Defeated and dejected Sydney players watch Brisbane lap up the premiership spoils. Photo: GETTY IMAGES
Many comparisons have been drawn between Sydney and Geelong in the modern era, and they’ve been glowing. Now there’s a new similarity. The difference is this one really hurts.
Sydney’s 60-point smashing at the hands of Brisbane is the Swans’ fourth successive grand final loss, a record of failure on the biggest of stages no team has been landed with since the Cats lost in 1989, 1992, 1994 and 1995.
But even Geelong back then at least made a fist of two of those losses, the six-point classic against Hawthorn in 1989, one of the greatest grand finals of all time, and a 28-point defeat at the hands of West Coast three years later in which the Cats had at one stage led by four goals.
The reading for the Swans is far more grim. Since famously upsetting Hawthorn in 2012, they’ve lost to the Hawks by 63 points in 2014, the Western Bulldogs by 22 points in 2016, Geelong by 81 points two years ago, and now have copped another 10-goal hiding.
In the days, weeks and months of soul-searching which will inevitably follow this disaster, Sydney would do well to avoid taking the comparison with the Cats further.
Because the last of those grand final losses was basically the end of Geelong for the next decade. The Cats did come good again, of course, and how, but under a different administration, different coach and completely different group of players.
What is going to tear at the Swans’ brainstrust more, of course, is that this was another of those unpredictable “shockers at the worst possible time” afternoons, similar to this same occasion 10 years ago, when Sydney had also finished on top but barely offered a yelp on the big stage.
Two years ago, against the Cats, the oldest team ever to take the field in an AFL game gave a masterclass to a Sydney outfit that was young, raw and still learning the caper.
That can’t be said in 2024. This season, the Swans, in terms of games played, were the fifth-most experienced list in the competition. So, what happened? As much as contemporary football is all about sophisticated analysis, there’s some fundamentals which come into play first. And on the biggest stage, Sydney didn’t have them.
“I don’t think we gave it our best shot compared to what we’ve been doing and didn’t do what was required on the day,” said bitterly disappointed coach John Longmire.
“We were beaten at ground level and they were able to get back through us too easy. We didn’t put enough pressure around the ball. You can’t play that second quarter and expect to compete to the level that’s required.”
Isaac Heeney revealed when asked after the game that he’d been carrying a stress fracture in his ankle over the entire finals series. He smiled ruefully, when he described the injury, because really, even he being incapacitated on this biggest stage didn’t explain the capitulation of an entire team.
“In big games you need pressure, you need a contest, and we just didn’t show that,” Heeney said. “They were harder, they were cleaner, they tackled better and we couldn’t match their pressure. They made us defend and took 76 uncontested marks in first half which just isn’t acceptable, and that’s where it all started.”
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That Heeney was able to instantly cite that figure showed not only that his coach had made the point forcefully during the break, but that much of Sydney’s planning had incorporated the necessity of not allowing Brisbane so much free ball.
And not surprisingly. Over the past four years, the Lions were 30 wins and just three losses any time they had taken 110 marks in a game. In this belting, they’d already taken 111 by three-quarter time, and finished with a massive 158.
Five of the Swans’ previous six losses this season, meanwhile, had come when the opposition had been able to play a controlled style of game. And control was something Brisbane exerted right from the word go, even when, not for the first time, it was necessarily converting its dominance to scores.
Yet with 22 marks inside 50 to just nine, 158 marks to 88 and nearly 80 more uncontested possessions, even some profligacy on the scoring front wasn’t going to cost the Lions this time.
For Sydney, simply, it was another shocker when a shocker could be least afforded, pure and simple. And that doesn’t make a review and six months of soul-searching easy for Longmire and co.
Heeney, Chad Warner and Errol Gulden had been three of the AFL’s best handful of players all season, let alone Sydney’s, but arguably only Gulden might have been considered one of the Swans’ half-a-dozen best in the grand final.
Not for the first time, Sydney’s key forwards barely fired a shot, Logan McDonald playing injured about as successful as Sam Reid was playing injured against the Cats two years ago.
But that’s been the case plenty of other weeks this season and the Swans were still potent enough to finish the season the AFL’s highest-scoring team. Yet on this day, it looked like a gaping void, and Brisbane’s posse of Joe Daniher, Eric Hipwood and Logan Morris the stuff of envy.
Sydney’s defence has held tight all year, and come yesterday ranked third for fewest points conceded. But the Swans’ backline this day looked loose, out-manoeuvred and with more holes than Swiss cheese.
In a nutshell, the Swans have held up all season until the grand final. So exactly how does Longmire deal with that? And if it’s about character, how do you test that other than when the day arrives?
“I’m not sure yet mate, that’s the honest answer,” offered acting captain Dane Rampe in the subdued losers’ rooms. “We have to do some searching and dive into that because you can be the best all year, but unless you’re ready to match it on the big stage, it doesn’t really matter does it?
“But just because we fell short today doesn’t mean we’re not capable of getting back there. One thing I know about this club is we’ll fight tooth and nail to get back and not let this define us.”
You can’t doubt Sydney’s capacity to keep plugging away given how successful a club the Swans have been now for so long. And yet the worry now is that when you consistently lose the biggest of games by the biggest of margins, perhaps you’re already defined regardless of what happens subsequently.
This article first appeared at ESPN.
Thanks for the article Rohan and also for the fabulous podcast. Your work adds so much enjoyment to the season.
As a Geelong supporter – on Sydney, I say this: There are three things that stick out – How on earth did McDonald take the field? Non expert general news journalist swho saw him at the Captain’s run said he barely moved – after the Reid 22 experience this was a massive own goal by the coaching and selection staff. 2. They don’t have a plan B when the game is going against them – and in fact the losses to Richmond and PA suggest, (not to Mention 22GF), their plan B – they need a whole of ground defensive game mode. Finally they might need to put the same recruiting effort into defensive players as they do the midfielders – but you might say the same about key forwards – Ultimately their results this years depended upon a handful of absolute A graders. This didn’t work for Geelong for about 30 Years.
Thanks Tony, much appreciated, and your observations are very similar to the discussion we had in the GF review podcast.
Rohan, a couple of points. I want to make it clear before I reply.
One I support you on Patron. I believe you are the best football journalist to cover our game. Two you’ve been hardball and honest about your club Essendon as you have with my club Sydney about yesterday’s Grannie. By the way, my Uncle Harold Lambert played 97 games in the Red and Black.
You showed the Swans Grannie since 2014. True they are not pretty. But with respect so what? Harold Lambert was in seven grand finals for Essendon and only three of those teams took the Silverware home. One of those was a draw and he didn’t make the rematch because he was injured and Essendon was badly beaten in it by Melbourne who took the Silverware home. All up Harold played in 21 finals, a tally exceeded at the Bombers only by legends Bill Hutchison and Dick Reynolds.
They were in the ring for seven grand finals and only took the silverware home three times.
John Longmire made the point yesterday ‘..You’ve got be in the ring to have a swing at it.’ He is one of only five coaches who have gotten to a grand final five times in our game’s more than 150-year history. With Longmire, he has bought the Silverware home once with a team the same as Paul Roos in 2005.
I found the game more painful to watch than my less than 3-week-old broken pelvis sitting a tier behind the Sydney Swans Cheers Squad in the MCG yesterday. I’m sure there is a lot of soul-searching amongst the Swans players who were badly beaten by a great Brisbane side. I hope they read your article. It was great to be there with my Comrade and great mate Ian Fraser with both of us bleed Red and White. Ian has been to every Grand Final for the Swans since 1996, yesterday was his eighth and next year will be there for his ninth. I say next year because that team that was so badly beaten is capable of getting in the 2025 Grannie and taking the Silverware home.
Thanks a lot John, really appreciate the generous support.