The good, the bad and the ugly.

Sunday’s match had it all. Unfortunately, there was more of the latter two.

But debutants are good. Footy loves a debutant. They are all superstars before they play a game and like a 3pm sugar hit for fans who can let their imagination run wild about the sort of player they will become. Every recruiter will tell you that they can’t believe said debutant was available at the pick in which they were selected.

As far as debuts go, Dylan Stephens and Chad Warner were solid. Neither looked out of place on the main stage. They have the look of players who will play a lot of very good games for the Swans in the future.  

In tough games, in tough times, watching the fledgling steps of your future stars can certainly bring a smile.

With good however, comes the bad.

I suppose the writing was on the wall early when Callum Mills was penalised for rushing a behind, setting up Jack Riewoldt for the opening goal of the match. Were there an award for the worst umpiring decision of the year – the race would have been called off immediately.

On Sunday, a bad result was exacerbated by bad injuries. Injuries that can make an 8-point loss feel like an 80-point loss.

As Josh Kennedy’s knee wrenched under him in a tackle, so too did the collective hearts of Swans fans.

While the diagnosis was not as diabolical as it could have been, six weeks without his midfield heavy lifting seems like a long time. The rest of the season without Isaac Heeney seems even longer.

Add those two names to a list already full of big names, and the Swans can officially lay claim to having the second biggest health crisis in Australia right now.

The injury list makes for some ugly reading, but not quite as ugly as Richmond coach Damien Hardwick’s post-match remarks.

Hardwick’s take was that despite his team’s relentless ambition to attack (his inference), it was impossible to score with “75,000 people in our forward 50”. He lay blame for the “horrendous” match – which saw seven goals kicked collectively – squarely at the Swans. Ugly Swans. That old chestnut.

Yep. Apparently, Richmond playing Sydney in Brisbane wasn’t the most bizarre part of Sunday’s match.

Interestingly Hardwick had little to say about the opposition when his side booted five goals in Round 2 against Collingwood in perfect football conditions at the MCG. Nor two weeks later against Hawthorn when his side again managed five goals for the game.  

Playing champagne footy is difficult at the best of times. I assume it’s harder in the rain. And harder again when most of your team would fail to meet the height requirements to ride the Dreamworld rollercoaster, so depleted are the stocks of tall key position players, vital for team structure. And even harder than that, when nine of the Swans available 21 players (after the Kennedy injury) have played less than 35 games.

My guess is that regardless of tactics, these things might play some sort of role in the presentation of a game.

The last person to make such bold, unflattering comments regarding the Swans was another ‘Dimma’ – Andrew Demetriou – who used the term ‘unattractive’ to describe Paul Roos’ team in 2005. The remarks went down like a lead balloon, and said balloon burst in the AFL CEO’s face months later when the Swans would go on to break a 72-year premiership drought. Here it is.

However unlikely it seems at the moment, how sweet it would be if history could repeat 15 years on and good once again prevail over bad and ugly.