• Round 11, 2011 ? Yo Gabba Gabba!

    Well last week was yet another heart-stopper from the Swans and after well and truly handing in their Get Out Of Jail Free card against North, Swans fans were hoping for a less stressful evening this week. Ominously for Sydney though, Brisbane had shown signs of life in the last two weeks, with successive wins following the return of Jonathon Brown, a player who has burned us before. The selection panel, in a move no doubt designed to both simultaneously delight and vex RWO members, picked fan favourite Trent Dennis-Lane for the unlucky first gamer Lewis Johnston and yet-to-win-us-over-completely Andrejs Everitt for the even more unlucky Luke Parker. Oddly, Everitt was then named as the Swans sub.

    Signs were good early as TDL marked but missed to the right and then Adam Goodes kicked a great goal off his left foot, wheeling around from the right of the goal square following a pass from Craig Bird (who was everywhere in the first quarter). A behind to LRT (aka Mr Football ? he can do it all) from a very tough angle was followed by a great goal where he beat his opponent (Merritt) to the footy and sneaked one through off his left foot. Brisbane responded not long after with a goal to Mitch Clark but that was to be it for them for the entire first half, save the last 20 seconds, as the Swans ran riot. It was a similar story throughout the half. Matthew Leuenberger won the hitouts but we won the clearances and Brisbane barely got the ball into their forward 50. The inside 50s were 21 to 2 in our favour at quarter time.

    Anyway, next goal kicker in line was Alex Johnson, who picked up a loose ball near the boundary line and snapped truly for his first goal in senior footy. A great moment for AJ as he doesn?t get the chance to get forward all that often. The next goal was kicked by McVeigh and it would have been one that pleased the coaching staff immensely. The ball was in the forward 50for some time and relentless forward pressure from Sydney and continued effort to find a free man saw a host of players involved before Macca was found in space to guide one in, as it were.

    Almost immediately, Ryan O?Keefe scored after he marked a bullet like pass from Nick Malceski (man I love watching him kick a footy). ROK took the shot and it was very well shepherded through by Mr Football, who was adding to his highlight reel by the minute. There were then a couple of behinds kicked, including a poor miss from Sam Reid before Martin Mattner unleashed one of his trademark bombs from outside 50. A late miss from another kickable one from TDL rounded off a very impressive first quarter from Sydney. Bird, ROK and Kennedy were everywhere in the first quarter and many of our other players were doing their jobs on their opponents, keeping the stats extremely lopsided in favour of Sydney, a trend that would continue in the second quarter.

    The aforementioned second quarter began more slowly but Sydney wound up again and kicked the same total score as they did in the first quarter, albeit far more efficiently this time. A mark from Mr Football following a pass from Kennedy saw our first for the quarter and it was followed by an excellent goal from Reid featuring strong determination and second effort. TDL then scored his elusive goal after a pass from Goodes and Goodes then laid on another assist to set up Kennedy. Bird managed to poke one through from off the ground following a stoppage near the right behind post and Mattner took a strong mark outside 50 but had his shot made far easier by the ensuing 50 metre penalty he received. Sydney?s last goal for the quarter was scored by Ben McGlynn after a fantastic chase, spoil and pass from Nick Smith. A late goal to Retzlaff for Brisbane sent both teams to the sheds at half time with Sydney miles in front. Great quarters from Goodes and Jude Bolton in particular.

    It was hard to know how much of it was us and how little of it was from them, but it was probably a combination of both as these things often are. It?s easy to drop to the level of your opposition, as we have done in the past, so credit to Sydney for staying on top of their game. Brisbane?s only hope was to try to turn up in the second half or risk being lapped. If they could win more of the clearances they?d have a chance to at least reach some kind of parity, which is in fact what they ended up doing. I thought they beat us in the clearances in the second half but we were far better in defence than they were and thus restricted the scoring. The returns of Mumford and Jack should help that, plus it?s hard to 100% commit yourself to every contest when you?re winning by a stack and thinking about not being injured for next week.

    In any event, there?s no need to go into a lot of detail about the second half, because the game was over at half time and both teams largely cancelled each other out from then on. Brisbane outscored us for the 3rd quarter three goals to two and dominated territory without threatening a whole lot. Highlights included a goal from McGlynn which included a lucky break in the lead up, when ROK centred the ball despite it being clearly out when he kicked it. Our other goal for the quarter was arguably goal of the match. Lewis Jetta, who hadn?t seen a lot of it, intercepted a Brisbane hand-pass, went for a gallop and hoofed it long to the goal square where Mr Football beat Merritt to it, picked it up and sold a huge dummy to Merritt before slotting an easy goal. He then took a one-hander over his shoulder right on the siren but was deemed to have juggled it over the goal line by an goal umpire without any sense of theatre! I told you Mr Football could do everything!

    The quarter also included a few mystifying deliberate out of bounds calls. I think we are all happy for genuine deliberate OOB to be pinged, but some of the calls, particularly one on a long kick from Richards seemed extraordinary.

    Even less happened in the 4th quarter. Brown took a mark and scored after 10 seconds, and Banfield scored with a long bomb. For Sydney, Goodes scored a lovely goal when he turned on a McGlynn pass and kicked one over his right shoulder after Seaby had scored what must be considered a soft free kick. We should have had a 3rd had Everitt not decided to play on after taking a cracking mark 30 metres out right in front and making a mess of it.

    It?s rare we win a game so comfortably that the commentators can spend the second half reminiscing and making jokes, so it was kind of refreshing to sit back and enjoy. We should also be in reasonably healthy shape for the Tigers next Sunday. We seem to be doing very well at winning on the road so it would be nice if we could win one at home and continue our march up the ladder. Once again Sydney are flying the flag for the non-Victorian teams.

    It was a sound 65 point win for the Swans and a great team performance but standouts for me were Bird, Richards (especially in the 2nd half), Goodes, Bolton and Mr Football. You really could find reasons to include pretty much every player in the best players list though, but this report is already long enough for me to editorialise about every one of them! For Brisbane, Leuenberger was the standout, but Redden, Hanley, Polkinghorne and Black in the 2nd half did well. The official ?bests?, and the scores, are below.

    Sydney Swans 6.7 13.8 15.9 17.14 (116)
    Brisbane Lions 1.0 2.2 5.8 7.9 (51)

    GOALS
    Sydney Swans: Roberts-Thomson 3, Goodes 2, Mattner 2, McGlynn 2, Seaby, Dennis-Lane, Reid, Johnson, O'Keefe, McVeigh, Kennedy, Bird
    Brisbane Lions: Retzlaff 2, Banfield 2, Clark, Black, Brown

    BEST
    Sydney Swans: Goodes, Bolton, Bird, O'Keefe, Malceski, McVeigh, Roberts-Thomson
    Brisbane Lions: Leuenberger, Redden, Polkinghorne, Hanley, Merrett
    INJURIES
    Sydney Swans: nil
    Brisbane Lions: nil

    SUBSTITUTES
    Brisbane Lions: Rohan Bewick replaced by Jesse O'Brien in the third quarter
    Sydney Swans: Trent Dennis-Lane replaced by Andrejs Everitt in the last quarter.

    Reports: Nil

    Umpires: Nicholls, Kamolins, Findlay

    Official crowd: 22,150 at the Gabba
    Comments 6 Comments
    1. dimelb's Avatar
      dimelb -
      Good work Doctor - love reading about such games! And what about Mr Football, eh?
    1. Untamed Snark's Avatar
      Untamed Snark -
      One person Mexican wave for Mr. Football!!!
      Great match report, bring on Sunday!
    1. liz's Avatar
      liz -
      Great report Doc.

      I think my favourite thing about the game was Goodes' first half. It was far from the most dominant game he has played, and other Swans were better. But it was a huge turnaround from last week when he uncharacteristically dropped several marks and just seemed generally irritable. This week the marks were back to clunking into his hands securely, and his energy levels and focus were great, as was his enthusiam every time a goal was kicked.

      Although as a team, the Swans are short on absolute stars, we have an even enough team that Goodsey doesn't need to do it all on his own. When he just focuses on playing his role and lifting those around him, he is a joy to watch.
    1. ScottH's Avatar
      ScottH -
      Nice work mate.
      That mark to Clark for their only goal of the qtr, was literally their only highlight.

      Always good to write about a win, especially a big win!!
    1. Frog's Avatar
      Frog -
      Thanks Doctor. Great read.
    1. Doctor's Avatar
      Doctor -
      Thanks folks! It certainly didn't take much motivation for me to start typing this one.
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