AFL Finals: Isaac Heeney inspires Sydney to qualifying final victory over GWS Giants

There’s Giants. Then there’s Isaac Heeney. The Sydney superstar went from match-saver to matchwinner in an epic qualifying final victory which underlined Heeney’s superstar status.

Sydney has pulled off a miraculous comeback to deny cross-town rivals GWS and get within a game of the grand final.

Trailing by 27 points late in the third term and not having held the lead from the opening minutes, the 43,189 strong crowd at the SCG was sent into raptures when Joel Amartey put them in front in the final two minutes.

The Swans worked the game back to level after Isaac Heeney broke free and kicked a major from inside the centre square to generate a roar that could be heard in Blacktown.

Then it was Amartey who proved the difference maker, receiving a handball from Tom Papley and dribbling through the kick to win the match.

It was the culmination of big players standing up at key moments.

Jake Lloyd raced down the wing and slotted a goal from the 50m arc to keep them in the contest early in the fourth, James Jordon landed a pinpoint kick for substitute Braeden Campbell to get them back to within a kick, and Heeney showed why he is among the game’s elite with a game for the ages.

Sydney’s 13.10 (88) to 12.10 (82) victory sees them advance to the preliminary final where they await the winner of Port Adelaide and Hawthorn, while the Giants need to win at home next week to keep their premiership dream alive.

Swans coach John Longmire said it was a stellar performance from their opposition, and said experience at the back-end of the season helped them grind out the win.

“GWS were fierce in the tackle and in the contest. They were hard, clean and tough,” he said.

“It was a really good game and they played a strong brand of footy.

“Their pressure was through the roof. They did so much right and we weren’t winning the contests in the first three quarters.

“Our last quarter was enormous. We were able to grind it out.”

Isaac Heeney was the Swans’ matchwinner. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

Heeney comes back to earth after taking a screamer over Jack Buckley. Picture: Matt King/AFL Photos/via Getty Images

WAYWARD GIANTS OFF TARGET

It proved costly in the end as a few key misses from the Giants prevented their quarter-time advantage from surpassing seven.

GWS dominated the possession count and clearances, but a couple of wayward shots from close range kept the Swans within range.

First it was Toby Greene who could’ve passed to any number of teammates but opted to kick himself and missed wide, only for James Rowbottom to go down the other end and kick Sydney’s first of the afternoon.

Then James Peatling was taken high in a sloppy Isaac Heeney tackle, only to miss from 20m directly in front of goal.

“I thought we were pretty good for three quarters,” Giants coach Adam Kingsley said.

“The momentum shifted in the third but we steadied the ship with a goal. In the last quarter they were able to get their game up and going and we weren’t able to shut it down.

“We didn’t play the last quarter. Just like we didn’t play the first quarter against Brisbane. We played a very good three quarters, but it wasn’t good enough.”

ISAAC HEENEY OH MY WORD 😱😱#AFLFinals#AFLSwansGiantspic.twitter.com/F4N2WLGUaz

— AFL (@AFL) September 7, 2024

ISAAC HEENEY STOP THAT 🤯#AFLFinals#AFLSwansGiantspic.twitter.com/MCcRg3g6vZ

— AFL (@AFL) September 7, 2024

HEENEY TAKES FLIGHT

Heeney produced two spectacular grabs that would’ve been firmly in the running for mark of the year if they took place a fortnight earlier.

With the Swans under the pump in the second, Heeney was able to shake his defender and come up with an impossible one-arm grab, before going back and slotting the snap to get his side rolling.

Then less than a minute into the second half he climbed the ladder of Jack Buckley to leap close to outer space and pull off the best mark we’ve seen all season.

“He’s hard. He’s a genuinely tough player,” Longmire said.

“He’s grown enormously and he has an ability to lift. He just keeps going.”

The Swans celebrate their epic comeback win. Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images

KEEFE STOPS FIRST RUN

Leading by as much as 28 points in the second quarter, the Giants saw their lead whittle away to just eight early in the third on the back of a few magic moments from Isaac Heeney, before an inspired piece of play from Lachlan Keefe turned the game back in their favour.

With the huge crowd willing the Swans to their first lead since the fourth minute of the game, Keeffe put his body on the line to take a clutch mark to deny Sydney a mark inside 50 and the chance to kick its third-straight goal of the third term.

That sparked a run of three goals in a row for the Giants that would open up a lead too big for the Swans to chase down, sucking the life out of the ground for all but a few small pockets of orange scattered around the SCG.

“They were able to surge out of stoppage. We had some experienced guys make some errors and some young guys make some errors,” Kingsley said.“They’re disappointed. We were in a position to win the game and we didn’t do that, but we need to shift our minds onto that (next week) pretty quickly.”

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Originally published as AFL Finals: Isaac Heeney inspires Sydney to qualifying final victory over GWS Giants