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Tough times ahead for the Sydney Swans

Roar Guru
8th April, 2017
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Lance Franklin and the Swans are at the wrong end of the ladder. (AAP Image/Julian Smith)
Roar Guru
8th April, 2017
19
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As if the Sydney Swans’ winless start to the 2017 season hasn’t been tough enough already, things could get even worse for the perennial finalists in the weeks to come.

Friday night’s heartbreaking one-point loss to Collingwood left the Swans with an 0-3 record to start the season for the first time since 1999, and with tough assignments against the West Coast Eagles and GWS Giants to come in the next fortnight, they could realistically be 0-5 after as many rounds.

It would be a long way back for the club if they are to feature in September this year, as no club has ever reached the finals after starting a season with four or more consecutive losses.

What has not helped the Swans’ cause so early this season has been a crippling injury toll which has forced coach John Longmire to blood five debutants within the first three rounds.

Isaac Heeney, Tom Papley, Gary Rohan and former co-captain Jarrad McVeigh, among others, have yet to feature this year, while Dane Rampe and Kurt Tippett also suffered significant injuries within the first two rounds.

In their places, Oliver Florent, Robbie Fox, Will Hayward, Nic Newman and Jordan Dawson have made their debut for the club, and despite the adversities faced against them, have impressed in some capacity.

Hayward showed signs of maturity against the Pies on Friday night, kicking three goals, while Florent kicked one which put the Swans within striking distance midway through the final quarter.

Dan Hannebery Sydney Swans AFL 2017

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However, the inexperience proved to be the difference as the Swans went down by a point, with a poor opening quarter in which they struggled to get the ball inside their forward 50 proving to be their downfall.

While they did eventually work their way back into the match, taking the lead at one point in the final quarter, the slow start ultimately proved very costly.

The oldest Swan on the field was Lance Franklin, whose 250th game went down as one he would rather forget as he was held goalless for just the seventh time since moving to the club at the end of the 2013 season.

He and the club will be hoping for a better outcome when they make the difficult trip west on Thursday night to face a West Coast Eagles side smarting from their 11-point loss to Richmond last Saturday.

The Swans will start heavy underdogs against the Eagles, despite having won nine of their last ten matches against their western rivals.

The only blot came in 2015, when the Eagles romped to a 52-point win; this was despite their full-forward Josh Kennedy being held to just three goals by Dane Rampe, who will be missing until at least after the club’s Round 11 bye.

His absence due to a careless training injury suffered after the club’s Round 1 loss to Port Adelaide has created the potential for Kennedy to kick a large haul of goals.

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The two-time reigning Coleman Medallist has only kicked 18 goals in eight matches (for one win) against the Swans; this is the least amount of goals he has kicked against any club, discounting his brief two years at Carlton in which he didn’t kick a goal in two matches against his current club.

Lance Franklin of the Sydney Swans

After that, the Swans return home to host the first of the two annual Sydney Derbies against the GWS Giants, who have hit back hard in the fortnight following their Round 1 thumping at the hands of the Crows at the Oval.

It’s a fair bet to say that the Giants will start favourites for the Round 5 Derby, as well as their home Derby at Spotless Stadium in Round 17 if they aren’t favoured for that one already.

This could also be the year in which the Giants overtake the Swans as the number one club in the Harbour City, after the premiership favourites’ uncompromising style of play took the AFL world by storm last year.

This has continued into 2017, with the Giants racking up their highest score and winning margin against the Gold Coast Suns in Round 2, while inaccuracy prevented them from defeating North Melbourne by more than the 42 points it managed and racking up another high score.

The win over the Roos came exactly five years to the day since an inexperienced and underdeveloped side copped a 129-point hammering in what was just their second AFL match – one of a dozen 100-plus-point defeats the club has suffered in their five-and-a-bit year history.

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However, Leon Cameron’s men have come a very long way since then and with the inevitable decline of the Sydney Swans as the best side in New South Wales, fans will want to jump on the Giants’ bandwagon in 2017.

Back on topic now, and with only a six-day break to contend with, coach John Longmire will not want to risk rushing back the likes of Gary Rohan, Isaac Heeney, Jarrad McVeigh and Kurt Tippett for the match against the West Coast Eagles in Perth.

Most, if not all of them, should return against the Giants in Round 5, by which point the Swans will very likely be 0-4 and therefore be facing an uphill battle just to feature in September this year.

As we have seen in the opening three rounds, it will be up to the club’s inexperienced line-up to try to quell the Eagles’ relentless attack on the large expanses of Domain Stadium.

The Swans’ struggles so far in 2017 is a stark contrast to this time twelve months ago when the club, having lost so many experienced players at the end of the 2015 season, surprised many by once again finishing as minor premiers and reaching their third grand final in five years.

But it is about to become clear that the many years spent in the upper half of the ladder could finally be catching up to the club; with that in mind, 2017 could be a year for them to reset and reload similar to what the Geelong Cats did in 2015, and the Swans themselves in 2009.

Josh Kelly GWS Giants AFL 2016

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The club has been so consistent over the past two decades that it has missed the finals just three times since 1995, while also winning over 50 per cent of finals matches it has contested in this period.

It will now remain to be seen how the Swans, who are one of the few clubs who have refused to bottom out when other clubs have in recent years, rebound from what is their worst start to a season in eighteen years.

A potentially disastrous 0-5 start to the season could just about spell the end of them for 2017, but it’s extremely doubtful that the club will suffer the dramatic fall from grace Fremantle did when it crashed from minor premiers in 2015 to winning just four games and finishing 16th last season.

For the sake of the club and their fans, let’s hope they can remain competitive and in contention for September for as long as they can.

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