Swans toy with Cats
SYDNEY has turned Geelong’s house of pain into a holiday resort with an easy and very impressive 46-point win last night.
The Cats went into the match with the strongest home-field advantage in the competition. Since 2011 they’re 40-4 against all teams other than Sydney, but are now 3-3 against the Swans over the same period.
While the Swans were outstanding, the home side will rue a shocking lack of discipline from Mitch Duncan that cost Geelong a critical goal early in the last quarter.
The jab to Tom Papley’s stomach came immediately after Dan Hannebery’s opening goal of the final term but before the centre bounce.
When a 50-metre penalty was added the Cats were gone.
The Swans have now won three in row against the Cats and five of their past six, including last year’s preliminary final.
Like that match, the Swans flew out of the blocks, and kicked seven goals to two last night on the back of frenetic pressure.
The 47 points was the high- est first-quarter score Chris Scott has conceded in his seven seasons coaching Geelong. It was also the biggest first quarter score against Geelong on its home ground in more than 30 years.
Remarkably Lance Franklin finished with just one for the night and was probably the only Sydney player beaten, as Tom Lonergan continued his outstanding form against the champion forward.
“To have nine goal kickers and spread that load is important. We had the same amount of inside-50s each and so to be able to hit the scoreboard without Lance featuring highly on it was a good sign,” coach John Longmire said.
It mattered little as the Swans found multiple goal scorers in Papley and Will Hayward with three.
“They probably book-ended the game a little bit. The first quarter was Papley hitting the scoreboard and the last quarter was Hayward,” Longmire said.
“It’s good to have them contribute.” Reid was also prominent up forward in his return from injury with six strong marks to go with his scoring impact. He gave Longmire a mini-win when he forced Scott to swing Harry Taylor back into defence.