Star Sydney Swans forward Sam Reid has lauded the unreserved fight of his teammates in their 19-point win over Carlton at Marvel Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
The Swans withstood a seesawing contest and last-term Blues resurgence to pencil in their opening win of the season in the Round 3 fixture – and Reid underlined Sydney’s hard-at-it mentality as a central contributor to victory.
“Our hit around the ball improved. Our effort improved last week but it wasn’t quite where we wanted, whereas today we had some really good efforts,” Reid told SwansTV post-match.
“Will Hayward went back with the flight, ‘Millsy’ did a number of times and Jake Lloyd too, so everyone’s hardness and commitment to the team was outstanding – and that’s what I think got us the win.”
A host of Sydney players stood tall in the Marvel Stadium clash, which saw Jake Lloyd, Zak Jones and Josh Kennedy all post more than 30 possessions, and young star Isaac Heeney collect 26 touches and four goals in a best-on-ground display.
Fellow QBE Sydney Swans Academy product Callum Mills was also strong at half-back, with the 22-year-old registering 28 disposals and offering piercing drive out of defence, while Jones (14 contested possessions), Heeney (14) and Kennedy (12) led the way at the coalface.
Reid praised the Swans’ ability to win ample contested footy.
“It was a team-wide thing where everyone stepped up,” Reid said.
“Our inside midfielders were good, they were able to win the ball and they were able to feed it to the outside guys, who were able to get a bit of run going. If you get quick ball nowadays with even numbers going forward you can score heavily – and we were able to do that today.”
Sydney’s attention has now turned to logging back-to-back wins in a duel with Melbourne at the SCG on Thursday night, which will see the Swans lace up the boots off the back of just a five-day turnaround.
“This week will be reasonably light,” Reid said.
“We’ll look to review our Carlton game pretty quickly and move on to preparing for Melbourne at home.”
