Sydney's bottom six tops
Neil Cordy
Daily Telegraph, September 29

SWANS premiership captain Barry Hall says it not your best six players that win premierships but their bottom six unheralded role players.

And that’s why Hall believes Sydney will win Saturday’s grand final.

Hall has skin in both camps after playing 162 games in eight seasons for the Swans and 39 for the Western Bulldogs in his last two years in football.

“It is down to the bottom six,” Hall said.

“If you are going to rate them the Swans bottom six are marginally better and have a little more experience, you’d put the Swans ahead.

“I’ve said it every year, it’s very rare you get a key forward to kick five or six goals and win a Grand Final. Jack Gunston (Hawthorn) kicked four goals last year and he’s not really a key forward.”

Hall also believes the Swans will have the advantage of drawing less attention than their opponents. The Bulldogs’ fairytale run is taking almost all of the media interest in Melbourne, while the Cronulla Sharks’ chase for a first NRL title is taking the glare in Sydney and allows the red and whites to keep their preparation low-key.

“The Swans can go under the radar,” Hall said.

“After Bulldogs beat the Giants, the Swans were rapt because the Bulldogs were going to get all the press, and rightly so.”

Fairytale over as Swans rule out Aliir
Neil Cordy
Daily Telegraph, September 29

ALIIR Aliir’s dream of a premiership has ended in heartbreak after the Swans ruled him out of Saturday’s grand final against the Western Bulldogs.

Aliir strained of the medial ligament in his right knee in the first quarter of Friday night’s preliminary final win over Geelong and didn’t return to the field.

He attempted to prove his fitness at today’s training session at the SCG but couldn’t get through his program.

“Aliir has done all he could to give himself a chance to play on Saturday. Unfortunately he was unable to complete training and therefore can’t be considered for selection this week.” Swans football manager Tom Harley said.

“It’s always a tough situation for players facing some uncertainty over their fitness ahead of a game. Aliir is a young man of outstanding character and a bright future and he will be supporting the team on the weekend.”

Experience irrelevant: Hannebery
AAP, Daily Telegraph, September 29

SYDNEY’S AFL grand final know-how will count for nothing against the inexperienced Western Bulldogs, according to midfielder Dan Hannebery.

The Swans, readying for their third season-decider in five years, are vastly more familiar with what awaits at the MCG on Saturday than the Bulldogs, who will play their first since 1961.

Despite this season’s more youthful line-up, Sydney coach John Longmire fielded 12 players with grand-final experience in last Friday’s preliminary final against Geelong.

In stark contrast, the Bulldogs team that pipped GWS did not contain a single player with first-hand knowledge of the game’s showpiece.

But Hannebery dismissed the gulf as irrelevant.

“It’s great there is experience there but I don’t think it has any bearing on the result at all,” Hannebery said. “You’ve just got to make sure you bring your A-game, that you’ve got that real steely mindset when that first ball is bounced.”

Longmire a coaching genius without plaudits
Jon Ralph
Herald Sun, September 29

JOHN Longmire is desperate for you to underestimate him.

A man who has never had a losing season and made a Grand Final in three of six seasons in charge hides his ambition behind a facade of tedium.

Last weekend he gave us a small glimpse of what makes him tick as his players entered the MCG rooms after executing the perfect preliminary final.

He hugged and high-fived and back slapped every single player in the most animated display we have seen from the 2012 premiership coach.

Normally the John Longmire we see is in press conferences deflecting and dodging, whether over Buddy’s travails or Keiren Jack’s family dynamics.

And yet if Chris Scott gets the plaudits for his intellectual post-match explanations and Luke Beveridge is lauded for his emotional connections, John Longmire is a coaching genius.

Almost without plaudits, he has elevated a team few believed in into the Grand Final, all with seven player debuts this year and eight players with under 50 games.

When will John Longmire get the respect he deserves?

As North Melbourne premiership teammate David King says of Longmire, he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“He is up for a laugh, he is involved in the conversation, he is a very jovial person. But once that red light comes on he becomes Captain Boring,’’ King said this week.

“He doesn’t want to upset anyone or give ammunition so he doesn’t end up saying a lot.

“But inside the four walls of the Swans the players love him. They know everything he does is in their best interests.”

Daniel v Mills: Rising Star showdown take two?
Daniel Cherny
The Age, SMH, September 29

Caleb Daniel is optimistic fellow young gun Callum Mills has given himself every chance to play in Saturday's grand final and set up a showdown between the pair in the season decider.

Sydney half-back Mills won this year's Rising Star award – finishing with 49 votes – eight ahead of runner-up Western Bulldogs midfielder Daniel.

Mills, 19, hurt his hamstring in the Swans' qualifying final loss to Greater Western Sydney, but has recovered sufficiently to put himself in the mix for the grand final. The Sydney academy product got through training on Wednesday, and is set to be considered for selection alongside co-captain and fellow half-back Jarrad McVeigh, who missed the Swans' preliminary final win over Geelong with a calf problem. Whether there is room for both in the grand final team to face the Bulldogs is unclear given the strong preliminary final showing of small defender Zak Jones. There is already one opening in the Sydney line-up after tall backman Aliir Aliir was ruled out of the side with a knee issue.

Only two Rising Star award winners have played in that season's grand final – Byron Pickett in 1998 and Joel Selwood in 2007 – and the top two have never played off for the premiership.

But Daniel praised the emerging Swan, saying that Mills would have put himself in the frame to play. "He's a very good player. I'm sure he'll do everything that he can do to get up," Daniel said.

Whatever happens with Mills, Daniel's presence on grand final day is itself momentous. At 167 centimetres, the South Australian is the shortest player in the AFL, but that hasn't stopped him from becoming a mainstay of the Dogs' side during the past season and a half. Still, the 20-year-old says it hasn't been a challenge to keep his feet on the ground – and that has nothing to do with the fact his head is closer to the ground than those of his teammates.

Aliir out but McVeigh, Mills still in GF hunt
Andrew Wu
SMH, September 29

Sydney premiership captain Barry Hall has warned the Swans of the perils of picking injured players in grand finals as Aliir Aliir's dream first season of senior football ended in heartbreak on Wednesday.

The young defender's hopes of playing in the grand final are over after he failed to complete training, but the Swans still face big calls over the fitness of captain Jarrad McVeigh and young gun Callum Mills.

The pair need only to pull up well on Thursday to be named in the 22 after doing everything asked of them by the Swans during their main session of the week. If they are given the green light then it will be a nervous wait for backmen Harry Marsh and Jeremy Laidler, one of whom will make way.

Coach John Longmire is not known for taking risks with injured players but McVeigh and Mills will be important in countering the Western Bulldogs' smaller forward line. A doomsday scenario would be for both players to be picked and fail to see out the game.

"You've got to go in with a fit squad, I just spoke about relying on each other and no weak links, if one goes down it just makes it that much tougher," Hall, who lifted the premiership cup with Paul Roos in 2005, said.

"Horse [Longmire] is pretty measured so he won't take a risk if there's any doubt. You've got to put your trust back in players.

"If he asks Callum Mills how it feels, and I know players want to play in a grand final, if he does something in the first 10 minutes and he sits out, how are you going to look John Longmire in the eye?"

Giants' finals games key to Swans success
James Buckley
SMH, September 29

The Swans can thank GWS if they win Saturday's grand final after the drubbing issued by their cross-town rival earlier this month, and last weekend's bruising encounter between the Giants and Western Bulldogs.

Sydney's six-goal qualifying final loss to the Giants led to a week of meetings to discuss the embarrassing defeat, and spurred the Swans into action with strong subsequent wins over Adelaide and Geelong.

Last weekend as Sydney cruised to victory over the Cats, the Bulldogs played their part in the most intense game of the season, scraping through with a six-point win over GWS at Spotless Stadium to earn their first grand-final appearance in 55 years.

And while the Swans are banged up with Aliir Aliir to miss the game through injury, and Jarrad McVeigh and Callum Mills yet to prove their fitness, they're not as fatigued as a gutsy but heavily taxed Bulldogs outfit.

Swans legend Barry Hall, who captained Sydney to a premiership in 2005 before finishing his career with two seasons at the Bulldogs, said he was concerned the past three weeks of finals might be about to catch up with the underdogs.

"Three real hard games that they've played, they're full of emotion, they've had to come from behind a couple of times," Hall said. "When you see that and we saw it with West Coast last year, you see that when you get to the grand final, you're almost out of petrol tickets.

"I hope that's not the case. They're a struggling club, out the west of Melbourne, it sounds really silly but AFL, it's an untapped area out there, it's such a big area with so many different sports you can choose from.

"Sydney would be rapt the Western Bulldogs are in. The Bulldogs have got all the talk now.

"It sounds silly being grand final week ... there is not a lot of talk about the Sydney Swans, it's probably the perfect preparation for them, they've been there, they've done it before.

"How the Dogs are going to turn up I'm not sure because they've worked so hard to get here."

Swans' sibling interchange
Peter Lalor
The Australian, September 29

Early in his international career, Steve Waugh was dropped from the Australian side and replaced by his brother Mark. It made for an awkward scene in the family living room.

It is not exactly the same situation for Ted and Xavier Richards, but the end of Ted’s career has coincided with the launch of Xavier’s.

Ted, who was the Swans’ hero for his role on Buddy Franklin in the 2012 premiership, has not played since round 17.

He has trained with the senior group and not given up on the chance of a recall, but his young teammates in the shadow side seem to believe it is all over for the 261-game veteran and have taken to chairing him off the field after every training session as if it is his last.

Richards complained during the week that it had become so ridiculous he had been even chaired off after a yoga class by the irreverent younger players.

Xavier had played two games in three seasons before coming back into the senior side for the first match of his brother’s absence and has played every round since.

“It’s bittersweet, Ted’s football CV is amazing, he has played over 250 games, been in three grand ­finals and won one, All Australian, Rising Star, been in the leadership group and I don’t think he is thinking he has missed out on a massive opportunity. I think he can be satisfied with his AFL career,” Xavier said this week.

Aliir out, McVeigh in running
Peter Lalor
The Australian, September 29

Aliir Aliir’s premiership dream has ended, with the defender ruled out of the Swans side for Saturday’s grand final, but co-captain Jarrad McVeigh and Rising Star Callum Mills remain in contention to return for the decider.

The Swans played a cloak-and- dagger game at a closed training session yesterday but it was noted that Aliir, 22, was not among the players who took the field before the SCG was cleared of media and fans. The defender, who has proved a valuable and popular contributor in his debut season, damaged a medial ligament in the win over Geelong last Friday night but was not immediately ruled out.

The Swans released a statement yesterday after the training session, with head of football Tom Harley breaking the bad news.

“Aliir has done all he could to give himself a chance to play on Saturday. Unfortunately he was unable to complete training and therefore can’t be considered for selection this week.” Harley said.

“It’s always a tough situation for players facing some uncertainty over their fitness ahead of a game. Aliir is a young man of outstanding character and a bright ­future and he will be supporting the team on the weekend.”

Aliir was born in a Kenyan refugee camp to Sudanese parents and is the first refugee to play for the Swans. His story was mentioned by Malcolm Turnbull at the UN last week.

The club said that McVeigh (calf) and Mills (hamstring) “completed what was required of them” at training and both are a chance of being recalled to the side when the team is announced late today.

Mills, who is also a first-year player, has not played since breaking down in the first round of the finals, while McVeigh left the field in the next match, against Adelaide. If they both return another player will miss out.

The Swans also had nervous moments with Josh Kennedy and Luke Parker both sustaining knee injuries in the preliminary final, but Kennedy dismissed concerns the side would be carrying injured players into the clash with the Bulldogs.

“It’s part of the game and part of the industry, and we’ll do the best we can with the best 22 we take out there,” Kennedy said.

“There’ll be a few nervous guys, but I have the utmost confidence that they’ll be able to get through training, and we’ll see how they go.”

Suckling selection up in the air
Sam McClure
The Age, September 29

Western Bulldogs defender Matt Suckling is not guaranteed to return to the side for Saturday's grand final, even if he's declared fully fit.

His non-selection for last week's preliminary final against Greater Western Sydney came as a shock, with team sheets stating he was missing with an Achilles injury.

But the Bulldogs' director of football Chris Grant confirmed that Suckling going out of the side was more than just Achilles soreness, but also to do with team balance.

"It's sort of a combination of all of that," Grant said at the Whitten Oval on Wednesday.

"Matt's been obviously a pretty important player for us, but certainly the GWS set-up with three talls gave us an opportunity of doing something different.

"We may have to do something different this week just because of the nature of Sydney's team."