It’s interesting when the football industry pundits decide to “tee-off” on sides that in their opinion are seriously under performing. A shock loss by the Pies, or Fremantle and according to them, it’s the end of the world. Yet over the weekend, two of the real stories that were barely touched on was the terrible last quarter fade out by the Greater Western Sydney Giants against an undermanned Essendon side on Thursday night. Then on Saturday another “new” AFL franchise, the Gold Coast Suns put in a performance that was underwhelming.

Action from the Swans v Suns clash at the Sydney Cricket Ground last Saturday. Photo: Jodie Newell

Thanks to the shock win by the Blues over Freo in Perth on Sunday, the Gold Coast Suns have deservedly moved to the bottom of the ladder. The Giants are more deserving of a savaging than the Suns. Constantly referred to as the “Ferrari” of the competition and genuine premiership contenders, all of the those terms were dispatched in minutes by a hungry Essendon side. Down by a key ruckman in Tom Bellchambers, the Bombers overcame a 3 goal deficit to storm home and win a thrilling 6 point victory.Full of talent, full of excuses, the Giants told the football world on Thursday, that they do surrender and are pretenders instead of contenders. Happy to be proven 100% wrong here, but what was witnessed on Thursday night from the Giants was telling. They cannot consistently win on the road and they cannot cope with the term Melbourne. Harsh? perhaps, but if you take a look at the West Coast Eagles, the distance they travel to play and in shocking wet weather and fight out a win against Hawthorn like they did on Saturday, the case is closed. The Giants will not be the premiers in 2019, nor will the Gold Coast Suns win a flag in the foreseeable future.

Where’s the ball? Forwards & defenders miss the overhead ball. Photo: Jodie Newell

Anyhow back to the Swans v Suns clash on Saturday. If anything the Sydney Swans are playing much better football of the two New South Wales based teams. They are consistent and have salvaged their season and future with a group of youngsters that have reinvigorated and energized the Sydney brand and the well informed locals are turning up in good numbers to observe (Saturday’s crowd was a very respectable 26,000). There were nine players involved with Saturday’s win that have not played 50 AFL games. James Rowbottom (4 games)  James Rose (12 games), Oliver Florent (46 games), Nick Blakey (13 games), Ben Ronke (24 games), Tom McCartin (26 games), Jordan Dawson (18 games), Colin ORiordan (11 games) and Lewis Melican (31 games) have breathed new life into a team that looked headed for the bottom part of the ladder. Now the Sydney Swans are in a position to at least challenge for a final eight berth. It has been a remarkable achievement and against a confusing backdrop of will John Longmire go to North Melbourne or won’t he speculation.

Aliir Aliir played stand in ruckman after Callum Sinclair hurt his shoulder. Photo: Jodie Newell

The Gold Coast were reasonably competitive for the first two quarters of the game. They held a slender 1 point lead at the first break. With the loss of Swans ruckman Callum Sinclair very early in the game to a shoulder injury, Suns ruckman Jarrod Witts took complete control against stand-in ruckmen for the Swans in Aliir Aliir and Sam Reid. Witts dominated the hit-out count 66 to 26. Despite the domination the Suns midfielders were unable to really use that to their advantage at the stoppages. David Swallow (26 disposals) tried his best to capitalize as did Lachie Weller (22 disposals) but had little support from their team mates. In terms of future positives, we have written about tall forward Ben King, who has only played 6 AFL games (all of them in 2019) whilst he didn’t dominate on Saturday, King plays a vital role in providing a target up forward and takes some defensive pressure away from his fellow forward in Peter Wright. I’ve liked what I’ve seen in King’s instance and he should be part of the Gold Coast’s future improvement. The other bright light is Darcy MacPherson. McPherson has measured aggression, speed and goal kicking nous as part of his game. He was clearly the best in our opinion for the Suns. He kicked 2 goals and picked up 21 disposals and made 4 tackles. He doesn’t take a backward step when there is bit of push and shove about. One can see games decided by this exciting prospect.

Suns forward Ben King is an exciting prospect. Photo: Jodie Newell

After the half-time break Sydney gained control and never looked threatened after half-time. They booted 8 goals to 2 and ran out winners by 42 points. Midfielders Luke Parker (31 disposals) and Josh Kennedy (27 disposals) played a solid game, Jordan Dawson was also brilliant picking up (28 disposals). The Swans shared the goal kicking duties with nine different players. In defense Dane Rampe and George Hewett kept things under control, Hewett in particular was outstanding, laying 12 tackles, along with 22 disposals. Zak Jones and Isaac Heeney had a good afternoon as well. It really was an excellent team effort from Sydney.

There was a bit of feeling between the sides, with plenty of banter & pushing. Photo: Jodie Newell

Sydney coach John Longmire thought the effort was built on the theme of playing consistent football and dealing with injury adversity “It’s been extraordinary, I think it’s been eight weeks, where we haven’t finished a game without losing a player. We’ve been able to really show strong resilience. To be able to do two things, one is to finish a game out strongly and I’ve been really happy in the players ability to adapt in different roles”.  Gold Coast coach Stuart Dew thought whilst his team tried they were unable to keep up with the Swans. “Sydney stepped it up in contested possession in the third quarter. Our defense dropped off. Across the four quarters we tried to be a bit more aggressive with our ball use. Some came off, but they really made us pay when it didn’t”.

“We’ve been able to really show strong resilience” Sydney coach John Longmire. Photo: Jodie Newell

Sydney 12th, (6 wins, 8 losses) head down to the Melbourne Cricket ground next Saturday afternoon to face an inform Essendon 10th, (7 wins, 7 losses), whilst Gold Coast Last, (3 wins, 11 losses) face Richmond 7th, (8 wins, 6 losses) at home on Saturday afternoon.

Cheer! Cheer! The red & the White Photo: Jodie Newell

SYDNEY         3.3    6.3   10.6   14.9 (93)
GOLD COAST  2.3    5.5    6.7    7.9 (51)

GOALS
Sydney: Reid 2, Blakey 2, Ronke 2, Papley 2, Heeney 2, Jones, Aliir, Kennedy, Hayward
Gold Coast: MacPherson 2, Wright, Sexton, Scheer, Day, Miles

BEST
Sydney: Parker, Kennedy,Dawson, Hewett
Gold Coast: MacPherson, Miles, Swallow, Witt

INJURIES
Sydney: Callum Sinclair – (shoulder)
Gold Coast: O’Riordan (head)

Reports: –

Umpires: Simon Meredith, Robert Findley, Cameron Dore

Official crowd: 26,194 at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Moore Park, Paddington, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia