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!!
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