Rohan and Reid’s forward momentum pleases Buddy
Neil Cordy
Daily Telegraph, July 10
FOR the first time since Lance Franklin’s arrival the Sydney Swans are showing signs they’re losing their dependency on the superstar forward to score goals.
Franklin is still the focal point of the Swans forward line but as their momentum has built over the past month, Gary Rohan and Sam Reid in particular have stepped up to share the load.
In fact Rohan has outscored Franklin 10 goals to eight over the past four matches.
Saturday’s career-best five goals against Gold Coast was the latest indication of a growing trend.
“It’s really good when we’ve got other guys kicking goals,” Franklin said.
“Gazza stepped up with five, George (Hewett) kicked a couple and Reidy did well.
“It was a good team effort and everyone got on the scoreboard which is nice.”
Giants big guns add to firepower for Derby
Neil Cordy
Daily Telegraph, July 10
LET’S get it on. The GWS Giants’ big guns are set to return for Saturday night’s derby against Sydney at Spotless Stadium.
While Toby Greene, Zac Williams and Steve Johnson will all be big additions for the Giants, the Swans are welcoming back skipper Josh Kennedy.
The 13th instalment of the now fierce rivalry promises to be one of the best with the Swans mounting a potentially history-making charge to the finals after a 0-6 start.
The Giants would like nothing better than to take the wind out of their sails in front of a sellout crowd.
The services of their three stars will give them a massive boost after scraping through with consecutive draws against Geelong and Hawthorn in the past two weeks.
“Those boys are all quality players and are certainly in our best side,” Tom Scully said.
“To get them back will be a massive boost, especially in a game as big as this one will be.”
Skipper warns Giants as crunch Sydney derby looms
Andrew Wu
SMH, July 10
GWS captain Callan Ward has warned the Giants they will go down in next week's Sydney derby if they do not rediscover the intensity that has made them one of the teams to beat this year.
The stakes are high for both Sydney clubs, with the Giants needing a win to stay in the top two while the Swans, despite their hot run, cannot afford any slip-ups if they are to stay in the finals race.
Star trio Toby Greene, Zac Williams and Steve Johnson are in the frame to return from injury next week but Ward says a change of personnel will not help the Giants if their attitude does not improve.
The injury-hit Giants, missing a host of first-choice players, lost top spot after their second draw in as many weeks and have just one win from their past four games. It prompted coach Leon Cameron to declare his team was "just going".
The flag favourite was thrashed in the contested possession count by 26 – an ominous result as they prepare to take on the modern game's contested kings.
"When you lose contested ball by that much I don't think you'll win the game," Ward said. "The only other team that have been in positions like that and still won is Hawthorn but they do so much else right.
"The big basis for our game is contested ball. Against the Swans, who play that really good contested footy that we love, it's going to hurt us."
A Maverick makes his mark
Carolyn Webb
The Age, July 10
When Maverick Newman came out as gay to his family two years ago, his AFL player brother Nic Newman shrugged and said it didn't bother him.
As far as he was concerned, nothing had changed between them.
"He's my brother and still the same person," said Nic, who said his main concern was that "Mav" felt supported.
Nic, a Sydney Swans midfielder, says he is "rapt" that on Tuesday Maverick opens his first one-man cabaret show in Melbourne, at the Butterfly Club.
Called Finding Felix: A Memoir, Maverick says it's a Tim Minchin-style satire on coming out, with similarities to Maverick's life, including growing up in a football-mad family.
Maverick's father played for Springvale while his grandfather played for Fitzroy. Nic was drafted by the Swans in 2014, while their brother Josh plays for Williamstown.
In year 8 Maverick, from Mount Martha, chose basketball and theatre over football, but still keeps a keen interest in it, and enjoys watching his brothers' games.
Sydney Swans belt Suns by 67 points at SCG
Rob Forsaith
SMH, AAP, July 9
Sydney coach John Longmire won't engage in September dreaming, even after his AFL side stormed into the top eight with a barnstorming 67-point dismissal of Gold Coast at the SCG.
Lance Franklin and Gary Rohan combined for eight goals on Saturday, when the Swans boosted their percentage and embarrassed a Suns outfit that struggled without Gary Ablett.
The hosts, who were led by Dan Hannebery in the absence of late scratching Josh Kennedy (tight quad), triumphed 17.16 (118) to 7.9 (51).
Gold Coast co-captain Tom Lynch booted three goals in the opening term to give his side a surprise five-point lead at quarter-time.
But Sydney clicked in clinical fashion, kicking the next 12 goals of the contest to make it eight wins from their past nine games.
The Swans, seeking to become the first AFL side to reach the finals after an 0-6 start to the season, next face Greater Western Sydney.
"Do you think I'm a dreamer?" Longmire said, when asked if he was starting to study the ladder.
"We're very much about going back to work and looking at what we did well and what we need to get better at.
"We played as good a footy as we've played for quite a while, during the second and third quarters."
Rohan momentum
Neil Cordy
Daily Telegraph, July 9
THE goals flowed as the Swans smashed Gold Coast by 67 points but it was their relentless shut down defence which has them in premiership mode.
After trailing by five points at quarter time, Sydney kept the Suns goalless for the next two quarters something the AFL hasn’t seen since 2014.
In the end, Gold Coast scored just one goal in the final three quarters.
None illustrated the Sydney’s miserly attitude more than Dane Rampe who had conceded three first-quarter goals to Suns’ gun Tom Lynch but fought back to dominate him for the next three.
“He was fantastic after quarter time,” Swans coach John Longmire said.
“You have to respect Lynch he’s one of the best forwards in the comp. We put pressure on up the field and Ramps was very good.”
The win moves the Swans back into the top eight and remarkably within striking distance of the top four, a seemingly impossible position after starting 0-6.
In a season where nobody has been able to string wins together the Swans have won seven of their last eight games to develop genuine momentum with just seven games before the finals.
The lack of opposition from the Suns makes premiership credentials difficult to judge but next week’s Sydney Derby against the Giants at Spotless Stadium will provide some answers.
“It’s an important game,” Longmire said.
“All of them are when you start like we did. Being the other Sydney team adds to it and they’re a good team.”
'It's Lewis Melican not Lewis Melican't'
Andrew Wu
SMH, July 8
It usually takes a while for a footballer to have a fan page devoted to him on Facebook, not so for Sydney's first-year defender Lewis Melican.
Melican could well join Lewis Jetta and Lewis Roberts-Thomson as Swans cult heroes. As the name, It's Lewis Melican not Lewis Melican't, suggests the page may be a parody but the creator is full of admiration for the Swans newcomer. There is also a cheeky reference on Melican's Wikipedia page, which says he is "best known for his clutch plays in MoneyBall".
Melican suspects one of his friends from his home town of Birregurra, south west of Melbourne, who is responsible for the online hijinks.
"I'm not 100 per cent sure who it is but they're a funny person whoever they are," Melican says.
Football, however, for Melican is serious business. The youngster has followed a recent Swans rite of passage by reaching senior football via the rookie draft.
Like many from the lower-tier draft, Melican was not a decorated junior in his TAC Cup days at the Geelong Falcons.
"I never really thought I was a real chance," Melican says. "I didn't make the 16s, I was in the development squad at 17 and didn't get a chance to play games.
"I didn't think I was a big chance until the end of my 18s year when I heard there might be a bit of interest."
Sam’s a prize asset
Neil Cordy
Daily Telegraph, July 8
PAUL Kelly had to win a Brownlow Medal and captain the Swans for a decade to get his name on a school competition.
It’s taken Sam Naismith just 22 games to have his moniker attached to a similar trophy for a secondary schools competition in northern NSW.
While it may look like a premature honour for a 24-year-old only starting out on his AFL career, it’s a measure of just what he’s achieved already coming from the Aussie rules outpost of Gunnedah.
Like Isaac Heeney’s effort breaking into the AFL from the rugby league heartland of Newcastle, Naismith has fought the odds to win a spot in the country’s premier competition.
Naismith is developing into one of the best young ruckmen in the competition and has missed only a handful of games since breaking into the Swans’ line-up in Round 16 last year and playing right through to the Grand Final.
It could easily have been a different story if then Swans Academy coach Paul Roos didn’t call him out of the blue.
“At the time Roosy called, I was 19 and planning to play rugby union in Gunnedah,” Naismith told The Saturday Telegraph.
“I was spotted by somebody who told Paul I was six-feet-nine and was playing footy in country NSW. He and Chris Smith (Swans Academy manager) invited me to training in Sydney.
“I came and tried out and then they invited me to come to Sydney. If I didn’t get that call, I would be playing union now, probably at fullback.”
Ablett’s absence is little relief for Swans
Emma Kemp
AAP, The Australian, July 8
Sydney are well aware of the boost that Gary Ablett’s absence has given their chances of re-entering the AFL’s top eight.
But it doesn’t mean the competition’s in-form side aren’t still on high alert for Gold Coast’s danger forwards at the SCG this afternoon.
The Suns’ prospects of a first-ever win over the Swans took a sizeable hit with news Ablett has been ruled out with a hamstring injury.
It helps the cause of John Longmire’s ninth-placed side, who had focused this week on establishing set-ups to curtail the dual Brownlow medallist’s influence both inside and outside. It leaves less concern for the Swans’ improved backline as they hunt for a fifth-straight win and eight in the past nine games.
Yet, with no margin for error in a tight finals race, defence coach Henry Playfair says there’s still just cause to be wary of Rodney Eade’s frontmen.
