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Have the Sydney Swans been figured out?

Roar Guru
27th July, 2015
7

Following yet another disappointing loss on the weekend, questions have emerged as to whether the Sydney Swans have lost their hunger to win another premiership.

The Swans suffered their third loss in their last five matches when they went down to the West Coast Eagles by 52 points in Perth, the loss seeing their percentage take another hit and their place in the top four hang in the balance.

The concession of the first seven goals of the game put the Swans on the back foot right from the start en route to their first loss against the Eagles since 2007 and worst against them since 2005.

For the Eagles, it was their first win against the Swans since Chris Judd and Ben Cousins, who both starred as the club and the Swans engaged in that famous series of close matches between 2005 and 2007, left the club at the end of 2007.

The Eagles have re-emerged since then as a serious premiership contender under second-year coach Adam Simpson.

From the side that took the field on Sunday, only seven players (namely Sharrod Wellingham, Shannon Hurn, Xavier Ellis, Matt Priddis, Josh Hill, Mark LeCras and Matt Rosa) had previously tasted success against the red and white; for the rest, including Josh Kennedy, it was their first ever win against the Swans.

The Swans’ chances of bouncing back from the previous week’s 89-point humiliation at the hands of Hawthorn copped a blow when Lance Franklin was ruled out of the match due to a back injury he sustained at training.

Ted Richards, Kurt Tippett and Craig Bird had already been ruled out of the trip west in the immediate fallout from the loss to the Hawks, with Richards being suspended for rough conduct and Tippett and Bird suffering minor injuries.

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Taking these omissions into account, it was obvious that the Swans, despite their recent dominance of the Eagles away from home, were never going to beat Adam Simpson’s men on Sunday, and so it showed.

Without Buddy and Tippett, their two primary scoring sources, the Swans’ output suffered and as a result were held to just seven goals for the second week running. It is a far cry from the heavy scoring they produced regularly on their way to last year’s minor premiership, and subsequent grand final loss to Hawthorn.

In fact, their form in recent weeks has been nothing short of disappointing; while the loss to the Eagles was just their fifth for the season, it was their third since their Round 12 bye.

Prior to the pair of heavy losses against Hawthorn and West Coast, the Swans had lost to Fremantle, the Western Bulldogs and Richmond, with the loss to the Bulldogs in Round 5 standing out as the most unexpected of them all.

In similar fashion to the loss to the Eagles, the Swans were put on the back foot from the start by the Dockers in Round 4 and were forced to play catch-up football for the remainder of the match, while against Richmond in Round 13 they threw away a 32-point half-time lead to lose by 18.

Their wins over Port Adelaide and the Brisbane Lions were far from convincing; the Swans were forced to fight hard for both of those wins, the former without their two twin towers in Buddy and Tippett who both missed that match due to suspension.

It will now be interesting to see how the Swans back up from their latest disappointment in the west not only against the Adelaide Crows at the SCG this Saturday afternoon, but also in the run to September.

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Only three teams so far this season (the GWS Giants, Geelong Cats and Adelaide Crows) have won the week after playing in Perth, and all three did it on the back of a heavy loss to the Eagles (87, 56 and 56 points respectively). Of these three, the Cats defeated Essendon by 69 points on the back of a six-day break in Round 10.

Thus, there is hope for Swans fans that the team can bounce back from the 52-point loss to the Eagles, but they will face a Crows side that has played with a lot of spirit since the untimely death of their coach Phil Walsh earlier this month.

They will also have to contend with a poor home record against the Crows, who haven’t lost at the SCG since 2004. In fact, their loss to the GWS Giants at Spotless Stadium in Round 8 was their first loss in Sydney since that same year.

The tough road ahead doesn’t end there. The Swans must then travel down to Geelong to face the Cats at Simonds Stadium, then play Collingwood at the SCG for the first time since 2000, GWS in the local derby at Spotless Stadium, St Kilda at Etihad Stadium and then the Gold Coast Suns at home in the final round.

Although the Cats appear destined not to make the finals this year, the club has proven that it is not yet a spent force, as evidenced when they defeated the GWS Giants by 27 points in Canberra on Saturday afternoon.

The Pies’ domination of the Swans is also well-documented, however the red-and-white will be hoping for a much-needed change in fortune with the match having been shifted to the SCG from ANZ Stadium.

From there, however, the Swans should ride a smooth path into September, though the GWS Giants and St Kilda could spring a surprise or two, with the former club still in finals contention and the latter, wooden spooners last season, showing much improvement this year under second year coach Alan Richardson.

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The final round against the Suns should then provide the Swans a huge percentage boost, and some much needed confidence entering the finals, where they could face the possibility of a third trip to Perth this year alone to face either Fremantle or the West Coast Eagles, who remain on track to finish 1-2 at the end of the season.

And so, after a disappointing fortnight in which they have been exposed by two of the form teams in the competition, it’s now up to the Sydney Swans to redeem themselves and prove that they are still the premiership contenders we all expected them to be at the start of the season.

That redemption starts on Saturday with the clash with the Crows, and hopefully it will culminate in a successful finals series.

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