Swans Review - Essendon (6 August, 2011)

ESSENDON 1.2 8.5 13.7 15.10 (100) SYDNEY 3.3 9.4 12.6 14.15 (99)

Goals: Essendon: K Reimers 4 D Hille 3 D Zaharakis 2 L Jetta 2 A Davey B Stanton J Melksham M Hurley. Sydney: A Goodes 3 S Reid 3 L Jetta 2 B McGlynn C Bird J Kennedy R O'Keefe S Mumford T Dennis-Lane.

Best: Essendon: J Watson D Heppell P Ryder D Fletcher M Hurley B Stanton. Sydney: A Goodes D Hannebery S Reid T Richards J Kennedy H Grundy.

Umpires: Stuart Wenn, Stephen McBurney, Dean Margetts.

Official Crowd: 38,722 at Etihad Stadium

So close yet so far for the Swans at Etihad Stadium tonight.

This was the defining contest of the 2011 Toyota AFL Premiership, an epic game that see-sawed back and forth between two evenly-matched teams. Game of the Week status was very fitting. It will now gain Game of the Season status. This compelling football drama had everything that makes our game great, and was played out at breakneck speed from the first bounce to the final siren, completely enthralling nearly forty thousand at Etihad Stadium and many more watching on Foxtel. There was no respite, no break. It was full-on and it was a brilliant contest to watch.

There was never a point in the game when you could predict with any sort of certainty that either team would win. It was completely fitting that the final result wasn't determined until after the siren, in the most dramatic way possible. The kicked from Goodes looked good early, then faded late, and the Swans went from jubilation to despair, as the Bombers went from despair to jubilation.

The game had an extraordinary rhythm to it. One team would go out and build a lead of two or three goals, only to have the other team come storming back - and then go out to their own lead, which was soon erased just as quickly. That was the pattern of the game. For the most part, goals were scored in bunches, running with momentum, which ebbed and flowed for the entirety of the contest.

For a game in August, it felt like a game in September. Certainly, it was a game worthy of being played during the Finals. The scene post-game, in the seconds after the siren, the seconds after Adam Goodes had just dragged his potential game-winning kick wide, scoring a behind rather than the necessary goal, it seemed as though one team's season was over. There were tears in the Swans cheer squad, a distraught look on Adam Goodes' face as his team mates hugged him, and jubilation from the Essendon players. On both sides, there were no players who hadn't given their absolute all, running themselves ragged. You had to remind yourself that there would be a next week - a few more next weeks for both teams.

A draw might've been the fitting result, a thought I would have recorded here even if the Swans had won tonight. For such an exceptional game, neither team deserved to lose. Unfortunately, the Swans came out on the wrong end after the siren sounded, and now that road to a home elimination final is a little bit tougher.

The Swans will rue missed opportunities, especially late. Kicking 15.14 and 2.9 in the final quarter is what killed them. It's hard to win a game with that stat in the books. The final term was defined by mistakes on both sides, made by players who were completely dead on their feet, who had toiled and struggled and scrapped for more than two hours, delivering the best game I have seen all year. It was just that the Bombers made a few less mistakes, and capitalised on some the Swans made near the death to score two late goals, the two late goals that won them the game.

It is unfair to lay the blame on Adam Goodes, who had another tremendous game, but his first two misses were in situations where he had a paddock to work with and put the ball on the boot instead of perhaps taking another bounce or two. Those two missed goals would, of course, have won the game. But, for every mistake Goodes made, he did two things brilliantly. His hit on Monfries was fantastic, and he always looked like the man most capable of winning the game for Sydney and he almost did. Whenever Goodes snared the football - especially in open space - supporters on both sides held their breath. It was brilliant to watch. 

There were certainly other players wearing red and white who could have stepped up and won the game tonight. That's the thing about football, the thing that makes it so great. You live and die as a team. Tonight, the Swans did the latter. Thankfully, they are still in the eight, even on points with the Bombers, who oust Fremantle - at least temporarily - from a finals berth after the Dockers were blown out late by St Kilda on the same ground, twenty-four hours earlier.

For the Swans, there were positives, the poor kicking effort aside. Goodes' overall performance was sensational - a word so often used to describe his body of work on the football field. There were others, too, like Lewis Jetta. Consider Jetta's game in this way: a year ago, the kid could not buy a goal. Now he is kicking absolute miracle goals and making them look easy. Kudos to Dan Hannebery, who looked like he'd been knocked cold late in the first half. To his credit, Hannebery

It hasn't been a great football night for me. At least the Swans contest with the Bombers was enjoyable to watch, completely at odds with the inspid effort our national rugby team put together across the ditch in New Zealand. Essendon's dominance of the Swans at Etihad Stadium continues like the All Black continue to dominate the Wallabies at Auckland's Eden Park.

Richmond next week, and although the road to a home elimination final is tougher after this heartbreaking loss, there's still a chance. Go Swans, go Bloods!!