In a see-sawing battle at the SCG on Friday night, Sydney’s unanswered five-goal burst in the third quarter was the difference between the sides, clinching the Marn Grook trophy.
Sydney’s 30-point win makes it their ninth from their last ten matches against Carlton and cements their place inside the top four.
Isaac Heeney was superb throughout the match and was named best on ground, winning the Goodes-O’Loughlin medal.
Carlton were tough at the contest in the first half, leading the contested possessions and clearances, two stats the Swans pride themselves on.
The Swans on the other hand, while clean with the ball in hand, looked flat and lethargic, rarely applying enough pressure to force turnovers.
Isaac Heeney was one of a handful of Swans players that provided a genuine forward half threat, but Liam Jones was the star or the first half, with five intercept marks.
Callum Sinclair was the standout player on the night (seven marks, four contested), booting two goals in the third quarter, while collecting 22 disposals, 12 contested.
Superstar forward Lance Franklin finished with three goals for the match but found it tough to influence the match, with Liam Jones intercepting everything in the air, and Sam Rowe on the ground.
Swans midfielders Luke Parker (21 possessions), Josh Kennedy (26 possessions) and Isaac Heeney (22) worked hard throughout the match, combining for four goals.
Youngsters Will Hayward (two goals), Oliver Florent (20 possessions) and George Hewett (nine clearances) were instrumental in the Swans’ second-half turn around.
Trailing by one point at half-time, the Swans came out breathing fire in the third quarter, with ruckman Callum Sinclair kicking his first goal of the night inside the first three minutes.
Two goals to Callum Sinclair, Will Hayward and Lance Franklin proved the difference between the teams, especially with Franklin finally breaking the Rowe shackles.
While Carlton had plenty of opportunities to work their way back into the match, their inaccuracy let them down and released Sydney, who repeatedly punished them on the counter.
The Swans were uncharacteristically undisciplined early in the match, giving away several free kicks to Carlton inside their forward 50.
Pat Kerr and Charlie Curnow capitalised on the Swans mistakes, kicking a goal from a 50-metre penalty and a free kick inside 50.
The lead changed three more times in the first quarter, with the Swans heading into the first break, leading by four points.
Sydney threatened to break-away early in the second quarter, but their pressure and work rate fell away, gifting Carlton a way back into the match.
Sam Kerridge (29 possessions) was influential for the Blues early on, dominating Dan Hannebery (12 possessions), while Kade Simpson (27 possessions) and Ed Curnow (7 tackles) gave the Swans midfielders a football lesson.
A blast at half-time from the Swans coach John Longmire stirred the Swans into action – they reacted with five unanswered goals after the half-time break.
Next
The Swans travel to Melbourne to face St Kilda at Etihad Stadium on Saturday night, with Tom Papley a chance to return. The Swans’ recent record at Etihad is the best in the league, but they’ll need to bring their fire and intensity from the opening bounce.
SYDNEY 3.5 5.7 10.9 13.13 (91)
CARLTON 3.1 6.2 6.6 9.7 (61)
Injuries
Nil
Goals
Franklin 3, Sinclair 2, Parker 2, Hayward 2, Heeney 2, McVeigh, Jack
Best
Sinclair, Parker, Heeney, Hewett, Smith, McVeigh, Cunningham
Angela
Guest
No Nic Nat and no Josh Kennedy at that match. Plus WCE have come on in leaps and bounds since then. Swans will be lucky to beat them in a couple of weeks. And yes, much as I love the Swans, there seems to be a great chasm between them and WCE, Richmond and Melbourne - at the moment anyway.
DingoGray
Roar Guru
Umpires!!!!!
Aw
Guest
That was on the back of franklin and it was only round 1. If one team loves to give mercy to the weaker teams, its the Swans. They do not have a killer instinct and don't pile on the points when the opportunity is there.
Foordy
Guest
Pretty sure the Swans have already beaten WCE at their new stadium??? We will see how we go I guess:)
Aw
Guest
If the Swans don't improve their scoring, they will get blown apart by wce, melbourne and richmond. They are a long way from even being in the same ball park as these three teams in attack.
Davico
Roar Pro
Was a pretty ordinary night weather wise in Sydney and they were playing the team on the bottom of the ladder. Not really that surprising
Macca
Guest
Hard to complain about that effort, the young blokes held up well enough and continue to show positive signs, really liked Silvagnis first half, Weitering was solid and looked comfortable, Dow continues to show he will be quality and Kerr's lead up work shows promise. If we could have converted 1 of those 4 chances in the third and held on for 15 seconds longer before 3/4 time and gone in 2 goals down rather than 4, who knows. As it was the Swans were just bigger stronger, more experienced and had more A graders for the blues to get past for the full 4 quarters but with plenty of players returning after the bye things are looking up.
Leonard
Guest
'Only' 27000 spectators - anyone know why? (Mind you, the other three codes would be / have been well pleased with that 'big' a crowd!) Lots of comment about Carlton being awarded so many Friday nights. Are there any truly rational criteria for scheduling and starting times? Or is No 1 criterion keeping 'our broadcasting partners' happy?
Aligee
Roar Rookie
Kids step up when they have confidence and strength surrounding them. The Swans can win hard contested football and it makes the outside runners confident to take risks and run forward of the ball.
Aligee
Roar Rookie
Sinclairs form is a bonus for the Swans, just like Lycett for the WCE they are a bit under rated ATM and a good foil for Buddy and Nic Nat respectively. Swans never seemed to get out of first gear and the game was quite low key. For anyone interested and there has been a bit of talk about TV ratings lately here they are for last night. •#1 sport: #AFLSwansBlues 517k ( 5 city) • #NRLSouthsSharks: 376k (5 city) #FoxFooty #AFLSwansBlues 243k #FoxLeague#NRLSouthsSharks 221k Have no idea about regionals , which may of course even it up a bit. Whatsmore we have no idea about phone or tablet etc downloads or streamings.
Glenn
Guest
I agree. Sydney aren't jyst lucky that the kids they bring in turn into stars. Guys like Hewitt, Papley and the multitude off the rookie list are brought into an environment where they are nurtured to excel. Jed Lamb is a prime example. Looked OK at the Swans, but was in and out of the team. He then decides that he could get more opportunuties elsewhere so goes to the Gisnts and what a surprise, can't get a game. He is now a permanent ordinary fixture in an ordinary team. Teams like Carlton and the Lions are no where near as bad as their ladder positions, so it is not the plsying groul as a whole that is the problem.
BigAl
Guest
Yes, well done Carlton, you managed to push the Swans - in a "close" game ! Because 5 goals or under is now a "close" game in AFL football. Never mind the fact that it was half the total score you kicked all day or the fact that the game was all over at 3/4 time. I wonder if someone could produce figures of how many games are won by teams that are down at 3/4 time ? What happened to the "100 minutes of football" line that the old sages used to use ? Maybe the AFL could look at reducing the amount of playing time as a start to addressing the problem of BLOWOUTS - that worries me so
true blue
Guest
I was pleased with the effort, especially given that I feared we would lose by 100 points. Hopefully in the second half of the season we can snag a few wins.
RnR
Guest
Swans appear to be getting increasingly Buddy conscious with every week now he's back from his lay off. Row an in the ruck was an interesting idea that may be worth another go.
Paul D
Roar Guru
Hayward, Florent, Hewett, Heeney - yet again, a whole bunch of kids stepping up and making the difference when it counts. Only the really good sides can rely on this sort of thing. Development is not equal across the board across clubs, I don't know why more is not made of this. It's like universities, there's a reason unis like Monash, UQ etc can charge a mint and unis like Southern Cross, New England etc aren't regarded anywhere near as highly. Stands to reason that post-educational development in football clubs would have the same sort of tiering. Better clubs have better facilities, better teachers and better culture. Anyways, well done to Sydney but it's like we were saying in the preview thread - some teams can bank on upset wins happening from time to time against big clubs, but some clubs - such as Carlton, Brisbane, seem doomed to be perpetually off the pace
Roger of Sydney
Guest
Swans do what they have to do which is smart this time of the year. Over umpired to hell, its not about you umps
Tony Tea
Guest
I guess you may have an apostrophe in "Sincs’ the Blues" since Sincs "owned" the Blues.
Peter the Scribe
Roar Guru
Time for the lawmakers to act on the evolution of AFL into rugby that is permeating right through to grass roots footy.
IAP
Guest
You reckon? They were ordinary for the first half, and only skipped away when the refs gifted them a couple of soft goals. Geez the refs were looking after Sydney again.
Col from Brissie
Roar Guru
Spot on Dingo. Blues definitely need a couple of mature midfielders to help Cripps. Fisher, Dow and SPS will get better as their bodies develop but we are definitely short of bigger bodies. Having Murphy and Kennedy out injured doesn't help and the plan was to give Docherty more midfield time this season. SOS definitely has to try and lure a couple from other teams.