broadcast, it didn't appear overly convincing, with the 'blur' around the ball causing confusion and uncertainty in the Sevenย commentary box.

"It's too blurry, though, to be [categorical]... With that blur around the ball, I don't see how you can (overturn the original call)," saidย Seven commentator Matthew Richardson.

Post-game, the incident was inevitably brought up and Sydney's veteran coach was quizzed on his thoughts about the current state of the AFL's score review system.

"When I'm on the bench I don't get to see replays like you guys in the media, I didn't know, I just don't know, I still haven't seen it," Longmire began.

Asked if the technology presently utilised is appropriate, Longmire was categorical in his response.

"Clearly not," he bluntly replied.

The Swans were the beneficiaries of a botched non-score review during the waning moments of their Round 23 win over the Crows at Adelaide Oval. On Friday night, they found themselves on the other side of the ledger.

"You'd like to think [the technology will be improved], we've been on both sides of the fence, haven't we? So you'd like to think so, we spend a fair bit trying to get things right at club land."

Moving on, Longmire praised his youthful list, claiming it's "still a building group" despite the fact they'll lose ruckman Tom Hickey to retirement, not to mention legendary forward Lance Franklin.

"I think we had 12 [players who were] 24 (years old) and under," Longmire continued.

"We're still a young team, we haven't got everything right yet. We're still a young team, there's a lot of blokes out there, I think we had five or six [who] were 22 and under.

"It's still a building group, we'll lose 'Hick' (retiring ruckman Tom Hickey) but they're young, and they're learning tough lessons.

"At least they're learning them in finals."

Pressed for his early thoughts on what Sydney's list turnover might look like this year, Longmire cited his club's history of strong internal development as opposed to luring opposition talent via the trade space.

"I don't know yet (what that looks like)," he said. "We'll sit back and have a look at it [and] see what we need to do to get better.

"I think over the last ten years we've probably had the least amount of traded players into our club, of any club, I think our young players have been fantastic because they've come through the system and been enormous. We'll see what happens in the next few weeks."

While the Swans' season officially comes to an end, the Blues will now prepare themselves for a blockbuster semi-final against Melbourne at the MCG next weekend.