Good evening all, it's another wonderful Swans week ahead, made even better with the thrilling 7-point win against the Western Bulldogs at Etihad on Saturday night.
In a pulsating clash, the Swans turned a 22-point deficit early in the second quarter into a 14-point lead midway through the third. The Swans once again kicked ahead in the last quarter, only for the Bulldogs to peg them back. It took a moment of brilliance from Heeney to put Florent into space, and Oliver did the rest.
Swans superstar Lance Franklin was well held in the opening half by Easton Wood, but broke free of the shackles in the third quarter and found plenty of space. His pass to Heeney late in the 2nd quarter was instrumental for the Swans, with Isaac banging it home and reducing the deficit to 10 points.
Luke Parker was at his fierce best early in the game, willing himself to every contest and regularly winning the ball. He finished the half with three goals, along with Papley who kicked two in the first quarter.
The Swans lifted in the second half, with Towers, Heeney, McVeigh and Franklin leading the charge. One of the funniest incidents in modern football history happened towards the end of the 3rd quarter when Towers had his pants pulled down. Our followers started having a bit of fun with it, but before we knew it the post had well and truly taken off, and at this point it's reached 120 thousand people. If you fancy yourself a bit of a comedian, have a crack and caption Towers' moment of glory.
With the Swans under enormous pressure, their defence was resolute and held firm, with Rampe and McVeigh cleaning up everything. With just 3 minutes left on the clock, Dunkley had a chance to mark in the goal square and draw the scores level, but dropped the simplest of chances and was knocked off the ball.
The commentators reaction perfectly mirrored the fans reaction at the ground. Everyone was standing up at that point and as the ball came in, the Swans fans started gasping and groaning, while the Dogs fans started cheering. And then it flipped.
It wasn't over yet, but the crucial behind we scored immediately after was enough to shore up the result, despite Caleb Daniel snapping a goal, and then running on to another chance, only for the Swans to clear once again, and kick the winner through Florent. It was one of the best atmospheres I've experienced at Etihad, and for a crowd of just 28k, they sure made their voices heard.
Despite the Dogs' early dominance, changes at half-time helped the Swans grind their way back into the match and ultimately win it. Longmire acknowledged that changes were needed, with forward Florent later saying that Longmire gave them a much-needed rocket.
“I thought the Doggies played pretty well and I didn't think we were as good as what we should have been,” Longmire said.
“We got caught up the turnover game early in the game and got beaten at that which we're normally pretty strong at.
“Fortunately at half-time we were able to regroup. We didn't have many inside 50s at half-time, just a handful and we needed to get the momentum back our way, and do it pretty quickly and sometimes you've just got to find a way to win.
“To our players credit we found a way to win, even though the stats clearly - almost all of them - were in the Dogs favour.”
It was a great win and more importantly, the Swans start the season with 3 wins. They still face Adelaide and Geelong in the next two rounds, so it doesn't get any easier.
Don't forget to vote on the Sydney Swans Moments of 2017 polls. Our second poll is closing on Friday, with the next starting at midday Friday. All polls will run for a week throughout the season. This weeks' poll is between Rohan's 5 goal haul against the Gold Coast Suns in round 16, and Sam Reid's bag of 6 in round 2.
Anyway, in this episode Heather and I review the Bulldogs match and the round of football that was. We look ahead at round 5 against Adelaide Crows and discuss the news from the current round. I've been a bit sick the last week, so you'll have to forgive my nasally performance this time.
It's another great episode, so give it a listen and get your questions and comments to us ahead of next weeks' episode - more new on that to come.
Enjoy the week and the episode! As always, hit us up on social media using the tag @theswansblog, or the hash tag #SwansCast.
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