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Occasionally, one wonders what the real problem with the Sydney Swans is. At other times, one doesn’t care. For the faithful Swans supporter, Sydney keeps on keeping on. The club has done that for 141 years – 108 of them as South Melbourne.
Looking at the Swans’ recent history, particularly the last 10 years, the club has continuously defied their critics and doubters. Maybe that’s the problem.
Just go back to 2005 when it was said Sydney would not win a premiership with their “ugly” style of footy. Then-Swans coach Paul Roos had suddenly ruined the game and was giving a poor advertisement to the game in Sydney!
Then-AFL chief Andrew Demetriou even got in on the act, leading a chorus of detracting ‘experts’.
Then come September, Roos hoists up the premiership cup and says, “For the people who waited 72 years for the South Melbourne/Sydney Swans to win the premiership – here it is!”
There was nowhere for the donkeys to hide. The Swans have made it hard for them!
Sydney for the last 20 years have achieved the opposite in the face of fierce doubters.
After the glory years of the Swans vs West Coast Eagles era, Sydney was supposed to decline and experience life in the doldrums. They nearly but never quite did, only missing the finals in 2009.
The club was running at deficits before a minor profit was recorded in 2011, John Longmire’s first season as senior coach. That year the Swans were meant to all but finish last, they finished sixth.
Last Saturday night, the overhyped grand final rematch was no different. Longmire rightly downplayed it as another game, not as a grand final rematch. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see a rivalry is brewing between Hawthorn and Sydney, although it has a way to go to stack up to the Swans vs Eagles rivalry – those series of matches are almost unmatched.
The Hawks were supposed to wipe Sydney off of the MCG. It was supposed to be a repeat of the humiliation of the 2014 grand final. The Hawks had had the better of the two clubs since the 2012 grand final, and Sydney was under a ‘Hawthorn curse’.
Never mind that they defeated the Hawks at ANZ Stadium last year. The Swans apparently had a brown and gold hoodoo!
The problem was, once again, the result did not go that way. Sydney came up trumps in adversity. There is a reason why many talk about the ‘Bloods culture’.
The game did get feisty. The Hawks tried to physically intimidate the Swans, Sydney never took a step back, having their own ‘line in the sand’ moment.
Ironically, the Swans won with ex-Hawk Lance Franklin doing diddly squat. In 2012 the Swans won that grand final without a recognised forward line – go figure!
In the aftermath, the talk was all about how Hawthorn lost the game, not how Sydney won it.
The first question John Longmire was asked at the post match presser was something like, “You must have been absolutely thrilled to get out [of the game]?”
Longmire’s response was pleasantly wry, “Well you don’t really get out of a game … I’m really happy to win the game – you got to find a way [to win].”
Touché!
Then there was all the talk about Luke Breust’s goal misses and the Hawks’ “poor kicking”. True, the Swans were lucky to hold on – the Hawks had a mammoth total of inside 50s. But Sydney had their own kicking problems – their kicking from the defensive 50 was at times nightmarish. But such is footy – tight games are like that.
The Swans were brave on Saturday night – one of their bravest ever wins. Once again, not only did they make asses out of the experts, they made right gooses out of them!
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