Mick McGuane: Swans must beat Hawthorn to keep AFL finals hopes alive

It’s elimination final time at the SCG. The Sydney Swans must maintain the rage to keep their finals hopes alive. Mick McGuane explains how they have changed their game on the run.

It’s elimination final time at the SCG with the Sydney Swans needing to maintain the rage and win to keep their finals hopes alive.

For the loser, it’s season over as I think you’re then too far away from the top eight.

But a win gives you hope. When you’ve got hope it provides energy and when you’ve got energy you can do incredible things. It builds momentum.

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The Swans’ last month has been really strong and it’s a credit to the coaching staff and the playing group, considering they’ve lost key personnel. Josh Kennedy’s been out, Heath Grundy’s retired, no Nick Smith, Kieren Jack, Will Hayward’s been in and out, Harry Cunningham and Jarrad McVeigh. You can go on.

CHANGE ON THE RUN

I have always respected a coaching staff and playing group that reinvigorate and realign how they play in a season, and that’s what the Swans have done.

A lot of younger players have had to grow up quickly and become really competitive because that’s the Swans signature brand.

Kennedy’s return will stiffen them through the middle of ground. Zak Jones gives them a bit of outside influence. Jake Lloyd’s been a defensive general and when it comes to Luke Parker the tougher the stakes, the bigger the battle, the more he rises to the occasion.

The four questions you must ask when things aren’t going well are the what, the why, the how and the when.

WHAT: Four or five weeks ago the Swans might have stripped it back and said what we need to do is become a more a competitive team.

WHY: To stay in games longer.

HOW: More contested ball drills at training and one v ones or two v twos.

WHEN: Right now. We’ve going to get straight into it.

Zak Jones has added zip to the Swans. Picture: Phil Hillyard

No “next season”, no “poor us”. Memberships take a hit when you continually lose and the turnstiles stop ticking over because people don’t want to be in a losing atmosphere.

But when the SCG’s in full voice it’s an amphitheatre.

And I’ve always felt that winning is the best medicine.

THE KEY TO THE CONTEST

This week the Swans face a team that isn’t in great form.

It’s a clash between two sides that struggle at clearances. Hawthorn is ranked 18th for clearance differential, the Swans are 16th.

Whoever gains the ascendancy in this facet of the game will get the upper hand. If the Swans master Hawthorn around the stoppages that will clearly equate to inside-50s, and both Lance Franklin and Tom Papley could be the beneficiaries of that considering the form they’re in.

Since Round 8, the Swans have ranked second in the AFL for generating scores once inside 50. The natural alignment for that to continue is to get your stoppages right, win clearances so you can help generate the score because efficiency is part of their mantra at the moment.

Lance Franklin is back in form.

Hawthorn last week couldn’t score and couldn’t get a mark inside their forward 50. Will being patient with the ball and their build-up be Hawthorn’s way this week? The Hawks like to shift the ball and change angles looking for an opening to penetrate. Coach Alastair Clarkson will be well aware John Longmire-coached teams like to fold back, adding more numbers to support their back six and absorb inside-50s in pursuit of winning the ball back and then counter attack.

The Swans might be happy to say, ‘You can have possession, you can shift the ball as much as you like, at some stage you’ve got to pull the trigger and when you do — because we’ve had an opportunity to get back into our defensive end we’ve got weight of numbers — we’ll back ourselves to win it back’.

How Hawthorn enters its forward 50 versus how the Swans slingshot out of defensive 50 could help determine tonight’s result.