SWANS v BLUES - MATCH REPORT
Liz Read 19 July 2003

The Swans easily accounted for Carlton in the opening round of the season and have since got better and better, while the Blues' season has gone from ordinary to bad to terrible. Coming off their worst loss ever and with the "Subi curse" to contend with, not to mention having lost their best player during the week in a training mishap, Carlton were certainly up against it. For the Swans this was a game they just had to win.

Expectations were that the Blues to come out fighting in the opening term. The question was for how long they would be able to keep it up. As it turns out, this was a game played in exact reverse.
The first quarter saw Carlton barely put up a whimper. After a scrappy opening couple of minutes, the Swans began to pile on the goals.

First it was O'Loughlin from a free kick, shortly followed by Goodes running free and slotting the goal from an angle. Soon afterwards Ball took the ball on the fifty, calmly side stepped the man on the mark, and kicked long and straight. By the end of the quarter the Swans had seven goals, all from different scorers, with Schneider, Mathews, Hall and Kirk having joined the party. For the home team only Fevola was really looking dangerous.

The only small concern for the red and white faithful was the report of BBBH for tapping his head into Beaumont's chest after he himself had been thrown into the fence.

The Swans picked up in the second quarter where they had left off in the first. They were running the ball at will and finding unmarked players who were able to play on with little pressure from the opposition. Cressa snapped his first as he crumbed off a pack contest and later added another from a set shot. The other Swans' majors for the quarter were trademark goals from their respective scorers - Williams on the run, Davis from a long kick from the fifty, and O'Loughlin a clever snap from a tight angle as he took advantage of a freakish bounce from Schneider's long bomb forward.

There were signs, maybe, that the team was starting to overuse the ball and some scoring opportunities were squandered, but there didn't seem to be much to worry about with a 50+ point lead at half time.

The second half could have been played between two different teams to the first. The Blues found the aggression and passion that we had expected they would show at the start. Koutoufides started to wield his influence and some of Carlton's young pups were more than happy to capitalise. Justin Davies and Callan Beasy were very impressive, while cult hero Karl Norman also showed a bit.

The Swans' run through the lines dried up and they were well beaten around the packs. Brendan Fevola loomed as a potential matchwinner for the Blues with a number of strong marks and, for a change, some straight kicking.

When the margin was reduced to just 19 points midway through the final quarter it looked like an improbable victory to the Blues was on the cards. However, despite being generally outplayed after half time, one sensed the Swans had just enough class to hold off Carlton, and so it proved. A miraculous kick off the ground netted Davis his second for the match and shortly afterwards O'Loughlin killed off any remaining hope the home team might have had, kicking his fifth.

The Blues showed that they do have some youngsters with talent but will be generally disappointed with the contribution of their senior group, Kouta excepted. Allan and McKernan made almost no contribution, and with French not much better their ruck division must be a concern. McKay was injured early but he was struggling on O'Loughlin right from the start, while one of my favourite Carlton players, Hickmott, looks as if he is nearing the end of his footballing days.

For the Swans, a win is a win at this stage of the season. While they let slip an opportunity to boost their percentage, I doubt Roos will be too concerned. In fact, the questions that were asked of them in the second half will probably be more useful than a 100 point win, even though the answers were not totally convincing. Williams, J Bolton, Mathews, Cresswell and Kirk were all strong contributors, while O'Loughlin was far too classy for any defender the Blues could find to stand him.

The defensive group made a few more errors than we have become accustomed to and didn't seem to be able to generate their normal level of rebound, while Bolton, and then Barry, struggled to contain Fevola. Schauble was probably the pick of them.

Next week the team has the chance to pretty much seal a finals spot but they will need to be switched on for all four quarters against a classy but still fragile Dockers team.