Swans Review - Hawthorn (29 April 2012)

SYDNEY 2.2 5.4 9.7 16.10 (106) HAWTHORN 5.3  8.6  8.6  10.9 (69)
Goals: Sydney: A Goodes 3 J Kennedy 3 C Bird 2 J Bolton 2 R O'Keefe 2 D Hannebery J McVeigh K Jack L Jetta. Hawthorn: J Roughead 5 D Hale 2 J Lewis 2 C Rioli.
Best: Sydney: J Kennedy A Goodes D Hannebery C Bird T Richards R Shaw. Hawthorn: S Burgoyne J Roughead B Sewell B Guerra S Savage R Schoenmakers.

Umpires: Stuart Wenn, Robert Findlay, Brett Rosebury.
Official Crowd: 19,217 at Aurora Stadium.

Well, talk about a game of two halves. At half-time, I was sure that the Swans were shot. The team that had started out 4-0 certainly hadn't made the trip down to Tasmania, or so it seemed. Not sure what John Longmire said during the intermission, except to know that he must've given the the bake of all bakes, but it seemed to work, because they came out in the second half and proceeded to go about absolutely, forensically, surgically and completely dismantling one of the best teams in the AFL, premiership favourites for so many.

To hold the Hawthorn Hawks - they of Buddy, Roughy and Cyril, a galaxy of threats - to a grand total of two goals in the entire second half is amazing. To do that after the Hawks had completely dominated every facet of the first half is something that goes beyond amazing. 22 points down at the half, the Swans came out and blew a very good football team clean away. There wasn't anyone on the football field who didn't pull their weight today, and just as well because, in the game where Adam Goodes, one of the greatest servants to this football club, broke the record for most games played in the red-and-white, going down by 6 or 8 goals, as seemed likely just before the half, would have been disgraceful and unforgivable. Especially after the Hawks had spoilt his 300th game in the finals last year. Goodes deserved more than that.

In the second half, Goodes got it. Players must've taken a hard look at themselves in the mirror during the break, and when they came out to play football, they did it with solid intent. The defensive half of the field was as safe as Fort Knox. Ted Richards, Marty Mattner, Rhyce Shaw, Heath Grundy - they all dominated once the siren for the start of the second half blew. Great to finally hear the media talk of Richards, especially, as a brilliant player. He's been that for some time; no one outside of Sydney seems to have noticed, until now. You hardly saw or heard a whimper from the Big Three for Hawthorn, until a Rioli goal midway through the fourth. That goal, indeed, was their first for the half, and it came much later than anyone could have expected before the break.

The midfield might've been a Datsun in the first half, but it was a rolled-gold Ferrari in the second. The list of top-notch performers is too great to name, but amongst them, Hannebery, Parker, Jude Bolton and Kieran Jack were superb. Josh Kennedy seems to keep finding another gear, another facet of his play to lift, and today's victory must have been sweet for the man basically cast aside from Hawthorn a few years ago, along with hard nut Ben McGlynn. Nick Smith, well, call him Super Sub, because he sliced them up in the third and fourth quarters, like a knife through hot butter.

The man himself, Goodes, was inspirational and while he'd had a reasonably quiet first and not a giant impact in the second, his few touches late helped to put the game out of reach for Hawthorn. As I've said many times before - many, many times - Goodes only requires a little space and a few touches to change the course of a football game. He proved that again today. And then some.

Sad to say, but the media focus in Melbourne will doubtless be on the Hawthorn collapse rather than the Sydney fightback, but, regardless, if the Swans aren't labelled now as genuine premiership contenders, the world has gone absolutely mad. At 5-0 - their best start to a season since 1998 - and having pounded the Hawks into submission in the second half, there's no way the Swans shouldn't be spoken about when flag favourites are mentioned.

Back to the SCG for the Adelaide Crows on Saturday night! Go Bloods!!

Swans Review - North Melbourne (22 April 2012)

It was a case of no Goodes, no Mumford, no LRT, and absolutely no worries for the high-flying Sydney Swans.

For the first time since 1998, the red and whites have opened the season 4-0 and look to have really arrived on the scene with a solid, six-goal thumping of the highly-fancied North Melbourne Kangaroos - North were bookies favourites going in, and were well-liked by much of the AFL media - at a damp and boisterous SCG this afternoon.

There was so much to like about the Swans' effort this afternoon. They played like men possessed, right from the outset, and all the way through. The attack on the football was as strong as I've seen it in a long time. For mine, there was only one dark moment on an afternoon where the Swans announced themselves as potential top four finishers, and that was the horrific injury to youngster Gary Rohan, who snapped an early goal, and then saw his ankle snapped. It was ugly footage to watch, on a weekend where we've seen some horrible injury footage - Port Adelaide's Robbie Gray had his knee bent completely backward, providing chilling pictures - but not quite as ugly as seeing Rohan stretchered off, a promising season seemingly cut short by an injury from which it will be a long road back.

If it was a mantra amongst the Swans to win it for Rohan, they certainly showed their class, and sent a nice message to the rest of the AFL. This wasn't the GWS Giants or a rising Port Adelaide, but a team, North, who had handily and impressively taken down Geelong a week before, and looked to have themselves arrived back in the spotlight after a few years wandering off Broadway. Instead, it was Sydney who grabbed centre stage, led by Ben McGlynn and Lewis Jetta and fifty-gamer Andrejs Everitt, who had three goals each, and by the hard-working quartet of Jude Bolton, Jarrad McVeigh, Luke Parker and Daniel Hannebery. Those guys always shine, but particuarly in the wet. They were ably assisted by Craig Bird, who had a game-high 11 tackles. Surely, it must be said that the Swans possess one of the finest midfield units in the entire Australian Football League?

Defensively, there were some gems played. Ted Richards locked down on the focal point of the Kangaroos attack, Drew Petrie, and Rhyce Shaw did a similar job on North live wire Brent Harvey. That, as many defenders will tell you, is far from an easy job. Ted Richards and Marty Mattner and Heath Grundy continued their spectacular starts to Season 2012. If there was a boil to be spoiled inside the Kangaroos attacking zone, it invariably was.

There was desperation football played, even when the game was well and truly decided. That, as we know, is true Bloods football. A finer example of that brand of football I have not seen in quite some time. Aside from a brief moment in the last quarter, when it seemed that the Swans were happy to let North back in, it was a complete effort, and with Mumford and Goodes and LRT to come back, the future is definitely bright.

What a day, Rohan's injury aside, and now the Swans look forward to what looms as a solid test of their credentials - premiership or otherwise - next weekend in Tasmania against a  Hawks teams that, while they struggled to find the big sticks last night in Perth, are to be written off only at an opposing football team's peril. Hawthorn are good, Hawthorn are dangerous and Hawthorn will be a solid test of where the Swans are as the talk perhaps begins to bubble about them being an outside shot at their first premiership flag since the 2005 season.

A week from now will tell us more. Go Bloods!

Swans Review - Port Adelaide (14 April 2012)

SYDNEY 5.2  8.4  10.6  16.9 (105)
PORT ADELAIDE 3.3  5.6  9.9  12.11 (83)

Goals: Sydney: L Jetta 3 A Goodes 2 C Bird 2 J White 2 R O’Keefe 2 B McGlynn J Bolton J McVeigh S Mumford S Reid. Port Adelaide: D Stewart 3 Brad Ebert 2 J Schulz 2 J Westhoff 2 J Surjan M Broadbent M Thomas.

Best: Sydney: D Hannebery L Parker J Kennedy N Malceski K Jack A Goodes. Port Adelaide: J Westhoff H Hartlett J Trengove D Cassisi Brad Ebert K Cornes.
Official Crowd: 19,032 at AAMI Stadium. 

Well, it wasn't always pretty, and at times there were some maddening breakdowns in basic skills, but the Swans got a win against Port Adelaide, extending their unbeaten run in Adelaide vs. the Power, a run that started back in 2004, and they are, somewhat amazingly, equal top on the AFL ladder with Carlton. For a team that has traditionally struggled early in the season and made a late run to a finals position - slow out of the blocks, gathering steam in the middle of the year, before a charging finish - this is somewhat unfamiliar territory. Don't get me wrong; it's nice territory to be in!

My biggest take way from this game, as from last week's game vs. Fremantle (and even the game vs. GWS) is that the Swans need to focus, perhaps above anything else, on playing a complete game. That's four good quarters of smart, intense football. Not two or three or even three and a half good quarters, but four. Like last week, the Bloods seemingly decided that they'd take the third term off and gave the Power a glimpse at a possible victory. Against better teams that they'll face down the road, lethargic, non-thinking football with basic skill errors is going to be a killer. Look at a team like Carlton or Hawthorn; take a quarter off against those heavyweights and there'll be a very lopsided score once the final siren goes.

To the positives, though, and aside from general lackadaisical effort in the third, there were good things happening across the ground. Luke Parker had a career day in terms of possession, and always seemed to be around the football. Jetta, who didn't have a wealth of touches, made his plays count, kicking nicely, truely, and without too many examples of the yips that've characterised his efforts in front of goals in previous seasons. Josh Kennedy continued his solid form, Jude Bolton was a consistent force - as if he's ever going to be anything but - and Dan Hannebery appears to be playing himself back into the form that has so endeared him to Swans fans in the last few seasons. 

Elsewhere, Craig Bird is looking more and more like Paul Kelly each week - he has the jumper number to match - and what else can you say about Mattner, Grundy, Shaw, Richards and co in the back half of the field? It sounds like a broken record. We say the same thing every week. It's a very reassuring thing to have guys like that protecting the goals. Richards, especially, had a number of brilliant spoils when the game was on the line. He's matured into a brilliant defender. Another discarded player who's made the move up to Sydney, another Swans success story.

On the day when he tied the Swans games record, Adam Goodes went missing at times, but bobbed up when necessary, especially when the game was somewhat in the balance midway through the fourth. The occasional deft touch from #37 is all it usually takes, and the game today - as has been the case numerous times throughout a sparkling career - turned because of some well-timed insertions into the play. It's been a somewhat quiet start to the year for Goodes, but he's still not a guy opposition teams want to give the ball in space. He can still kill you. 

Let's just hope that Goodes being reported for rough conduct in the second quarter - those knees did look a little questionable, if that is indeed what the report is related to - doesn't interfere with the milestone game up next for one of the greatest players to ever wear the Sydney/South Melbourne jersey. The one positive is that Surjan, the man Goodes was alleged to have kneed, was not hurt and managed to carry on the game.

Next week, North Melbourne back at the SCG on Sunday afternoon, and the Swans, who keep doing enough to win, should go into that game as favourites.