Sydney has its first taste of the top eight in 2017 after stealing a dramatic one-point victory from Essendon with a goal after the siren at the SCG on Friday night in one of the most remarkable finishes of the season.
After what had been a mostly dour but fiercely contested clash, the Bombers rode a stirring seven-goal onslaught either side of three quarter time to a seemingly safe 85-66 lead 23 minutes into the fourth quarter.
But staring down the barrel of another dismal loss, Sydney suddenly found another gear, scoring the last 20 points of the game in the space of eight minutes.
Youngsters Ollie Florent and Nic Newman finished high pressure pushes down the ground and Lance Franklin - goalless for the night - scored two behinds. When Gary Rohan took a mark in the goal square and the siren sounded, the red-headed speedster needed only to slot the ball through for a stunning win that enthralled the 34,575-strong crowd.
Sydney coach John Longmire admitted the situation was beyond his control in the dying stages.
"It's not often you go through games like that," Longmire said.
"We were in a lot of trouble with 4:30 to go and 19 points down.
"You're in the lap of the players (in those situations) ... the boys worked through it really well and we had a bit of luck."
Essendon coach John Worsfold refused to criticise his players for the way they closed out the game in the frantic final minutes.
"I'm rapt with the effort the players brought. Even at half time I felt Sydney held sway in the game, but we turned it around in the second half," Worsfold said.
"To have the players look like they really believed in themselves at three quarter time, that they wanted to take the game on and go on and win - on a slippery night when it was pretty hard to score - their attitude was outstanding. It hurts not to hold on and win the game."
The win puts Sydney into the top eight for the first time this season, though they will likely slip out before the weekend is over, completing six wins from their past seven matches after a horror 0-6 beginning to 2017. It was their seventh win in a row against the Bombers.
It was a draining contest. Both sides suffered from poor accuracy, particularly in front of goal, and a dewy surface caused havoc in a game featuring several of the competition’s fastest runners. Isaac Heeney and Jake Lloyd handled the conditions well for Sydney, while David Zaharakis and Michael Hurley gained plenty of metres for Essendon.
The story of the opening quarter was Essendon’s turnovers inside their defensive 50, which cost them 14 of the 17 points they conceded for the term.
Luke Parker grabbed both intercepts, kicking a goal himself and handing one off to Tom Papley to finish.
In between, the Bombers grabbed a couple of majors, through Joe Daniher from 60 metres to a vacant goal, followed by a neat set shot from a tight angle moments later to James Stewart.
Though it was an encouraging opening from Essendon, their fragility around the stoppages became evident in the second quarter, as Sydney pulled out by 16 points midway through the term with three unanswered goals.
A late intercept goal by Zaharakis kept the Bombers hot on Sydney’s heels heading into half time and Tom Bellchambers’ set shot goal just after the resumption helped bring them within two points, 42-40.
The Swans laboured to respond, maintaining their pressure and creating opportunities but struggling to convert. Eventually, goals to Dan Hannebery, Isaac Heeney and Will Hayward gave the Swans some clear air - but the Bombers bit back late in the quarter against the run of play through Shaun McKernan and Conor McKenna.
When McKernan converted a dubious free kick against Heath Grundy early in the final term and Orazio Fantasia finished a long chain with a clean set shot, the Bombers were just a point down, 66-65.
McDonald-Tipungwuti, Travis Colyer and Michael Hurley piled the misery on Sydney late in the match, before the Swans began their extraordinary final thrust.
SYDNEY 2.5 5.11 8.17 11.20 (86)
ESSENDON 2.4 4.9 7.11 12.13 (85)
GOALS
Sydney: Heeney 2, Newman 2, Parker, Papley, Reid, Hannebery, Hayward, Florent, Rohan
Essendon: Stewart 2, McKernan 2, Daniher, Zaharakis, Bellchambers, McKenna, Fantasia, McDonald-Tipungwuti, Colyer, Hurley
BEST
Sydney: Kennedy, Grundy, Mills, Heeney, Lloyd, Parker
Essendon: Hurley, Merrett, Hartley, Zaharakis, Heppell, Gleeson
INJURIES
Sydney: Nil
Essendon: Nil
Reports: Nil
Umpires: Schmitt, Fleer, Mollison
Official crowd: 34,575 at the SCG
