Opinion: A Year Is a Long Time For The Sydney Swans

The old saying goes that a week is a long time in football. Well, a year is an even longer stretch of time, and as I walked out of ANZ Stadium last evening after watching a comeback of record-setting proportions – the Swans overcame their biggest ever fourth-quarter deficit to beat a Bombers team that had dominated them for three quarters – I saw the glow of the light towers of Spotless Stadium.

Spotless is home to the Royal Easter Show at the moment but, one footy year ago – a 4:35pm twilight bunch – it was where the Swans suffered a rather embarrassing loss at the hands of an upstart GWS Giants squad in similarly wet weather, though, thankfully, without the ridiculously apocalyptic storm that stopped the game for a long stretch in the first half.

Remember? The sky was falling in, and already the knockers – typically, mostly supporters of clubs who had been spurned by Buddy, though some from misguided Swans fans who, amongst other social media howlers, openly wondered if the club could somehow trade Buddy to Collingwood and get Jesse White back – were out and about in force, and, after just one game, everyone and their seven dogs, including some gleeful rugby league journalists, were declaring the Buddy trade was a bust.

The vaunted Bloods culture was dead and buried, they said, and Lance Franklin was single-handedly to blame. He’d come in and taken only one game to destroy a decade or more of success.  It seems crazy now to look back on those days of hysteria, considering the Swans made the Grand Final last year (the less said about the actual result, the better) but it was a strange time of over-reaction and a lack of calm from most.

Short of suffering half a dozen calamitous injuries, you don’t lose a premiership on opening day, just like you don’t win one. There were a number of factors last year. The wet weather didn’t help. The interrupted pre-seasons from some players didn’t help. The momentum-stalling storm probably didn’t help, either. Nor did the way the Swans seemed to believe the game would be theirs without putting in much effort.

I remember waking up with dread Sunday morning after the GWS game and opening the paper cautiously, afraid of the knee-jerk reactions surely contained within. I wasn’t disappointed. Buddy had been unfairly heaped with most of the negative press attention. Unfairly, because his midfield didn’t look good, and a key forward is only ever going to be as good as the service that the on-ball brigade is able to provide. For most of the game, they were dominated by their GWS opponents.

I can’t remember a time where there was so much insanely-unfair assertions being made about the Swans. The fact that Buddy, so maligned after round one last year, single-handedly won a handful of games on his own last year – remember the giant nine-goal haul against St Kilda, his long-range efforts against Port Adelaide and the scintillating, match-winning bursts against Carlton and the second GWS game – is now feted by the Swans faithful is interesting.

A number of Swans fans I know hated the idea of Buddy on the team, called for his head after the first few losses, and are now fully on the bandwagon, and now admit to me that I was right all along. Once he got match-fit, Buddy went on a tear. Winning does that.

For a while yesterday, it didn’t look good for the Swans, staring down the barrel of another upset loss in the first round, in the wet. Playing with less heart and soul than the upstart team on the other side of the footy. You know, I wasn’t even sure the Bloods would be triumphant when Buddy – marginalised last year, a hero to the masses this year, and a catalyst for the Swans comeback to boot – kicked the goal that put them up by six, still with ample time on the clock for some Bomber heroics.

We’ve seen a team get close so often, but use all their petrol tickets and succumb late, and I wondered if maybe the Bombers weren’t waiting for the Swans to do just that, and ran over them late. As it turned out, the Essendon squad, many of whom haven’t played a pre-season game, had spent all of theirs in the first three terms. They failed to trouble the scorers at all in the final segment, and that, as they say, was that. I wonder if the season-opener last year was on the minds of the players as they stormed home last evening?

Watching this morning’s replay, I was struck by the general pattern of the games and it’s sort-of similarity to the GWS game a year ago. Just, it was the other way around. Last year, the Swans started strongly and were run over late by a younger, more-committed squad who’d obviously had a better pre-season preparation. Any of that sound familiar? Last night, the shoe was on the other foot, and the Swans were the ones finishing like a locomotive. Everything they didn’t do against GWS, they did against the Bombers. The final quarter was a joy to watch. Last year’s? Not so much.

The important thing? In a season that should be all about redemption after their team-wide brain fade in the Grand Final last year, the Swans got off to a winning start, and winning heals all ills for a footy team. Suffice to say, the Sydney faithful opened their post-opening game Sunday newspapers with much less trepidation this year compared to last!

Buddy Stars As Swans Notch 12 Straight Wins

This wasn’t how it was supposed to be going.

There were a few of us taking nervous sips at our beer during the chilly half-time break on Saturday night at the SCG, the nagging feeling that, perhaps, the Swans expected twelfth straight win wasn’t going to materialise.

Carlton, rank underdogs, with finals beyond them and mired in a disappointing season by anyone’s reckoning, were expected to be the sacrificial lambs, but someone obviously forgot to give them those instructions. Instead, Michael Malthouse’s men came out with endeavour, taking the game up to the Swans for all of the first half, and dominating for impressive stretches. A goal after the siren to end the half cut the Sydney lead to seven points: a gap that, on the form they displayed in the second term, was a very surmountable one for the surprising Blues.

Sitting there at half time, looking at the scoreboard, I – and, very few others – could have imagined what might come next. Like a hurricane spooling up across the plains of the American south, a similarly unstoppable force of nature was uncorked, and thirty scintillating minutes of football later, the Swans had padded their lead by ten goals.

That unstoppable force goes by the name Lance Franklin, and on Saturday night, when Buddy got up and going, there was no warning. Absolutely no warning. This was a sneak attack combined with a blitzkrieg, and it was scarcely believable, even to those of us who sat there and blinked, worried that perhaps this was a dream, as Franklin led the Swans to an impossibly perfect quarter of football: ten goals to Carlton’s one behind. And suddenly, Sydney’s bid for twelve straight was back on track.

Where the Swans had been wasteful, indirect and often lacking in basic football skills in the (admittedly greasy) first half conditions, they were ruthless, fast, smart and played a scintillating brand of damaging running football, precision and panache, one way traffic through the middle of the park, Carlton, like so many teams before, hapless, unable to stop the rot.

And what a rot. Franklin had been quiet, defended out of the game in the first half, but the second was a completely different story. As one of my friends said, it’s like Swans coach John Longmire has a button he can press to bring Buddy online. Well, he must’ve given it an almighty whack at half-time, and Franklin, the new face of AFL footy in Sydney, responded, as he has done so many times before, with the Swans and at Hawthorn, in kind.

If you were in attendance at the SCG last night, it was a quarter of football that you won’t soon forget it. If this was your first AFL game – and, for four of my friends last night, it was – it’s gotta be a giant hook, a command performance that’ll have recent converts coming back again and again. It’s no surprise that crowds are up.

Another attendance of nearly 35,000 is proof positive that, more than ever before, Sydneysiders are getting out to the footy in force. Even the Swans premiership years of 2005 and 2012 didn’t inspire quite as much red-and-white fervour.

I’d go so far as to say that we haven’t seen AFL obsession in this city since the days of Tony Lockett. You can draw similarities between Plugger and Buddy, both in the way they have really put AFL on the map here in Sydney, and in the way they could, with great ease, rip a game apart.

Buddy did that Saturday night, in the fierce, take-no-prisoners manner that we’ve become used to seeing. The third quarter was a master class, helped by a midfield engine that purred like a Ferrari. And then there was Buddy, taking full advantage. The man could do no wrong, whether that meant bombing balls through the big sticks from sixty meters away, or converting speculative chances on the run from a tight angle, every touch sending the crowd into delirious rapture.

It was the Port Adelaide game all over again, but arguably more devastating. The entire field opened up, and Franklin, beardless for the first time in a long time, dominated – with great support from Sam Reid, the ever improving and oft-forgotten fourth member of the Swans ‘Fab Four’ up forward – in a way that we have come to expect from #23, but, still, are struck dumb when it happens.

Franklin’s aerial game has improved leaps and bounds, as has his ability to do the important things when he doesn’t have the footy in hand: chasing, tackling, defensive pressure. It’s a hallmark of the Swans and their all-in, all-the-time culture, and obviously it’s rubbed off on their prized recruit. Of course, in that third quarter, it was a rare occasion when Buddy wasn’t in control of the Sherrin.

When it was all said and done, the Swans romped to a victory of nearly twelve goals, leapt into the history books – a twelve-goal win for twelve straight wins has a nice ring to it – and Franklin ended with 6.2, and could’ve easily had eight or nine, including a near-gimme that he handpassed off to rookie Dean Towers, who, unfortunately sprayed it wide in front of the sticks.

Crucially, the Swans, a game ahead atop the AFL Premiership ladder, have a bye week to get stars Dan Hannebery, Kurt Tippett and Rhyce Shaw back ahead of a giant clash against Hawthorn. Alistair Clarkson’s backline is undermanned, and with Tippett likely returning to join the established triple threat of Franklin, Reid and Goodes, surely there are alarm bells ringing down at Glenferrie Oval.

And in other places around the AFL.

Swans On Top Of the AFL After Victory in the West

Well, it wasn’t pretty, and at times it was enough to have me alternately biting my fingernails and pulling my hair, but the Sydney Swans did enough during a dour struggle under rainy skies in Perth, defeating the hometown West Coast Eagles by twenty-eight points.

I had a bad feeling heading into this game: the combination of the arduous trip across to Perth – still the toughest and longest in footy – and the forecast of rain for Sunday in the west.

If you remember, the Swans opened their season a miserable 1-3 and those three defeats came in conditions where it was apocalyptically wet (GWS), raining and windy throughout (North Melbourne) or greasy (Collingwood), and didn’t look particularly good in any of them. The thought of this being a trap game eight days after notching ten straight wins weighed heavily on my mind throughout the week.

Those early season losses are a long way in the past now, though whether the slow start comes back to haunt the Swans remains to be seen. For the moment, it’s a case of no-harm-no-fowl because Sydney sit atop the AFL Premiership, following losses to frontrunners Port Adelaide on Friday night and Hawthorn yesterday, and seem to be primed for a run deep into September.

Yet, I was nervous, because rain is the great equaliser and a mediocre West Coast Eagles team had their best shot at an AFL-shaking win in wet conditions. It wasn’t the greatest day for big forwards, with Buddy Franklin worn like a glove – more often than not, an illegal glove – and his compatriot Kurt Tippett, with knee soreness, didn’t even make the game, replaced late by Gary Rohan.

Perhaps that was a fortuitous out, because it was the fleet of small midfielders and forwards who did the damage for Sydney – and one big guy by the name of Adam Goodes, who capitalised on the extra attention on Franklin by kicking three superb goals. It’s the mark of a brilliant player when they can make dry-weather plays in the middle of a downpour. Goodes did it time and time again today, and, also time and time again, showed amazing skill by hand and foot.

Around Goodes, the likes of Luke Parker, Craig Bird, Jarrad McVeigh, Josh Kennedy and Ben McGlynn. Parker seemed like he had his own footy out there at times, collecting a career-high 32 touches. Bird was close behind, the little man flying in the wet, netting 27 possessions, a mark equalled by the cannonball-like McGlynn, and the steady McVeigh, whose cool head under pressure never fails to impress.

It was something to see those players – and others, like Kieran Jack and his brother – throw themselves around almost with reckless abandon, swamping the Eagles midfield at times, and harassing the West Coast runners when they did have the footy. It was like watching the Swans of old, when men like Brett Kirk and Jude Bolton ruled the centre of the park, and made life incredibly difficult for opposing clubs.

Now, it’s the new breed of players, Parker, the Jack brothers, Nick Smith, Dane Rampe and others who have picked up where those famous Bloods have left off. To Sydney’s credit, they stood tall when challenged by the Eagles in the third. It was a ferocious run by the West Coast, who closed to within a goal in the shadows of three quarter time, but the combination of heavier rain and the fact that they’d obviously spent a lot of petrol tickets to get within a kick of the Swans put an end to the Eagles challenge.

The game was all over bar the shouting about ten minutes into the final term when McGlynn, a tough guy to slow down on the best of days, ran away from an Eagles defender, breaking that man’s hold on his jersey, to run into an open goal and steady the ship. Prior, Parker and Goodes had converted, and Sydney seemed destined to head to the top of the Premiership ladder.

Now, the question is: how far can Sydney’s run extend? Well, they have Carlton next Saturday night and will be odds-on favourites to defeat Michael Malthouse’s squad, who languish in the bottom half of the ladder after a disappointing season, and record their twelfth straight win, surpassing a record dating back to South Melbourne’s glory years in the 1930s.

Then, a sterner test: Hawthorn. The two teams battled through an epic game at ANZ Stadium a few months back, and there’s no reason to think that the return clash won’t be just as exciting. The way the Swans are playing, it’s not inconceivable that they will start favourites against the defending premiers down in Melbourne, and against Essendon at the SCG and maybe even in three weeks’ time against Port Adelaide at the foreboding Portress, Adelaide Oval.

After that, St Kilda, surely locks for the wooden spoon, follow, coming into the SCG, and although there’s no guarantee that the consecutive win streak will stretch past the Blues next Saturday, the Swans appear to be setting themselves up nicely for the all-important Top Four finish – and, if things fall well, maybe even a Top Two berth – for a double chance come September and finals football.

Sydney, prepare for the bandwagon to explode over the coming months. Some stern tests ahead, and a chance to be something approaching bulletproof when the finals roll around.

Opinion: AFL’s Sunday Night Football Is A Failed Experiment

The most painful part of this is going to be the first thing I say, and that is how much I agree with Collingwood president Eddie McGuire. Yes, it goes against every bone in my body to side with McGuire, a noted all-around hater of anything Sydney and Cost of Living Allowance, but on the topic of Sunday night football, we’re in total agreement.

Sunday night football might work well in America, and it may have had some limited success in the National Rugby League, but it’s been, unequivocally, a disaster for the AFL. Last night’s experiment, with Collingwood and Carlton at the MCG – traditional rivals with a history of drawing big crowds for their confrontations – drew a paltry crowd of 40, 936 to the Home of Football, the  lowest crowd for the rivalry since 1921.

Melbourne’s poor weather should be no defence, because we’ve seen bigger crowds turn up for lesser contests in conditions far more deplorable than last night. Yes, it was cold, but it didn’t rain throughout, and the quality of the game wasn’t weather-affected. Simply put, AFL fans just don’t like venturing out on a Sunday night, regardless of whether the game is scheduled for 7.10pm or 7.40pm.

Despite a bug match-up and the fixture leading into school holidays in Victoria, there was no market traction. The AFL expected at least ten thousand more fans than they got, and McGuire was furious, promising whoever would listen that, at 9.00am on Monday morning, he would be on the phone to AFL headquarters, demanding compensation to the tune of a six-figure sum to cover the losses that the Collingwood Football Club would’ve taken as a result of last night’s poor turn-out, which he says is the equivalent of the equalisation money gurgled down the drain. 

Now, I don’t quite agree with Collingwood calling for compensation, not with their financial security well assured through massive corporate sponsorship and a giant base of members. Let’s face it: they get well looked after by the AFL, with big games on public holidays and plenty of other nice timeslots. This was just…well, Eddie being Eddie. But the root of the message was a good one: fans don’t like it; look after the fans.

Most disturbing is that a large number of people who had pre-purchased or reserved seats, an estimated thirteen thousand people, simply didn’t bother to turn up. Whilst a smaller crowd probably suits Channel Seven, in terms of ratings, it’s not a good look for a contest that was featured, amongst other places, on cable television in America. A sparsely-populated MCG will not encourage international views to tune in again.

Twilight footy in Melbourne has been tested, and has produced reasonable crowd numbers, proving that most  fans don’t mind a game that starts mid-to-late afternoon, but want to be on their way home by seven or eight o’clock. That’s understandable, particularly if they have a long journey to make, and particularly in the teeth of what’s often a bitter Melbourne winter.

As I alluded to above, the opposite is true of Channel Seven, who covet primetime slots – look at their Friday night ratings to see why – and don’t care that no one turns up. In fact, you might say that the programmers at Seven prefer a smaller crowd, because that’s likely to bump up television numbers. Eyeballs equal valuable advertising revenue.

Furthermore, McGuire is right when he says that fans shouldn’t view going to the footy as some sort of test of their endurance. It should be made easier given the economic climate we currently live in – and, you know, that’s probably the smartest and most sensible thing to come out of Eddie’s mouth in some time.

Obviously, the AFL is looking for additional broadcast windows ahead of opening negotiations for the next broadcast deal, and they can continue to do so, but these should absolutely not come at the expense of the lifeblood of footy: fans rocking up to games at venues across Australia.

I don’t care if Channel Seven drew astronomical numbers last night. I don’t care if a third of the television sets in the country a third of Australia were tuned into the game, because there weren’t enough fans at the ground and, in my opinion, that hurts footy more than low television ratings.

Whilst I don’t follow either team (and tend to carry around a fair dislike of Collingwood) there should be no disputing the major draw-card that Collingwood vs. Carlton is, and should always be. If even that traditional rivalry fixture cannot put a good crowd into the MCG, then Sunday night football needs to die a quick death, like Monday night, and the AFL has given every indication that it will.

If the League is looking for another primetime window that also seems to resonate with those fans that trek out to the game, they’d be best off working to further enhance the profile of Thursday night football. Recently, we’ve seen good crowds in Adelaide and Sydney. It seems that the average punter is happier to head out to a game on the last working night of the week knowing that tomorrow is Friday, and they’re on the downhill run to the weekend.

Thursday night works – Sunday night obviously doesn’t. The idea of a Sunday night game should fall by the wayside at the end of this season, never to be resurrected.

Swans Make History With 10-Game Winning Streak

Normal AFL service in the Harbour City has officially resumed, with the Swans handily dispatching the upstart GWS Giants at the SCG on Saturday night, thanks to a first-half master class from prized recruit Lance Franklin, who booted four goals, including one that surely will be a contender for Goal of the Week (if not Goal of the Year) to blow the inexperienced Giants away.

The seven-goal win erases the shock loss that the young Giants handed the Swans in round one at Spotless Stadium, and extends the Swans’ current winning streak to a franchise-best ten games. Not since the 1930’s has the Sydney/South Melbourne franchise notched up an even ten-game winning streak.

The Swans came close to a similar streak in 2012 – a premiership year, which augurs well for the current squad – but fell one short. This time around, with the high-flying Swans enjoying strong wins against premiership contenders Hawthorn, Fremantle, Port Adelaide and a 110-point belting of Geelong en route to this historic mark, win number ten came against Sydney’s fledgling cross-town rivals on a cold, windy and rather unpleasant winter night in front of a little more than 27,000 fans, which is a pretty good return when you take Sydney’s near-cyclonic winds into account.

What is it about Sydney Derby games that seems to bring out the worst sort of weather imaginable? We endured a fierce storm at Spotless Stadium that stopped play for the best part of half an hour in the season opener, and whilst there was no precipitation or lightning, damaging winds had howled through the city and it’s suburbs before the game, and it doubtless kept many fans away from the game.

Two weeks ago, against Port Adelaide, FOX commentator Anthony Hudson labelled Franklin “Cyclone Buddy” and on Saturday night, Mother Nature chimed in, delivering damaging wind gusts that dropped the temperature considerably, but the elements didn’t seem to worry Buddy, who has twenty-six goals in the last six games. One might argue, in fact, that the man wearing #23 on his back was the most damaging force out there all night.

Make no mistake, this was the win that the Swans needed. GWS had their collective backs up, with two straight wins coming in, and you have to imagine that Sydney circled this return clash on their calendars after the embarrassing round one defeat. It wasn’t the greatest game we’ll ever see, but the Swans did enough in the first half, thanks to Franklin’s four majors (and a few handy score assists, too) and were never really travelled after the long break. The second half was a dour contest, neither team scoring much in the way of style points. Not that it mattered – the damage had been done, and done well.

It was alluded to in the week that the Swans, by Luke Parker and others, fresh off the coup of landing Buddy, headed into the season opener against the Giants with a little too much complacency, which they paid for in a big way, but there was no repeat in the SCG clash. In it’s place was the usual Swans ruthlessness.

The star-studded Swans midfield jumped all over the young Giants at the outset – Kieran Jack, the birthday boy and Brett Kirk Medallist, had twenty-two touches to half time, and people started wondering if he’d brought his own footy – and Shane Mumford was well held by Mike Pyke, after big Mummy’s powerhouse effort in round one set the table for so much of what the Giants did offensively. It was a red-letter day for Pyke. The Canadian ruckman played one of his best games in red-and-white.

Much has changed for the Swans since Round One. Their history-making loss to the Giants was part of a 1-3 start, and there is little similarity between the team that played in those first four games – jerseys aside, of course – to the team that took the park last night. They have improved out of sight in every facet of the game.

Of course, Franklin’s grasping of the Sydney game plan and his return to form has been a big part of that, as has the return of Kurt Tippett and the improved fitness of midfielders like Jarrad McVeigh and Kieran Jack. It’s amazing the difference that fifteen rounds of football can make, isn’t it?

The gulf in class between the Swans at their very best and the still-young GWS squad was on display for all to see. So, it’s back to the drawing board for Leon Cameron and his coaching staff, who will be without Heath Shaw, who was taken to hospital for concussion tests after a sickening collision with Kurt Tippett’s knee during the first quarter.

The former Collingwood star was out cold on the turf, necessitating the arrival of the medical cart to get him off the field. The incident was entirely accidental, but still something very hard to watch. You can only imagine how Tippett must have felt in the immediate aftermath.

Ten wins is great, of course, there is still lots of football to play, and the Swans have a very narrow margin for error after their 1-3 start. With a tough road trip to Perth to play the inconsistent – but still very dangerous – West Coast next week and Carlton the week after, before return clashes against heavyweights Hawthorn and Port Adelaide, now is not the time for complacency.

Creating history is something to remember, but the real task ahead is a hard tilt at September finals action, and Sydney will need to keep up their intensity if they are to attain the ultimate success, hoisting the AFL Premiership Cup at the MCG on Grand Final Day.

Franklin The Difference As Sydney Extend Win Streak To Nine | #GoSwans

Beautiful, epic, free-flowing, spectacular – just four different adjectives that won’t be used to describe the Week Thirteen edition of Friday night footy at the MCG.

That sound you hear is the exhale-in-relief of Sydney Swans fans everywhere, following something of an escape act. As the old adage goes, a win’s a win, and despite being outplayed for long stretches of the contest by a gallant, inspired Richmond, the Swans, thanks in large part to that bloke in #23, the one they like to call the Bondi Billionaire, have won their ninth straight, to further banish unpleasant memories of that 1-3 start.

A 1-3 start, mind you, that featured losses on nights like this one, with a slippery surface dictating terms of the contest. There was no precipitation during the game, but the ingredients were there for a bad Swans loss, as there were bad losses in the rain or on wet tracks against North, Collingwood and GWS.

At times, this game was downright unwatchable, with both the Swans and the Tigers putting more effort into defending than scoring, as the final score – 62-51 – suggested, but, as good teams do, and as good players do, when there was a moment to be seized, when the game was on the line, it was those in red and white who snatched it, and capitalised, leading to the win.

Mark it in the books: that’s two weeks in a row where Lance Franklin has been the difference between a win and a loss for the Swans. On both occasions, he picked up a sagging team and basically carried them across the line on his own back. Not bad for a guy whose best, said the Melbourne press, is well behind him. Perhaps that was more wishful thinking than hard fact?

If the last two weeks have taught us anything, other than that the Swans are legitimate Premiership contenders, it’s that reports of Buddy’s demise have been greatly exaggerated. He’s still as dangerous a player as there is in the AFL. Last week, he was sublime and superb, clunking goals from all over the ground.

Fast forward six days, and though he wasn’t all that dominant, well-held (and, at times, somewhat illegally, it seemed) by Richmond key defender Alex Rance, Buddy managed to get produce when he needed to, kicking four straight and maintain close contact with Richmond’s Jack Riewoldt in the Coleman Medal race,

All four kicks were the type you would use as an example for young kids learning how to play the game: dead-on shots that never, ever looked like missing. It’s a funny thing, because, by most statistical markers, you’d venture to say that Rance won the battle against Franklin, and he did, for the most part, but with someone as lethal as the Swans spearhead is at the moment, it only takes a momentary lapse or a bad free kicks, as led to Buddy’s last goal, the match-winner for the Swans, for him to get on top.

To their credit, Richmond were very good. I saw them in person three weeks ago for the Dreamtime Game at the MCG, and although the Tigers of Friday night were wearing the same colour jerseys, there was little comparison between the hapless, uninterested team I saw get belted by Richmond and the team who came out tonight, full of fire and belief.

The Tigers jumped the Swans early, getting out to a four-goal lead (and, soon thereafter, a game high lead of twenty-six), and were it not for some inaccuracy and poor decision-making, the Tigers would have been even further ahead. Perhaps they should have been further ahead, such was their domination everywhere but where it counts the most: on the scoreboard.

As good teams do, the Swans found avenues to goal. Franklin took a spectacular juggling mark on about the fifth attempt and goaled. Kieran Jack, despite sustaining a hand injury during the second half, capitalised on a Richmond mistake and suddenly the Swans were only down by a manageable fourteen points at the half.

In the second stanza, the big names stood up for the Swans. One can only imagine the fearful spray John Longmire must’ve delivered at half-time. It’s fair to say that the Horse wouldn’t have been doing that much whispering. Whatever he said, however, seemed to work wonders. Important players who were quiet in the first half – Jarrad McVeigh, Luke Parker, Jake Lloyd and Adam Goodes – were suddenly right amongst the action.

As good teams do, these Swans found a way back through these big names, who got more of the football, and were able to, if not have a huge impact on the scoreboard, at least get the Sherrin moving in the right direction.  That left Buddy to do his thing, and though the goals weren’t all of the highlight reel variety – except for his snap off one step in the fourth to snatch back the lead for Sydney – they were equally as important as last week's show-stoppers.

The Swans persevered despite the injury to Rhyce Shaw, whose verve and dash from half-back was missed by the Swans. News of Shaw’s condition will be a big talking point in Sydney as the Swans head into a week that will end with a battle against the Greater Western Sydney Giants next Saturday night at the SCG, a game that the Swans surely have had circled on their calendar ever since the five-goal defeat in round one.

Rest easy, Swans fans: this was an eminently forgettable win, but with Tippett, McGlynn and Hannebery to come into this team, the hunt for ten consecutive victories, and a top-two finish, is still alive and well.

Swans Beat Gold Coast & Extend Win Streak To Seven

The frustrating early-season moments seem a long time ago now. In fact, it’s hard to think of the Swans team that’s just won it’s seventh straight win – a handy thirty-five point win over the Gold Coast Suns – with the outfit that lost to GWS, Collingwood and North Melbourne to open their season a miserable 1-3.

At that point, you may remember, alarm bells were ringing across Sydney, as article after article appeared in newspapers and talking head after talking head queried whether the recruitment of Lance Franklin (and, to a lesser extent) Kurt Tippett had ruined the vaunted Bloods Culture. Stats were thrown up, showing a downward trend over the Swans’ last twenty games, stretching back to last season, yet did not make mention

Now, the Swans are the form team of the competition - amazing what an injection of class players can do, right? The inclusions of handy players like Adam Goodes and Kurt Tippett have helped, and the re-emergence of form for guys like Kieran Jack, Dan Hannebery and Rhyce Shaw have made a giant difference. As, of course, has Franklin settling in and rediscovering the sort of form that made him such a huge threat at Hawthorn and such a sought after free agent.

The Swans are on the march now, warm-to-hot premiership favourites in most people’s eyes, thanks to the nature of their most important wins: Fremantle, Hawthorn and Geelong. They were dominant against the Dockers at the SCG, beating Ross Lyon’s men at their own game, skipped away from Hawthorn on the back of two last-quarter Franklin specials, and absolutely belted Geelong by 110 points, teaching the Cats a lesson in football that they won’t soon forget.

On Sunday afternoon, Sydney faced a different test: that of a determined and young Gold Coast outfit. The Suns are on the rise, chock-full of talent, and don’t yet know where their ceiling is. With Sydney potentially looking ahead to next Saturday’s showdown with Port Adelaide, there was always the potential for this to become a trap game.

Needless to say, any team featuring Gary Ablett is not one to be taken lightly, and the Brownlow medallist’s sparkling form continued on Sunday (37 touches and a goal), despite being closely shadowed by nuggetty Swan Ben McGlynn, who copped a nasty whack late in the game and had about as much knowledge of his presence on the turf at Metricon as I have knowledge about rocket science. The Swans love his dependable presence, and will be hoping there are no lingering concussion symptoms to keep him out next week or into the future.

You can see where the Suns are going to improve. Already, they’re very good, but occasionally their lack of experience lets them down. In two or three years, that won’t be a problem and the Suns will be a powerhouse unit – Harley Bennell, Kade Kolodjashnij, Charlie Dixon and the imposing Zac Smith all look set for long careers in the AFL.

On Sunday afternoon, however, it was the Swans own group of elite performers who were the difference: Dan Hannebery, Kieran Jack, Jarrad McVeigh, Rhyce Shaw and Martin Mattner stood up when it was necessary, and helped pave the way for the nearly-six goal win. These guys continue to be in a rich vein of form, and at times the midfield was so good that they sometimes do too much and outsmart themselves.

Pleasingly, some of the second-tier players were part of the win. Forward Harry Cunningham had a career day, booting four goals, picking up the slack created by Kurt Tippett being well covered by Gold Coast’s Rory Thompson. Cunningham was lethally accurate, doing what so many of the fringe players on this red-hot Sydney team must do to hold their place: take the most of every opportunity presented. Tick that box for Cunningham today. He was as good as he’s ever been in the red-and-white.

Sam Reid, often the forgotten fourth man in the celebrated Swans forward line alongside Tippett, Franklin and Adam Goodes, booted three goals, all in the third quarter, capping off a blistering run, a scintillating few minutes earlier, when the Swans really flexed their muscle, and pulled away. Franklin’s effort on the run from the boundary outside of fifty was highlight reel-worthy.

I still maintain there’s no better guy in the game when he’s up, about and dominant than Buddy. He finished with 3.2 for the day, and could easily have kicked five straight. I’m fairly happy, though, that he’s getting five or more opportunities a game to shoot at the sticks. That means the ball’s residing deep in the Swans forward line, which never hurts.

Crucially for the Swans, Tippett was subbed off late in the third with knee soreness, making way for Jake Lloyd. You can guarantee that his knee will be a major talking point this week, but early signs are good, in that Tippett didn’t seem particularly hobbled by the injury. Swans fans everywhere hope that it was a case of better to be safe than sorry. If not, at least we’ve just witnessed Cunningham find his best.

So, too, will Franklin’s somewhat late bump on Clay Cameron midway through the second term. It didn’t seem too bad at first blush – and, certainly, there was no free kick paid – but there is no real form guide to tribunal decisions being doled out this year, so we must hold our breath and wait.

Franklin, Tippett and McGlynn aside, a solid afternoon for the Swans in gaining victory at Metricon Stadium, a joint, you figure, will become as much as desolate boneyard for visiting teams in coming yeas as the SCG is currently for Sydney.

I’m already anticipating the belter of a game that awaits us on Saturday afternoon in Sydney, with the high-flying Port Adelaide coming up for a possible Grand Final preview. 

It promises to be an epic. Go Swans!

Swans Send Powerful Message to the AFL, Belt Geelong at the SCG

The Sydney Swans have used a rare primetime appearance to stamp their premiership credentials, handing out a football master class en route to an emphatic 110-point victory over Geelong at a crowded Sydney Cricket Ground on Thursday night.

It’s a result and a game that will have journalists swallowing humble pie after suggesting that the Swans had lost their competitive edge and were on a downhill slide, and a result that will surely give opposition coaches many sleepless nights approaching their team’s meeting with the Swans.

What more than thirty-five thousands mostly parochial Swans fans saw on Thursday night seemed like something out of a dream. For a long period of time, it felt like a dream, because Sydney were all over Geelong, dominating the Cats like few teams have dominated them in…well, the best part of a decade, really.
Right from the outset, there wasn’t much for Geelong fans to like. Only a few seconds had ticked by before the Swans midfield had cranked into action, sending a ball deep for Kurt Tippett to mark just out of the goal square.

Yes, the kick was horribly sprayed – to the delight of Geelong fans and the horror of those, in the majority, who were clad in red and white – but it was a definite harbinger of things to come. The Cats didn’t have a goal in the first quarter. They barely had the football inside their attacking frame in the first half.

Everywhere that Sydney could be better, they were noticeably better – streets ahead – with the exception of the scoreboard, where the behind and goal totals were neck and neck. Had Sydney kicked truer on even just a handful of times over the course of the 110-point mauling, then the shockwaves surely now reverberating through the AFL world would be more resounding than they are now.

Make no mistake, the Sydney Swans are legitimate premiership contenders. On Thursday night’s form, they will take an incredible amount of beating. I mean, this isn’t the bludgeoning of hapless Brisbane or a young GWS squad. We’re talking about putting up a century-plus win against one of the great powerhouses of modern days. There were times when Swans fans were rubbing their eyes in disbelief, wondering if this wasn’t some sort of wonderful footy dream.

Not a dream, but glorious reality. They way Sydney played o Thursday night against a pretty good Geelong squad (premiership contenders in the eyes of a few, at least before Thursday night’s shellacking) was as ruthless and merciless and chock-fill unceasingly brilliant defensive and midfield pressure as any performance I’ve seen from Longmire’s men (and Roos’ men before that) in years and years – maybe ever, in fact.

Yes, the Cats were missing two key defenders that allowed the Swans forward line, spearheaded by Tippett, Lance Franklin and Adam Goodes, to get off the chain, but that doesn’t take away from how their established stars like Joel Selwood, Steven Johnson and Tom Hawkins may as well have not made the flight to Sydney for all the good they did on the SCG turf.

At every contest, there seemed to be more Swans than Cats. Every bounce of the ball seemed to go Sydney’s way. Even when things didn’t seem to be turning out well for the Swans, it wasn’t long before fortune was reversed. Some nights, you ride a streak of good luck and good fortune. This was one of those nights, but emphatically backed up by a ferocious commitment to be first at every contest, to hunt for that footy like there was no tomorrow.

As is so often the case, the Swans, winners of six straight now (including rather emphatic wins against premiership heavyweights Fremantle, Hawthorn and now Geelong) were propelled to this giant win by their midfield, almost certainly, and with apologies to Port Adelaide and Hawthorn, the best in the league, and perhaps also the AFL’s hardest working group.

Unlike in recent games, it wasn’t the big names like Kennedy, Hannebery and McVeigh who did the lion’s share of damage to the Cats’ aspirations, but some of the secondary players. Craig Bird had the best game of his Swans career, and Luke Parker continued his dream season.

Of course, footy is a team game, and seeing the load – and the touches – spread equally around this talented group is very pleasing. Right now, there isn’t one Sydney midfielder who isn’t at or very near the peak of their powers. That’s scary.

With such good ball coming in, it’s no wonder the Swans forward line dominated. Tippett kicked five – with two in the first quarter alone, and a chance for double that in the opening frame – and the Adam Goodes post-injury resurgence appears complete, for the Australian of the Year was elusive and impressive force on Thursday, chiming in with three. He will endure a few nervous days, though, waiting for a Match Review Panel ruling on what looked like suspect high contact with Selwood. It was the only negative on a night full to overflowing with positives.

The third cog in the all-star wheel, of course, is Franklin, whose dominance was limited (despite four goals to his name) as he spent time dragging Geelong defender Harry Taylor away from goal. It worked, too, allowing Tippett and Goodes to kick the Swans to a big lead. It’s safe to say that the much-ballyhooed trio had it’s best game together tonight, and the frightening thing is that there’s still some improvement to be had.

On Thursday night, the forward line was the icing on the cake. It’s quite something watching the three superstars go to work, and despite dire predictions – ones that look rather hollow and silly now – that the Bloods Culture would crash, burn and implode, thus sending the Swans plummeting towards the AFL’s scrapheap, it would appear rumours of their demise has been greatly exaggerated.

Just ask Geelong, for it was the Cats who had a first-hand look at just how good the Swans can be.

Opinion: The Swans Need To Get Out Of Their ANZ Stadium Deal ASAP

It’s the contract threatening to break the back of the Sydney Swans. ANZ Stadium has never been a good hunting ground for them – it’s their home ground that really isn’t a home ground.

Aside from Friday night’s win against Hawthorn and the 2012 Preliminary Final victory over Collingwood, I can’t think of a game in recent memory where the Swans have come out and played scintillating footy. On the other hand, the last few years’ fixtures at the SCG have been littered with commanding performances against good teams.

Right now, the Swans are locked into a contract that dictates they play regular season games – Hawthorn and Collingwood so far in 2014 – and all finals. It’s fast becoming a disaster for them, both on the field and off it. From a fan’s point of view, there’s little to like about it.

As such, the Swans faithful have voted with their feet: crowds are on a downtick now, and have been for years. You can’t blame a lot of Swans fans, who face a long trek across the Harbour Bridge or out from the Eastern Suburbs to Olympic Park, and the return journey is, more often than not, made longer because the Swans have lost. Or, worse, been totally embarrassed. They don’t play like it’s their home ground. Perhaps because it isn’t, in all but name. The SCG is the Swans’ home, the club’s spiritual centre, and it always will be.

The ANZ Stadium contract worked well in those early years, when there were crowds upward of 50,000 at the former Olympic venue, but even the prelim final two years ago only just surpassed that number, and regular season games have become embarrassing affairs from an attendance point of view, with the television cameras showing far too many empty seats.

Not just scattered seats, either, but great big blocks of them. The fact that the Swans frequently stink up the joint doesn’t help, obviously, but nor does so many fans coming from a long way away – fans for whom free public transport means nothing, because public transport is not expeditious – having to battle the notorious Homebush Bay Drive, particularly on a Friday night, as was the case before the Hawks game.

Then, there’s the distinct and complete lack of atmosphere at ANZ. With anything less than 60,000 people, the atmosphere is almost non-existent. It’s a shame, considering a crowd of half that would have their real home, the Sydney Cricket Ground, absolutely rocking. I mean, that joint would be quaking from the foundations on up.

Nor is the surface. I’ve seen drought-stricken horse paddocks in the alpine country in better condition than the ANZ Stadium pitch. Those overhead shots of the surface are shocking, showing giant welts on the wings, where the moveable grandstands are dragged backward to make the bigger AFL ground, as opposed to the rectangular configuration needed for rugby league. Footing is always an issue – games are chock-full of embarrassing skill errors, a lot of them due to do with the surface. That, also, isn’t a good look.

Let’s face it, with the advent of the GWS Giants, who play just across the street from ANZ Stadium, the Swans don’t need to be there. They shouldn’t be there. Particularly now when you consider that the SCG has been renovated to within an inch of it’s life, and it looks absolutely fantastic. The new grandstands with supreme spectator facilities ring a surface that’s always immaculate.

When the current deal with ANZ Stadium ends, the Swans need to do the right thing. That, of course, involves turning their back on the money that the stadium is obviously going to throw their way – something rugby league clubs haven’t been able to do, resulting in even more embarrassing attendance figure than the Swans, and ensuring that all games are played at the SCG, where there is a genuine home ground advantage, and where you’re going to be able to take advantage of a fantastic atmosphere.

The SCG is and has been a fortress, a graveyard where other teams have very little success. It is a shame that the Swans have to go out to a ground that levels the competition for a handful of times a year, playing in front of meagre crowd. Given the situation now, you can only imagine that the AFL would be very receptive to the Swans abandoning their ANZ Stadium foray.

Leave playing in the west of Sydney to the team from the west of Sydney, the team called Greater Western Sydney. I know it’s a lot of cash to turn down for a club that, even when winning premierships, isn’t exactly a giant money-spinner in an NRL-centric city, but it’s a move that has to be made. Swans fans have suffered for too long.

Let’s reclaim the SCG as our one and only home. We don’t need anywhere else.

Sydney Edge Hawthorn in a Friday Night Epic | #GoSwans #AFLSwansHawks

It seems strange to call a game where poor kicking was a major factor an epic game, but Friday night’s contest on the always-challenging ANZ Stadium surface certainly ticked all the boxes: two great teams, two premiership contenders, the Buddy Franklin story…this one had everything that you could want in a compelling football game. Despite the poor kicking at goals, this was a high quality game, exactly what the AFL would have been hoping for when they scheduled this intriguing match-up for prime-time.

There’s few things better in footy than watching two very good teams – especially two very good midfields – go at it. The momentum swings back and forth were huge, making for a stressful night for fans of both teams.

In the end, despite a shocking first three quarters of kicking, the Swans escaped with a win. And what a win! The Swans did so much well:, hunting the footy in packs, tackling like their lives depended upon it. They clawed and struggled and somehow found a way to prosper, breaking a recent run of inept performances at ANZ Stadium, in which they’ve mostly not played the way they played tonight. Just quietly, whilst most people perhaps haven’t been looking, have won four straight., defeating the reigning premiers 15.17 (107) to 13.10 (88) in front of about 34,000 fans.

It’s a curious thing, sport, and our fandom, isn’t it? It can drive you to the edge of insanity time and time again, but those post-siren moments, bathing in the reflected glory of an important win, there’s nowhere else you’d want to be than at the ground or in front of your television. Rarely has that been truer than it was Friday night.

Perhaps we should thank the Swans’ first quarter inaccuracy and then their continued inaccuracy in the second and third quarters, for the way they dominated the first quarter and a half, they should have led by eight or nine goals. Instead, the stage was set for a brave Hawthorn comeback, and my concerns about kicking inaccuracy costing the Swans a win nearly came true.

The Hawks were brave. It can’t have been easy, missing Luke Hodge and Sam Mitchell before the bounce. Then, they lost Cyril Rioli, subbed off with hamstring issues, and Josh Gibson wasn’t himself after sustaining an arm injury late in the third.

To their credit, the Hawks kept coming. They hit the lead, and it was Nervous Central for those in red and white. They were unstoppable for a while in that third, but, as often happens, the supreme effort required to drag themselves back into the game, and take the lead, eventually took it’s toll.

Late in the fourth, the Swans wrestled back the ascendancy. Two important goals from Franklin, who had kicked seven straight behinds prior to that, a nice running goal from Nick Malceski – how much did you think of the 2012 Grand Final winner? – a heaven-sent snap from Dan Hannebery, another from Captain Courageous Jarrad McVeigh and the final, game-sealing slammer from Lewis Jetta, who sent the ball twenty rows back after a perfect hand-pass from McVeigh. What hadn’t looked too likely an hour earlier suddenly became reality.

Perhaps the Swans, in the end, deserved to win. They had five of the six best players on the field. Hannebery found the footy at will – any doubts that #4 isn’t all the way back should be cast aside now. Kurt Tippett enjoyed a four-goal haul upon his return. Josh Kennedy and Ben McGlynn continued their rich vein of 2014 form, and their destructive form against Hawthorn.

Elsewhere, McVeigh was brilliant, Luke Parker tough, Kieran Jack enterprising, Sam Reid a marking powerhouse, Ted Richards solid matched up on Hawthorn’s dangerous Jarryd Roughead and Rhyce Shaw his usual, dependable self. I thought Shaw looked gone and dead a few weeks back. Like the team he anchors, there’s been quite a resurgence.

Special mention for the bearded Tom Derickx who was a mountain of a man tonight, a workhorse in the ruck in the absence of Mike Pyke. Perhaps his contributions will be lost in the glow of the efforts of Messers Hannebery, McVeigh and Kennedy, but they shouldn’t be, because he was supreme against the Hawthorn pair of David Hale and Ben McEvoy. In Derickx, the Swans might’ve unlocked another diamond in the rough.

Much of the spotlight will be shined on Franklin, whose early kicking at goal was nothing short of horrendous – though he certainly wasn’t alone on that front. However, the big forward turned up when he needed to, taking the goal-kicking mantle from Tippett in the last quarter.

Franklin’s two goals definitely helped the Swans along. His freakish bouncing, bouncing, bouncing effort almost defied belief. Indeed, Buddy seemed to have not quite believed his own eyes. Two late goals will help balance the narrative, on a subpar night for the champ. Here’s something interesting: the combined total of Buddy’s 2.7 return was the final margin of victory.

The good thing is there’s always next week – Essendon in Melbourne for the Swans, and the Bombers appear eminently beatable. If Buddy can get his kicking boots on, he and Tippett figure to be a dangerous duo, with Goodes and perhaps Reid on the fringes of the forward line.

It’s a scary thought, destined to give opposition coaches sleepless nights. The former Adelaide Crow was superb in his return, kicking goals when he needed them the most. Crucially, there was plenty of silver service delivery into the Swans’ attacking 50m from the smooth-moving midfield. That means opportunities galore.

Friday night was a wonderful advertisement for AFL. How pleasing to check my Twitter feed to see even NRL types in Sydney – the always-controversial Phil Rothfield of the Daily Telegraph amongst them – making comment, in 140 words or less, on the game, and how they were enjoying it. Good night for the AFL to stage a big Sydney game when the NRL’s contest between the Roosters and Tigers wasn’t anywhere near as pulsating.

What a night – let’s hope the return clash between these two sides in Melbourne in Round 16 is just as good.

Swans Record Strong Win in Brisbane

It wasn’t always pretty, and the final margin of victory should have been far bigger than it was, but the important thing is that the Swans scored a percentage-boosting 79-point win seventh straight win over Brisbane, got through without any really major injuries – aside from the loss of ruckman, Mike Pyke in the second quarter – and have run a few of their biggest players into form. Just as well, too, ahead of a tough month of games: Hawthorn next Friday, then Essendon, a bye and Geelong.

Brisbane toiled hard, but there came a time late in the second period when the Lions appeared to have given all they had to the contest and the more experienced bodies of the Swans took over.

So did the Sydney midfield class. Jarrad McVeigh and Josh Kennedy were the two best players on the field, battling one another for the title of highest possession-winner for the Swans, whilst getting onto the scoreboard as well.

In the end, it was McVeigh with thirty-five and Kennedy with thirty-four touches. Dan Hannebery had his second strong game in a row after an uneven start to the season, picking up thirty-one touches. Brisbane’s Tom Rockliff touched the Sherrin thirty times himself, but the next best Lion was Andrew Raines with twenty-two. Such was the Swans’ midfield domination, they had seven players picking up more than twenty-five possessions.

Pyke’s unfortunate injury forced a change in strategy, with Sydney coach John Longmire sending his midfielders forward, and might have unlocked something with that forced move. McGlynn, Kennedy, Kieran Jack, Brandon Jack, Luke Parker and McVeigh all got amongst the goals, outshining most of their team-mates who are specialist forwards.

The exception to that rule was Adam Goodes. The Australian of the Year passed his first test with flying colours, completing a full game, and very much looking like the Adam Goodes of old. The Lions seemed content to give him a lot of room to work in the forward arc, which is never a good idea. At times, the dual Brownlow medallist looked like a circling predator. If it hadn’t been for some poor execution at times, Goodes might’ve bettered a three-goal haul.

Watching the Swans midfield go to work was a thing of beauty. This is a unit hitting it’s stride at a very opportune time, unless you’re a Brisbane fan. Indeed, there were long stretches of game time when the Lions appeared powerless to do much of anything about it. Invariably, an attacking raid would start with Richards, Grundy, the ultra-impressive Rampe from the back.

McVeigh had more than his fair share of touches, not shadowed at all, and Kennedy was the same. If it wasn’t those two, it was Parker or Jack, or the other Jack, or McGlynn or Lewis Jetta, who came alive in the last quarter. They ran rings around the Lions, and had it not been for a very ugly start to the game in terms of kicking for goal, it might have been a much worse night for the Lions. 3 goals and 6 behinds in the first term made the scoreboard seem so much closer than it really was. The Lions were slaughtered in that opening…everywhere but where it counts: on the big board.

Brisbane’s power forward Jonathan Brown, a strong target up forward all season, was a late withdrawal, resulting in an easier day for the Swans defenders, including 200 gamer Rhyce Shaw, who contributed a goal and twenty-seven possessions. So often in football, these milestone games don’t end as we would like, but Shaw’s night in Brisbane was a positive one, and much of his game reminded Swans fans of why the former Collingwood player has become such a great player and, more importantly, a great person.

Just like that, the Swans look back in town, sitting fifth on the ladder on Saturday night, albeit with a tough month to come – almost certainly a month of gut-check footy that will give themselves and the rest of the AFL a better indication of where they are against the competition’s undoubted yardsticks.

There is plenty to look forward to on Friday night, with a rampant Hawthorn coming in, the Buddy Franklin Circus sure to fire up again, and the very real likelihood that Kurt Tippett, the other high-profile recruit – he’s so 2013 now, the former Crows spearhead – will return to the line-up, thus completing a rather scary forward line, joining Franklin, Reid and Goodes.

A big week coming up in the Harbour City, and I am already very interested, albeit with low expectations, to see how the Swans come out against the Hawks. It could very well be the building block for the rest of the year.

My #GoSwans Tweets: Melbourne Demons (26 April 2014)

Some of my best (or, is that worst?) Tweets from the Swans vs. Melbourne game!

Melbourne were good tonight. That's good for footy. #goswans #AFLDeesSwans

— Andrew Kitch (@akitchener) April 26, 2014

Headband getting in Derickx's way! #goswans #AFLDeesSwans

— Andrew Kitch (@akitchener) April 26, 2014

THE AUSTRALIAN OF THE YEAR! MIRACLE MAN!!!!!!! MANUFACTURER OF GOALS!!!! #goswans #AFLDeesSwans

— Andrew Kitch (@akitchener) April 26, 2014

Hey, Melbourne kicked a goal! Sydney should try to do the same! What tactics Roosy is employing!!! #goswans #AFLDeesSwans

— Andrew Kitch (@akitchener) April 26, 2014

Horse needs to schedule a few extra kicking practice sessions this week! #goswans #AFLDeesSwans

— Andrew Kitch (@akitchener) April 26, 2014

This Australian of the Year is a decent footy player! #goswans #AFLDeesSwans

— Andrew Kitch (@akitchener) April 26, 2014

McGlynn!! Finally an accurate kick! Nice feed from Goodes and Ben makes no mistake! #goswans #AFLDeesSwans

— Andrew Kitch (@akitchener) April 26, 2014

Channel 7 coverage dipping to shocking new lows tonight. Juvenile stuff, and that's me being nice! #goswans #AFLDeesSwans

— Andrew Kitch (@akitchener) April 26, 2014

Does the guy who punched Buddy get off with nothing? If it was the other way around, there'd be hell to pay! #goswans #AFLDeesSwans

— Andrew Kitch (@akitchener) April 26, 2014

Pretty rough when Horse needs binoculars to see the game! Get the man a flat screen!!! #goswans #AFLDeesSwans

— Andrew Kitch (@akitchener) April 26, 2014

Brian Taylor disgracing himself again tonight with his biased commentary! #goswans #AFLDeesSwans

— Andrew Kitch (@akitchener) April 26, 2014

My doppleganger Ted Richards looking machine-like on the MCG tonight! Primed for a big one! #GoSwans #AFLDeesSwans

— Andrew Kitch (@akitchener) April 26, 2014

Peter Parker with the spidey senses and the first goal of the game! Nice snaaaaaap! #AFLDeesSwans #GoSwans

— Andrew Kitch (@akitchener) April 26, 2014

My favourite Re-tweet:

@TitusOReily Entire Melbourne side ran over to Salem to ask him what it feels like to score a goal.

— John Separovich (@FreoSeppo) April 26, 2014

Swans reach 3-3 with scrappy win over Melbourne

Also published at The Roar

I had a strange feeling this day was coming, and it was weird. Weirder than seeing Paul Roos announced as the Melbourne Demons coach late last year. Don’t get me wrong, though, because there isn’t a bone in my body that wishes Roos any ill-will.

After all, he was really the guy who helped put Swans footy on the map in Sydney – with sincere apologies to, amongst many others, Kelly, Lockett, Hall, Goodes – and he will forever be remembered for his three words of celebration, “Here it is!” on Grand Final day, as he and the Swans delivered South Melbourne/Sydney’s first premiership since 1933.

Even so, seeing Roos on the other sideline tonight took some getting used to. We all knew it wouldn’t be a ‘forever appointment’ at the Swans and the team, for the most part, is in good hands with John Longmire as head coach, but seeing Roos coach against the team he built so well over so many years, was a little bit of a head-turner.

The mountain for Roos to climb this time around with Melbourne is far higher than it ever was in Sydney. You know, Mt Kosciuszko as compared to Mt Everest. I get the feeling that Roos is there because he wants a challenge, and there’s arguably no bigger challenge in modern day football than rebuilding the Melbourne Demons, a club who’s been decimated on field and off for the best part of the last decade. Since making a Grand Final in 2000, there’s been little success for the Dees. Little success and a whole lot of failure.

Perhaps Roos is their knight in shining armour. Time will tell on that. Tonight, as good as he undoubtedly is in the box, he was outmatched, beaten handily by a better team, many of whom he’s coached and is probably pretty good friends with.

No matter how much inside knowledge of the Swans style Roos could feed to his players during the week, it wasn’t enough. Yes, the Demons had a crack, but the talent gap, especially in the midfield, was obvious from the get-go. Though the Demons toiled hard, something they’ve done with increasing frequency this year under Roos as compared to last, they were outmatched. As I said, a tough rebuild at Melbourne, but it’s good to see them competitive. It’s good for footy. I doubt anyone in the AFL begrudges the Dees a little success.

Yet, there is hope for the Demons, who were competitive for long stretches of the contest, playing the same style of football that the Swans have had trademarked for the best part of a decade. At times, it was like watching an intra-club match, the two teams were that much alike.

Obviously, Paul Roos is having an impact at the Demons. They managed to limit Sydney’s scoring opportunities, but, at the same time, the Swans were good defensively, too. Ted Richards and Rhyce Shaw were probably the best down back, and Shaw was especially solid, strangling the Demons’ power forward Chris Dawes for the most part.

The scoreboard will record that Swans won fairly comfortably, and they did, but 9.15 to 5.8 was not brilliant. Twenty-four scoring shots to thirteen suggests that the red-and-whites should’ve won by much more than they did. Kicking accuracy left a lot to be desired on Saturday night, and poor finish spoiled a lot of what were impressive attacking raids, started in defence, and continued on through the midfield. That’s where the battle was won. A pity it was not rammed home on the scoreboard.

As hard as Melbourne’s midfield tried to run with Sydney’s, the class won out. Hannebery looked good. Jack looked good. Lewis Jetta got some pleasing touches, after an uneven start to the season. Josh Kennedy was full of class as always, his night capped by a brilliant snap in the fourth. Luke Parker had a nice start to the game with an opening-quarter goal, and was a part of a lot of what the Swans did through the middle of the ground. Jarrad McVeigh seemed back to his old self.

Seeing Adam Goodes come onto the field in the third quarter was a great moment, and the champion was amongst it almost immediately. With limited time to make an impact, I thought the Australian of the Year looked good. He set up a nice goal for newcomer Tom Derickx and seemed not to be swamped by the speed of the game. Baby steps with his comeback; the alternative is to have what happened to Chris Judd last week, and no Swans fan wants that.

The downside of Goodes’ successful, injury-free return was that Buddy Franklin went off with a knee injury. It looked fairly innocuous – though you can never really tell – and one wonders if perhaps the Swans were being a little cautious. Call it protecting your investment, perhaps?

Look at it like this: Sydney were ahead by five goals at the time, needed to get Goodes some minutes, and when Buddy seemed to hyperextend his knee, John Longmire likely decided that discretion was the better part of valour. So Buddy sat and another champion took his place. Not a bad swap, all things considered. It’s certainly been an interesting week for Buddy. Sadly, his goals kicked was less than cars totalled over the last seven days.

It was, for the most part, a scrappy win, but a win is a win, especially the way this season has started, and it’s two in a row. Certainly, the Swans will need to play better than they did today in their own attacking half. Defensively and in the midfield they were good. Granted, it was against mostly inferior opposition, but there were things to build on from this game – remember that Hawthorn is only two weeks away. The Swans will have to lift a notch for that.

Unconnected Thought of the Night: When Buddy’s contract is up, I have a feeling it’ll seem like loose change compared to deals that’ll be inked between now and then. Sort of like Alistair Lynch’s ten year deal wasn’t so rich by it’s end.

Such a strange night, with Paul Roos in the opposing box. You know, I love Roosy. I doubt there’s a Swans fan who doesn’t, for all the great moments he’s delivered. That’s why tonight’s win was bittersweet.

The important thing is that Sydney are back to 3-3, with a chance to go above .500 next Saturday night in Brisbane against the Lions, with Tippett and Reid still to come back into the line-up.

Opinion: The Sydney Swans Are In Trouble

It would appear that last week’s onslaught of eleven straight goals from midway through the third period to the final siren was a false dawn for the Swans, who saw their admittedly-slim top four chances slip away completely on a wet and windy winter afternoon at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Nothing went to plan on an afternoon where it was expected that the Swans, offensively resurgent behind marquee buy Lance Franklin, would continue their astonishing run of success against North Melbourne at the SCG.

Instead, when the final siren rang, it was the Kangaroos who had bucked the trend of being poor performers in the Harbour City, leaving with a resounding 43-point win that resigns the Swans to a 1-3 record heading into next Saturday’s clash against Fremantle, and also means that they’ve lost this season at all three AFL venues in Sydney: the SCG, ANZ Stadium and Olympic Park and Spotless Stadium, home of the GWS Giants.

As much as it pains most Swans fans to say, this team is in big trouble. Before you get the wrong idea about the direction of this piece, let me say that this isn’t a whack at Buddy Franklin. Sure, the big man didn’t have a good game, but he’s a key forward operating on a day when it was wet, one not exactly tailor made for a guy his size, and, perhaps more damningly for the Swans competitiveness going forward, Franklin was delivered precious little football from the Swans midfield.

Yeah, Buddy had a shocker, but he was far from the worst on the field, and certainly a victim of his team’s inability to find a target in the attacking 50m arc.
Let’s start with the midfield. I wrote last week that all the players who had looked ordinary or at sea against GWS and Collingwood to start the season were more like their old selves against Adelaide. Fast forward eight days, and it was a step backward.

Aside from a few notable names – Jarrad McVeigh, Kieran Jack, Ben McGlynn and Josh Kennedy – the Swans mids were soundly and thoroughly beaten by the Kangaroos. It’s a shocking thing to write because the Swans midfield has long been the catalyst for Sydney’s success. This time a year ago, they were being hailed as perhaps the best midfield unit in the league.

Hell, some were saying that of them in this pre-season. Instead, there’s a bunch of players seemingly running around as free agents, doing their own thing, without any concept of performing as a team. They are listless, slow and, most horrifyingly, not hard at the football, as modern-day Swans legends have always been. That was perhaps the most alarming thing of all.

On a Sunday afternoon when the Swans farewelled their legendary warrior Jude Bolton, his former team mates (some his protégés) displayed the opposite of everything that the football world has come to know and love Bolton for.

The pace that Ryan O’Keefe seemed to have rediscovered against the Crows had disappeared. On Sunday, he looked slow and was beaten to most contests, just like in the first two weeks. Dan Hannebery lacked polish most of the time, and even basic football skills on some occasions. Lewis Jetta doesn’t look like his head is in the game. Tom Mitchell, a revelation last season, isn’t getting the football nearly enough. The sub, Garry Rohan, barely had an impact on proceedings when he came on midway through the third quarter.

No wonder the Kangaroos had so much success. They beat Sydney at their own game. They made more of their possessions, they made better decisions, their kicks were lethally accurate and their tackling was supreme; all reminiscent of the Swans of this time last year.

Defensively, the Swans are a shambles. Why Heath Grundy hasn’t been spotlighted more is beyond me. He is a major liability at the moment, turning over the football in the most disastrous moments. I’d love to watch tape of all the goals the Swans have conceded this year, and tick off just how many have come from a moment of Heath Grundy madness. I’m sure there’d be a few. He was woeful today, but had company. Basic skills like taking a clean mark in defence seemed to be missing. Friendly fire knocking over two or three Swans, thus allowing North an easy goal seemed to happen over and over again.

Sadly, Rhyce Shaw is done. He looks slow at the best of times, and though he labours and toils hard, it’s clear that his time is past. I wonder when the Swans will admit that by making a change. It isn’t an easy situation, for Shaw has been brilliant, his dash and spark from half back having started so many attacking raids over the years he’s been in Sydney, but those days are over, and Sydney’s football brains trust needs to look to the future. Unfortunately, Shaw is not a part of it anymore.

Of course, bad defence and a midfield not able to get clean football into the attacking arc spells doom for the Swans offensively. Lance Franklin was largely a victim of those issues. I lost track of how many times he pushed forward of centre, just to get a touch. He wanted his hands on the Sherrin somehow, someway, and he certainly wasn’t getting much of a look down in the forward arc. Without the midfield delivery, not Tippett, Goodes, Franklin or even the great Gordon Coventry is going to manage to kick a winning-score.

It’s no wonder, then, that Franklin, the man with so much pressure sitting squarely on his broad shoulders, snapped late, lashing out at North players. Scott Thompson held him brilliantly. One behind, a very few touches and that moment of anger will surely mean that Buddy is the focus of things this year. His name is already mud on social media. Don’t believe me? Check out the Swans Facebook page, and the comments on the post detailing the game’s final score.

I find this troubling because the all-Buddy narrative pedalled by the mostly pro-rugby league media up here – you know, the ones who love seeing the Swans and their big-name recruit stumble and fail as they are – means that other players who are playing worse than #23 are undeservedly missing out on having the fierce blowtorch of media attention turned on them. Some tough love, by way of the media, wouldn’t be such a bad thing now.

Adelaide coach Brenton Sanderson spoke in his press conference last week about how a few senior players needed to have a long and serious look at themselves during the week. Ironic that the coach of the team whose victory brought about such a remark will likely be saying the same thing this week.

There will be no let-up. Fremantle come into the SCG on Saturday. Essendon and Hawthorn are on the Swans’ schedule over the next month or so, perhaps the season's death-knell given the team's current form. It probably won't be a pretty sight, next week, unless there is a massive and abrupt turnaround in the next six days.

There is a chance here for the football heads at the club to make tough decisions; by removing some of the Swans’ favourite sons in favour of young talent waiting in the wings, they can at least shape the future, and make it a  positive one.

Sad as it is for this Swans fan to say, the way the team going at the moment, an infusion of new blood might be the only way to stop the rot.

Bullet Dodged - Sydney Avoid a 0-3 Start

It wasn’t the sort of weather you might expect for what could be called an apocalyptic sort of match-up between two teams who know that going 0-3 to start an AFL season – even a long season – would not be at all conducive to playing finals football. Where there should perhaps have been dark storm clouds gathering on the fringes of horizon around the picturesque Adelaide Oval, there were instead clear blue skies and unfettered sunshine. In short, it was a perfect day for football.

At least to begin the day. For, after four quarters of football, someone’s season would be on shaky ground. Although it was billed as the Match of Round, it really wasn’t, not with Collingwood and Geelong to square off at the MCG tonight, but what this football game certainly featured was a titanic struggle between two desperate teams.

Adelaide Oval looked tremendous. The revamped grandstands, the traditional hill, the vintage scoreboard and the 19^th Man, as Dwayne Russell has apparently taken to calling the Crows fans when they were in full voice – I wonder if he has been watching a little too much Seattle Seahawks football over the summer – was up and about. It had the feel of a late-season game between two teams on the outer and looking in, still hunting for a spot in the Finals. 

It was good footy, and there were good signs early from the Swans. The players who had been less than their usually-impressive selves in the first two games, losses to GWS and then Collingwood, were getting the football and, more importantly, making good decisions when they had it. McVeigh, Parker, Kennedy, McGlynn and O’Keefe looked like different guys.

If the Swans had been underdone during their first two games of the season, they look to have found their fitness. Doubtless, the thought of going to three games without a win has spurred them on. The midfield, that vaunted Rolls Royce of the football team, was slick and fast, precise and surgical. It was an encouraging start.

Leading by five goals at the first break, the Swans had to know the Crows would come. And they did, with a flourish. If they handed the scoreboard advantage to the most dominant team of the quarter, then Adelaide would have held the lead at half-time and perhaps again at the final change, for they were superb in general play, limiting the Swans for the most part, though a combination of a woeful lack of scoreboard pressure – they had the majority of the ball and the Inside 50s, but could not convert – and equally woeful turnovers kept the Swans in the game and in the lead.

Oh, the Crows were close. They had momentum fully on their side in the third, coming within two points, and it seemed like Uncle Mo might propel the home team to the lead. It was a deafening home field advantage then, the 19^th Man up and about. 

Yet, this was to be Sydney’s day. It seemed that whenever the team needed a steadying goal, it came. Invariably, it came via one of the old hands: Jack, McVeigh or one of those new-old hands like Luke Parker. Harry Cunningham showed his ability to kick a clutch goal or two in his best performance for the Swans. 

Oh, and there’s that guy who wears #23 for the Swans. I think he came across in the off-season in a trade that was somewhat off the radar. What’s his name again? That’s right…Lance Franklin. Buddy finished with four goals and nine scoring assists to his name. As he looked better against Collingwood than against GWS, Buddy looked better against Adelaide than he did against the Magpies. He seems to be gelling with his midfield, and certainly got the best delivery from them that he’s ever seen. 

There were flashes of Franklin’s individual brilliance, too. His ability to kick a long ball is a joy to behold. It was the imposing Buddy of old. Most encouraging of all? Seeing him in the defensive end making tackles late in the first half, when the Crows were pressing for another goal. That’s the sort of play that will endear you to the Swans, famous for their working-class, all-in attitude.

Yet, the star of the day was definitely Parker, who kicked four, popped up to do some beautiful defensive work and apparently had the footy on a string, rolling up twenty-six touches. It seemed that every moment the Swans needed something, it eventuated only after #26 took possession of the footy. If it had been his idea during the week to take the Swans team on his shoulder and will them across the line, then it worked. It worked brilliantly.

Parker’s third goal of the game was the fourth straight for the Swans after the Crows crept to within two points midway through the third, and the fourth was all Sydney, all the time. The resurgent Bloods kicked seven unanswered to storm home for a 63-point win that didn’t look anywhere near as secure at three-quarter time. Jarrad McVeigh took an incredible mark to start the onslaught, and sub Gary Rohan was a timely injection of pace throughout.  Sydney, the team who looked winded and impotent in the last quarter against Collingwood, were full of run and precision and killer instinct this week. The 19^th Man was pretty quiet by that stage.

Adelaide were woeful in the final term, and at times Sydney looked as though they were playing an intra-club scrimmage, such was the lack of compete from their opposition. By way of that last-quarter capitulation. It will be a long week for Brenton Sanderson and the Adelaide Football Club. Like the media in Sydney has been tough on Franklin and the Swans, the South Australian media will shine a spotlight on another week where the Crows were in the game in the third quarter, and completely fell apart in the fourth.

On the other side, it will be sighs of relief and a sense, perhaps, that things are coming together for the Swans. A week without innuendo and rumour in the press will be a welcome change. Perhaps Buddy might get lauded for his strong four-goal game – shock, horror, I know – though the lion’s share of press coverage should go to Parker, who was outstanding in every way possible. So was Kennedy, whose twenty-eight touches nicely complimented what Parker did.

Rumours of Sydney’s demise (some fuelled by Melbourne’s media corps, who are still stung by Franklin’s desire to leave it’s fishbowl-like environment) has been greatly exaggerated, and the Swans have a nice chance to build. Buddy will get better again and with two games at the Sydney Cricket Ground in as many weeks – North Melbourne next Sunday, Fremantle on Easter Saturday – the Swans can re-stake their claim to a top four spot, and settle down a somewhat nervous fan base. 

Based on what I saw today and last night, there’s no reason to think that the Swans won’t give Fremantle a massive shake, particularly on the close confines of the SCG, which the team in red and white play better than anyone else. With Melbourne and Brisbane to come after that, the mid-season run is setting itself up very nicely.

Breathe easy now, Swans fans. That pall of doom and gloom just might be lifting.