Journeymen take high road with Swans
Neil Cordy
Daily Telegraph, September 11
CALLUM Sinclair and Dean Towers are the “other guys” in the Swans line up and, in an incredibly tight year, could be the difference between winning the premiership and not.
Both are AFL journeymen but on Saturday looked like established stars and have given John Longmire enormous heart heading into Friday night’s semi-final against Geelong at the MCG.
Under the circumstances of a cutthroat final Sinclair and Towers performances were arguably career-bests. Sinclair was dominant in the air, taking nine marks including four contested grabs inside 50, kicked three goals and gave one away.
“He provided a target in the front half and competed well in the air,” Longmire said. “He did it really well and exactly how we wanted him to, his game was really solid.”
Sinclair’s selection ahead of Kurt Tippett surprised many, but was proved to be the right one and has the former Eagle in the box seat for the remainder of the finals.
Towers' three goals were all from the top shelf and showed enormous composure which has at times been lacking in the past.
The first two came from tight angles close to the boundary and the third from a clever dribbler 30m out.
“With the set shots a couple of the boys came to me and said to take my time and kick the goal,” Towers said.
“It calmed me down and got the heart rate down.”
Raider of the lost arc
Jon Ralph
Herald Sun, September 11
RIVALS in awe of Lance Franklin’s stunning feats at least held out hope he could beat himself.
For all of Franklin’s awe-inspiring feats a unique goalkicking routine meant he butchered as many shots as he nailed.
As recently as four matches ago Franklin was tracking at 50 per cent conversion this year, the worst of his decorated career.
Since then he has kicked a remarkable 21.6 from 29 shots, hauling his conversion up to 72.4 per cent.
His set shot approach is noticeably straighter, no mean feat given he took air swings when Jason Dunstall once tried to eliminate the “Buddy Arc”.
Now Geelong not only needs to deal with the demons of a possible straight sets effort, they will tackle “Buddy” in full flight.
Franklin is in career-best form and yet he is also kicking like renowned straight shooter Tony Lockett.
Which shouldn’t surprise given AFL goals record holder Lockett is part of a Franklin coaching entourage that includes Swans assistants Brett Kirk and Nick Davis.
In concert they have helped turn him around after he kicked 16.23 from Rounds 14-21, including that horror 0.6 effort against Essendon.
Now Franklin most conquer a different challenge — nemesis Tom Lonergan, who has often had the better of his high-profile rival.
Franklin tipped to be fit, but Tippett recall unlikely
Andrew Wu
SMH, September 11
The good news on the injury front for Lance Franklin does not bode well for Sydney's other high-priced recruit, Kurt Tippett, whose chances of a finals recall have lengthened.
Hours after Callum Sinclair and Sam Naismith both played key roles in Sydney's elimination final win over Essendon, Tippett failed to seize his chance in the NEAFL grand final, which the Swans lost three points.
The ruckman had 41 hit-outs and 15 possessions but did not kick a goal and was not listed among the club's best players. With the NEAFL season now over, Tippett has run out of chances to press his case for a recall with an injury to one of Sydney's big men seemingly his only ticket back into the 22.
A wretched season for Tippett was shaping for a bright finish last month but an ankle injury in the final round of the home-and-away season is proving costly.
Swans coach John Longmire all but said doubt over Tippett's durability was the reason he was dropped.
"We were hoping Kurt would get through 80 minutes but there was a little bit of hope to it," Longmire said after the crushing win over the Bombers. "He trained Thursday and got through quite well but we're going into a final and we needed to make sure everyone was up for the full 120 minutes, if we could.
"That played into it a little bit. We had a role with Sinclair that we thought was a key role for us which he did really well."
Buddy on ice as Swans hit road
Peter Lalor
The Australian, September 11
Buddy Franklin will manage a bruised thigh through the week and the Sydney Swans will manage expectations as they take their show on the road to Melbourne after a historic win at the SCG on Saturday night.
There have been bigger margins than the 65 points that separated the home side from the Bombers, but there have never been bigger second quarters in a finals match, or a bigger AFL crowd at the ground.
Some 46,323 turned up to watch the game — an estimated 10,000 of them Bombers supporters — all comfortably accommodated since the construction of the two new stands at either end of the ground. The last time a football crowd came this close was when 46,168 turned up to see Gary Ablett junior’s dad and Tony Lockett appear at full forward for their respective sides in a clash between Geelong and Adelaide in 1997. Back then, before the redevelopment, people sat in the aisles and squeezed two to a seat to enjoy the spectacle.
Saturday’s game even outpointed the highest cricket crowd at the venue, which was 46,070 on the first day of the 2006-07 Ashes — the farewell game for the trio of Glenn McGrath, Justin Langer and Shane Warne.
There is a push to increase the capacity of the venue by redeveloping the Brewongle Stand and that can only be strengthened with Saturday’s turnout. The perennial finalists are proving one of the city’s most bankable attractions and an embarrassment to their rugby league cousins who have struggled to get more than 20,000 to finals matches.
The crowd wasn’t the only record on the night as the Swans’ 10.3 in the second quarter was the highest second-term score in any final and more than the Bombers’ final score for the match.
Franklin had limped off in the first with a corked thigh and spent the quarter break on a bike but came out and kicked four majors in the term as Essendon were blown away.
Longmire assured fans after the game that the superstar would be fine next weekend and admitted to “negotiations” with him at three-quarter time over whether he would go back on. Franklin eventually agreed to take the conservative approach and started icing the bruised thigh from five minutes into the quarter. “If we needed him he would have kept playing,” Longmire said.
