The tide has turned in Sydney after years of Swans domination

For the three decades between 1982 and 2011, the Sydney Swans were the only side in New South Wales. For most Australian rules followers in the state they were the side they supported.

The Swans proved to be an instant hit with the locals, racking up their highest ever score – 36.20 (236) against Essendon in 1987 – and finishing third on the ladder in the same year, before a dark patch saw the club claim a hat-trick of wooden spoons between 1992 and 1994.

Their remarkable resurgence since then has been well documented, with the club reaching the finals in 18 out of 21 years between 1996 and 2016 and winning two flags from six grand final appearances.

Players like Tony Lockett, Paul Roos, Michael O’Loughlin, Adam Goodes, Brett Kirk, Leo Barry, Jude Bolton, Barry Hall, Jarrad McVeigh, Kieren Jack and many more became household names as they flourished outside the Melbourne media bowl.

It was the famed ‘Bloods culture’ which landed them the 2005 premiership flag. It helped increase the popularity of AFL in NSW and build momentum for a potential second team in the state. That second team would not become a reality until the GWS Giants entered the AFL in 2012.

When they did, THE Giants, like the Swans before them, faced a battle to win fans not only against a side that had been well and truly established in a state dominated by rugby league, but also in a foreign territory.

Those who know Sydney’s west know the area is dominated by NRL clubs the Parramatta Eels, Penrith Panthers and Wests Tigers, while the A-League also pitched the Western Sydney Wanderers into the area.

With the entry of the Giants into the AFL five years ago, the Sydney Swans were keen to show the newcomers clearly who was the number one side in Sydney.

They didn’t have to wait long to prove their case, defeating the Giants in the first game of the 2012 season, the newcomers’ competition debut, by 63 points. That domination would continue for the next three Sydney derbies, culminating in a 129-point thrashing by the Swans over the Giants in their first visit to the SCG.

It was during this time the Swans won their second flag in eight years, as the Giants languished near the bottom of the ladder, winning just three games in their first two seasons combined. At that point, the Swans led the Giants 4-0 in the head-to-head, with an average winning margin of 79 points.

Many wondered whether the tide would ever turn in Sydney, which had been accustomed to supporting and backing the Swans after they had relocated from South Melbourne in 1982. However, in the eight Sydney derbies since then, it’s 4-all.

The major turning point in the rivalry came in Round 1, 2014, when a new-look Giants side stunned their older neighbours by 32 points at Spotless Stadium in a match played in stormy conditions. Lighting the fuse was the appearance of Lance ‘Buddy’ Franklin, who had chosen to join the Swans over the Giants on a nine-year, multi-million dollar contract.

His debut match for the red and white ultimately turned into a fizzer as the Giants, with their own star forwards in Jonathon Patton and Jeremy Cameron, turned the AFL landscape upside down with their landmark win.

Since the Swans restored order with four straight wins between Round 15, 2014, and Round 3, 2016, the Giants have now won the last three derbies by an average of 40 points. This includes their most important clash yet, last year’s qualifying final which drew over 60,000 fans to ANZ Stadium.

As they did in Round 1, 2014, the Giants ran the Swans off their feet in the second half to claim an unexpected 36-point win in their maiden finals match, completing their journey from wooden spooners in their first two seasons to finalists in their fifth year.

And on Saturday night, the Giants ticked off another item on their bucket list, defeating the Swans by 42 points for their first win at the SCG.

After the Swans kicked the first four goals of the match without a single Giant touching the ball in the first five minutes, it looked like Leon Cameron’s men would be in for a long night at Moore Park.

However, a run of nine straight goals on either side of quarter-time would set up their 32-point half-time lead, before emerging from an even second half to win by 42 points and improve their season record to 4-1.

All of a sudden, their opening round debacle in Adelaide has become a distant memory and, especially after Essendon suffered the same embarrassment last week, it doesn’t look that bad in retrospect after all.

That’s why former Giants coach Kevin Sheedy said during the week that the club he helped set up between 2009 (when the club was still years away from entering the AFL) and 2013 (his final year coaching the club) shouldn’t read too much into that defeat to the Crows.

Former Essendon captain Matthew Lloyd also chimed in, saying the Crows and Giants were the two pacesetters in what is otherwise an open season given the demise of the Swans and Hawks. All is now set for the biggest AFL match Canberra has ever seen this Friday night, when the Giants host the Western Bulldogs in a rematch of last year’s epic preliminary final.

Like the Giants, the Bulldogs have also started this season with a 4-1 record, but had to come from 32 points down at half-time to defeat the Brisbane Lions by that same margin, thus completing a 64-point turnaround.

It’s been dubbed the AFL’s newest rivalry for a wide variety of reasons.

Firstly, the player history between both clubs is well documented, with Callan Ward, Ryan Griffen, Sam Reid and coach Leon Cameron among those to swap the red, white and blue for the orange and charcoal.

Griffen’s arrival at the Giants from the Bulldogs during the 2014 trade period saw Tom Boyd head the other way, nearly 12 months after being taken by the Giants as the number one draft pick in 2013. He went on to feature in the club’s premiership winning side last year after copping criticism over his price tag and poor form in his time at the Whitten Oval.

En route to the title, the Bulldogs won a classic preliminary final for the ages, coming from 14 points down in the final quarter to defeat the heavily favoured Giants by six points at Spotless Stadium.

As for the Sydney Swans, well, it’s fair to say that their time in the upper echelon of the ladder has all but come to its inevitable and painful end.

Hawthorn’s 51-point win over the West Coast Eagles at the MCG on Sunday night will see John Longmire’s men occupy last place on the ladder for the first time since 1999, with two games still to be played in Round 5.

It is a far cry from last year, when the Swans spent all but one round of the 2016 season camped inside the top four en route to a third grand final appearance in five years. But it is starting to become very clear that the success and consistency the club has enjoyed over the past two decades is starting to catch up to them.

History suggests they could miss the finals for just the fourth time since 1995, because no club has ever started a season with five straight losses and recovered to feature in September. Whether they can get themselves back up again after such a dismal start to the new season will remain to be seen.

Saturday’s match against Carlton at the MCG will present the perennial finalists with their best chance yet to break their season duck, with the Blues sitting two places above them in 16th place on the ladder. That’s only just the beginning of a purple patch which will also see them face the Brisbane Lions, North Melbourne and St Kilda in the next month.

But even if the Swans do win most of those matches in the lead-up to their Round 11 bye, it might be too late for them to salvage their season and they may want to look to resetting and reloading for 2018 instead.

While there has been an increase in membership numbers and crowds at Spotless Stadium, the Swans’ membership and home crowd figures remain strong despite the winless start to the season. On that basis, the Giants still have a long way to catch their more established rivals, but it’s what the clubs produce on the field that matters the most.

That being said, it’s starting to become clear that after years of Swans domination, the tide is starting to turn. Now it’s the GWS Giants who are set to become the number one club in the Harbour City with their halcyon years still ahead of them.