- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
After crashing out of last year’s finals in straight sets, losing nearly a thousand games’ of experience and spending so long in the AFL’s top four, it was thought that the Sydney Swans would slide down the ladder this season.
But while another former heavyweight team in Fremantle is suffering their inevitable downfall this season, that is certainly not the case for John Longmire’s men, who have kept their place in the top four with a 8-2 record for this season.
It was the same record they had twelve months ago before all hell broke loose with injuries to key players and of course the well-documented booing episodes involving now-retired champion Adam Goodes.
After the booing dramas involving Goodes, Luke Parker was the first to go down when he suffered a leg injury against Collingwood in Round 20 at the SCG. Then, co-captain Kieren Jack suffered a knee injury against the Gold Coast Suns at the same venue three weeks later.
But in the biggest blow of all, forward Lance Franklin announced that he was suffering from mental issues and as a result would sit out the club’s finals campaign.
It didn’t end there – forward Sam Reid then suffered a hamstring injury in the qualifying final against Fremantle at Domain Stadium and is still to return from it this season.
The absences of these four players would contribute to the club’s failure to reach the preliminary final for the first time since 2011; after going down to the Dockers by nine points, they would lose their semi-final to North Melbourne by 26 points at ANZ Stadium to crash out of the finals series in straight sets.
Shortly after the Swans’ season ended, Adam Goodes announced his retirement after 372 AFL games, this coming a month after Rhyce Shaw announced he would hang up his boots at season’s end.
Then, premiership players Lewis Jetta and Craig Bird were both traded to the West Coast Eagles and Essendon; by this point, the Swans had lost over 800 games of experience.
This is where many experts predicted that the Swans would start their tumble down the ladder. There were doubts as to whether Buddy would recapture his best form, let alone return to football, and whether the Swans could continue their strong finals record which has seen them miss out on September just three times since 1995.
Eventually, the three-time Coleman Medallist would return to pre-season training and so too would their injured brigade, with the exception of Sam Reid whose hamstring injury is set to keep him out for at least another few weeks.
Franklin then made his highly-anticipated comeback for the Swans in Round 1 against Collingwood and he, along with fellow finals absentees Luke Parker and Kieren Jack would come back strongly as they thrashed the Pies by 80 points.
Not much had been expected from John Longmire’s men against a Collingwood side that had gone undefeated through the NAB Challenge and had former GWS Giant Adam Treloar debuting for them for the first time.
But the crushing victory, highlighted by Buddy’s four goals, would set the tone for the impressive start to the season the Swans are currently enjoying, and had it not been for the post-siren heroics of Sam Lloyd for Richmond in Round 8, they could have finished this round in top spot on the ladder.
While the “Big Four” of Jack, Parker, Dan Hannebery and Josh Kennedy are playing their roles for the team, so too is Tom Mitchell, who is fast becoming one of their emerging midfielders, as well as second-year player Isaac Heeney and first-year players Callum Mills, George Hewett and Tom Papley.
Recruit Callum Sinclair has also vindicated the Swans’ investment in him while Kurt Tippett has also proven himself to be a good ruckman, working in tandem with Sinclair in the middle and at stoppages while Buddy fires up forward.
Already the Swans have recorded victories over the GWS Giants, West Coast Eagles, Hawthorn and now North Melbourne; these are sides that will be expected to reach the finals this season.
The win against the Kangaroos ended their best ever start to the season at 9-0, and it was certainly a case of history repeating for the Swans, who in 2004 snapped St Kilda’s 10-match winning streak to start that season.
At the time, it was the Saints’ best ever start to the season, though the club would surpass that five years later with a 19-match winning streak to start the 2009 season. That year, the Swans came the closest to ending that streak at 17 when they lost by only a point in Round 18.
The win against Hawthorn at the MCG was also an important one as it proved the Swans can win at a ground where they have traditionally struggled, not to mention they’d lost to Richmond at the same ground six nights earlier.
However, it was overshadowed by the news that Jarryd Roughead’s cancer had returned, and it took the gloss off what was otherwise an impressive victory by the red and white, as the Hawks showed more concern for their teammate rather than focusing on the task that was at hand.
The Swans’ only other loss for the season came against the Adelaide Crows at the Oval in Round 4, when they lost by ten points after Eddie Betts kicked the match winning goal for the Crows with 30 seconds remaining.
John Longmire’s men will have the chance to further shore up their place in the top four when they face the Gold Coast Suns, GWS Giants and Melbourne in the next three weeks before they enjoy their bye in Round 14.
While the matches against the Suns and Demons should provide nothing more than a percentage booster, the huge challenge will come against the Giants, who will be playing their 100th AFL premiership match, in between at Spotless Stadium.
Already the Swans have gone 1-0 up on the Giants this season by way of a 25-point victory at the SCG in Round 3 but that came while the fifth-year club were missing their suspended full-forward, Jeremy Cameron.
In addition, they also thrashed the Giants by 89 points at Spotless Stadium late last season but the Giants side the Swans will face in a fortnight’s time will pose a different threat to the one they faced last August (and for that matter, last month).
It shapes as, potentially, the biggest Sydney Derby yet with both sides in very good form and currently occupying two of the top five places on the ladder.
While the Swans are proving everyone wrong this season by maintaining their place in the top four, the Giants are doing what is expected of them this season and that is contending for a maiden finals berth.
Already they have equalled their best ever start to a season at seven wins and three losses, and until their loss to the Adelaide Crows on Saturday night, were the higher-ranked of the two Sydney clubs (the Swans, of course, having reassumed that mantle thanks to their 8-2 record for the season to date).
The form of the two Sydney clubs this year has also raised talk of a possible all-Sydney final, or perhaps even the grand final, which would bring up as many subplots as you can possibly think of.
One that is certain to be discussed is how the Giants managed to overcome the disappointment of not landing Buddy Franklin as many thought they would when he came off contract at Hawthorn at the end of the 2013 season.
While they missed out on their man, the youngest AFL club were able to invest in their emerging players as well as land other experienced players such as Shane Mumford, Heath Shaw, Ryan Griffen and Steve Johnson to help guide them out of their infancy years, to the point where they are right in the finals mix in 2016.
Another is how the Swans have continued to go from strength to strength since the Giants entered the AFL in 2012, the red and white having won the flag that year and remaining top four mainstays, and the Giants having since started to make inroads on the competition as highlighted when they upset the Swans in 2014.
To date, there has only ever been one derby played in a finals match, when Adelaide and Port Adelaide faced off in what was dubbed “the Ultimate Showdown” during the 2005 finals series.
But before the possibility of an all-Sydney final can eventuate, both the Swans and Giants must continue to display the good form that have them well placed to feature in September this year.
Who’s in your ultimate team? Pick the best team and compete with other fans for daily prizes on Draftstars. For the best odds on the game try out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Think. Is this a bet you really want to place? Set a deposit limit.