Sydney is on the board in 2020 after defeating the Adelaide Crows by three points in Rory Sloane’s 200th
The Sydney Swans have started the 2020 AFL season in style, defeating the Adelaide Crows to ensure Matthew Nicks starts his coaching career with a loss.
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New coach. New solo captain. New-look forward line. But there seem to be the same old problems for Adelaide, which went down to Sydney by three points in its round one clash at Adelaide Oval.
After getting off to a blinding goal-fest of a start, the Crows fell behind before a last-quarter fightback got them within three points with less than a minute left in the game.
But Sydney were ultimately a faster, better skilled outfit, who – despite being held to a solitary behind in the last term – went out winners 11.8 (74) to 11.5 (71).
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A superb first quarter from the Crows seemed to blow away the turmoil from the past season with the forwards – particularly Taylor Walker and Darcy Fogarty – combining beautifully to pile on six goals between them (two to Walker).
Adelaide took a three-goal lead – and a stack of confidence – into their quarter-time huddle, but there was one stat that would have been worrying Matthew Nicks in his first game as coach: clearances.
The Crows were minus nine in that overall count (5-14), but if you’re three goals up, surely that doesn’t matter?
Matter it did, when the second quarter came around.
The gulf between the two sides – the Swans too easily able to clear the ball, particularly from the centre square – was telling as Sydney’s forward line lapped up the balls they were fed and they kicking five goals to the Crows’ one in the second term.
Suddenly, the Crows were down by eight points.
After kicking six goals in the first quarter, Adelaide managed to kick only five from there, while Sydney kicked eight, as rampant small forward Isaac Heeney had a field day, kicking a bag of four, while Will Hayward had two to his name.
The Crows midfield woes will need fixing: despite winning the hit-outs 35-33, they lost centre clearances 5-20 and stoppage clearance 20-26.
A late goal to Tom Lynch put them within nine points as the minutes ticked down, and when a score review gave Sydney a behind, Chayce Jones kicked the Crows to within four points with a minute on the clock and when Walker lined up he could have proved the matchwinner, but sprayed the kick.
It wasn’t the ideal way for Adelaide to start 2020, but no one ever said “rebuild: was going to be pretty.
Milestone man
In his 200th game, Crows captain Sloane was among the best for his side.
He sat on the bench for the first six minutes of the second quarter as Sydney cut back Adelaide’s three-goal lead to four points. Sloane’s return to the midfield didn’t stem the tide, as the Swans kicked four goals unanswered. But it was Sloane – of course – who put a stop to that, and kicked the Crows first of the quarter at the 12-minute mark. And as he celebrated the goals, his teammates surged from across the ground congratulating their captain.
Sloane finished the game with 18 disposals, after having only seven touches to half time.
Newbies
The Crows debuted former Port Adelaide player Billy Frampton and teenager Fischer McAsey who was picked up at No. 6 in last year’s draft.
Frampton could have kicked his first goal in his new colours early when he lined up on the 50m line as the opening term closed out, but missed the sticks altogether.
His height was an advantage up forward, but he was well held and finished the game with nine disposals, but his services came in handy in the ruck, and he had 11 hit-outs.
McAsey spent his debut game in defence, lining up on the likes of Nick Blakey. He finished with five disposals.
In defence it was the old guard of Rory Laird, Daniel Talia and a strong marking Wayne Milera who shouldered the majority of the load. Milera was a standout for the Crows down back.
Bryce Gibbs played there too, but looked out of sorts.
Scoring accuracy
In his pre-game presser, Matthew Nicks wondered whether the lack of a crowd had the capacity to increase accuracy in front of goal.
He was right. It did.
This game had the most accurate opening term of football since Fremantle and Geelong kicked 10 goals between them in 2012.
The Crows and Swans kicked nine straight goals for the first term (the second most accurate in VFL/AFL history) and there was more to come: the 10th goal came early in the second quarter when Swan Will Hayward sent through an impressive snap, before Blakey broke the goalscoring run and kicked the game’s first behind.
Gray returns
Sam Gray – who played 96 games and kicked 83 goals for the Power, before being delisted last year – enjoyed his first game in Swans. He kicked his first goal in the second term, and went on to pick up 16 touches.
But it was his new teammates in Luke Parker (29 disposals) Oliver Florent (20), Josh Kennedy (25) and Heeney (16) who ran all over the Crows.
WHAT THE COACHES SAID …
Sydney coach John Longmire said he was proud of his side who came across to Adelaide with a good attitude from the start.
“Even in the first quarter we had a heap of tackles and the mechanisms that you measure effort with were really high, even though we were behind on the scoreboard.
“In the end, I think we were able to hang on because of that. But there’s no question winning clearances … the boys did a good job.
“It was an important win, it was important for our players, it was important for their families, it’s important for our supporters that are sitting at home … some are doing it pretty tough and we talked about that, that we wanted to give great effort for a number of reasons.”
Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks said it was hard for players to come out on the ground and not be able to thank their fans for being there after what was a disappointing loss, but that he did enjoy his first game as senior coach.
“We were really disappointed we didn’t get the win in the end, we came to win, but we were beaten convincingly at centre bounce,” he said.
“It was 5-20 (clearance count) in the end, that’s a huge number that puts you on the backfoot straight away, so we played the game from our back half and played it quite well, to be honest, especially in patches.
“But to come through a game and expect to win it from your back half, it doesn’t happen very often.”