I was placing my faith in the Swans and Dockers this round – a dangerous proposition, I know.
You see, the series of games making up Round 17, to this point, had been disappointing. Mainly blowouts, or games that were not going to heavily impact ladder positions, but this one… this one was a game with plenty to play for.
If you were listening along to the Fox Footy commentary, you would have heard Dwayne Russell mentioning how the Swans needed to win every game from here on out to make finals.
They’ve got to go eight from eight,” he announced at least a half-dozen times.
Yes, thanks Dwayne. And whilst that may end up being the case, a dropped game or two from one of those inside the top eight, and suddenly, a season that looked in tatters may just be able to be stitched together.
Keep in mind, next week, the Suns play Collingwood, and GWS play the Cats. A loss to either, or both, and suddenly…
Both teams threw everything into this game, however, there were some tactical blunders that will come back to haunt Justin Longmuir. I’ll get to them as part of the review.
The Swans got good footy from their “big three”, whilst the midfield output from the Dockers was less than overwhelming. Again, more on that later.
Still, the Dockers had their chances to pinch the win in the last quarter. Consecutive failures to score from Jye Amiss were punished at the opposite end by Hayden McLean, who book-ended the last quarter with two goals for the stanza.
The game was marred by injuries to key personnel for the Swans, with Tom Papley doing a hammy, and Joel Amartey injuring his groin late in the game. Still, the Swans held it together to see Freo outside the eight at a time of the season that it starts to seem like a very lonely place to be (except for the other nine teams that are also outside the eight, I suppose).
There is a heap to get through in this one – the ruck duels, the blokes who stood up when the heat was on, the tags, and those who went missing.
All will be covered as The Mongrel opens up the can of worms that is The Big Questions – easily the biggest review I’ve written this season
The remainder of this article is for our members. They support me, and I provide for them. It’s a good deal.
Oh… a Mongrel paywall… the worst of all paywalls. Why? Because HB believes work such as this is worth a mere pittance per day. Whilst you could stick with Caro’s Arrow or Kane’s Vol-Kane-O, you’ll get your 500 words in the newspaper and be happy, or you could dive into this review, with just on 4.1K words on the game. If you don’t want to, that’s fine. You’re welcome to join and keep reading if you do.
