“Jay, look. This is the best thing in football,” my colleague said, not looking at me, eyes fixed on the screen above my head, Lance Franklin with ball in hand, dashing down the near wing, space and possibility in front of him.
You know what happened next, and I knew too from the moment I looked up. It was the best moment of the best game of the season, authored by perhaps the best player in the game.
What preceded and followed Franklin’s goal was also breathtaking, in a more literal sense. The game was so intense, so magnificently contested, that it could only be watched between gasps, a tight chest ever-present, the viewer’s burgeoning smile also irrepressible.
The brief aftermath of Franklin’s run and goal was the only moment in the match where you could really relax – greatness like that exists in its own universe, independent of the game, and afterwards all you could do was laugh at the absurdity of Franklin’s genius and its equally ludicrous regularity.
These Swans feast on moments such as Franklin’s. They are dour, in the most impressive way imaginable, and then they are exquisite. They withstand relentless pressure to within an inch of their lives, bending but not breaking, then breaking but not really breaking.
But then they find little gaps, little crevices in the game, a marking contest here, a strange bounce there, and all of a sudden, they have life. And no team devours life like Sydney.
The Crows dominated Friday night and should have won. They blitzed the Swans in contested possessions, used the ball more efficiently, went inside 50 21 more times, and generated six more scoring shots. But they lost the ledger of ‘moments’.
(AAP Image/David Moir)
Sometimes it wasn’t their fault – which Callum Mills would probably tell you too. But notwithstanding that one particular dubious umpiring decision, the Crows had more than enough opportunities to win.
They were wasteful, and in the dying stages, Sam Reid and Tom Papley were not. They were clinical with their chances and Sydney, despite only creating 18 scoring shots, was able to compose a score just large enough to beat the most explosive offensive team in the league.
So many times it seemed like it was over. The Crows were imposing from midway through the second quarter onwards, ruthless with their forward entries, the volume so powerful that you felt like Sydney had to eventually break.
And when Taylor Walker kicked that odd, but I suppose brilliant, dribbling goal that was kicked much earlier than seemed necessary, it seemed like the conclusion was foregone, and the match was set to finally cohere with its inexorable rhythm.
But the Swans have a habit of spitting on rhythm and natural conclusions. They eschew notions of ‘what should happen’ and simply ‘win’ instead. And so they did on Friday night.
The Crows have been the best team all season. Friday night did nothing to diminish that reality, and if anything, only gave it further credence. But in a competition that awards the final trophy to the last team standing, Sydney might be the best team at standing the longest.
Mark
Guest
Dogs did pretty well last year, two interstate.
clipper
Guest
You should catch a listen of 'Common People' - I think it's a rare cover that's better than the original.
Craig Delaney
Guest
I'd leave the rule that is but add the bit about the umpire's discretion for just this kind of eventuality. Player beware: tackle before play on is called and the umpire might decide you overstepped the mark, but, if you executed proerply after the player had played on, the umpire can deem the tackle legal. That seems both doable and fair to me.
Craig Delaney
Guest
If that's so they shouldn't.
Craig Delaney
Guest
Your point about steps is exactly what is wrong with so many people's attitude to the rules: they are irrelevant if they offend our sensibilities. 14-15 Buddy steps at pace are way beyond 15 m. If the umps are counting steps they'd better get over it or turn in their whistles. It was an umpiring error. I think the excitement of the play took most people's attention. Not mine because as a Crows fan I was wanting Buddy to bugger it up, maybe with another iffy bounce, but he took an age to get ball to boot, and I don't think my call is the result of bias.
Birdman
Guest
well, with the Hawks out of finals, anything's possible for the Swans I guess.....
David C
Guest
Peaking too early I reckon. Should run out of puff and form during the finals and crash. GWS are timing their run to perfection, just hitting their straps at the right time.
David C
Guest
GWS thought that last year. Anything can happen in finals.
Ironmonger
Guest
Yeah, I agree with the comment. Hewitt more orthodox pick. Heaney is still pretty slightly built and the strong body work of Sloane was a bit much for him too. Someone who can run with Sloane but that carries another 5kgs would have helped.
Kurt
Guest
Yep, think this is spot on.
Glenn
Guest
Yeah, no grey area would be created by that change. Unless, the only reasonable outcome, if you aren't giving a direction to play on, would be to call it back for a ball up. Betts could not be granted a free for a player not receiving an umpire's directive after taking a mark. Hopefully you aren't suggesting a rule change that would have given a free to Betts?
Glenn
Guest
Have you thought that through? How could a player ever be penalised with a 50 metre penalty, if they are allowed to tackle without the call coming through? An umpire could never legitimately award a 50 because the player would be allowed to pre-empt the call. The resolution to the umpire not calling play on, such as on Friday, could only be that either the tackled player takes his kick from the same spot or the umpire realises his or her mistake and throws it up. There is no scenario out of Friday night where Betts could possibly receive a free. Common sense didn't prevail, no need to wreck the game even more with another rule change.
Craig Delaney
Guest
All I can say is that it didn't look in the side to me. This often happens and gets my goat because someone uses a low 'skill' to overcome someone whose skill or luck has them in the better position. Too often in the side is really mostly in the back. They all do it and it detracts from the game on the skill level and in unfairness to skill. And the ball was a lot further away than the required 5m. Why is that rule there? I hope because it protects the better skill of getting into position to take possession, in this case a mark. It's rewards skill and penalises the easy unskilled option. All rules should have that as their goal.
Glenn
Guest
I wasn't at the game, but it makes me laugh when people say that. The camera was on the contest so unless you were watching a screen, my view was clearer than yours. I think you will also find, if you read above, that I agree that Mills was playing on, I just don't necessarily agree that a play on call would have been right at the time he was tackled. He was tackled before crossing the line of the mark. Betts stuffed up. And the umpires coming out today to say that they got it wrong, doesn't necessarily change that, because in this instance it can easily be argued otherwise. So what anyway, for almost a year now, every man and his dog has told Swans supporters to get over getting ripped off in the GF by the umpiring and now that Adelaide has 1 call go against them and fails to defend the resultant kick adequately, allowing Reid to mark and kick a goal that didn't even put the Swans in front, the World is coming to an end.
Basil
Guest
I am. Valid points. More name-calling I see.... I hope your parents don't find out about this.
Basil
Guest
If someone is holding the man...its holding the man. If they push someone in the back... its a push in the back. Swans were sloppy Friday night but that doesn't seem to rate a mention against the hysteria of an uneven free kick count. Is the count suppose to be even regardless of what happens on the field?
Mark
Guest
Another COLA sook. No one is taking you seriously.
Mango Jack
Roar Guru
He already has 2 - 2008 and 2013. It would be his first as a Swan though.
Darren
Guest
Ghost you remind me of the Icelandic motel owner who told me that Iceland couldn't possibly lose to France in the Euro semi final last year as they had the whole country behind them. They lost 4-0
Darren
Guest
He pushed him in the side Craig and the ball was right there - no rule against that.