By Vince Rugari
The world was a very different place eight years ago. Malcolm Turnbull was still the prime minister of Australia. Donald Trump was still a mere presidential candidate. And Lance Franklin was just three years into his nine-year contract with the Sydney Swans, who still had the wood over Port Adelaide way back in the olden days.
Their 67-point victory at the SCG in round 20, 2016 was the Swans’ 13th win over the Power from 14 meetings, a run of (almost) unbroken dominance that stretched back over a decade; for the record, Buddy kicked two goals.
But life comes at you fast. One minute, an opposition can be your ‘bunnies’ (which means you beat them all the time); the next, suddenly they’re your ‘bogy team’ (that’s the inverse). Just ask the Swans, who have lost their last eight matches against the Power, a streak they will be desperate to end in Friday night’s preliminary final.
What’s happened in those games? Why have Port been so dominant? Does it even matter? Let’s take a quick walk down memory lane.
A record mauling in Adelaide
It feels like both yesterday and a whole lifetime ago when the Swans and Power last locked horns. Six weeks ago, in round 21, Sydney produced by far their worst performance of John Longmire’s 14-year reign as senior coach, losing by 112 points at Adelaide Oval. It was their fifth defeat from the team’s six-week late-season wobble, and by far the most concerning performance of them all. The Swans couldn’t even register a score until deep into the second quarter, and their overall lack of effort and intensity was enough for some pundits to immediately write them off as a premiership threat, which was probably (definitely) jumping the gun.
The dejected Swans after their loss to Port Adelaide.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images
Still, it will be a source of great confidence for Ken Hinkley’s men to know that they were able to comprehensively dismantle the AFL’s top-placed side so recently. Sydney’s big guns were successfully silenced, with Isaac Heeney and Chad Warner both held to below 20 disposals each, and their defensive structures were torn apart with staggering ease, like a three-year-old ripping open a birthday present.
It can probably be explained away as a mental aberration, the kind of thing that can happen when you’re so far in front on top of the ladder that it literally doesn’t matter – as long as it doesn’t repeat.
A friendly face and an unfriendly hand
The last time Port came to Sydney was also heartbreaking, just in a different way. And we’re not talking about the fact that it was Paddy McCartin’s last game at the top level, his career ending with an innocuous scramble with Power forward Todd Marshall in which his head lightly brushed the ground, triggering his 10th concussion.
Aliir Aliir celebrates his match-winning touch against his old side.Credit: Getty
No, we’re talking about the way that Port came from 25 points down in the second quarter and 14 points down at the final change to snatch the lead through Jeremy Finlayson with 90 seconds left on the clock. Ollie Florent had a chance to win it with a set shot as the siren sounded, but his kick failed to make the distance and was swatted away on the line by former Swans teammate Aliir Aliir. It took a few moments for everyone to figure out what had gone on; the image of Florent’s confused face, as reality began to dawn on him, became an instant and unfortunate meme.
Peter Ladhams loses it
When a team such as Port Adelaide deems a player to be too emotional and aggressive to be worth bothering with any more, rivals should probably heed the warning. The Swans did not, and in mid-2022, it blew up in their face.
Ollie Wines and Peter Ladhams tangle in June 2022.Credit: Getty Images
Peter Ladhams grew up around the corner from Alberton Oval but was traded away to Sydney at the end of 2021. His first match against his boyhood club went, in retrospect, the way it was always going to go: Ladhams struggled to keep himself in check, committing a spree of ill-disciplined acts which gave Port all the momentum and saw him not only dragged by Longmire but ultimately suspended for punching Ollie Wines in the ribs after dragging him down in a tackle. He played only one more match that year, despite Sydney’s march to the grand final, and has been a bit-part player for the Swans ever since; his only game this year was against Port, in the aforementioned 112-point defeat, and he had just six touches.
What does it all mean?
It’s difficult to read too much into the rest of the head-to-head ledger. The AFL’s fixture boffins generally keep these two teams apart, with double-bookings within the one season exceedingly rare for the Swans and Power – which means the further you look back, the less relevant those games might be. Only one of their last five clashes has been at the SCG, and Port has a losing record there overall, with six wins and 12 defeats from their 18 previous trips. In fact, take last year’s result out of the equation, and the Power haven’t won at Moore Park since 2006.
So what’s the secret behind Port’s 8-0 streak? The secret is that there is no secret: it seems to be just one of those sporting trends that unfolds without rhyme or reason.
As they say in the superannuation ads, past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. Indeed, there are probably no teams in the competition this year with as big a gap between their best and worst than Sydney and Port Adelaide.
The Swans have already dismantled one hoodoo this September, ending the Giants’ 3-0 run of victories over them in finals. Putting an end to Port’s run of dominance would be a good way to continue their redemptive arc.
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