Two flags, three grand finals appearances, and missing the finals just once since 2003. It’s an impressive resume and there are quite a few reasons why the Sydney Swans have been successful.
People will always speak about how the Swans do ‘this’ well and ‘that’ well, about how successful they recycle players from other clubs, about how much input the players have into the workings of the team, and of course about how great the Bloods’ culture is.
And every comment is correct. But one thing they do particularly well is strive to improve.
Regardless of whether they miss the finals as they did in 2009, or whether they had made a grand final or, as the case was last season, when they have won the flag, they are instantly on the lookout for ways and people who can make them even better.
On Saturday afternoon in Adelaide, we will finally get to see the biggest recruiting move the Swans have made since they brought Barry Hall to town back in 2002, when Kurt Tippett finally makes his red and white debut.
Finally, 273 days after he played his last AFL game – in the Crows’ five-point preliminary final loss to Hawthorn – Tippett has served his time, the 11-match suspension imposed by the AFL for breaching draft and salary rules with Adelaide, and is now free to play again.
Ironically he will return to the ‘scene of the crime’, Adelaide, and more specifically AAMI Stadium (a venue where he played more than half of his 104 games), for his Swans debut against Port.
Logic tells you the Swans will be even better with a power forward in their ranks. But will they? Are they risking unsettling the apple cart, an apple cart which has been running so smoothly?
And after all, towards the end of Hall’s time in Sydney, the team became too focussed on getting the ball into Big Bazza, and as a result became too predictable, too one-dimensional, and too easy to shut down.
What the Swans have had in their favour in recent times is having the unpredictability up forward. Sure they have had young Sam Reid as their key forward, but he has not been a really dramatic focus for the midfield. The Swans won the flag in 2012 with Lewis Jetta as their leading goal kicker, kicking 45. They had seven players who kicked 25 or more.
Will they lose that when Tippett enters the forward line, despite what they gain?
The gut feeling is no, because another great attribute of the Swans is their ‘no I in team’ philosophy. Tippett will well and truly know by now it’s not going to be just about him kicking goals.
The focus will be even more on how hard he works in the forward line, the pressure he applies, his chasing and tackling, and what he can do to make those around him better.
The same gut feeling says this will work for the Swans, and one of the big winners will be Reid, who will suddenly not be double-teamed or the major focus of opposition defences.
Sydney’s midfield – with young Tom Mitchell the latest addition – runs deep and full of talent. Their Ted Richards-led defence remains rock solid. One area which could have used some bulking up was their forward line. It’s now fully-bulked.
It’s a handy acquisition for Swans at this time of year. A fresh key forward coming into a team that is comfortably sitting in the top four, is one of the form teams of the competition, and has done so with a number of stars – including Rhyce Shaw, Lewis Roberts-Thomson, Reid and Alex Johnson – missing significant game time through injury.
Tippett’s return is also well-timed for the Swans who have lost ruckman Shane Mumford to injury for a month. But even if Mumford was fit and playing, Tippett would still be in there. You don’t pay a bloke around $800,000 a season and put up with him having to serve an 11-match ban for him to travel to Alice Springs with the reserves to play against the NT Thunder this weekend.
The Swans faithful are smiling, but while other fans in the competition will be looking on with interest, very few will grinning.
The move angered many. Tippett firstly saying he wanted out of Adelaide to go home to Queensland, yet ending up in Sydney. The Swans, having just won the flag, somehow having space under their cap to fit a near million dollar a season player.
But even despite the extra 9.8 percent the Swans get to cover the higher cost of living in Sydney, they still had to cut free a few players to make room, and the move was given the green light by the AFL.
“It was a tough decision to leave Adelaide,” Tippett said. “I’d been there six years and it wasn’t a decision I made overnight. I understood at the time, my decision wasn’t going to please everybody and that’s hard because I like to please people.”
Believe me Kurt, you pleased all those who go to the footy in red and white.
Anyway, it’s done and dusted now and all that awaits is to see how it pans out on the park.
Finally, six months after he signed his four-year deal, we will all get to see on Saturday how it all might work out.
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