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Statistics will insist Sydney should not have won yesterday’s Grand Final. But this is a very special team.
It’s made from recycled materials, its players are mummified with masking tape and it has been largely ignored in its hometown since the arrival of the precocious brats GWS.
When it reached the top of the ladder Mick Malthouse complained it was due to an easy draw. When it lost to flag favourites Hawthorn and Collingwood, and then to Geelong in the final round, it was written off entirely.
Two dominant finals performances later it faced the mighty Hawks in the Grand Final and apparently its only hope was if it hailed all afternoon.
And that’s why neutral observers suddenly found themselves screaming with delight when Adam Goodes put them seven points up in the dying minutes.
Annihilated in contested possessions, clearances and inside 50’s by one of the great attacking teams in recent memory, the Swans found a way to win the Premiership.
As Gerard Healy noted: “I thought they were gone three times, and we always do when Sydney get behind, but they just keep coming back”.
Of course it wasn’t all about Sydney. Hawthorn failed to build a big early lead due to inaccuracy in front of goal, and mounted a comeback of their own. Ten minutes before three-quarter time they found themselves almost five goals down. Within six minutes they were back in front when Isaac Smith slotted a great long-range running goal.
Smith’s victory dance performed in front of his team’s cheer squad could have destroyed Sydney’s spirit. Instead, their captain Jarrad McVeigh goals a minute later to snatch back the lead.
In this battle between Beauty (Hawthorn) and the Beast (Sydney), the former’s slick hands and glorious long kicking were expected to triumph. But Sydney stuck its claws in and kept them there. The only clear advantage they had was in the number of tackles and they used them for the most part to suppress Hawthorn’s lethal ball movement.
They are also great exponents of the lost art of smothering – keeping the eye on the ball as it leaves the opponent’s boot and blocking it with the hands, rather than diving blindly over the kicker’s leg. Alex Johnson, Nick Malceski, and McVeigh all performed telling smothers during the match.
The game was essentially won in the Swans’ backline where Rhyce Shaw, and Johnson, as well as Malceski and Lewis Roberts-Thomson (both of who also played important roles in the forward line) excelled, keeping Jarryd Roughead and Cyril Rioli goalless.
Sydney kicked tough and telling goals. Mitch Morton in only his fifth game for the year snapped two vital goals in heavy traffic. Malceski did the same for his team’s first goal, and the last of the match – sealing the Hawks’ fate with thirty-four seconds remaining.
It was a remarkable achievement considering that their champion forwards Goodes and Lewis Jetta sustained signficant leg injuries.
Ruckman Shane Mumford was substituted after aggravating an existing hamstring complaint, and Lance Franklin’s direct opponent, All Australian Ted Richards, was hobbling throughout the game.
A close grand final is always special but this one was more so because most people didn’t think Sydney would pull it off. Hawthorn were always expected to launch the killer blow.
Lance Franklin, who was smiling throughout the match, appeared to think so. But then suddenly, as everyone waited for that to happen, a crippled Adam Goodes wobbles one through and shortly afterwards Malceski seals the Premiership.
The Swans have been described negatively as a ‘system’ but as Healy noted after the match: “All systems need that thing that makes a team special, and that is drive and work rate”. It’s those characteristics that have made this Premiership victory a popular one.
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