Preliminary Final: Sydney Swans (96) def Collingwood (70), ANZ
If there was a time to beat the Collingwood hoodoo, this was it. A Grand Final berth on the line. A 2 week break over a 6 day break, and the emotion of John McCarthy's funeral. And some guy named Jude playing a major milestone - 300th game. Grundy back in for the injured McGlynn. If we thought the swans were switched on a fortnight ago, it was doubly so this week. A bit of a tussle in the opening minutes, but it is clear from the smothers, tackles and pressure that the swans want to win this game. It's the All Australian Kennedy who gets the firs goal from a snap. A second goal to O'Keefe from a tackle on Pendlebury, keeping up the pressure. A sloppy handball and the pies get their first. Jetta was getting many touches but the ones he did were quality, inside 50 to Morton who brought the ball to ground with 2 defenders allowing LRT to pick the ball up and run into an open goal. Jetta's next touch made the crowd rise to their feet with a 150 metre run and goal against the flow of play. Inspiring!! Cloke finally got into the game with his first goal. Then the next amazing piece of play as Morton keeps the ball alive and kicks to the goal square where the 300 gamer is waiting to mark it and kick truly. Again the crowd are on their feet. A 20 point lead at quarter time. An early ankle injury to Ted early in the 2nd quarter sent a wave of angst through the crowd. he left the field only to return later. Pies got the next goal through Cloke again. Morton the laid a bump on an unsuspecting Swan and the ball ended up with Kennedy who goaled from outside 50. A super smart tap from Kennedy got the ball to an unmarked Goodes in the goal square and kicked another goal. The lead is now 27 at half time. The pies have only managed 3.6 to this stage.
Rushed behinds were all the rage for the first 10 minutes, before Bolton held onto his kick long enough to allow Jetta to run into some free space and kick and outside banana from almost 50 for his 2nd goal. Again Morton's pressure act forced a poor handball which landed in Jetta's hands for his 3rd goal, the easiest one he's had. The Swans the went to slepp and let the pies kick the last to of the term reducing the margin from 42 to 30 at the last change. Then with the first 2 goals of the last quarter the margin was suddenly back to 20 as the Swnas could only manage points so far, before Bird finally nailed one. Another to Mumford and the door was slowly shutting on the pies season. 33 point lead, then after a slow build up along the wing LRT again pounced on the loose ball to kick truly. 39 points. Almost there. A careless high tackle handed Jude a free shot at goal, and he didn't let us down. back to 39 points. 2 minutes on the clock. Victory is ours. A grand final berth is ours. Elation is in the air. Stars are put on the bench.
O'Keefe (34) and Hanners(33) led the possessions. Jetta with 3 magical goals. 11 Tackles to O'Keefe.
Swans by 26.
CC: Josh Kennedy 50, Ryan O?Keefe 50, Jarrad McVeigh 45
18-0-6
TLM Votes
5 Josh Kennedy
4 Ryan O'Keefe
3 Jarrad McVeigh
2 Lewis Jetta
1 Dan Hannebery
(33 Voters, 14 players received votes)
Leaderboard after 24 Games
68 Josh Kennedy
48 Kieren Jack
41 Ted Richards
29 Ryan O'Keefe
28 Dan Hannebery
26 Lewis Jetta
25 Jarrad McVeigh
15 Jude Bolton
14 Lewis Roberts-Thomson
13 Adam Goodes
12 Rhyce Shaw
9 Alex Johnson
9 Luke Parker
7 Ben McGlynn
6 Sam Reid
4 Nick J. Smith
4 Craig Bird
3 Mike Pyke
3 Nick Malceski
3 Tony Armstrong
2 Martin Mattner
1 Shane Mumford
1 Heath Grundy
Just to make sure no one was going to catch him Joey scored a perfect game from the club votes and 5 in the TLM after another wonderful game.
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