Source :- THE AGE NEWS
Many questions have been asked in relation to the Sydney Swans since that fateful Monday morning at the Pullman Hotel in East Melbourne three weeks ago.
Here’s one nobody bothered to ask: what happens if they actually win?
Nobody bothered to ask because, before Saturday, the idea was preposterous. Outside of the Swans themselves, nobody genuinely thought they could win this game. Not a qualifying final against two-time reigning premiers Brisbane, who have lost only one game since May. Not without five of their best players. Not after everything that’s happened in the last month.
As soon as the Swans suspended the ‘Pullman Five’, a line was drawn through the club’s name by virtually the entire AFL industry. Their odds blew out with bookmakers and they sunk to the bottom of everyone’s finals power rankings.
Their own chairman, Andrew Pridham, seemed to think they were as good as done: their season had been “torpedoed”, in his words, when those season-ending bans were meted out to Isaac Heeney, Nick Blakey, Chad Warner, Riley Bice and James Jordon for breaching club standards. Even their own fans seemed to agree, with only 37,261 turning up at the SCG on Saturday afternoon. It was the Swans’ lowest finals crowd at home in more than a decade.
Perhaps the Lions believed it, too. Because only that could explain the way they turned up, as if they expected the Swans to simply roll over and accept their assigned fate. They did not.
And now, after Sydney’s stirring 53-point victory, one of the great AFL finals upsets, we are in uncharted territory: this crisis-torn football club is somehow just one win away from a grand final appearance, having absorbed every bit of angst and scrutiny directed their way and channelled it to their advantage.
“I’d be writing them off at your peril,” Alastair Clarkson said here two weeks ago in what proved to be one of his final utterances as North Melbourne coach. Prophetic words.
The Lions simply could not handle Sydney’s hunger, intent and efficiency, which overwhelmed Brisbane’s most celebrated names and punched massive holes in their much-vaunted defence. The Swans kicked six of the first seven goals of the match to leave the visitors stunned; that margin remained intact for practically the whole afternoon and proved to be the difference. They prevailed 21.15 (141) to 13.10 (88).
Every time Brisbane tried to reel them in, the swarming Swans had a response of some kind that kept alive the belief that was sustaining them. They simply wanted it more, whereas the Lions, having tasted the ultimate success twice before, resembled a champion boxer who got old overnight. Lachie Neale, the pre-eminent example, had just 18 disposals and two clearances, none of them important. Brisbane have overcome bad finals defeats before, but this one was a doozy.
Tom Papley started the day under an injury cloud after appearing to tweak his calf in the warm-up. He finished it with five goals, each of them somehow worth more than six points because of the energy he generated with his celebrations. Two came in a blitz at the end of the third quarter which pushed Sydney’s lead to a scarcely believable 46 points at three-quarter time, capped by Errol Gulden’s sensational individual effort from the centre bounce.
Logan McDonald produced the game of his career, bagging six goals. His first was the first of the match, and came at the end of a chain which featured a one-handed grab in the middle by Charlie Curnow over Darcy Gardiner. The last came from a set shot on the boundary in the dying moments. (Curnow also booted five.)
Almost everything went right for the Swans. Almost. Something went very wrong midway through the opening term, when captain Callum Mills twisted his knee in ominous fashion as he tried to corral Will Ashcroft on the boundary line.
Confirmation that he would take no further part in the game suitably arrived, via the club’s X account, with a crying emoji at the end of the sentence as punctuation. Coach Dean Cox spoke about what losing the skipper to the team after the game.
“To lose your captain early, to rally, execute the roles they wanted to play at. I couldn’t be prouder,” Cox told Kayo Sports.
“We’ve worked hard on this game style for 10 months and we want to make sure that anyone that comes into the team can execute their role and do what is required, when it is required and they did that in spades.”
That Sydney still won without him, and after seeing his shattered visage on the big screen, further underlined the value of this performance. But a more cruel twist of fate was hard to imagine. Mills had risen to the moment as the Pullman scandal had demanded, leading admirably with both his words in press conferences and his actions on the field. He also missed Sydney’s last grand final appearance through injury in 2024; this was his first consistent season of football in three years.
In the absence of the five banned players, for all sorts of reasons, Mills was one of Sydney’s most important players.
Whatever they do next, they will almost certainly have to do in his absence. But you’d be crazy to put a limit on what that could be.
Both sides are moving the ball well despite the wet, slippery conditions at ground level.
Ed Richards just snapped a cracking goal for the Dogs after a play on call.
The Dogs have missed some earlier shots, this will settle them.
Dogs 10, Crows 6 with 13 mins to go in Q1.
Darcy Fogarty has booted the first goal for the Crows despite very wet conditions.
Buku Khamis almost smothered it but the goal was called after a quick review.
Great start for the Crows.
Crows 6, Dogs 1 with 17 mins to go in Q1.
Dogs defender Michael Sellwood has come out of the side at the last minute and Lachie McNeil has come in.
Sellwood has been their top intercept defender in the second half of the season.
“It’s a big out,” Garry Lyon said on Kayo Sports.
The Dogs have yet to say why Sellwood is out but the change has been made.
Straight sets.
Those two words have been ringing in the Crows’ ears ever since bombing out in successive home finals last year.Adelaide are on the right path to make amends for that shocker and will logically start warm favourites against the Western Bulldogs.
But the Dogs have demonstrated over the years that the form guide doesn’t mean everything in September.
Who can forget their ambush and 71-point boilover against Port Adelaide in the 2021 preliminary final here at Adelaide Oval?
The rain is pouring at Adelaide Oval as the teams lineup for the pregame ceremony, Dogs coach Luke Beveridge had his hoodie over his head.
Here is how things went last time they played.
Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks has endured weeks of conjecture on his future, but he turned it into a joke during his pregame chat.
Nicks was later shown addressing his players just before they ran out to play.
“Not really,” Nicks told Kayo Sports pregame.
“Most players came and addressed it with me.
Lions coach Chris Fagan has put his two-time premiership winning side on notice following their shock loss to the Sydney Swans at the SCG today in the qualifying final.
Fagan accused his side of taking the undermanned Swans easy and he has put the pressure on his side to respond next week or see their hopes of a three-peat end.
“I tried very hard this week to convince our guys it was going to be a hard game, we are going to the SCG and it’s Sydney’s home ground but somewhere in the back of the deep recesses of their minds, I wonder if they really thought it was going to be as hard as it was,” Fagan said.
“Sydney were magnificent tonight. They won because they were tougher, harder, they ran harder and used the ball well. They should be really proud of their efforts and I’m sure they will be.
An elated Swans coach Dean Cox didn’t have an update on skipper Callum Mills knee injury.
Mills was on crutches with ice on his knee late in the game and Cox told Kayo Sports he couldn’t bring himself to ask Mills about his knee.
There are fears he has ruptured his ACL and his season is over but that won’t be confirmed until scans in the coming days.
The locker room cameras showed Swans players going to Mills at half-time and consoling him, he even received a kiss on the cheek from Tom Papley.
Many questions have been asked in relation to the Sydney Swans since that fateful Monday morning at the Pullman Hotel in East Melbourne three weeks ago.
Here’s one nobody bothered to ask: what happens if they actually win?
Nobody bothered to ask because, before Saturday, the idea was preposterous. Outside of the Swans themselves, nobody genuinely thought they could win this game. Not a qualifying final against two-time reigning premiers Brisbane, who have lost only one game since May. Not without five of their best players. Not after everything that’s happened in the last month.
As soon as the Swans suspended the ‘Pullman Five’, a line was drawn through the club’s name by virtually the entire AFL industry. Their odds blew out with bookmakers and they sunk to the bottom of everyone’s finals power rankings.
