What a turnaround in performance, coming from 29-points behind and winning a thrilling contest. The first quarter, while the start was bright, quickly unfolded into a disaster.
Trailing by 28-points at quarter time, the Cats missed an easy chance - not the only one, they kicked 16 behinds after all - to go up by 5-goals, and quite probably put the Swans out of the contest for good.
The youngsters put on a goal-scoring masterclass in the second quarter, with Chad Warner's stepping goal, Errol Gulden, Dylan Stephens, Oliver Florent, and Justin McInerney dragging the Swans within a straight kick.
Hayden McLean's two-goals in the third kept the Swans in touch as the Cats threatened to kick ahead, but Tom Hickey had other plans, his snapped goal putting the Swans ahead in the match for the first time since the opening minutes.
Oliver Florent was sensational in the last quarter, while the defensive unit down an injured Lewis Melican put enough pressure on the wasteful Cats to blow countless opportunities.
Chris Scott and the Victorian media can whine all they like about the non-paid mark, or the non-paid holding the ball, but where were they when Brad Close got a free-kick and converted from absolutely nothing? Or Hayward taking a mark and being nailed from who the heck knows what caused the umpire to call play on.
Never mind the frankly disgraceful shooting on goal in the last quarter by the Cats, scoring just 2 goals from 9 shots (2.6 and 1 on the full). Maybe they should take up full-time lynching of Hawkins instead of blaming the umpires, who sure did them more than a handful of favours in highly questionable moments.
B: H. Cunningham, L. Melican, J. Dawson
HB: J. Lloyd, T. McCartin, J. Rowbottom
C: J. McInerney, C. Warner, O. Florent
HF: W. Hayward, H. McLean, I. Heeney
F: S. Wicks, T. Hickey, T. Papley
FOL: C. Sinclair, L. Parker, C. Mills
INT: D. Stephens, J. Kennedy, E. Gulden, C. O'Riordan, R. Clarke (sub)
Like what you’re getting? Want more Swans Blog, and the chance to have your input into our site and what we create? We have additional content weekly on our Patreon Service. This is your avenue, what are you waiting for? Sign up today and get more content like this.
If you'd like to support us, you can head over to our Red Bubble Swans Blog Shop, and purchase one of our hideously overpriced mugs, stickers or notebooks. Help keep The Swans Blog alive.
Since you're here...
... we have a small favour to ask. More people are reading The Swans Blog than ever, but we don't accept advertising, and don't want to do so in the future. Unlike many other news and media organisations, fan forums and fan media, we haven't put up a paywall, or displayed ads - we want to keep our content as open as possible.
The Swans Blog is an independent fan blog and community platform. Our content takes a lot of time and hard work to produce. We do it because we love what we do and we believe our perspective matters - because it may be your perspective too.
If everyone who reads our blog, who likes it, is supporting it, our future would be much more secure.
Want instant access to the latest blog and news content from The Swans Blog?
Download our Android App from Google Play today.