SYDNEY 1.5 3.12 6.17
10.23 (83)
ST KILDA 3.3 6.4 9.6 10.8
(68)
Goals: Sydney: R Shaw J McVeigh D Hannebery R O'Keefe J White S Reid J Bolton M Spangher A Goodes S Mumford.
St Kilda: N Riewoldt 2 D Armitage 2 B Goddard S Gilbert F Ray T Lynch S Milne D Polo.
Best: Sydney: S Mumford J McVeigh R Shaw D Hannebery T Richards N Smith.
St Kilda: S Fisher N Dal Santo J Gram S Dempster B Goddard.
Injuries: Sydney: A Johnson (foot).
St Kilda: J Blake (leg) S Dempster (concussion) J Koschitzke (gastro) replaced in selected side by T Lynch, Z Dawson (gastro) replaced in selected side by S Baker.
Reports: D Polo (St Kilda) for tripping A Goodes (Sydney) in the final quarter.
Umpires: Luke Farmer, Ray Chamberlain, Shaun Ryan.
Crowd: 25,025 at ANZ Stadium.
Finally, something good to write about in a review piece. With their backs to the wall, the Swans have had a much-needed win at Sydney Olympic Park this afternoon, strengthening their chances of playing finals for a second-straight season.
It wasn't pretty for most of the game. At times, it was downright frustrating. The Swans couldn't have bought a goal for long stretches of a contest they dominated almost from the outset. Despite creating 33 scoring shots to St Kilda's 18, it was twenty three behinds and ten goals that kept the game close for most of the afternoon, and kept a reasonable crowd of twenty-five thousand at ANZ Stadium on the edge of their seat.
The three goal explosion early in the fourth quarter - majors to Goodes, the Mark Knopfler lookalike Spanger and Jesse White - proved the difference, and the Swans came away with a win, but still with apparently no end in sight as far as their goal-kicking woes go. The final result could've been a blow out, had the kicking been straighter. There was a maddening run of ten minor scores, including some that just shaved the post, after Rhyce Shaw kicked the opening major of the game. The win, by 15 points, puts Sydney into seventh on the AFL ladder. St Kilda are sixth, with Essendon in eighth.
Shane Mumford was clearly best on ground, putting in a herculean effort from the ruck, and kicked a timely goal to pad the lead in the final quarter. Also excellent for the Swans were Ted Richards and Nick Smith. Ted kept Nick Riewoldt relatively quiet, despite the Saints skipper kicking two goals, and Smith did a wonderful job on dangerous forward, Steven Milne, who recorded only the one major. The midfield worked well, with Shaw, Hannebery and McVeigh among the best for the Swans.
Surprisingly with Ray Chamberlain umpiring, it was a fairly solid performance from the men wearing canary yellow this week. Unlike a few weeks back, when Razor Ray decided he would become the show against Fremantle, the universally-disliked ump managed to swallow his whistle at times, and let the game play out as a tough and hard struggle, like so many other Swans vs. Saints games of recent years. Thankfully for the sanity of those at the ground and watching on TV, there were no outrageous umpiring decisions this time around. Kudos to Ray, I suppose.
Despite the continuing goal kicking issues, the Swans played a good game. They did more things right than wrong, and I was very impressed with their tackling, kicking and general effort at the football. There were few out there who didn't answer the bell today. When the season was on the line, the big names stepped up and created scoring attempts with regularity. If Longmire can just find a way to cure the problems in front of the big sticks, the Swans just might cause a little stir come September and finals football. Because, kicking aside, they looked pretty good today.
Almost better than the win was the kick to kick after the game. A win and a chance to kick the Sherrin about on the ground makes for a solid afternoon!!
The tough road trip to Geelong awaits for the Swans, then it's back home for the season finale against Brisbane, two weeks from yesterday (September 3, 4.10pm, SCG) and, hopefully, some more action after that, some elimination final action.
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