BUDDY’S MIXED NIGHT
IT’S official — the GWS Giants are now the big brother in Sydney’s AFL family after a beating up on the Swans by 42 points at the SCG.
They went from 24 points down in the first quarter to 32 points up at halftime and controlled the match from there. It was their first win at Sydney’s home ground at five attempts and their third win in a row against their cross-town rivals.
The victory also leaves the Swans winless (0-5) in 2017 and condemns them to their worst start in 24 years.
The only consolation for the Swans was Lance Franklin booting three goals to chalk up the 800th of his career. Richmond champion Matthew Richardson was the last to go past the mark in 2009.
It was one of the few things Swans fans had to cheer as the new kids beat Sydney at their own game, contested possessions (142-108) and clearances (42-26).
Taking on his old team, Shane Mumford was dominant against Kurt Tippett and Callum Sinclair, winning the hit-outs (67-29) and the Brett Kirk Medal for best on the ground. His enormous workrate set things up perfectly for his elite midfielders led by Tom Scully, Josh Kelly and Callan Ward.
The slick supply into the forward line gave plenty of opportunities to the Giants forwards led by Toby Greene, who made the most of his chances by booting four goals for the night.
Sydney’s All Australian midfielders Josh Kennedy, Luke Parker and Dan Hannebery simply couldn’t compete and give their team any meaningful possession.
John Longmire was forced to move one of his prime targets Sam Reid into defence to try to stop the bleeding. It stemmed the flow temporarily but made it very difficult to create scoring opportunities.
Steve Johnson was back from a knee injury and injected himself straight into the game with some typical brilliance soccering the ball through from a tight angle to put GWS in front. He also managed to work his way under the skin of every Swans opponent he crossed paths with.
Adding to the Swans’ woes, veteran defender Heath Grundy and skipper Josh Kennedy copped nasty head knocks.