Backs to the wall in defence
Neil Cordy
Daily Telegraph, September 16
IF there’s one group of Sydney Swans having sleepless nights this week it’s their backmen, who will be taking on the AFL’s No.1 forward line — led by brilliant Adelaide Crow Eddie Betts
But key Swans defender Heath Grundy says his teammates will bounce back from last weekend’s loss to GWS Giants and produce the football that secured them the minor premiership.
He’s also confident the experienced Nick Smith can do the job on Betts, who is in redhot form coming off a six-goal performance against North Melbourne last weekend.
“If we can get across and help Smooch (Smith) out that will be important,” Grundy told the Daily Telegraph.
“Eddie is strong on the ground and in the air which is what makes him such a force. When you are playing on a star like him you have to try to keep things as simple as possible, you have to do your homework during the week and look at what they do well. You also have to train as well as you can to make sure you’re ready to go. Good players will have their time during the game and you have to absorb that and move on.”
It won’t just be Betts that the Swans defenders will need to keep an eye on. Grundy’s likely opponent Josh Jenkins has kicked 62 goals this year. Dane Rampe is likely to take Taylor Walker while Aliir Aliir is set for a big job on Tom Lynch. Grundy is backing the debutant to step up to the challenge.
“Aliir has been playing AFL-standard footy for a long while before he broke into the team,” Grundy said.
Scary Tex message for Swans
Neil Cordy
Daily Telegraph, September 16
ADELAIDE skipper Taylor Walker has turned up the September pressure on the misfiring Swans by declaring the Crows “expect to win” Saturday night’s cutthroat semi-final at the SCG.
And the punters clearly agree with Adelaide’s long-kicking forward — money is running two-to-one in favour of the Crows.
“We’re going there to beat them and we expect to win like we have all year,” Walker said.
Sydney’s home ground will hold no fears for Walker who is part of the most potent forward line in the business led by the best small forward in the game Eddie Betts.
Adelaide hold an 11-6 record at the SCG over the Swans and Walker, who grew up in Broken Hill, believes if Adelaide can win enough of the footy to supply their forward line they’ll shut Sydney down.
“Finals footy is won at the contest, so all over the ground we’ll have to win our fair share,’’ Walker said.
“Territory is important as well so if you can play it in your half your team defence can get set up and not allow them to move the ball. If we can do that I’ve got no doubt we can beat the Swans.
Two changes to Swans
Neil Cordy
Daily Telegraph, September 16
The Sydney Swans have been forced to make two changes to the team which lost to GWS in last week’s qualifying final, with Toby Nankervis and Jeremy Laidler coming in for injured pair Kurt Tippett and Callum Mills.
The duo can look forward to a jam-packed SCG for the first final at the venue since the Swans downed Geelong in the “Nick Davis semi” in 2005.
The SCG officials have taken the rare step of releasing standing room tickets for a match which could push the attendance figure past 46,000 for only the second time. The figure could challenge the SCG record for an AFL match (46,168) posted for Swans versus Geelong (round 22, 1997) when Tony Lockett kicked five goals.
Laidler and Nankervis were rested from last week’s NEAFL grand final team.
“Both boys played the week before so it was just the one week they missed,” Swans coach John Longmire said.
“We thought it was a bit risky given the injuries that might have come the day before. Jeremy played a lot of good footy for us at the start of the year and he’s very experienced. When Toby had his chance in the seniors he’s done quite well and I’m sure he’ll compete very hard.”
Love a smiling assassin
Richard Hinds
Daily Telegraph, September 16 
IF Eddie Betts was any less adorable he might have haunted the dreams of Sydney Swans fans during the long nights before tomorrow’s cutthroat semi-final.
Betts has already kicked the decisive goal for the Crows in one thriller this season. So his outstanding form, incredible intuition, wondrous skills, irrepressible vitality — his very presence poses an obvious threat to the Swans.
Yet if Betts will be a pest, and potentially a menace, he is part of a rare breed. The opposition star who is virtually impossible not to love.
Swans’ fans have jeered their share of pantomime villains. As a Saint, ‘Plugger’ Lockett was despised for breaking Sydney defender Peter Caven’s jaw; Bulldogs’ tagger Tony Liberatore was reviled for his rough-house tactics on Swans’ skipper Paul Kelly; North Melbourne superstar Wayne Carey was booed ... just for being Wayne Carey.
But if Betts has a similar ability to thwart the Swans’ ambitions, he contains none of that trio’s brooding menace. He is a frisky Labradoodle chasing a tennis ball; a fluffy kitten with a ball of wool. His diminutive stature, effervescent grin and party trick goals defy any real sports fan not to like him.
Off the field? Betts comes with a made-for-Disney story that makes his mere presence on the field more admirable.
Swans keep the faith for must-win final
Andrew Wu
SMH, September 16
Sydney's pressure forwards have escaped the wrath of coach John Longmire at selection despite the coach labelling the Swans' tackling effort last week as their worst for the year.
The Swans believe their woes from the qualifying final humbling can be solved if they roll their sleeves up and rediscover the team defence that has been the side's trademark in the last decade.
Longmire places great emphasis on tackling but such was the inferior opposition the Swans faced leading into the finals they did not need to excel in this area to win. In fact, they won the tackle count only once in the last seven games of their home and away season, during which they had a 6-1 win-loss record. Their differential of -32 proved costly against the Giants, who sliced through their press with ease.
There was, however, no retribution from the Swans' match committee, whose only two changes were enforced. As expected, ruckman Toby Nankervis comes in to make his finals debut for the injured Kurt Tippett while Jeremy Laidler replaces the hamstrung Callum Mills.
Small forwards Ben McGlynn and Tom Papley were given the chance to atone despite the Swans having identified the ease at which the Giants were able to rebound from their defensive 50 as a key factor in last week's loss. The pair along with George Hewett and Isaac Heeney laid eight tackles between them compared to their Giants' counterparts – Devon Smith, Toby Greene, Steve Johnson and Jacob Hopper – who had 20. Papley, who kicked his two goals in the first 15 minutes of the game, did not lay a tackle at all.
"We'd like a bit more pressure in our front half," Longmire said. "Around the ball we felt it was our effectiveness around that part of the ground as far as putting enormous pressure on the opposition. They were able to get some clean ball round there which they don't normally do.
"We were disappointed with our lack of effective tackles – both the number of tackles and lack of effectiveness in the tackle.
"It was probably our worst result for the year in regards to amount of missed tackles, normally it's a real strength of ours.
"We're really confident we can get the pressure around the ball in a lot better manner and a lot more effective manner than we did last week."
Just like old times: Davis relives his magic moment for SCG finals return
James Buckley
SMH, September 16
Eleven years have lapsed since the Swans last played an AFL final at the SCG, but for Nick Davis it feels like only yesterday that his last-quarter heroics propelled Sydney to a win and ultimately a drought-breaking AFL flag.
Davis continues to dine out on his finest individual hour in the 2005 semi-final against Geelong, with Sydney fans still compelled to buy the retired forward a beer or two in gratitude for the four late goals he booted to lift the Swans off the canvas in that 2005 game.
His heroics are now cemented in Swans folklore, and like many fans, Davis has watched the footage of the last quarter in that semi-final thousands of times. The final goal of his quadruple where he roved a stoppage, juggled the ball and snapped it through off his non-preferred left foot is one of the two favourite moments of Swans fans from that premiership season – the other being Leo Barry’s infamous pack mark in the grand final.
‘‘They’re pretty easy to replay in two and a half, three minutes. It’s something that Swans supporters remember fondly. If we had have lost the next week it could have been a hell of a lot different.
‘‘I’d not been in the bad books but I mean I probably hadn’t fulfilled potential, I’d been hot and cold for a while and I felt satisfied that I was able to repay the faith and get the team into another win.
‘‘All you want to do in footy is win games and to be able to help the team to do that and for the boys to be rapt. I ended up on the bottom of a big pile at centre half forward.’’
Crows may lock down on Sydney’s star-studded midfield
James Buckley
SMH, September 16
The strength of Sydney’s midfield could force Adelaide to break custom and employ a tagger in Saturday’s SCG final, according to the Crows’ David Mackay.
Coach Don Pyke flagged the possibility during the week of trying to shut down at least one star in the Swans’ engine room with All-Australian trio Dan Hannebery, Josh Kennedy and Luke Parker at the top of the list.
And Mackay said his side was well equipped to lock down on a player, even though tagging isn’t built into the Crows game plan, which has transformed them into the most potent attacking side this season. ‘‘That’s something that if we need to we can go to and use, and something in the kit bag that hopefully we don’t have to use,’’ Mackay said.
‘‘With the quality they’ve got we may have to at some stage.
‘‘Potentially we’ve probably got a number of guys that can do it. That’s one of the things we’ve actually prided ourselves on this year is being a pretty flexible group.
‘‘You look at their midfield and it has been the benchmark for a number of years. It’s a big challenge for our midfield group and I think we understand that if we can give our forwards enough opportunity then they’re able to kick a score.’’
Swans ready to tackle form fear
Peter Lalor
The Australian, September 16
Will the real Sydney Swans stand up tomorrow against Adelaide or will the minor premiers bow out after losing their fifth consecutive final?
Coach John Longmire knows winning a game of football is not an easy matter at any time of year, but says that there is one area his team needs to address if they are to play like the side that was the premiership favourite up until last week’s games and that is laying tackles.
The Swans are renowned for their tackling but put in an almost historically poor effort against the Giants last weekend.
Champion Data’s analysis provided to The Australian paints a disturbing picture.
The Giants laid 32 more tackles than their opponents — that differential is the Swans’ worst since 2012.
Sydney laid 87 effective tackles in the first half of the match against Melbourne halfway through the season, but only 64 in the entire qualifying final.
Of more concern was the fact that the Swans attempted 110 tackles but made only 58 per cent stick.
“We were disappointed with our lack of effective tackles, and it was probably our worst result for the year in terms of missed tackles,” Longmire said
“Normally it’s a real strength of ours, but we’re confident we can get more pressure around the ball than we did last week. If we get enormous and effective pressure around the ball, generally we work better going both ways.
“We know that if Adelaide gets the ball in quickly with the talent they’ve got in their front half, that they can cause any team headaches.
“That’s why the midfield pressure battle is always a critical one.
“When you’ve got an opposition forward line stacked with so many talented players, you need to make sure those entries that they do get, have a bit more pressure around them to what we applied last week.”
