An early look at the Swans schedule for the 2012 AFL Premiership Season, and some quick thoughts on each game, from a long way out!
Round One vs. Greater Western Sydney: This ANZ Stadium contest comes nearly a week before the rest of the AFL resumes competitive premiership football and will be a nice slice of history to be involved in. If the GWS Giants are anything like Gold Coast last year, this should be an easy win for the Swans…and a long season for Sydney’s new team, but watch out for them in a few years!
Round Two vs. Fremantle: The clash at the SCG last year featured some of the worst umpiring I’ve ever seen – when fans from both teams are complaining, you know it’s pretty bad – so one can only hope that the umps have taken a good, hard look at themselves. This will be the Swans’ home opener, after being designated the ‘away’ team in Round One vs. GWS at ANZ Stadium, and the first time in quite a while that the debut home game comes at the Sydney Cricket Ground rather than out west.
Round Three vs. Port Adelaide: The trip to AAMI Stadium in Adelaide has always been a difficult one for the Swans, even when the Crows/Power are a bad team. Take last year’s nonsensical flub of a game there a week after nearly beating Collingwood in Sydney. The Power weren’t much better than the Crows last year. For some reason, getting a win here is as difficult for the Swans as it is for the rest of the league to get a win in Geelong. Hopefully the team can put that hoodoo to rest this year.
Round Four vs. North Melbourne: The Swans’ first ever 3.15pm Saturday afternoon game against a team that figures to be better this year than they were last year, with a good young roster led by the incredibly ageless Brent ‘Boomer’ Harvey, but still beatable for the Swans. It caps off a reasonable start to the season, and is the gateway to some of the tougher opponents over the next 4-6 weeks.
Round Five vs. Hawthorn: Sydney makes the trek to the deep south, to Aurora Stadium in Launceston to take on a Hawks outfit who will likely be smarting after their last-quarter meltdown in the prelim final vs. Collingwood last year. Will the Hawks be motivated? Yes. Will the Hawks be dangerous? A healthy Buddy, Roughie, Chance Bateman and Cyril Rioli say that they will, and should be amongst the league’s best again, if not outright premiership favourites by the time they face Sydney in Tasmania.
Round Six vs. Adelaide: First Saturday night home game of the season against the Crows, and, as I wrote before, better to be playing South Australian teams away from the AAMI Stadium graveyard. There’s nothing like a crisp Saturday evening at a full SCG and the Crows always run us close.
Round Seven vs. Richmond: The Swans have their first Saturday twilight game, and their first trip to the Home of Football, the MCG. Sydney’s had it’s fair share of – well-documented by the Melbourne media – trouble winning in Melbourne, and particularly at the MCG. It’s a problem that stretches back to the 2006 season. Obviously that makes it hard to win finals games. The Swans have only this lone visit to the great arena to work on that problem. How good will Richmond be? Jury’s out, for mine.
Round Eight vs. Melbourne: A Saturday twilight game at the SCG against a team that is now debt free, thanks to the inspirational leadership of the great Jim Stynes, and can boast one of the best lists of any team in football. Make no mistake, the Demons are on a definite upward trajectory and may trouble the scorers this year as making a finals appearance goes. I think I’m going to enjoy twilight football.
Round Nine vs. St Kilda: The year’s first visit to Etihad Stadium in Melbourne, and a game against old Swans faces Adam Schneider and Sean Dempster. The Saints have gone through a whole lot of upheaval in the off-season, losing their head coach, ex-Swans assistant Ross Lyon, to Fremantle, though it certainly hasn’t been as rocky an off-season as last year’s, marred by the long-running and sad saga of the so-called St Kilda Schoolgirl. A season of change for the Saints.
Round Ten vs. Western Bulldogs: No longer the team that our old captain/spearhead Barry Hall plays for, and thankfully a home game rather than a trip down to Manuka Oval in Canberra, where the Swans record hasn’t been particularly great. This will be our first taste of a late 3.15pm start for Channel Seven, so that the game will back onto their Sunday night news bulletin; apparently that’s the secret to holding an audience: football then news.
Round Eleven vs. Essendon: The last Etihad Stadium meeting between these two teams was an absolute epic, one of the best games of the season, and one that the Swans had plenty of opportunities to win, but ended up coming away with a disappointing and frustrating loss. Still, it was epic end-to-end footy and we can only hope for something similar this time around. Come to think of it, the ANZ Stadium meeting early last year was epic, too.
Round Two vs. Fremantle: The clash at the SCG last year featured some of the worst umpiring I’ve ever seen – when fans from both teams are complaining, you know it’s pretty bad – so one can only hope that the umps have taken a good, hard look at themselves. This will be the Swans’ home opener, after being designated the ‘away’ team in Round One vs. GWS at ANZ Stadium, and the first time in quite a while that the debut home game comes at the Sydney Cricket Ground rather than out west.
Round Three vs. Port Adelaide: The trip to AAMI Stadium in Adelaide has always been a difficult one for the Swans, even when the Crows/Power are a bad team. Take last year’s nonsensical flub of a game there a week after nearly beating Collingwood in Sydney. The Power weren’t much better than the Crows last year. For some reason, getting a win here is as difficult for the Swans as it is for the rest of the league to get a win in Geelong. Hopefully the team can put that hoodoo to rest this year.
Round Four vs. North Melbourne: The Swans’ first ever 3.15pm Saturday afternoon game against a team that figures to be better this year than they were last year, with a good young roster led by the incredibly ageless Brent ‘Boomer’ Harvey, but still beatable for the Swans. It caps off a reasonable start to the season, and is the gateway to some of the tougher opponents over the next 4-6 weeks.
Round Five vs. Hawthorn: Sydney makes the trek to the deep south, to Aurora Stadium in Launceston to take on a Hawks outfit who will likely be smarting after their last-quarter meltdown in the prelim final vs. Collingwood last year. Will the Hawks be motivated? Yes. Will the Hawks be dangerous? A healthy Buddy, Roughie, Chance Bateman and Cyril Rioli say that they will, and should be amongst the league’s best again, if not outright premiership favourites by the time they face Sydney in Tasmania.
Round Six vs. Adelaide: First Saturday night home game of the season against the Crows, and, as I wrote before, better to be playing South Australian teams away from the AAMI Stadium graveyard. There’s nothing like a crisp Saturday evening at a full SCG and the Crows always run us close.
Round Seven vs. Richmond: The Swans have their first Saturday twilight game, and their first trip to the Home of Football, the MCG. Sydney’s had it’s fair share of – well-documented by the Melbourne media – trouble winning in Melbourne, and particularly at the MCG. It’s a problem that stretches back to the 2006 season. Obviously that makes it hard to win finals games. The Swans have only this lone visit to the great arena to work on that problem. How good will Richmond be? Jury’s out, for mine.
Round Eight vs. Melbourne: A Saturday twilight game at the SCG against a team that is now debt free, thanks to the inspirational leadership of the great Jim Stynes, and can boast one of the best lists of any team in football. Make no mistake, the Demons are on a definite upward trajectory and may trouble the scorers this year as making a finals appearance goes. I think I’m going to enjoy twilight football.
Round Nine vs. St Kilda: The year’s first visit to Etihad Stadium in Melbourne, and a game against old Swans faces Adam Schneider and Sean Dempster. The Saints have gone through a whole lot of upheaval in the off-season, losing their head coach, ex-Swans assistant Ross Lyon, to Fremantle, though it certainly hasn’t been as rocky an off-season as last year’s, marred by the long-running and sad saga of the so-called St Kilda Schoolgirl. A season of change for the Saints.
Round Ten vs. Western Bulldogs: No longer the team that our old captain/spearhead Barry Hall plays for, and thankfully a home game rather than a trip down to Manuka Oval in Canberra, where the Swans record hasn’t been particularly great. This will be our first taste of a late 3.15pm start for Channel Seven, so that the game will back onto their Sunday night news bulletin; apparently that’s the secret to holding an audience: football then news.
Round Eleven vs. Essendon: The last Etihad Stadium meeting between these two teams was an absolute epic, one of the best games of the season, and one that the Swans had plenty of opportunities to win, but ended up coming away with a disappointing and frustrating loss. Still, it was epic end-to-end footy and we can only hope for something similar this time around. Come to think of it, the ANZ Stadium meeting early last year was epic, too.
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