Okay, so a funny (stupid) thing happened on the way to this review.
Occasionally, in the chopping and changing of who’s reviewing what, I get a little confused. This was the case today. I was under the mistaen impression I was doing this review, and I was sitting and writing it when I got sent an message from Matt with a game review attached. I had a look at the title, and my heart sank.
I wasn’t supposed to do this game. Matt was. And he did.
Problem was, I’d already started my review.
So, as a bonus, you not only get Matt’s review, but the first few points I was writing about, as well. They’ll be at the end of this, and in italics, so you are aware of where Matt’s excellent work ends, and where my crap, unedited work begins. You end up with 5K words from this ripping contest. Enjoy.
Now, I’d better get stuck into the game I was supposed to review – Cheers, HB
It’s time for another of my patented ‘Live from the Lounge Room’ game reviews. Ok, cards on the table, I have only done one of these previously, and truth be told, this is more Nick Sluggett’s baby than mine, but gee, it was fun the last time I put pen to paper in real time.
So, from a cold and overcast Adelaide, this is St. Kilda vs. Sydney, live and as it happens. The Saints are playing for pride, and perhaps to convince Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera it’s worth sticking around, while the Swans have gotten most of their troops back, and are slowly putting themselves back into finals contention, as impossible as that sounded a month ago.
Oh, and one other thing. These times will be in ACST. The game starts at 2:45 pm over here, to clear up any confusion.
PRE-GAME
Mid-afternoon: They can’t close the roof! I’m sorry, but that’s hilarious. Fancy
2:30 pm: The game over on 504 is enthralling. It’s not a heavyweight battle feel, more like, how far can these kids take North Melbourne? They’ve certainly improved, the Roos, and a big scalp here (if we can still call Melbourne a big scalp) can really give them a big boost heading into 2026.
2:44: I’m Shipping Up To Boston by the Dropkick Murphys is the perfect song for a pre-game amp-up.
FIRST QUARTER
2:45 pm: Bounce down. Let’s get it on!
2:45 pm: I think I’m going to enjoy this ruck battle. Two big men in excellent form, and like the Dees v Roos, it’s almost the past meeting the future. How far can Rowan Marshall go? Especially if Tom De Koning joins him.
2:47 pm: I love Mitch Owens. This kid can play anywhere! He’s not the type of forward you build around, but he’s one of the most valuable pieces on St Kilda’s list.
2:48 pm: Excellent move from Cox to send James Jordon to Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera.
2:50 pm: This might be an unpopular opinion, but Sydney’s forward line looks impotent without Tom Papley. And as Hayden McLean benefits from a holding free kick he ABSOLUTELY didn’t deserve, I’m not sure how far the Swans can go with these key targets.
2:54 pm: Jack Sinclair has one of the most lethal legs in the competition. I have no idea why he was given so much space for Brad Hill to find him, and everyone knew he was in range as soon as he marked it.
2:56 pm: Oh boy. The Viking just learnt a very harsh lesson. Don’t ever try passing across goal when a superstar like Isaac Heeney is around. Maybe don’t take the risk, regardless.
2:57 pm: Wow! This Jack Buller might be worth persisting with. Beautiful clearance work, firstly from Jordon, then the kick from Angus Sheldrick, and Buller roosts it from long range. Great stuff.
2:39 pm: Uh oh, the Saints are falling apart defensively. They really need to get themselves fully switched on, this isn’t the same Sydney team from a month ago.
3:00 pm: Poor turnover from Brad Hill. Not the greatest five minutes from him. Wanganeen-Milera also poor defensively. He’s lucky Justin McInereny missed the set shot.
3:04 pm: That’s twice Anthony Caminiti has been the victim of a dubious holding free kick against him!
3:07 pm: Ross Lyon needs to do something. St. Kilda’s pressure might be through the roof, but this is getting out of hand quickly. Sydney are dominating the clearances, and the Saints can’t hit a target to save themselves. Hill has been particularly mediocre by foot.
3:13 pm: Captain’s goal from Jack Steele to bring the Saints back into the contest. And well deserved too, they’ve sorted things out in the last five minutes.
3:15 pm: Immense inside 50 pressure gets Hugh Boxshall his first goal in league footy!
3:19 pm: 31 tackles to nine for the quarter. You can tell that while the Saints don’t necessarily enjoy that out-and-out superstar on their books, they don’t really need to. Bring pressure like that, and you never know what might happen.
3:20 pm: Quarter Time: Sydney 5.3.33 lead St. Kilda 4.0.24
SECOND QUARTER
3:27 pm: Isaac Heeney was giving lessons in the first quarter. This time, he’s taking lessons, this time from Wanganeen-Milera’s running power.
3:28 pm: Callum Wilkie vs. Aaron Francis has the same aura as Muhammad Ali vs. Big Dave from the local RSL.
3:32 pm: He’s a superstar in high demand, but Wanganeen-Milera needs to clean up his disposal efficiency. And to level things out, Nick Blakey’s disposal by foot lets him down a little too often for a player of his standing.
3:33 pm: Brilliant pressure from Max Heath to bring down Brodie Grundy!! I wonder if a club like Brisbane could have a look at him, I feel like he’ll be better than the VFL level he’s likely to find himself in next year.
3:35 pm: It’s highly impressive that St Kilda are fully invested in the full-field team defence. The Swans can’t get anything going.
3:37 pm: Going back to what I said five minutes ago, Wanganeen-Milera and Blakey have the most metres gained on the ground. But what good does it do if they can’t hit their targets?
3:39 pm: How much different is this Swans team than the one they nearly went all the way last year? And the reason they’re struggling to get past a plucky St Kilda isn’t that they’re missing a key forward or two. Even as I type this, the Saints cut through Sydney’s defence far, far too easily, and Cooper Sharman gets an easy goal.
3:43 pm: I was fully ready to pump up Wanganeen-Milera’s tyres, then he goes and gets run down inside 50. How much candy does he want to sell? And why wasn’t he warned by his teammates that he was hot? Very silly for him to try and do everything himself.
3:48 pm: Twice in 30 seconds, the Swans turn the ball over coming out of defensive 50. And it’s from senior players who really should be far better.
3:50 pm: James Rowbottom should be Sydney’s captain next year, no disrespect to Callum Mills. But Rowbottom is such a heart and soul player who never gives up, and it’s thanks to him that Sydney are in this game at all.
3:52 pm: Holy moly! That’s a sickening injury to Dan Butler! Maybe Fox Footy should’ve realised that Butler’s elbow was dislocated before cutting to that shot. In all the hoopla, it’s more pressure that gets the Saints the goal.
3:54 pm: This Max Hall kid can play! It’s one thing to bring down Errol Gulden, but another to knock it home from outside 50, especially from a player of his stature.
3:56 pm: Half Time: St. Kilda 7.4.46 lead Sydney 5.6.36
First half thoughts: The Saints should be much further in front here. Aside from a patch in the first quarter where the Swans slammed on four goals in quick time, the Saints have completely dominated last year’s Grand Finalists. Seven scoring shots to three for the quarter, and while the Swans can’t score, their bigger issue is a complete inability to handle the Saints’ pressure. They’re trying to resurrect their season, but right now, they might as well book some September holidays, because if they can’t handle this, they don’t deserve to be playing finals football.
THIRD QUARTER
4:17 pm: Second half underway, let’s see if the Saints can keep this going.
4:18 pm: Callum Mills is now opposed to Wanganeen-Milera. That’s certainly an interesting choice.
4:20 pm: Terrible few moments for the Swans. Mills wasn’t under too much pressure, but his dump kick lands straight in Brad Hill’s hands. Then Hill is able to find Marcus Windhager without a Swans defender anywhere near him. Then, an obvious free kick to Max Heath gives the debutant the first goal of his career.
4:23 pm: Very clever play ending with a nice goal to Jake Lloyd, his third of the afternoon. Will Hayward has done next to nothing all game, but it was excellent vision and ball use that got the ball to Lloyd.
4:25 pm: Hayward enjoying a purple patch. But it’s off the back of supreme clearance work, and although the kick didn’t land exactly where Sheldrick wanted, Hayward read the ball in flight a lot better than everyone else, and essentially marked unopposed.
4:27 pm: Oh my goodness, what a goal! Brilliance from Marshall to get the ball into Hugo Garcia’s hands, and he just launches a long bomb from the square to answer straight back within seconds. Might be the best centre break of the season for the Saints!
4:31 pm: Is anyone brave enough to suggest that Blakey’s ball use is a liability? We all get swept up by the Lizard’s running power, and sure that’s great to watch, but there’s too many times that he simply doesn’t hit his targets often enough.
4:33 pm: And again a Swans player misses the target by foot, after moving the ball far too slowly.
4:33 pm. Ditto.
4:34 pm: Great vision from Windhager to give Cooper Sharman the best chance at a run and jump. The Saints feel like they can break things open anytime they like, and the 18-point margin is making the Swans look better than they’ve been.
4:36 pm: Swans changing their tactics, taking Aaron Francis off the ground and going smaller in their forward line. Good move to make now, before it’s too late.
4:37 pm: Ummmmmmm, what the heck is going on at Adelaide Oval? Mrs. B-O will not be happy!
4:38 pm: Good boy, Sheldrick! It took far too many kicks after the turnover to get the ball inside 50, but at least this time it worked.
4:39 pm: This time, there’s no defence for the holding free on Caminiti. You can argue semantics all you like (like Gerard Healy is trying to do), but Caminiti had a fist full of jumper right where the umpire can see it, and he’ll pay the free kick every time.
4:40 pm: I feel like a key forward partnership of Logan McDonald and Jack Buller has potential and is worth persisting with.
4:43 pm: Now is the time when the Saints can’t do anything silly. And then Steele turns the ball over on the wing. But again, Sydney are just too slow to get things going.
4:44 pm: Just as the Swans are too slow at one end, the Saints go at lightning speed from defence to forward. It started with Heath, and ended with a Mitch Owens banana, and St. Kilda have breathing space again.
4:48 pm: More turnovers than a bakery in that passage of play!
4:50 pm: Three Quarter Time: St. Kilda 11.8.74 lead Sydney 9.7.61
FOURTH QUARTER
4:57 pm: A big contest has Tom McCartin coming off second best. Super brave to run back with the flight considering his concussion issues.
4:59 pm: At 3:50, I said that James Rowbottom should be the skipper of the Swans, and after that goal, I will continue to stand by it. Not a great piece of play from Hill, he really should’ve swallowed it up, but excellent work from Rowbottom to give his team the perfect start.
5:00 pm: And once again, the Saints answer back straight away. The goal will go to Max Hall, but everything about this goal belongs to Cooper Sharman. First, the aerial presence to bring the ball to ground, then to follow up with a smother, then the slick handball and shepherd to allow Hall to convert.
5:02 pm: Unlucky that McCartin is off for the rest of the game. Lewis Melican, time to step up.
5:03 pm: James Jordon has been excellent today, and he deserves that goal next to his name.
5:06 pm: Now that is some piece of excellence from Will Hayward! Great kick from sub, Riley Bice. He put it exactly where Hayward wanted it. Great mark, and an even better goal from the boundary to bring the deficit to a solitary point.
5:10 pm: The Saints are starting to panic here, Sydney have all the momentum, and their pressure has risen.
5:11 pm: Will Hayward once again! Excellent work from Buller, and some quick movement down the wing gets the ball in Hayward’s hands. The speed of the movement meant St Kilda’s defenders were too slow to react, and the Swans are in front!
5:13 pm: If Sam Wicks had nailed that, I’d be calling it game over. Swans are all over the Saints now.
5:18 pm: What exactly was that 50-metre penalty to Marshall for? I need to see a replay of that, but in the meantime, scores are level, and we’re in for a grandstand finish. These minute-by-minute entries might not be as frequent as the time ticks down, but this is sure to be an enthralling finish.
5:19 pm: I’m sorry, McInereny got into the protected space? He was nowhere near it!! That’s a very bad call.
5:22 pm: Absolute champagne stuff from the Swans there. As good a hit-out to Errol Gulden’s advantage as you’ll ever see, and of course, he converts on the run to give the Swans the lead back. Champagne ruckwork from Brodie Grundy.
5:26 pm: A senior player like Mason Wood simply has to be better than that, especially with two minutes on the clock.
5:27 pm: This time, Hayward saves them at the other end! For all the criticism he gets, he’s been very good today.
5:29 pm: WHAT A FINISH! Both teams gave everything they had, but more polish from the Swans in the last two minutes just gets them over the line!
Final score: Sydney 14.8.92 d. St. Kilda 13.9.87
WRAP-UPS:
SYDNEY:
Simply put, the term ‘better for longer’ applies perfectly here. As good as the Saints were for long periods of the game, Sydney stood up when it mattered most, and it came largely off the back of their superstars, who were able to find another gear the young Saints couldn’t match. Subbing off Aaron Francis in the third quarter was exactly what the Swans needed, as it gave them more run in the middle from Riley Bice, and forced them to play smaller in the forward line, which worked a treat.
Once they started to get the game on their terms, it felt like nothing was going to stop them. From their perspective, it took far longer than the Swans would’ve liked to get things going their way, and for long periods, the Swans were unable to stand up to the pressure the Saints applied, but we need to remember that despite the ladder position, Sydney is still a good side, with very good players, and those players stood up for longer.
As unlikely as it may seem, Sydney’s season has a pulse. It’s a very faint pulse, but it’s something. And one of two things will happen to close out season 2025. Either a team inside the top eight will stuff things up in a catastrophic manner, and the Swans will come from nowhere to grab the last spot in September, or, the gap will be too wide to cover, and the Swans will miss out, but they’ll do some real damage to a contender’s finals chances in the process. Hell, both scenarios might come true.
Brodie Grundy was the standout player for the Swans, and the heavyweight battle I was looking forward to didn’t live up to the expectations. Grundy took Rowan Marshall to school, finishing with 20 disposals, seven clearances, six tackles, and 46 hit-outs, more than triple Marshall’s tally of just 13. For all his detractors, and the criticism he cops is fair, Will Hayward had an excellent day in the forward line. He presented well, took some important marks, and kicked a team-high three goals, all of which came at critical moments. James Rowbottom did what any prospective leader should do and played with the heart and soul of a Bloods footballer. He’s had more of the ball than today, finishing with 15 touches, but his pressure on the ball carrier was excellent, and he laid a game high 15 tackles. James Jordon was also wonderful, doing his best to shut down Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera. Wanganeen-Milera finished with 24 disposals and 721 metres gained, but a closer look reveals that his disposal efficiency was just 67%, largely thanks to the pressure he was under from the tag, and Jordon was able to win his own football, and he also got loose inside 50 to contribute a goal.
ST KILDA:
You’ve got to feel for the Saints on some level here. For most of the game, they were the better side, and on any other day, they might’ve gotten the four points. But a combination of inexperience and pressure meant that in the dying stages, when composure with the ball was critical, the Saints fumbled and were forced into error. Now, there will be plenty of lessons for this young, rebuilding side to learn, and you’d hope that once a few more key players return, they’ll be even better again.
Maybe it’s because I’m not a St Kilda supporter I can look at this differently than I think this loss will be taken, but I hope Saints fans walk away from this happy with the effort, happy with the pressure they applied, happy that they took last year’s Grand Finalists to within a goal, and happy they’ve found a few young players with plenty of potential. Yes, they probably should’ve won the game, but when a team is rebuilding, little wins are also important, and when you put your opponents under such immense pressure for as long as they did and when you move the ball quickly across the ground, you’ve got the basis of a game plan that will stack up when the whips are cracking in September. Will it take more time? Yes. Was this still a frustrating loss? Absolutely. But there’s a lot more to like than dislike from today’s contest.
Jack Steele was St Kilda’s best with 25 touches, eight marks and a staggering 13 tackles. Marcus Windhager was also excellent with 36 disposals, and Callum Wilkie patrolled his undermanned defence brilliantly with 23 disposals, eight marks, 14 intercepts, and keeping Hayden McLean to just one goal. Special mention too to debutant Max Heath, who showed some great signs as the relieving ruckman, to Max Hall, who looks to have cemented his spot as a high half-forward, and to Hugo Garcia, who showed a lot of fight, and looks to have studied the Ross Lyon pressure playbook hard.
6:03 pm: That’s all from me, I hope you’ve enjoyed my musings on a game that was far better than I expected. Now to enjoy my Sunday evening. It’s taco night! But it means I have to be in the kitchen for the next little while cooking it. Oh well. Could be worse I guess.
I could be a Carlton supporter.
Okay, part two is HB’s unfinished symphony. Far out, I’m an idiot…
It was a game that had everything. If you were looking for something, you’d likely find it somewhere within the 120 minutes of footy played by the Saints and Swans under the roof at Marvel in Round 18.
It was a game of pressure and overcoming that pressure. It felt like the “haves” versus the “have-nots”, and it was a game where hard work was always going to beat talent…
… unless talent started working harder.
If anyone ever tells you that Ross Lyon cannot coach, I reckon you can dismiss their takes on footy. Seriously, just roll them up, throw them in a plastic bag, and put them out on bin night – that’s where they belong. The bloke has his team ready to run through brick walls for him. Against a Sydney team that came out of the blocks and kicked five goals to two before the Saints managed two red-time goals to make it close at quarter time, it was clear that the Saints had come to play, and were willing to do whatever was necessary to get over the line.
The Swans seemed on the brink of seeing their season washed away in a torrent of St Kilda pressure. At quarter time, the tackle count was 30-9 in St Kilda’s favour, and Dean Cox, even with a nine-point lead, knew he had some pretty serious work to do.
If anything, the manic attack increased in the second quarter. The Swans started to get more from their leaders, with Heeney, Blakey, and Mills finding more of the ball, but the Saints threw themselves at the contest with a reckless abandon.
It was always going to come down to effort. The Saints had put their cards on the table. You knew what you were now going to get from them, and it was up to the Swans to match, or surpass, that level of desperation.
Four goals apiece in the third saw the game on a knife’s edge, but the one thing Sydney had in their kit bag was something the Saints did not – another level.
And in the fourth quarter, the Swans were able to raise their game to that level, kicking five goals to pinch the win and keep their season alive, even if the pulse is now a little weaker after the wins by the Suns, Giants, and Dockers.
Before I start the nitty-gritty, I have to say – I bloody loved this game. It was not free-flowing, it was not beautiful, and it was not the type of game head office would show the world if they wanted pure highlights.
But it was hard, tough, and uncompromising. Sydney got the chocolates, but the Saints lost no fans in this one. Hell, they may have even made a few.
Let’s jump into The Big Statements.
TO TAG, OR NOT TO TAG…
Ah Shakespeare… inspiring footy writers for at least the last ten minutes.
It was interesting to watch the way the coaches deployed their stoppers in this game. James Jordon, arguably the best run-with player in the game, got the job on Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera, and though the tag was relaxed somewhat by the third quarter, I am going to come out and say it.
It was a success.
Here we go – HB is getting all contrary again, right? If the tag was dropped, it must mean it wasn’t working, right?
Well, yeah… kind of. I’d say that Nasiah played his best footy in the first half when he was the target of the hard tag. It was as though he had a point to prove, and he tried to run Jordon into the ground. Deep forward, deep back, in the guts, out wide… Nasiah was everywhere and the Saints looked for him whenever they could.
And to get to those positions, Big Wang had to work hard.
Too hard?
Maybe.
As Jordon peeled off and the job started to become a whole-of-team effort on Wanganeen-Milera, a strange thing occurred. Big Wang looked tired. That run that had been so prevalent at the end of games, such as last week, wasn’t as present. Jordan would go to him at some stoppages, Mills at others, and they wore him down.
After 15 first-half touches, Nasiah managed just nine after the main break. Importantly, he usually eats up metres gained, and that dried up, as well. He went from a whopping 500 metres gained in the first half, to just 169 in the second.
So, whilst his overall game still looks solid, and officially, the hard tag was put to bed after the main break, Big Wang may have expended so much energy trying to outrun Jordon, that he started to come up a little dry when it mattered.
On the basis of that, I reckon the tag was absolutely successful, even though I think I might be the only one covering the game to think so.
The other interesting decision saw Ross Lyon opt to play Marcus Windhager on the wing for the entire game, and not have him run with anyone.
It was a bit of a bold move, and I am sure those unfamiliar with Windhager’s game would have been a little miffed by the decision.
They need to get more familiar.
Windhager is not JUST a run-with player. Far from it. He is highly-capable of winning his own footy, and did just that in this contest, to the point I rated him as the Saints’ best by a pretty clear margin.
He is a power runner, who attacks the footy hard, and displayed beautiful, clean hands throughout the entire contest. Matched up on either Gulden, Matt Roberts, or very rarely, Riley Bice, Windhager was a clear winner for the Saints in a role that people probably don’t realise he’s played before.
It’s a shame when players get labelled as a tagger, as though it is a lesser position. They can be vitally important to the outcome of a contest, but in Windhager’s case, he continues to demonstrate that he has far more strings to his bow than just that one.
BRODIE GRUNDY WAS HUGE WHEN IT MATTERED
Whilst Rowan Marshall may have kicked a big goal in the final quarter, courtesy of one of those random “protected area” 50-metre penalties the umpires choose to enforce sometimes, the work of Grundy in the final minutes made a significant impact on the outcome of this game.
It was his perfect ruck tap to the bursting Errol Gulden that set up the matchwinning goal for the Swans. Seriously, this was as good as it gets, with Grundy out-bodying Marshall and using such deft skill to palm the ball into the path of the moving Gulden, that I doubt there has been a better moment for a big man all season.
It was that moment – that ruck tap, that perfect positioning, and the ensuing snap and goal, that gave the Swans the win, and just in case you didn’t acknowledge how good Grundy’s work was in that instance, he turned his attention to the defensive side of the game soon after, using his big frame to control marking contests and thump the footy out of play to create stoppages.
Is Grundy making a late run at another All-Australian blazer?
In the earlier game, Max Gawn got the better of Tristan Xerri, which I reckon places him in the top spot, but with games upcoming against Essendon (Goldstein), Geelong (Stanley), and West Coast (Flynn), there is a chance that Grundy, perhaps a bit like his club, could come home with a wet sail.
He finished this one with 20 disposals, seven clearances, and 47 hit outs, in another wonderful display in his carer renaissance. It is the tenth time in 2025 that Grundy has registered 20+ hit outs and 20+ disposals in the same game, and he is the clear leader in that stat layer across the history of the league.
Guess who’s second?
His coach.
CAN MITCH OWENS BE THE NEXT ISAAC HEENEY?
I’m sitting here and reading stats as I try to make my mind up about this comparison.
At first I was confused, but now I’m not so sure… Heeney was a standout by his foruth year in the eague, averaging over 20 touches per game, and 0.8 goals, after a couple of years playing closer to goal. He morphed into a Mr Fix-It type role for the Swans before finally becoming one of the best mid-forwards in the game.
He’s now an 11-year veteran of the league and arguably at the peak of his powers. Not turning 30 until 2026, is he what Mitch Owens should be aspiring to be like?
Or is that unfair?
Owens has been a bit of a Mr Fix-It for the Saints, as well, even playing in the ruck as required, but he has not had the same impact as Heeney had at the same stage. that’s not to say he can’t – he just has not produced it regularly enough to make me think he is on the same level Heeney was at back in 2018.
So, how does he get there, if he gets there, at all?
Owens is deceptively good overhead, and whilst he can never be the number one forward, he could be an excllent number three option, or… or… he could be the ideal mid/forward once the Saints start to get some firepower inside 50. that would include the return of Max King, whose presence could unleash Owens into the midfield. Perhaps the presence of Tom De Koning, and the relocation of Rowan Marshall as a forward could do the same.
So, what does that look like?
At a 65/35 split, could Owens be around that 20-disposals and one-goal per game mark? If so, he would be on track to start emulating the trajectory of Heeney over the next couple of years.
What’s interesting is that Heeney’s perceived strength is his overhead ability inside 50, but over the 11 years, he has averaged one contested mark just three times. Owens is at twice already, including this season.
I know this is not, and never will be, a like-for-like comparison, as there will always be subtle differences, but if Ross Lyon can create an environment where Mitch Owens can be used more widely around the ground, we could start seeing him have the type of impact that had Sydney fans screaming for Heeney to rise to the level of superstar.
he did it, and Owens looks as though he has the tools to do so, as well. I don’t think I am going out on a limb too far by stating that Owens has the potential to be to St Kilda what Isaac Heeney is to the Swans. But, I suppose, potential can be a dirty word.
I DIDN’T KNOW DEAN COX WAS SO CALLOUS
But I do like it.
He has been watching the past three weeks, and he noticed a little something. He saw how much young Saint, Alix Tauru enjoyed zoning off his man and killing contests, and he decided to do a little something about it.
In the first quarter, the Swans seemed intent to play through Tauru’s man. It saw the young Saint under siege, and he wasn’t helped by a poor turnover across goal that gifted a running snap to Isaac Heeney, either.
Heeney got stuck into the young fella, and a melee ensued (which the AFL hate, but al$o love), but from then on, it seemed as though whenever Sydney went forward, they would target Tauru’s opponent, irrespective of who it was.
If he got stuck on Hayden McLean, they’d go there. If he was minding Jake Lloyd, they’d look for the veteran. It was a clear test of how St Kilda and Tauru would react.
By the time the end of the first quarter rolled around, the Swans had posted five goals, with Tauru directly, or indirectly involved in four of them.
It was a shrewd move from the big fella in the Swans’ coaching box, and it was only ever going to last one quarter, as the Saints tightened up as a collective and ensured their youngster was not going to be thrown to the wolves, but what an impressive way to start from Cox. Callous, but impressive. I liked it.
