When Adam Goodes is on song the ardent golfer can make a desperately demanding game seem no more taxing than a quick nine holes on a sunny day. But, as he toiled through another disappointing game at Geelong, the dual Brownlow medallist looked like a man trying to get out of a deep bunker with a driver.

That only adds to his coaches' frustration. Goodes is using up a lot of time and effort - his and theirs. Yet the more he flails away, the less natural this most fluid and instinctive of players looks.

So concerned are the Swans by Goodes' slow start that, for the second time, his usually protective coach Paul Roos was brutally frank. Having said Goodes needed to be "a hell of a lot better than that" after a quiet opening game against St Kilda, he described Goodes's current form as a "massive concern".

Not massive enough, said Roos yesterday, to consider dropping Goodes to the reserves to regain his confidence. Some patches of Goodes' best, including a match-turning second quarter against West Coast, are enough to convince the coach that his versatile champion's form is "not diabolical".

But with the team sentenced to another six weeks - and probably more - without the suspended/injured Barry Hall, the urgency to find out why Goodes cannot escape the clutches of his weekly tormentors is compelling. A study of this week's videotape is likely to reveal the 28-year-old's problems were mostly with timing, execution and a first-rate opponent than a lack of effort.

There was hardly a blade of Kardinia Park grass that Goodes did not cover in his attempts to inject himself into the contest and shake the tag of Cameron Ling. Goodes ran into centre bounces from all angles when he did not start in the square. He was isolated at full-forward, ran deep into defence, went third man up in the ruck - something he has rarely done since Roos decided his thoroughbred was too precious to do the work of draught horses - and tried in vain to run with Cats ruckman Trent West so Luke Ablett could deal with Ling.

He showed some leadership, confronting reigning Brownlow medallist Jimmy Bartel, who had spent much of the day bumping and harassing young Swan Kieren Jack in order to protect Jack's opponent, Gary Ablett jnr. The role of standover man does not come as easily to Goodes as to the feisty Bartel, but he at least gave it a go.

For all that, the statistics did not lie: Just 14 possessions to Ling's 18 despite the concerted efforts of teammates and coaches to bring him into the game.

By the end of a tough day, and with the Swans overwhelmed, Goodes looked like a man desperately trying to play himself into form. He dribbled the ball around the boundary and tried to recover his own kick and, later, took three bounces along the wing only to hit a road block. Ablett was playing with a freedom that prompted an unflattering comparison by Roos.

"[For Geelong] to get 35 [possessions] and three goals from Gary Ablett … and our best player had a really bad day, it makes it really difficult on the other players," he said. "Goodesy knows that's part of being a good player, that responsibility."

That Goodes missed four shots at goal might suggest he at least created chances. But, for a player of his skill, it was more an indication that his confidence is low.

The role of Ling, who suffered an ankle injury early in the game, is not to be understated. Often Goodes was caught between his attacking instincts and defensive duties on an opponent who is not merely a human glove but an accomplished finisher. As Geelong coach Mark Thompson noted when asked if Goodes looked down: "I know that I would be pretty down on confidence if Cameron Ling walked toward me at the start of a game."

Perhaps. But, at his best, Goodes' combination of endurance, speed and skill cannot be stopped by anything. Other than that which ails Adam Goodes.