Don't miss any of the news from across the weekend involving the Swans as we bring you everything from the newspapers around the country.
Little Buddy making his mark
Neil Cordy
Daily Telegraph, May 9
HE may be a product of the Swans academy but rising star Isaac Heeney has revealed his high marking skills were honed with his brother Beau and dad Adam in the backyard in Newcastle.
Because Aussie rules was virtually non-existent at his school, Heeney had to improvise at home. The end result is one of the best contested marks in the country.
“Something I’ve worked on growing up is my leap,” Heeney said. “I was trying to take hangers every day.
“They didn’t have kick-to-kick at school, there was no AFL at all. It was all rugby league.
“I’d come home and train two or three times per week and at home with my brother and dad. Dad would pop the ball up and my brother and I would go for contested marks. One would sit down and the other would take a speccie.”
Isaac gives Eddie another reason to whinge
Neil Cordy
Daily Telegraph, May 9
DON’T tell Eddie McGuire or he’s likely to find a reason to have this shut down too.
But Isaac Heeney’s emergence from the northern NSW AFL academy to the Sydney Swans has created a genuine buzz in his home town of Newcastle.
Proving there are more outcomes from the NSW academies than developing AFL talent, the rugby league-loving Steel City all of a sudden has a very good reason to switch codes.
In the SCG crowd during Sydney’s 81-point demolition of Essendon on Saturday were 70 fans from Newcastle who made the two-hour trip south to watch local boy Heeney star. Most were from Heeney’s former club Cardiff, along with family and friends.
“The local club brought a bus down,” Heeney said. “They give me amazing support. There was 70 odd, and my family came as well.”
Swans chairman Andrew Pridham has lauded the NSW academies broad impact on the game.
“There are 600 kids in the academy that’s roughly 1200 parents, 2400 grandparents, brothers, sisters and school friends,” Pridham said. “We are expecting 30,000 fans and there will probably be and there will be 300 or more who are here to see Isaac Heeney, Dan Robinson and Callum Mills.”
“Before academy there were seven players on AFL lists (one per cent of the player pool) from the Swans academy zone, now there are 15. In the Giants there were 19 and now they are 28.”
Firing Franklin on track for a 100-goal season
The Australian, AAP, May 9
Lance Franklin is in fearsome form, leading the Coleman Medal race and fuelling talk of another 100-goal season.
Franklin booted six goals in Sydney’s 81-point dismissal of Essendon on Saturday night, lifting his season tally to a league-high 29.
The 29-year-old is the only current player who knows exactly what is required to kick 100 goals in a season, having achieved the feat in 2008.
Former Collingwood forward Brian Taylor, who kicked 100 goals in 1986, expects Franklin will bring up another ton.
“I reckon he’ll get it,” Taylor told the Seven Network.
“Almost no doubt he’ll get it. Barring injury this year, I think he’ll kick a 100 goals.”
Longmire’s half-time spray spurs Swans to win
Sebastian Hassett
SMH, May 9
After a flat first half against the AFL’s weakest side on Saturday night, Sydney Swans coach John Longmire gave his men a fierce verbal roasting at half-time – which was exactly what they needed, according to star midfielder Josh Kennedy.
The Swans laboured through an unimpressive first term at the SCG and led by only 17 points at half-time against an Essendon side that has been depleted to near second-tier status due to the absence of 12 players serving bans for WADA doping violations.
With Sydney considered a huge chance of pushing for a premiership in the most open season in recent memory, Longmire was furious at his side’s ordinary first two quarters. Their response was to kick 13 goals to two and run out 81-point victors.
‘‘We were probably a bit below our best. Taking nothing away from Essendon, they were running on top of the ground and really spreading us defensively. ‘Horse’ [Longmire] had a few words to say at half-time and we had to turn it around. Fortunately, a number of players stood up and we were able to do that,’’ Kennedy said.
Buddy and Isaac in bombing raid
Neil Cordy
Daily Telegraph, May 8
IT was the Lance Franklin and Isaac Heeney show at the SCG as the master and his apprentice put on a sparkling display kicking six and five goals respectively in the Swans 81-point belting of Essendon at the SCG.
In a week when debate of the academies dominated the news the Swans pin up boy was electric as he provided an avenue to goals and a marking target inside 50. He is now the Swans best overhead mark pulling down nine for the night including 4 contested with most coming inside forward 50.
“Isaac and Lance are two smart players,” Swans coach John Longmire said.
“Isaac was terrific for four quarters and Lance just got better as the game went, they work well together and obviously hit the scoreboard tonight.”
Buddy continued his love affair with playing against Essendon. His six goals brought his career tally to 64 against the red and blacks, his highest against any club. He averages 4.9 goals per game against the Bombers.
He had plenty of supply with Josh Kennedy leading the way with 40 possessions including 16 contested including seven clearances. Tom Mitchell, Dan Hannebery and Luke Parker weren’t far behind him, Mitchell had 37 possessions, Hannebery had 31 possessions including 17 contested and Parker racked up 29 and 15 contested.
In his 50th game Jake Lloyd continued his impressive season with 25 touches.
Franklin bags six as Swans down struggling Bombers
David Sygall
SMH, May 8
The Swans have made their first 6-1 start to a season in nearly 20 years, but it took a half-time blast from coach John Longmire to stun them into action against a competitive Essendon at the SCG.
Not every victory can be a work of art, but if Sydney felt they were below par in their three-point win in Brisbane last round, it’s unlikely they would feel much better with their scrappy first-half return in the eventual 81-point triumph over the battling Bombers.
The partnership between Isaac Heeney and Lance Franklin in the front third was a feature. Franklin was at his menacing best on his way to six goals, Heeney took some cracking contested marks and nabbed five majors, and the pair linked exceptionally well. But instead of team synergy propelling the Swans, their ascendancy for much of the game, particularly early, came down to pieces of individual brilliance. The lopsided scoreboard at full-time betrayed a contest in which Sydney were well below their best for much of the match.
‘‘That first half our contested ball and our uncontested footy wasn’t great,’’ Heeney said. ‘‘I think they had more possessions than us in the first half. They definitely cracked in. But we know the footy we can play can beat most sides in the comp. We have confidence in each other. And it definitely flowed on after a bit of a ribbing from Horse [Longmire] at half-time.’’
Mills crows about time at Academy
Neil Cordy
Daily Telegraph, May 7
SYDNEY Swans young gun Callum Mills is proof of why the under-fire academy system works, and why the AFL needs it to stay.
Mills believes Sydney’s two AFL clubs need a direct pathway through their academies if they are going to compete with rival codes for the best young talent.
The first-year midfielder says the chance to stay at home in Sydney was a big influence when he chose Aussie rules over rugby union as a teenager.
“It has been a massive influence for me because of the pathway,” Mills told The Saturday Telegraph.
“If you look at rugby league clubs they have a direct connection to players. In Sydney you have to have that direct connection.
“It was important to the Swans and it’s an important reason why people pick AFL.”
Swans' trio get on like a house on fire
Neil Cordy
Daily Telegraph, May 7
AN Australian, an Irishman and an African move into a house ...
It sounds like the start to a joke but Swans trio of Tom Papley, Colin O’Riordan and Aliir Aliir could turn out to be a key part of Sydney’s multicultural footballing future.
Aliir has been dropped to make way for Nick Smith in today’s clash at the SCG against Essendon but he made a solid debut against Brisbane last Sunday.
Papley has been a revelation since making his start in round one against Collingwood.
The plumber’s apprentice from Bunyip, Victoria, says the three are getting along famously and he and Aliir are looking forward to playing alongside their housemate from Tipperary soon.
“I certainly didn’t meet any Sudanese or Irishmen when I went to school,” Papley told The Saturday Telegraph.
“It’s great fun living with the boys — we’re all pretty close and we’re enjoying our football.
“I played with Aliir in Brisbane on Sunday and hopefully one day we’ll all play together in the seniors. Colin is a fast learner and I think he’ll get a crack at it maybe next year. Our backline is pretty solid but he’ll be a chance soon.”
Remembering Plugger kicking the behind that started Swans’ surge
David Sygall
SMH, May 7
Tony ‘‘Plugger’’ Lockett took a textbook grip on the ball, hunched his back, lowered his head and prepared to make history.
Somewhere in the distance a siren was blaring, barely audible above the cacophony of a frenzied crowd. Seconds earlier, with the score in the preliminary final against Kevin Sheedy’s Essendon at the SCG jammed at 69 apiece, Wade Chapman had rushed the ball out of the midfield to the top of the 50-metre arc. ‘‘Watch out!’’ former Swan Gerard Healy bellowed in commentary, for Lockett was thrusting his enormous frame at the ball, which was soon to be wedged safely in his clasp.
‘‘I was standing next to Plugger as he was preparing for the final kick and I just remember saying to him ‘Just get it over the line’,’’ says Troy Luff, a proud Swan from that unforgettable 1996 season.
‘‘He just needed to go long. Time was up and we didn’t need a goal, just for him to kick it the distance.’’
In a season in which he would claim his third of four Coleman Medals, Lockett had been mostly quiet that September night, playing through a serious groin injury to score just one goal. Nevertheless, with one massive whack – which sailed gloriously off target for a behind – he punted Australian football in Sydney into a new era, ensuring a grand final appearance only the most optimistic fans had believed possible.
