Jolly Greene's Giants stump Swans in the struggle for Sydney

There was great atmosphere in the first five minutes. From there it went downhill until in the third quarter the Swans seemed to have given up with Swans players hardly moving. GPS figures would be low. Kennedy had a poor game (for him) and when that happens the Swans struggle. Hannebery and Parker returned to poor form so the Swans midfield was totally dominated resulting in poor and not many inside 50s. Mumford was amazing. Given the midfield, our forwards struggled. In defence, Grundy and Smith continued their poor form with Horse eventually putting Grundy forward. I'm starting to think the Grand Final umpiring has affected the players. What's the point may be the team's thinking.

Sydney did get to two grand finals with Buddy - and they were smacked in one and umpired out of the other - GWS have yet to make a GF - and their salary cap wil bite all too soon

While you are almost certainly right re which Sydney team is more likely to win a premiership in the near future, like many other people you (by implication) misquote Franklin. He NEVER said he left Hawthorn to play for the Sydney Swans for more premierships. What he said, in answer to a reporter's question of why (having decided to move to Sydney from Melbourne) he chose the Swans rather than GWS (where everyone expected him to go). That's when he gave the answer re winning more premierships. I thought at the time, and it now looks certain, that if that was his sole reason for choosing the Swans over GWS he probably got it wrong. The reasons he left Hawthorn to move to Sydney to live were entirely personal. And yes the grass was/is greener as he is now happily marrried to his Sydney partner.

What intrigues me is the way people from the Eastern Seaboard seem to think the rest of us are some sort of inbred country hicks who are incapable of turning the TV on. We know AFL isn't popular in NSW or QLD. You people constantly confuse our indifference(most people in WA, SA, TAS, VIC and NT) towards NSW and QLD AFL with ignorance of it. Most people don't care about 'growing the game'. Most people just want their team to win a flag. The health of the competition in NSW and QLD means very little to the majority of fans unless it will help/hinder their own team to win a premiership.

Well it was VFL for starters. You're rewriting history. There was enough followers of the game and curiosity to draw a crowd from the start. The wobble was that early 90s period even then the crowds were around the early 80s crowds.

Much assumption there...the swans didn't automatically lose their Victorian supporters when they moved north. I've lived in Qld and I now live in NSW, I know exactly what the support levels are like, hence my above comments about GWS.

Agreed Angela the swans have created a lot of interest in afl here in nsw. Along with the giants now in the west of Sydney in areas in Newcastle and statewide there is more juniors then ever playing the game of afl . My cynicism of the swans is the selling the farm to get Buddy and its kinda backfired.

Oh, please, you know what I mean even if I worded it incorrectly. Most Sydney people, at the time the Swans arrived, were barely aware of AFL, (aerial ping-pong) let alone the existence of a South Melbourne Football Club. In their heads the Swans was a newly-formed club doomed to ridicule and failure. It intrigues me that people born and bred in the AFL states still have no idea of the utter disregard the game was/still is held in, in Queensland and NSW. Back when the Swans arrived, AFL wasn't on the radar. That the Swans now have 56,000+ members, most of whom live in Sydney/NSW, was inconceivable when the team first arrived.

Newly formed Swans? I think you'll find that the club has been around since the 1800's

Agree that GWS did a great job on the Swans, and that they are playing really well, however for some reason it was a deadly game compared to others this season which the Swans have also lost. AFL is at its best a thrilling spectacle unlike any other code. Last night's match was not one you'd take a new spectator to, to show them how great a game it is - even as a GWS supporter.

Yep, there should have been a "next" between "in" and "the"...they're a huge chance this year. I suspect that when they do the grand final will be the biggest anti climax the AFL has ever seen.

Don't worry you play us next week and you will win easily, perhaps kick starting your season. I read on another post that Turnbull's support is inhibiting your ability to win, and I tend to agree.

Ever since Malcolm Turnbull declared his support for the Swans, at the grand final breakfast last year, the Swans have not won a game. Sydney must distance themselves from Turnbull so they can start winning again.

Angela U may have found last night boring but I absolutely loved the way the giants play and they destroyed Sydney ,beautiful to watch

I hate pies The giants may win it this year . The afl have created this monster. I can't say I feel that sorry for Sydney swans , they have had a lot of favours from the afl over the years

Who knows if Hawthorn would have won had they not freed up the salary cap space Franklins exit gave them. Who knows if Hawthorn would have remained too 'Buddy-centric' like they were in his last year there.

Wow, these comments show up the miserableness of human nature. Swans, as do other teams, have a good following with a fringe of fans who are likely to drop off while the team goes into a downslide. They are a well-managed team that have increased AFL following in NSW from barely none to hundreds of thousands. In the 1980s, the newly-formed Swans never won a match and barely got 4000 people to see them play. The members that stuck with them then plus the 56,000 who have joined since, will stick with them now. The endless finger-pointing glee at Lance Franklin, an amazing player and a fine person, is pathetic. I'm sure he'd be the first to acknowledge that he made a choice for many reasons and accepts that outcome. Regardless, he has had, is still having, an outstanding career that has contributed more to people's enjoyment than any of the sniping dills on this website. The match last night was one of the most uninspiring I've ever seen. Boring, even tedious. Nevertheless, I stayed until the end as did many others. As someone else has noted, if GWS do win the cup it will do wonders for the further growth of AFL in NSW.

Yes well it's looking as though Franklin picked the wrong Sydney side if he wants to play in premiership sides, at least if he remained at Hawthorn he would have had two more medallions. Sometimes the grass isn't always greener on the other side.

There was no atmosphere because GWS were winning and they seemed to have about 2,000 supporters at the ground. The crowd went silent whenever they kicked a goal. This has to be a real concern for the AFL; their baby has no supporters and will win the most hated premiership of all time in the year or two.

That's true of every team, in every city, in every sport around the world. Did you notice the Easter Monday game between Hawthorn and Geelong was 20,000 smaller that the past 5+ years? Plenty jumping off that bandwagon too.