Round 15
Greater Western Sydney Giants v Sydney Swans
Saly’s Story – Why she barracks for the Big Big Sound
Saly is a friend of my mine who has only lived in Australia for a short period of time. She had never really heard about the AFL and she knew very little about Aussie Rules until a couple of years ago, but she is now as avid a Giants supporter as one could find. When I asked her why she chose the Giants she said, “I love the Big Big Sound song and Sam Taylor is a bloody hottie.” During the week she was heartbroken to hear of Sam’s injury, distraught really, but she still hoped beyond hope her Toby and her Jesse would get the job done against the Bloods.
Alas, Saly is now not talking to me.
Saly knows she is stuck with being a Giants for life now, and that it is sacrosanct to ever change alliances. Stay staunch Saly, there is always next week
Garry Lyon, it was anything but a “Super-Win”.
As the final whistle blew at Engie Stadium today, Garry Lyon described Sydney’s win as a “super-win”. With all due respect, Mr Lyon, at the end of the day the Swans did what they had to do to get their tenth straight win, while the Giants can take solace in pulling back 31-points from a near ten-goal deficit midway through the third quarter, against the flow, to reduce the final margin to a respectable 27-points.
After Sydney slammed on ten-straight goals to lead by 58-points 10-minutes into the third quarter I noted, “the Swans were taking the piss out of the Giants”, by the end of the quarter with the Giants starting to win all the key indicators I noted, “the Swans are drinking their own bathwater”.
GWS goals to Harvey Thomas, Jake Riccardi and Josh Kelly at the start of the last quarter reduced the Swans margin to under four gaols with still half a quarter to go, and for a while it was game on, but the Swans steadied and won by, but it was no “super-win”.
Sydney’s Kryptonite – First Quarters
In the 2022 Grand Final, Geelong blew Sydney out of the water in the first quarter, and to this day the Swans still struggle in first quarters, and it may cost them in September again if they don’t address it. In consecutive weeks, the Blues, the Dogs, the Cats, and even the Crows have jumped the Swans, while today the Swans struggled to score a goal before the 20-minute mark of the opener, and they only landed two gaols for the quarter, the same as the Giants.
Note for teams looking to defeat the Swans in September, jump them, jump them hard, and make it count.
From the first bounce, Brodie Grundy dominated the centre bounces, but the Giants had done their homework on Issac Heeney and Chad Warner, especially the latter. Toby Bedford effectively shut Warner out of the game in the first quarter of the game, while his teammates Tom Green (15) and Josh Kelly (10) ran amok gathering possessions. The move of Bedford to Warner did stimey the Swans’ run, and while Errol Gulden was gathering positions at will, a lot of his first quarter positions were gathered in the defensive end of the field.
The run of Tom Green and the class of Kelly made the Giants look very dangerous for the first stanza.
When Hogan marked strongly in the opening minutes of the second quarter and goaled truly to put the Giants in front for the first time, it did look like an upset may be on the cards, but this is the Swans circa 2024.
Proforma Swans – Ten Straight Goals
You could write a proforma review of Swans matches and basically use it each week. Swans start slowly, Swans get behind, Swans go bang, bang, bang, and bang again, and Swans win by a margin. Substitute the name of the team they are playing, also mix around the players who star that week, and basically ask the same question at the end of the review; how do you beat the Swans? Until the ten-minute mark of the third quarter I would have been using the Swans Proforma to write this review, but something strange happened as the Swans went off script.
From the five-minute mark of the second quarter to the ten-minute mark of the third, the Swans did what the Swans do and slammed on ten straight goals to blow this game out of the water. This week you could substitute stars Warner and Heeney for Gulden and James Rowbottom, delete Amartey from last weeks review and add the names Hayden McLean and Will Hayward, keep Tom Papley, add Taylor Adams, don’t ever touch Grundy, the story remains the same for the back six plus James Jordan, and maybe make a few other adjustments,. But the story is the same from week to week. The Swans formula is, they will get you, shake you around and bash you a bit, and finally destroy you and then some, however, at the ten-minute mark of the third quarter at Engie Stadium the Swans suddenly went all avant-garde and Off Broadway.
What happened?
The Excitement of Youth I – Max Gruzewski
Totally against the flow of the match, the Giants kicked a goal from the boot of Brent Daniels at the ten-minutes mark of the third quarter, and the celebrations were relatively low key, but what happened next sparked the Giants back to life. Playing in his debut match, pick 22 from the 2022 draft, Max Gruzewski (not the guy from Monsters Inc.), who may have been having a forgettable first game, got a free kick about 25 metres out and slotted truly. Max and his teammates’ excitement over him kicking his first goal in the big time reinvigorated the Giants. The lead was now back to 46-points from 58-points, and more importantly momentum had swung.
Will Hayward spoiled Max’s party almost immediately with another Swans goal, but hats off to Max who wouldn’t be done with and he countered with another gaol of his of his own shortly afterwards as the Giants were finally up and running freely on the back of the youngster’s enthusiasm. To add a nice symmetry, in the dying minutes of the third quarter, the oldest player on the ground, Callan Ward, kicked a goal which ensured the Giants won the third quarter, even though they still trailed by 42-points.
There is something contagious about the pure enjoyment of the game by debutants who are still naive to the hardships of the sport.
The Excitement of Youth II – Caiden Cleary
The Giants came out firing in the final quarter and slammed on the first three goals, and for a while it looked like they were a chance of an incredible comeback with a half a quarter left to play, but the Swans had a Cinderella debutant story of their own.
You’ve gotta feel story for any debutant who spends the first three quarters of his career on the bench as the substitute. I understand the need for subs to run laps after a game finishes, but watching Caiden Cleary fidgeting, full of adrenaline and nervous tension, and literally shaking with anticipation before he finally got on the field, he used up any energy reserves he had before he had even crossed the white line for the first time.
Cometh the moment, cometh the debutant.
Caiden Cleary, pick 23 in the 2023 draft, and a member of the Swans Academy since the age of 10, had all his Christmases come at the one-time when, with his first kick in the AFL he put the leather through the uprights to end the Giants’ valiant charge, and help ensure a Swans victory. Like Max Gruzewski, his teammates came from everywhere to congratulate him.
Congratulations Max and Caiden for making a impact in your first match, and good luck.
No Toby, no Giants?
I pose the ‘no Toby no Giants’ as a question rather than a statement. From the outside, it seems the fortunes of the Giants revolve around the form of Greene and the infectious excitement he generates through the entire team when he is being TOBY, but is that the case?
By no means was Greene the worst player on the field today, with 18-possessions and a goal (albeit 55% efficiency). Toby was having a day where he was just an honest contributor, but he couldn’t provide the tsunami spark the Orange Team thrives on.
Josh Kelly, Tom Green, Callum Ward, Jesse Hogan, Harry Himmelberg, and a few others, are always amongst the top of the leader board each week in stats and Dream Teams, but as good as they are, they seem to lack the ability to lead from the front and inspire.
Tom Green had 35-possessions today, and he is a very good player, however he doesn’t bring other players along for the ride with him. His actions don’t seem to inspire the rest of the team and herein is the problem with Green – he was by far the Giants’ best player, but daylight was second. By no means am I calling him selfish, but rather he gets the work done with a minimum of fuss without necessarily carrying the team on his back.
Heeney/Warner/Gulden, Bontempelli/Liberatore, Patracca/Oliver/Gawn, and Cripps/Walsh/Curnow, all have the ‘X’ factor to inspire their teammates by their actions and leadership, but with all the star players the Giants have, it seems Toby, and possibly Lachie Whitfield, are the only Giants players who have something close to the same ‘X’ factor.
Sadly, for the Giants in 2024, Toby Greene isn’t the Toby Greene of last year, and in interviews I’ve heard this year, he is getting down on himself for not being able to carry the team on his own shoulders. The Giants have the talent to go deep into September but some of the senior players need to not only star, but they must learn to drag a few of the others along with them.
A 27-point loss to the Swans, especially after being down by nearly 10-goals, is a valiant performance, and from the defeat they may well have learned as much about themselves as a club as they did about the Sydney Swans, or not.
Are the Swans in a form slump?
Sydney have won ten-straight matches, and they almost have the Minor Premiership wrapped up, so it may seem strange to question the Swans form, but Minor Premierships count for zero if they fail in September.
Sydney’s first quarters are a worry, as mentioned earlier, but first quarters are not the only area of concern for the Swans.
Richmond beat Sydney earlier in the year by not letting them get a run of goals and by maintaining enough pressure for long enough, for four quarters, so they could try and snatch a victory in the last few minutes. The Swans may have been having a down day, but it worked.
The Giants won two quarters today on the scoreboard, and also broke even in the first quarter, so the Swans basically won the match with a scintillating 40-minutes of frenetic football which reaped ten goals. Having watched the Blues and the Lions this weekend, who both played four quarters of sustained pressure football, with some flair as well, both of these clubs now represent a ‘clear and present danger’ for the Swans, especially if the Swans start to drink their own bath water.
With Sydney kicking ten-straight goals today it masked the problem of the Giants outscoring the Swans eight goals to three to close out the match after the 10-minute mark of the third quarter. The Swans were comprehensively beaten in the last quarter and a bit of the match, and they were unable to stop the Giants during their third and fourth quarter five goal run-on.
Horse didn’t look happy during the game today and it may be for good reason. I reckon Horse did not think this was a ‘super-win’, and given the look on his face, he saw flaws for concern in the Swans game today.
Sydney’s luxury of a four-game break (percentage counts as a game) at the top of the ladder affords the Swans time to get things right, including playing out full four quarter games. On the other hand, if the Swans aren’t paying attention and aren’t striving to get better, the Blues, the Lions, and/or the Pies will bring them back to reality and bite them very hard in September.
Unlike Garry Lyon, who stated this was a “super-win” by the Swans, this game exposed a few underlying issues which need to be addressed by Horse and his coaching team, so I’d call it win, not a super-win, not an ugly-win, but just a win.
What role for Luke Parker? Back to the Future
Callum Mills will automatically slot back into the Swans lineup, but I not sure the scenario surrounding Luke Parker is as simple. With Heeney, Gulden, Warner, and Rowbottom on the verge of being called a Fab Four it raises the question of just where Luke Parker fits into this current Swans unit?
Luke Parker is the only Swan player left from the 2012 Premiership team to still be a chance of playing a significant role in September (I doubt Sam Reid will play again), so long as he doesn’t get injured or suspended again. In a Back to the Future scenario, the Swans substitute from the 2012 Premiership team could be well utilised as a Super Sub during September 2024.
Some would argue that Luke Parker and Taylor Adams are vying for the same position, but there is room in the same team if Parker starts as the sub with Adams on the ground. Parker and Adams are very similar, with Adams having a bit more flair, while Parker is more brutal in the battle.
It is just gut feel, but Parker would have the ability to change the course of a finals match if used as a Super Sub.
And Just Quickly…
To save HB the trouble of answering the queries that will come his way if I left this fella out of the review, I have to tip my hat to James Rowbottom, who did it again this week, with 32 possessions, 20 contested touches, and 11 clearances. He is fast becoming a major player in the Swans team, and whilst the bulk of the media attention will likely fall on the shoulders of Gulden (41 touches), and Grundy (another moster outing with 28 disposals and 31 hit outs, the work of Rowbottom.
His four clearances through the second quarter were a huge factor in the Sydney gaining the ascendancy, and with Bedford applying the brakes to Chad Warner at that point, Rowbottom flourished with more responsibility.
HB really has good timing – check out his highlight article of Rowbottom, posted earlier in the week, HERE.
Next Week
Apparently Engie Stadium was sold out today, but what I saw on the telly me thinks they may have been telling a porkie-pie. Anyway, the SCG will be a full house next weekend when the Swans take on the Dockers next afternoon – hopefully it’s sunny and the commentators don’t have to remind us over and over the races at Randwick were cancelled due to the weather (I don’t know why, but that annoyed me from the Fox commentators today – I know, get a life).
Meanwhile, the Giants have a game they must win next week when they take on the Crows under the twilight at Adelaide Oval next Saturday. Given some of the press about the Crows recently, if they have any dignity left in 2024, they should present as a difficult opponent.
HB, Mrs Mongrel and others, I’m off to Birdsville for a couple of weeks, so I’ll be back on board for Round 18 – save me a game.
