AFL round 24: Sydney dispatches Adelaide with ease, sending ominous message to premiership rivals
Adelaide sent Josh Rachele to the SANFL in a statement about its standards. But if Saturday night’s heavy loss was any indication, Rachele is far from the Crows biggest issue.
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For some, the Swans had peaked too early. Others ruled them out of contention completely after losing by more than 100 points to Port Adelaide.
But following their 31-point win against the Crows on Saturday night, the Swans locked in their 10th minor premiership and have put destiny in their own hands as they look for their first flag since 2012.
It hasn’t been a pretty back half of the season for John Longmire’s side. Their form has rightly been questioned and their performances were a shell of the team that won 10 straight earlier in the year.
Longmire wanted to make a statement that it was behind them. It’s why Isaac Heeney was the only extra player managed, challenging the rest of the team to lift without him.
And in the early stages of the dead-rubber affair, which both teams attacked with equal parts freedom and ambivalence, it was the other two members of the Swans’ holy trinity Errol Gulden and Chad Warner who set the tone.
Centre bounces came thick and fast with 13 goals in the first term, and it was Gulden and Warner who dominated the midfield. They attacked the contest with reckless abandon and it paid dividends as Luke Parker got an early double on the back of some enormous effort plays.
Tom McCartin’s absence down back created some chaos for Sydney’s defensive systems. Riley Thilthorpe was strong in the air as the Crows had eight marks inside 50 by the first break. The Swans hadn’t registered one.
It wasn’t a match for the defensive purists, but Sydney’s seven-point advantage was enough to suggest the minor premiers had made some progress on their slow opening terms.
Once they cleaned up their work down back in the second term, the match was over as a contest. Six goals to one opened up a massive 37-point lead, and when Joel Amartey got going it would have given the Adelaide defenders traumatic flashbacks.
The Swans were attacking with incredible efficiency. When Logan McDonald kicked his first for the day, it was Sydney’s 16th scoring shot from 19 inside 50s.
Even through the Swans’ form dip, they’ve remained the best team in the competition at scoring from opposition turnovers. And they were ruthless against the lethargic Crows with 50 points from turnovers in the first half alone.
In a week where culture and accountability were front of mind for Adelaide following Josh Rachele’s controversial axing, Matthew Nicks’ players simply didn’t deliver. If the young forward was accused of not putting his team first, neither were many of his teammates who were clearly already thinking about their September holiday.
Rachele earned praise for his SANFL performance after the game from Nicks.
“I was really proud of the way Josh went about it today,” Nicks said.
“He represented our club at the SANFL level and he went about it the right way and played a strong game.
“I’m really proud of the way he knuckled down and got to work.
“He has complete clarity, and he and I are very much on the same page about what we expect as a footy club.
Nicks went a step further and suggested that Rachele will have a key role within the side as a leader.
“He’s going to be a really important leader for us going forward,” he said.
“I think he agrees with me, if he’s going to be a leader going forward then we want him leading in the right direction and doing that the right way.
“I know he’s going to embrace that.”
By the second half, the intensity had completely gone out of the game. One team was playing cautious footy with a mind to a home final in two weeks. The other desperate to hear the final siren.
Naturally, there were injections of brilliance. Nick Blakey’s dash off halfback saw him get so far up the ground that he claimed two goals in the third quarter. Gulden added another as careful ball movement became the priority with Sydney’s cue firmly in the rack.
The fans in the ground looked to create their own entertainment as the Mexican waves wrapped around the SCG. But as the Swans notched up their third-consecutive win heading into finals, Longmire’s checklist for the game would have been close to complete.
Without getting out of third gear, they posted more than 100 points for the first time in six weeks. Key players like Warner and Dane Rampe were able to be managed through the game while others fighting for their spots like Taylor Adams and Caiden Cleary fought until the last bounce.
It was professional to the max from one of the competition’s most consistent teams. And with at least four players still to return to their best 23, and two home finals to come, the Swans will have their sights set on premiership glory yet again.
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