Don't miss any of the news involving the Swans as we bring you everything from the newspapers around the country on Wednesday April 20, 2016.
Playing a David on the Goliaths
Neil Cordy
Daily Telegraph, April 20
IN most jobs, if you succeed at a task your boss gives you, you get rewarded. But in Dane Rampe’s case this weekend, it’s less “reward’’ and more “punishment’’.
So good was the Swans defender’s effort in containing Adelaide captain Taylor Walker last week, he will be given the task of doing the same to West Coast superstar Josh Kennedy at the SCG on Saturday afternoon.
“I really enjoy the challenge,” Rampe said. “I’m really excited. Adelaide had a really good forward line and it will be another step up this weekend with the Eagles, who are last year’s grand finalists.
Weak at the knees, Heeney turns to his heroes for help
David Sygall
SMH, April 20
Emerging Swans favourite Isaac Heeney has only recently come to terms with playing alongside two of the game’s leading figures, but the most important lessons he is learning from forward-line colleagues Lance Franklin and Kurt Tippett might prove a lot less glamorous than how to take soaring marks or pot pressure goals.
Heeney hit his straps in the pulsating clash with Adelaide on Saturday, grabbing 18 touches, four goals and showing quality touch, presence and endurance.
He says the delay in reaching his eye-catching peak was a pre-season hampered by knee tendinitis, a problem the 19-year-old Swans Academy product has been battling since well before he joined the club in the 2014 draft and seems set to wrestle for the foreseeable future.
But Heeney is in esteemed company. Both Franklin and Tippett have had to manage the same issue and, though they have both been forced to surrender games to the chronic injury, they have been able to forge successful careers.
Now, the pair are offering Heeney the chance to learn from them how best to limit the impact that knee tendinitis can have.
... but Kennedy doubts he’ll join the 300 club
Peter Lalor
The Australian, April 20
Josh Kennedy is proud to be playing his 150th game for the Swans this Saturday, but hesitates when asked if he can play another 150.
He and fellow engine room attendant Luke Parker both vouch for how hard the game has become — especially with the rotation cap.
Kennedy, who turns 28 in June, says the intensity and scrutiny seems to grow with every season and that’s before you even get to the new interchange rules that mean there are fewer opportunities to rest.
“I would love to think (I could play another 150),” he says. “Who knows at the moment? The way it is going, the game is becoming a lot harder, a lot more time on the ground and a lot more free-flowing, more high-scoring. I would love to get another 150, but who knows?”
League blows siren on grand final replays
Michael Gleeson
SMH, The Age, April 20
The AFL has scrapped grand final replays in the event of scores being tied at the end of the league’s biggest game of the year.
It has introduced two more halves of five minutes plus time on to be played, and then if scores remain tied at the end of the second additional period a ‘‘golden point’’ rule will apply and the team to score next will win.
If the scores are tied after the completion of the second extra time period, play will continue without the siren sounding until after the next score.
The change will apply to all finals matches but not to the home and away season. The AFL Commission made the ‘‘historic decision’’ to scrap the replay, saying it was important for fairness, especially in a national competition when teams travel interstate to the MCG for the game.
Each team will get an extra 15 interchange rotations across the two additional halves of time.
