Sydney 9.16 (70) Collingwood 12.6 (78)
Goals: Collingwood: D Beams 3 T Cloke 3 A Didak A Fasolo D Thomas J Blair P Seedsman S Wellingham. Sydney: L Roberts-Thomson 2 A Goodes B McGlynn C Bird J Kennedy M Pyke R O’Keefe T Dennis-Lane.
Best: Collingwood: D Beams S Wellingham N Maxwell B Reid S Sidebottom P Seedsman. Sydney: J Kennedy C Bird J McVeigh R Shaw R O’Keefe H Grundy.
Umpires: Scott Jeffery, Mathew Nicholls, Brett Rosebury.
Official Crowd: 45,827 at ANZ Stadium.
So close yet so far for the Sydney Swans, and, once again, they are left to rue a loss to Collingwood. ANZ Stadium in Sydney hasn't seen a win for the red and white team against the visiting hordes clad in black and white since the Swans' premiership year in 2005, and even then it was a victory by the barest of margins.
Tonight was like old times against the Pies. The Swans looked good at times, but were wildly inaccurate in front of goal, and suffered some critical defensive lapses that gifted Collingwood goals and, ultimately, the team who kicked better won the game. The eight point loss will be that much harder for Sydney to stomach given that they probably outplayed Collingwood. If not for the entire game, than certainly for long stanzas. The problem was that they just couldn't convert that dominance on the scoreboard, and, of course, on the scoreboard is where it counts. Scoring shots were 25-18 in favour of Sydney. Long stretches of the game were played inside their attacking 50m arc. Wayward kicking cost them.
I'm beginning to think that not being able to beat Collingwood is more of a mental thing than a physical thing. There are some players on the Swans roster who've never experienced a win against Nathan Buckley's team. Think about how many of the current players were around in 2005, the last triumph: Goodes, LRT, O'Keefe, Malceski...McVeigh, maybe. Not many. Other gun players who've come more recently like Kieran Jack, Dan Hannebery, Lewis Jetta, Shane Mumford and Rhyce Shaw. who must want a win against his old team so very badly, haven't tasted success. Every year they lose. I wonder if they just don't believe that they can beat that team on the other side of the park, their modern-day nemesis.
At least the Swans were close tonight. For all their goal-kicking yips, they were right in the contest until the very end. It was strange, though, to see normally steady shooters missing goals. Goodes and Jetta, for example. They missed goals in the last quarter that they would've gone back and slotted against any other team on any other night. Again, the mental roadblock that Collingwood seems to be. On the subject of Goodes, it was probably the worst game that I've seen him play in some time. There was little of note to mention. For large parts of the game, he was invisible. At the same time, Ted Richards' All Australian form seemed to desert him.
LRT led from the front, ably supported by Josh Kennedy, Jarrad McVeigh, the bearded Shaw, Heath Grundy, and Ryan O'Keefe, whose banana goal in the third quarter was a definite highlight of the game yet, strangely, was not warmly received and applauded by the Collingwood fans, and particularly not by one gentleman who was shown giving both barrels to the camera and to the Swans. Hopefully there weren't too many kids paying close attention. Lip-reading that gentleman's - if he can be called that - words wasn't hard.
It was a finals-type contest tonight, and a narrow win for Collingwood. At least Sydney still remain right in the hunt for a top four finish and that all-important double chance come September and finals football. I'm sure tonight's loss will be dissected thoroughly during the week, and the postmortem will suggest what I suggested: this was a game the Swans could have won, but for their failure to capitalise on their many chances, some of them golden.
It's on to the Western Bulldogs next Sunday before Hawthorn come to town. The team will bounce back. As for the Pies...well, you'd forgive the red-and-whites for losing this one if they could get over Collingwood in a final in a few weeks time. Wouldn't that be sweet?
Go Bloods!!
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