Shining Sinclair steps up for Swans
Neil Cordy
The Daily Telegraph, June 2
A MASSIVE game from Callum Sinclair has helped deliver the Swans their eighth win of the season and secure the Marn Grook Trophy to kick off the Sir Doug Nicholls Indigenous round.
Sinclair finished with 22 disposals including 12 contested, seven marks, two goals and 26 hit outs.
At the end of last season Sinclair was the third choice ruckman behind Sam Naismith and Kurt Tippett. But the sudden retirement of Tippett and a season ending knee injury to Naismith thrust the former Eagle into the top job.
He has had his struggles with the bigger ruckmen like Nic Naitanui and Sam Jacobs but against Matthew Kreuzer he well and truly took the honours.
“He’s been good shouldering a big load,” Swans coach John Longmire said.
“He played on a good player tonight. He’s a naturally fit bloke and gets around the ground well and he’s picked up a bit of confidence.
Callum Sinclair could be Sydney’s most important player as the ruckman’s sparkling form continues
Neil Cordy
The Daily Telegraph, June 2
CALLUM Sinclair may not be Sydney’s best player — that title certainly belongs to Lance Franklin — but he could be the one it can least afford to lose.
With Sam Reid still a long way from returning from his quad injury, Sam Naismith out for the season and long-term project Darcy Cameron the only other fit ruckman on the Swans’ list, plenty is riding on the former Eagle’s shoulders.
Friday night’s win over Carlton was the latest example of his dramatic improvement and importance.
With the Blues holding onto a five-point half time lead and the match well and truly in the balance, Sinclair produced a colossal third quarter to swing the match.
He took three contested marks, won six contested possessions and kicked two goals. His second was booted after the siren and gave Sydney an unassailable 27-point lead and he was very unlucky to miss out on the Goodes-O’Loughlin medal after beating Matthew Kreuzer in the critical ruck battle.
“It’s always hard work,” Sinclair told the Sunday Telegraph.
“I’ve always enjoyed just being in the side and playing footy. I haven’t overthought it much. I’m on the ground a bit more compared to previous years which is where I want to be.”
Son of a Swans gun
Jessica Halloran
The Daily Telegraph, June 3
DOWN near Coogee beach at dusk, usually on a Tuesday, you’ll find an AFL champion and his son kicking for the love of the game.
At Coogee Oval John Blakey, a 359-game, two-time premiership player for North Melbourne, has a weekly kick with his son Nick, one of the brightest AFL hopefuls in the country.
Nick is touted as a near certain first-round AFL draft prospect. There’s a big buzz about the tall, agile, 18-year-old in AFL circles.
But his dad John, a long-time Swans assistant coach has never placed a speck of pressure on him to follow in his footsteps.
“Dad is just big on me making my own name,” Nick said.
“I am not the same footballer as him. I am way taller than him. He was a half-back man and I am a centre half-forward.
We are different players but he’s been huge in my development.
“We speak after every game and he tells what I need to improve on and what I have done well - he leaves the coaching purely up to my coaches - but I love it [his advice].”
In recruiting circles Nick has been described as a “freaky player”.
“A gun”.
A player who has the ability to produce stunning football; that goal from the boundary line that you wouldn’t think was possible. A footballer who can emerge from the bottom of a messy pack of bodies and sprint away with the ball.
“He’s the type of player that can leave you thinking; ‘how did you just do that?’” One AFL club recruiter said.
McVeigh faces tough decision on his future
Andrew Wu
SMH, June 3
Jarrad McVeigh's manager has left the door ajar on the Sydney veteran playing on next year after his stellar start to the season.
McVeigh had been expected to hang up the boots at the end of this season and embark on a coaching career with the Swans but skipper Josh Kennedy says a rethink may now be needed on a potential 16th season.
Swans coach John Longmire, however, said McVeigh's intention was still to retire at the end of the year.
The Swans premiership captain signed a one-year deal late last year but has enjoyed a resurgence this season to be one of his team's best players.
After an injury-interrupted pre-season, the 33-year-old veteran of 311 matches has not missed a game, averaging 22 possessions playing as a rebounding half-back.
"When you're playing really good footy it makes it tougher to retire," McVeigh's manager Phil Mullen, of Kicking On Sports Management, told Fairfax Media.
"You never know. Form and injury plays a major part, right now both of those are positive. Hopefully it stays that way, makes the decision tougher.
"We'll talk over the next month or so, we haven't chatted about it at all."
Sydney Swans v Carlton Blues: AFL round 11 scores, stats and commentary
ABC, June 2
The Sydney Swans have banked a fourth straight AFL win, overcoming stern resistance from cellar dwellers Carlton to prevail by 30 points in a scrappy clash at the SCG.
The Blues gave travelling fans hope of a boilover by booting the opening two goals on Friday night then kept the Swans under pressure to boast an unexpected one-point lead at halftime.
The Swans busted the game open by kicking five goals to zip in the third term, eventually triumphing 13.13 (91) to 9.7 (61).
Lance Franklin managed three goals, having been one of many Sydney stars who struggled to find space, while both sides were guilty of butchering the ball and frustrating their own forwards with poor service and needless turnovers.
Isaac Heeney collected the Goodes-O'Loughlin medal, awarded to the Swans' best player in the Marn Grook fixture that launched the league's Indigenous round.
Franklin obliterated Carlton during the sides' previous clash, booting 10 goals in the final round of last year to claim the fourth Coleman medal of his stellar career.
Expectations built this week of another bag from arguably the game's greatest Indigenous player ever, who was depicted in a mural on nearby Flinders St to celebrate Indigenous round.
Blues backmen Sam Rowe and Liam Jones, who was crunched by friendly fire during a third-quarter collision with Jacob Weitering, this time combined to keep Franklin relatively quiet.
Franklin's frustration showed in the first quarter when he walked over the boundary line then threw the ball at the face of Rowe; the power forward argued his case but the misdeed remained one of three freekicks he gave away on the night.
