Sydney Swans thrash Port Adelaide by 67 points to keep minor premiership hopes alive

THE Sydney Swans have handed out another footballing lesson this time to Port Adelaide smashing them by 67 points at the SCG.

Neil Cordy

@neilcordy

3 min read

August 6, 2016 - 4:44PM

THE Swans have handed out another footballing lesson this time to Port Adelaide smashing them by 67 points at the SCG.

Sydney was clearly in finals mode while the visitors looked like they were planning their end of season trip.

The home side put the defensive clamps on to restrict Port to their lowest score ever against the Swans of just 33 points. It was also Sydney’s second biggest win against the Power coming just one point short of beating the 68 point margin set in 2008.

The win improved Sydney’s percentage by 4.2 to overtake GWS and move second spot on the ladder. The boost came on the back of the six per cent they added against the Dockers last week.

“We wanted to finish the job,” Swans coach John Longmire said.

“It’s a 67 point win over Port Adelaide. They’re a good team, they’ve been able to score heavily this year, they’re fourth on average goals and third on points scored against. To come away with a win like that is a really good sign.”

The Swans midfield continued to dominate with their two way running, beating Port on the spread and then running equally hard to defend almost winning the tackle count (65-77) despite dominating possession by more than 100 (455-344).

“It was a super effort for three quarters,” Longmire said.

“We played a physical brand of football, contested possession (188-132) was through the roof. There were some sore blokes at the end and it would have been good to finish off but gee we were good for three.”

Luke Parker led the possession getters with 39 including a massive 22 contested, Dan Hannebery was also outstanding with 36 including 14 contested, Tom Mitchell (32), Jake Lloyd (32) and Josh Kennedy (30) all pushed past the 30 mark as well.

Xavier Richards with Jarrad McVeigh. (AAP Image/David Moir).

Isaac Heeney was also in everything as he continued is welcome return to form with 25 disposals, eight marks and two goals in a comprehensive performance.

The Swans had 10 different goal scorers including four multiple with Heeney, Lance Franklin, Xavier Richards and Gary Rohan all with two apiece.

Rohan showed plenty of courage to play on after taking a nasty knock to his hip in a first quarter marking contest with Charlie Dixon. The longer the game went the more he struggled but he still managed to play out the 120 minutes.

“He’ll be a bit sore tomorrow but he’s a good farm boy from Cobden,” Longmire said.

“He’ll ice up and be OK next week.”

Harry Cunningham was another who battled on with an injury, spending most of the second half on and off the ground with an injury to his right knee.

“Harry had a little bit of a knee but was able to come back on,” Longmire said.

“I’m hoping that was a good sign he was able to finish the game off.”

It was Justin Westhoff’s 200th game but one he’d rather forget as the visitors produced a 161 point turnaround from their 94 point win over Brisbane last week.

After demolishing Fremantle by 90 points last week the Swans picked up where they left off kicking the first eight goals of the match to lead by 54 points before Robbie Gray kicked their first goal and score mid-way through the second term. Sydney kept the foot on the pedal to stretch the lead to 74 points at three quarter time before they eased off in the last term with Ken Hinkley’s men scoring the only goal of the final quarter.