Sydney Swans (1st) v NT Thunder (4th)
SCG
Saturday, July 22, 2017
3.45pm
SUMMARY
Twelve weeks after picking up their first win of the season, and still the streak remains unbroken – the Sydney Swans have now won 13 on the trot, and are starting to build a comfortable lead in the NEAFL, clear by two wins from the Brisbane Lions. However, a challenging final five weeks of the competition faces them, as they take on three of the competition’s top five, with a bye in between. Sydney will see this run home as a good test to some of the competition they will face come finals time, and despite a healthy eight-point lead atop the table, home wins are still worth their weight in gold, and the Swans will not be taking it easy on this week’s opponents, the NT Thunder.
Playing in New South Wales is something NT better get used to – after all, teams one and three as it stands are both residents of the Harbour City, and with the route to a NEAFL premiership running through Sydney this year, the Thunder should relish the chance to get some practice in now. Through 14 matches this year, the Bolts have still one played one match in this city, in Round 14 against the GIANTS, when they escaped with a win via a goal after the siren. Cutting it that close in Sydney against a team that has only won one game all year does not bode well for a team with flag aspirations, so they better get into the swing of football down south.
See the full teams here.
RECENT ENCOUNTERS
Round 5, 2017: Sydney Swans 16.12 (108 ) d NT Thunder 13.6 (84) at TIO Stadium
Round 20, 2016: NT Thunder 14.8 (92) d Sydney Swans 8.6 (54) at TIO Stadium
Round 14, 2016: Sydney Swans 19.13 (127) d NT Thunder 99.7 (61) at the SCG
TALKING POINTS
- Despite their noted lack of action in NSW, NT are still in good form – they’ve won four of their last five. However, head coach Andrew Hodges will be concerned about the consistency of his side, with their performances seemingly lacking an integral constancy to them. Last week, they scraped home against the Aspley Hornets by 12 points, where the week before they took apart the Redland Bombers by 77 points. There need to be slightly smaller waves in these executions going into finals.
- The Bloods have named a scary team this week, featuring a heavy AFL presence – Oliver Florent, Harrison Marsh and Kurt Tippett are among some of those listed to start the match. The Thunder will need to show great discipline to deal with some of these stars, especially with so many of their own outs, including Hugo Drogemuller, Abraham Ankers and Shannon Rioli.
- The battle on the ball this week will be fascinating – the Bolts’ Tony Olango, Michael Coombes and NEAFL MVP leader Cameron Ilett, who announced his impending retirement this week, up against Kurt Tippett, Ben Ronke, Jordan Dawson for the red-and-white. The winner in this area of the pitch will go a long way to winning the match.
ROOKIE WATCH
Toby Pink is starting to peak at the right time of year, showing some irresistible form of late. He has hit the scoreboard in his past two matches, and this week, has been named down back against NT this week. Whether or not he stays there will be the real question, but if he does, expect him to cause plenty of damage off half-back.
STATS THAT MATTER
Thunder gun Darren Ewing has 50 goals for the year, a country mile more than the next highest individual total (Jackson Paine, 36). Given the form Sydney are in, you’d think he’d need to just about have upped that by about five or 10 per cent by the end of the weekend if his team is to be in with a chance.
