Swans needed another hard game, not ‘soft’ home win

AFL great Dermott Brereton identified the Swans’s achilles heel before their grand final fade out.

A five-time premiership winner and ex-Sydney Swan says his former club’s “soft” run into the AFL grand final dinted its chances of holding up the premiership cup.

AFL great Dermott Brereton said the Swans, who were humiliated by the Lions by 60 points at the MCG on Saturday, were not battle hardened for the biggest game of the year.

The Swans had a tough win over the Giants in the qualifying final at the SCG, but after a week off had a comfortable victory over Port Adelaide at the same venue.

All of which did not bode well for the Swans, says Brereton, who won all of his flags with Hawthorn.

Meanwhile, the Lions hurtled into the grand final with three successive victories, two of which were away from home.

“The last six weeks have been a fairly softish intro into a grand final (for the Swans),” Brereton said.

“So since they last played in Melbourne, six weeks and one day, I didn’t like their form line coming into the finals; they have a great win against the Giants and a soft win against Port Adelaide … since August the 16th, they’ve had one good hitout … and not enough hardened footy.”

“They could have done with another hard game in there.

“I know they’ll say they trained hard and they ripped in but there’s nothing like the battle …”

While the Lions easily beat Carlton in the elimination final, they staged a sensational comeback to defeat the in-form Giants by five points and then had a thrilling 10-point win over the Cats at the SCG in the preliminary final.

The Swans, in contrast, were hardly tested on home turf against Port Adelaide.

“I just thought it was a softish lead-in for them,” Brereton said.

“You get the week off before finals. You win your first week of finals, you get another week off, and then you play a team which played their grand final the week before.

“So it’s a soft kill and you get to grand final day, and your last 21 days, you’ve had one soft kill. That’s it.

“I don’t think it was the best prep. And the week off before the finals helps everyone.

“Now, had there been no week off before the finals, Sydney would have had the perfect intro.”

Swans coach John Longmire said after the game that earning the double chance by finishing in the top four did not cost his team the game. “I’m not going to put it down to that, but it’s not the advantage it once was,” he said.

While the Lions played their preliminary final at the MCG, and had a thrilling and narrow win over the Cats, Brereton noted that the Swans played two finals at the SCG. “This (the MCG) is a totally different ground …” he said.

“If Sydney had to win, their midfielders needed to kick goals.

“When you run out of the centre circle at the SCG, you’re within goalkicking distance; when you run out of the centre circle at the MCG, your kicks fall short.”