Playing for time
Neil Cordy
Daily Telegraph, August 22
KURT Tippett’s famed work ethic has him primed to provide Sydney with another attacking option to haunt rival defences in the finals.
The 29-year-old made a successful return against North Melbourne at the weekend after 10 weeks out with a hamstring tendon injury.
Even with 75 minutes of much needed football under his belt, Tippett only has Saturday’s final regular-season game against Richmond to get match fit before the finals.
“I don’t have a minute to waste at this stage of the season,” Tippett said.
Tippett worked hard during his injury lay-off and last weekend’s hard-fought win over the Kangaroos has left him confident the mountain of work he’s put in will get him through the testing weeks ahead.
“I’ve done as much as I possibly can,” Tippett said.
“There is no stone we left unturned during the nine weeks I was training. I take confidence out of that. Each week from here it will get a little bit easier and I’ll be able to play more minutes.”
Swans star Tippett eyes finals ruck role
Andrew Wu
SMH, August 22
Sydney star Kurt Tippett believes he has enough time to regain the fitness to allow him to return to his preferred ruck-forward role in which he excelled before injury.
But doubts remain as to whether he can recapture the form that made him one of the competition's most influential ruckmen.
While Tippett was unsurprisingly below his best against North Melbourne, the Swans had good reason to be encouraged with his performance in his comeback game.
Playing in his first match in 10 weeks, Tippett did not appear hampered by his hamstring injury, playing 75 minutes and, perhaps most importantly, emerging unscathed.
After starting brightly, Tippett ran out of puff as his lack of match practice told. He finished with 11 possessions - nine of which came before half time - 17 hit outs and pulled down three contested marks. He also created a spillage deep in Sydney's forward line that led to a goal at a key stage in the third term.
"It was a good start for him, we know he can build on that. He looked pretty clean a few times," Longmire said.
"He played 75 minutes; going into the game it was the plan if he was able to get to that point it'd be good."
Tippett spent more time in the ruck than planned though it may still be asking too much of him to shoulder the bulk of Sydney's ruck burden, at least for the start of the finals series. The bye after round 23, introduced this year, will give him an extra week to prepare.
"Fitness-wise I feel I can get back to playing the minutes," Tippett said. "I feel great in my body. The surgery went very well.
"The more time I've got to train and prepare the better.
"It will be up to the coaches in terms of which roles I play the majority of my time."
No Swanning around yet
Adam Smith
Daily Telegraph, August 21
SYDNEY might have jumped to the top of the AFL ladder with just one round remaining but coach John Longmire refuses to believe it has given his side any breathing room.
The Swans downed North Melbourne by nine points in a cracking contest at Blundstone Arena on Sunday, leapfrogging Hawthorn in the race for the minor premiership.
With Richmond awaiting at the SCG next weekend, the Swans will be odds-on to finish top and secure home finals but Longmire won’t be getting caught up in any hype surrounding his star-studded outfit.
“Not yet, we want to keep playing good footy, regardless of what is going on around us we have to keep playing good footy,” Longmire said.
“I think we can improve a bit on today’s performance.
“You want to get to this point of the year with that in front of you, which is control your own destiny next week in the last game of the year at the SCG.
“They had won eight in a row (in Hobart), this has been a really good hunting ground for North Melbourne.
“To be able to find a way and get the four points, put them in the bag and take them back to Sydney can’t be underestimated.”
Best since Carey, but is Buddy now King?
Mark Robinson
Herald Sun, August 21
AS Lance Franklin humiliated St Kilda during the third quarter last Saturday night, oozing power, skill and astonishing athleticism, the question was asked: Is he better than Wayne Carey?
Whoa. Whoa. Whoa.
Hold your horses.
Better than Duck?
That night he was. Carey was a player from the gods, but not even he was able to accumulate 15 possessions and three goals in a single quarter of football across his 272-game career.
Of course, one quarter of football doesn’t define one player over another, and certainly not Franklin over Carey, but in that quarter we saw a player elevate himself so much greater than any other player on the ground, it was otherworldly.
Carey did that often. So did Leigh Matthews. And the Abletts. And the powerhouse forwards such as Tony Lockett and Jason Dunstall.
And those in charge of documenting history said the same of John Coleman, Laurie Nash, Peter Hudson and Bob Pratt and without TVs, other than for Hudson, those players live largely in these football scriptures.
In Franklin, we have a living, playing, marauding, mesmerising treasure of a footballer who may not better than Carey, but certainly has earned the right to be considered in the same conversation.
At, 29, Buddy has joined Gary Ablett Jr as the players to challenge Carey for the mantle — bestowed upon him by former Herald Sun chief football writer Mike Sheahan — as the greatest player ever.
Swans move to top of ladder after beating North
Andrew Wu
SMH, August 21
Sydney are in the box seat for a top-two finish while North Melbourne's season hangs in the balance after the Swans prevailed in a match worthy of a final on Saturday.
The Swans overcame an injury to star forward Lance Franklin and a brilliant game from Brent Harvey to knock Hawthorn off the top of the ladder and continue the Kangaroos' freefall with a fighting nine-point win.
North turned in a much improved performance but it was not enough to stop a Swans team that is shaping as the team to beat on the eve of the finals.
The Swans overcame repeated challenges from the Kangaroos and, after several near misses earlier in the year, held firm when North mounted one final push.
The result moves the Swans to the top of the ladder but has left the Kangaroos vulnerable to being tipped out of the eight, particularly if Melbourne win on Sunday.
The Swans' win came with minimal input from Franklin, who after hurting his hip in the first term was well held by Robbie Tarrant. Franklin finished with nine possessions and was goalless, though he made some key plays when the game was on the line.
"There was some important footy he was able to win up high on the ground, that was really beneficial," Swans coach John Longmire said.
Aliir gaining cult figure status
Neil Cordy
Daily Telegraph, August 20
HE’S only played eight games but Aliir Aliir is already gaining cult status among Sydney Swans fans.
Every time he took possession of the ball in last week’s 70-point belting of St Kilda, the red and white faithful started cheering, and the longer the game went the louder the noise became.
Aliir tried not to pay too much attention to the support but it didn’t go unnoticed by his teammates, who said to him after the game “don’t worry about Lance Franklin, you’re the new hero”.
The barracking isn’t likely to be as strong at Blundstone Arena when Sydney take on North Melbourne but the cheers are certain to grow louder in the coming weeks if Aliir continues at his current rate of improvement.
He’s played every game since Round 16 and has quickly joined the AFL’s elite when it comes to intercept possessions, averaging 9.2 per game (sixth in the AFL)
That has him in a group which includes the best defenders in the league such as Alex Rance, Daniel Talia and Dane Rampe.
His remarkable life story growing up in a Kenyan refugee camp is quickly becoming the backstory to an even more amazing success in the AFL.
“I’ve always believed I can play at the top level and maintain it,” Aliir told The Saturday Telegraph.
“The first few games were a big step from the NEAFL to the AFL but the more games you play the more comfortable you feel.”
Cunningham strikes right balance of attack and defence
Andrew Wu
SMH, August 20
Sydney coach John Longmire is a big believer in the value of defence: if you can't defend you won't play.
It's the reason why Tom Mitchell had to wait so long to become a regular, and why Mitch Morton's big bags in the NEAFL in 2012 went unrewarded until the penny dropped. Which makes the case of Harry Cunningham a substantial deviation from the norm.
Cunningham spent six weeks in the wilderness not because he was not chasing, tackling or pressuring, but rather the opposite. His game had become focused on defence to the point where he was no longer making an impact.
His tackling numbers were still OK, though most Swans fans would have difficulty remembering too many passages of play, let alone games, in the first half of the season where he made a mark. There were games where he had more tackles than kicks.
"I needed to impact the game more. I was floating in and out of games," Cunningham says. "I was too heavily one-sided on defensive pressures and acts and wasn't getting enough of the football. You can have impact in different ways but it wasn't on a consistent basis."
Cross-code backing means plenty to these best of buds
Jamie Pandaram
Daily Telegraph, August 20
Back off Cats, he's Rohan nowhere
Neil Cordy
Daily Telegraph, August 19
GARY Rohan says his recommitment to the Swans on a three-year contract extension is repaying the club for sticking by him through the ordeal of his badly broken leg.
With another year still to run on his current deal, Rohan rejected overtures from Geelong to sign a deal which will see the livewire forward stay in Sydney until at least 2020.
“They’ve stuck by me,” Rohan told the Daily Telegraph.
“I’ve been injured for a long time and the Swans still offered me this long term deal, I’m repaying the faith they’ve shown in me.
“To be honest I don’t think I’ve played my best football yet. Hopefully I can do that soon so I can pay back the Swans who had the belief in my and stuck by me in the tough times.”
