SLICK SWANS PILE ON THE PAIN
EVERY expectation one can have in a game between a premiership contender and wooden spoon favourite came to fruition at the SCG as Sydney pulverised a hapless Hawthorn outfit by an 81-point margin that could have been much worse.
Champion forward Lance Franklin watched on as his current side demolished his old one with his heir-apparents in Logan McDonald and Joel Amartey enjoying the chance to boot career-best hauls of five and four goals.
The gulf in class between the two teams was stark on Sunday and the Swans exploited that throughout the afternoon with their customary ruthlessness, winning 17.16 (118) to 4.13 (37).
“If you said you’d come up to Sydney and broke even in tackles and won the contested ball count, you’d think we’d be a lot closer than we were, but we were just our own worst enemy,” Hawks coach Sam Mitchell said.
“As soon as we made a mistake they pounced on it and put us away, and it makes it hard then to play with any level of confidence. The players after the game were quite hard on each other.”
Many were waiting to see how John Longmire’s side would respond early in the season after their grand final shellacking.
“The evenness of the performance (was the most pleasing aspect) and discipline of what we wanted to get done. For our young boys to do that was terrific,” Longmire said.
Swans stars Callum Mills, Luke Parker and Errol Gulden were dominant in the midfield while Nick Blakey and Oli Florent picked off every pressurised Hawks clearance with ease across half-back.