Melbourne
42
Match Complete
Sydney Swans
95
| Fourth Quarter | ||||
| 28:28 |  | T. Papley | ||
| A. Neal-Bullen |  | 26:06 | ||
| 23:26 | | D. Menzel | ||
| B. Fritsch | | 22:37 | ||
| 17:00 | | D. Menzel | ||
| 15:15 | | T. McCartin | ||
| C. Oliver | | 11:27 | ||
| 9:42 | | J. Dawson | ||
| 8:43 | | N. Blakey | ||
| A. Neal-Bullen | | 7:33 | ||
| J. Melksham | | 5:41 | ||
| S. Frost | | 3:57 | ||
| 2:11 | | J. Bell | ||
| Rushed | | 1:05 | ||
| 3.7 (25) | Third Quarter [+] | 10.3 (63) | ||
| A. Brayshaw | | 28:37 | ||
| J. Melksham | | 26:42 | ||
| 14:01 | | J. Rowbottom | ||
| 11:00 | | D. Menzel | ||
| 8:56 | | N. Blakey | ||
| J. Melksham | | 8:15 | ||
| J. Melksham | | 5:24 | ||
| 3.3 (21) | Second Quarter [+] | 7.3 (45) | ||
| 27:02 | | T. McCartin | ||
| J. Melksham | | 21:24 | ||
| 9:45 | | T. Papley | ||
| A. Neal-Bullen | | 8:28 | ||
| 5:59 | | J. Dawson | ||
| 4:54 | | O. Florent | ||
| 0:46 | | S. Reid | ||
| 3.1 (19) | First Quarter [+] | 4.1 (25) | ||
| 28:33 | | L. Parker | ||
| B. Fritsch | | 20:08 | ||
| 16:11 | | J. Rowbottom | ||
| J. Melksham | | 13:01 | ||
| J. Melksham | | 9:09 | ||
| 6:35 | | S. Reid | ||
| 5:15 | | T. Papley | ||
| J. Melksham | | 4:32 | ||
| 0:34 | | S. Reid | ||
It’s a Friday night match up the AFL schedulers would rather forget as Melbourne takes on Sydney at the MCG. Join The Roar for live scores and blog from 7:50pm AEST.
It will be wet and miserable in Melbourne, but the weather will still be the least miserable thing at the MCG tonight.
Both Melbourne and Sydney have had abject, indefensibly poor seasons. Neither side has had a win in months, and both occupy positions in the bottom four.
Indeed if Melbourne win tonight, and Carlton get a result against St Kilda, Sydney will drop deeper into the mire.
The galling thing for supporters of both sides is their quality on paper. The Melbourne side running out for this game isn’t too removed from side who played in a Preliminary Final last season.
And Sydney, who finished sixth in the 2018 regular season, have had injuries this year but arguably no worse than other clubs above them.
Given the midfields of Jack Viney, Angus Brayshaw, Nathan Jones and Clayton Oliver vs Josh Kennedy, Luke Parker, and Isaac Heeney, there is scant excuse for this to be 17th vs 15th.
With that talent both sides will look to put this season behind them quickly and try something different this pre-season.
To that end both sides have blooded young players to see who can add a bit of fire and fight to proceedings. Melbourne have made five changes this week and selected all players under 23 as replacements.
Marty Hore, Billy Stretch, Charlie Spargo, Alex Neal-Bullen and Kade Chandler (debut) come in, while Sydney has brought in Kieren Jack (possibly for a swan song) for the injured Zak Jones.
This game may be won in the ruck, where Max Gawn will face a couple of makeshift opponents in Hayden McLean and Sam Reid.
Gawn should end up with 60 hit outs, but with Kennedy and Parker at his feet, getting most out of that advantage won’t be easy for Melbourne.
On a freezing and probably drizzly night in Melbourne, with nothing to play for either side, this could be an all-time shocker.
Players from either side who show up and actually want to play will certainly have their names highlighted in the coaches box for next season when both sides will be hoping to springboard back into the top eight.
Prediction
This is really a toss of a coin. Both teams are terrible and the league should invoke the mercy rule for this game (especially for fans of Friday night footy). With Sydney’s midfield I’ll give them the edge but barely.
Sydney by 6 points.
michael RVC
Roar Pro
A decent comment about anything to do with aussie rules is clearly beyond your capabilities.
George Apps
Roar Rookie
The Swans were a decent team last night judging by the way they played, keeping the D's scoreless for half the game! IMO there was a lot to like about Sydney's game.
Aw
Guest
A decent team would have put over 100 points on Melbourne. It's like the swans are afraid of kicking 100 points. Melbourne were extremely poor and swans struggled to get to 95
Neil from Warrandyte
Roar Rookie
‘crowd’ or ‘gathering’?
ac
Guest
The official crowd was 23700 , does anyone know the actual crowd?
Lucas Gillard
Roar Guru
Well that's it for me! It's 4/80 in the Cricket and I need to go and put the 89 grandfinal on Spotless Mind this game from my brain. Have great weekends!
Lucas Gillard
Roar Guru
MATCH REPORT. A game of elite professional football everyone would sooner forget, as Sydney thrashed Melbourne without ever really trying. In front of a handful of fans Melbourne officially waved goodbye to season 2019, and god knows what shape they’ll be in next week. While Melbourne put up some opposition in the first quarter, and tried to dig in in the second despite having an anonymous forward line, they then completely gave up in the second half. Sydney had just enough talent and class on every line to win the ball and set up scoring chances all night, and kept adding goals to heap the pressure onto Melbourne. Melbourne’s regular midfielders put up good numbers – Oliver, Brayshaw and Viney all got into the mid 20s – and even caught up on the clearances after being well behind after quarter time (37 to 38) but they just had nothing going forward. Jake Melksham offered a hint of something, kicking 3 and missing 2 or 3 very gettable chances, while Fritsch was lively early on, but they lacked a marking target of any substance and it showed. It took Simon Goodwin 3 quarters to finally try Frost up forward for some height, but the game was already lost at that point and, to be fair, that didn’t move the needle anyway. It seemed that Melbourne went into this game without a gameplan inside their 50 and it certainly played that way. Sydney on the other hand had winners all over the park. Despite giving away 10-15cms to Max Gawn, Aliir Aliir set the tone early for Sydney by competing hard, tackling hard and sweeping up possessions around the ground. From there the usual suspects Parker, Kennedy, Hewett and Oliver Florent (who had a fantastic game) got going in the middle and never let up. Up forward Sydney had too many weapons and found converting goals from inside 50s exponentially easier than their opponents. Sam Reid offered a target all night while smalls Menzel, Papley, Rowbottom and Dawson all popped up in important positions when it mattered. This might have been a fairly meaningless win for Sydney, but they can take a lot of joy from the performances of some of their young players. Florent was a match winner all day, Nick Blakey was tough and uncompromising around the ball (and has a lot more flair than his dad did) while Tom McCartin was a fantastic foil for Sam Reid. MAN OF THE MATCH was probably Oliver Florent. He just got so much of the footy for Sydney and was key in the transitions. He’s the perfect complement to Parker and Kennedy, and his emergence this year offers a lot of hope for Swans fans and management for the future.
Gary
Roar Rookie
Good effort in persevering with this one Lucas. My tipping is off to a good start this round.
Lucas Gillard
Roar Guru
For Sydney Reid got 3, while Menzel, McCartin, Papley, Dawson and Rowbottom got 2. For Melbourne only Melksham got multiples, kicking 3.5 and probably should have finished with 6.
Lucas Gillard
Roar Guru
SIREN. GAME OVER. Sydney wins by 53 points
Lucas Gillard
Roar Guru
Annnnnddd.... it's a coast-to-coast goal to Papley who collects inside 50 unattended and then pokes in a GOAL up the other end. | Melb 5.12.42 Syd 15.5.95
28
Lucas Gillard
Roar Guru
Ooooh no sense of theatre this umpire. Stretch with a goal of the year contender from the boundary line but it's wiped out by a push on Rampe in the goal square
26
Lucas Gillard
Roar Guru
A couple of minutes left now as this one limps to a conclusion
Lucas Gillard
Roar Guru
GOAL MENZEL! It's so so easy for Sydney. Menzel had so much time there just outside 50 to collect, canter in and size that shot up with an empty goal square. There's no one goalside of the pack for Melbourne and Menzel probably could have run 10m backwards before that shot. | Melb 5.11.41 Syd 14.5.89
23
Lucas Gillard
Roar Guru
Fritsch marks inside 50 after an excellent lead and a super smart low kick from Neal-Bullen. Fritsch MISSES. He started well Fritsch and was an early livewire for the Dees but has drifted as the rest of his team did | Melb 5.11.41 Syd 13.5.83
22
Lucas Gillard
Roar Guru
Aliir with a mark inside 50 and a great chance to seal a quality game. He's tailed off after quarter time but his forward quarter really sparkled. Sadly he misses the set shot and it's punched over the boundary line for a throw in | Melb 5.10.40 Syd 13.5.83