Sydney Swans were gone before seven-goal final term inspires famous win over Geelong
A BUNCH of misfits from Sydney who’d managed to kick just five goals in three quarters looked cooked. But the Swans produced a remarkable final term to stun Geelong.
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THEY were gone. Dead in the water. Cooked.
A bunch of misfits from Sydney missing their best player who’d managed to kick just five goals in three quarters and were behind by 22 points at the start of the last quarter.
That’s the definition of cooked.
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Well, it is for most teams but not for these Swans who produced a remarkable final quarter comeback, kicking seven goals to one to pull of a stunning backs-to-the-wall victory.
It continues their love of Kardinia Park with Sydney now having won their past three visits but this will go down as the best mainly due to who wasn’t there.
Lance Franklin, Dan Hannebery and Dean Towers were all ruled out on Thursday night because of injury.
First-gamer Ben Ronke and Robbie Fox were two of the inclusions and they ended up being unlikely heroes.
After a promising opening term where Sydney led by 15 points, they were completely outplayed by the Cats in the next two quarters.
The Buddy-less forward line only kicked one goal in that period of the game while the Cats piled on seven and looked in complete control.
Enter Fox.
The sixth-gamer took a hanger in the opening minute of the final term, converting the set shot from 20 metres.
Three minutes later Zak Jones slotted a tough shot on the run from deep in the pocket and suddenly they had a pulse.
Cory Gregson managed what everyone at GMHBA Stadium figured was the steadier at the six-minute mark but it ended up being the only yelp the home side gave.
The Swans kicked the last five goals of the game through the no-name characters of Fox, Ronke and Will Hayward.
Will that be enough for the Swans?
— AFL (@AFL) April 28, 2018
Hayward peels off the banana on the run!#AFLCatsSwans pic.twitter.com/pauMNfrUZz
Ronke, a little terrier forward pocket, put them in front at the 16-minute mark with a brilliant quick-kick out of the goalsquare.
Normally at this time Patrick Dangerfield or Joel Selwood does something heroic and the Cats find a way.
That never happened as it was Sydney’s big names who were lifting with captain Josh Kennedy and ruckman Callum Sinclair dominating the centre square.
Hayward and Fox kicked the next two goals and when Oliver Florent received a 50-metre penalty at the 24-minute mark to hand him an easy goals it was the Cats who were cooked.
The stats sheet told the story in the end.
Geelong simply ran out of gas with the Swans having 57 more possessions in the final stanza with Kennedy returning to form in a stunning way, collecting 33 possessions which included 17 contested and 13 clearances.
Earlier it was obvious Sydney coach John Longmire didn’t have much alternative but to wind back the clock to the boring old scragging Swans, the one’s Andrew Demetriou famously called ugly.
The first quarter was a snapshot of the Paul Roos days which the former AFL boss was commentating on.
Sydney started with one loose in defence and strangled the life out of Geelong who should have known what was coming but still didn’t cope with it.
With no Franklin and Sam Reid, the Swans forward line was as makeshift as they come with on-ballers Luke Parker and Isaac Heeney in the key positions.
The tallest player in the formation was Gary Rohan at 189cm.
It did the job initially with four goals and a 13-point lead in the first quarter but that was built on tackling pressure and a dominance around the ball led by Kennedy.
But was it going to be sustainable?
It had been for the Swans in the previous two visits to GMHBA Stadium where they’d won by 46 and 38 points respectively.
But that was with a full contingent and something resembling a forward line.
So when Geelong lifted its intensity and started to apply pressure in the second quarter, everything fell out of whack for the Swans.
They only managed one point in the second quarter as the home side piled on four goals.
The contested possession count told the story. At quarter time it was 41 each, at halftime Geelong led 91 to 72.
While the usual suspects were prominent — Dangerfield, Selwood and Mitch Duncan — the performance of the lesser names is what was warming the hearts of the locals.
Tim Kelly continues to enhance the reputation of recruiter Stephen Wells. For the 300th time in the last six weeks the same question was asked about the 23-year-old — Why hadn’t anyone found him earlier?
His brilliant roving of a pack in the goalsquare late in the second quarter had class written all over it.
Spectacular read from Tim Kelly, hitting the pack at full-pace. #AFLCatsSwans pic.twitter.com/5Wd5E7TZaU
— AFL (@AFL) April 28, 2018
At three-quarter time Kelly had 18 possessions, 13 of them contested which was more than anyone on the ground.
A couple of other new faces in Jordan Cunico and Lachie Fogarty were prominent while cult figure Esava Ratugolea continued to impress playing alongside Tom Hawkins.
That was the story for the first three quarters.
The final quarter was a completely different story and in the end it wasn’t Geelong’s new faces but a bunch of Sydney nobody’s who were getting the love they deserved.
SYDNEY 4.6 4.7 5.10 12.14 (86) def GEELONG 2.3 6.7 9.8 10.9 (69)
GOALS
Sydney: W Hayward 3 B Ronke 2 O Florent 2 R Fox 2 G Rohan L Parker Z Jones
Geelong: J Parsons 2 T Hawkins 2 C Gregson J Selwood P Dangerfield R Stanley S Menegola T Kelly
BEST
Sydney: Kennedy, Sinclair, Heeney, McVeigh, Grundy, Jones, Lloyd
Geelong: Kelly, Stewart, Selwood, Hawkins, Duncan, Cunico
Umpires: Matt Stevic, Shane McInerney, David Harris
Venue: Simonds Stadium
VOTES
3 - Josh Kennedy (Sydney)
2 - Callum Sinclair (Sydney)
1 - Tim Kelly (Geelong)
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Originally published as Sydney Swans were gone before seven-goal final term inspires famous win over Geelong