The Key Details:
Sydney Swans (0-2) vs Fremantle Dockers (0-1)
Venue: Optus Stadium, Perth
Date: Sunday March 23
Time: 6.10pm AEST
Weather: The long range forecast suggests hot (33 degrees) and sunny.
Preamble
Under Ross Lyon, Fremantle games were fundamentally unwatchable.
Dour, defense-oriented slogs were the norm.
Thankfully, with Justin Longmuir taking charge, Freo’s game style has livened up a bit. Scoring is now an objective and recruitment of Shai Bolton is part of the ongoing shift towards more free-flowing, corridor-oriented footy.
Swans versus Freo games have actually become fairly open, free-flowing, entertaining affairs. And with Sydney likely to be fielding 21 skinny half-back flankers plus Tom Papley and a sub, that trend looks set to continue.
Both sides are, however, already under a bit of pressure.
Dean Cox’s reign isn’t off to a great start. Two frustrating losses, featuring some absolutely comical game-turning clangers, coupled with an abundance of skill-errors and a terrible injury toll isn’t the start Big Cox would have hoped for. The media hasn’t yet turned its spiteful gaze towards the Sydney coach (after all, they have Voss and Hinkley to feast on). Instead, Ryan O’Keefe (still with a rather large axe to grind) has been delighted to do David King’s job for him and put his size 11 boot into the hapless Swans.
If the Swans do go 0-3, expect a few media pundits to start to mention the names Dean Cox and John Longmire in their dispatches.
As for Freo, expectations are high. The traditional March cries of “Flagmantle!” dominate office water cooler discussions in Perth.
An utter decimation by Geelong in Round 1 (to the tune of 78 points) has, however, dampened early season optimism and Freo will doubtless come out firing for this one.
The Teams
This is kinda what the Swans currently look like (minus the trophy):
Things already looked grim before the Lions game. But with Lewis Melican seemingly doing a groin and Justin McInerney getting a 3 week holiday courtesy of the AFL after deciding to prove that skinny half-back flankers can be “brutes”, the unavailable list has grown to highly problematic proportions.
Thankfully, Riley Bice stepped up and will maintain our skinny half-back flanker quota, after an impressive debut outing.
Tom McCartin will likely have to shift back into a severely depleted defence, to accompany Joel Hamling, the 6 foot 4 premiership defender that Horse Longmire spent a year trying to turn into a VFL standard half forward.
As for who comes in, Dossa McLean, Pete Ladhams and Gus Sheldrick were all mentioned in the coaches’ post-game presser. Sid Mitchell seems to have fallen off the radar, but is still an option. Caiden Cleary’s nose issue has reportedly resolved and he is also available for selection.
Coaches under pressure tend to take a conservative approach and its somewhat unlikely we’ll be seeing any more debutants this week.
As for Freo, ask any Dockers’ fan who their most important player is & they’ll probably plump for Jeff Farmer or “Pav”. Those that do actually have a clue will, however, tend to nominate Hayden Young – their smooth moving skinny half back flanker cum midfielder. His absence was extremely noticeable in the Geelong game. Much like the Swans missing Errol, Freo without Young lacked composure and a player capable of putting the Sherrin on a platter for the forward line.
Sam Switkowski goes out injured, which is also a blow to the Dockers.
Shai Bolton will, however, make his debut in purple and is likely to be introduced to Samuel Wicks.
The Verdict
Sydney has a few bogey sides. Freo isn’t one of them, but the Swans face a tough ask travelling to Optus with a very limited player pool to choose from.
The biggest threat – Freo are a very good stoppage / clearance side. Luke Jackson, Caleb Serong, Andrew Brayshaw and Jaeger O’Meara are capable of dominating that aspect of the game. And the Swans can’t really regard it as a strength, especially with Heath Grundy seemingly playing on ankles borrowed from a late-season Isaac Heeney.
Both sides will be desperate to avoid an early season crisis.
Expect it to be a tight game, but Sydney to scrape home courtesy of an Ollie Florent goal after the siren and the POTY thread to be dominated by 5 votes O.Florent.
Post Script
Keep an eye out for caesar88 in the Optus crowd. He’s promised to unleash some new dance moves, with a 70’s disco revival rumored to be on the cards. The Justin McInerney apology video will be released pre-game on the Optus big screen.
Sydney Swans (0-2) vs Fremantle Dockers (0-1)
Venue: Optus Stadium, Perth
Date: Sunday March 23
Time: 6.10pm AEST
Weather: The long range forecast suggests hot (33 degrees) and sunny.
Preamble
Under Ross Lyon, Fremantle games were fundamentally unwatchable.
Dour, defense-oriented slogs were the norm.
Thankfully, with Justin Longmuir taking charge, Freo’s game style has livened up a bit. Scoring is now an objective and recruitment of Shai Bolton is part of the ongoing shift towards more free-flowing, corridor-oriented footy.
Swans versus Freo games have actually become fairly open, free-flowing, entertaining affairs. And with Sydney likely to be fielding 21 skinny half-back flankers plus Tom Papley and a sub, that trend looks set to continue.
Both sides are, however, already under a bit of pressure.
Dean Cox’s reign isn’t off to a great start. Two frustrating losses, featuring some absolutely comical game-turning clangers, coupled with an abundance of skill-errors and a terrible injury toll isn’t the start Big Cox would have hoped for. The media hasn’t yet turned its spiteful gaze towards the Sydney coach (after all, they have Voss and Hinkley to feast on). Instead, Ryan O’Keefe (still with a rather large axe to grind) has been delighted to do David King’s job for him and put his size 11 boot into the hapless Swans.
If the Swans do go 0-3, expect a few media pundits to start to mention the names Dean Cox and John Longmire in their dispatches.
As for Freo, expectations are high. The traditional March cries of “Flagmantle!” dominate office water cooler discussions in Perth.
An utter decimation by Geelong in Round 1 (to the tune of 78 points) has, however, dampened early season optimism and Freo will doubtless come out firing for this one.
The Teams
This is kinda what the Swans currently look like (minus the trophy):
Things already looked grim before the Lions game. But with Lewis Melican seemingly doing a groin and Justin McInerney getting a 3 week holiday courtesy of the AFL after deciding to prove that skinny half-back flankers can be “brutes”, the unavailable list has grown to highly problematic proportions.
Thankfully, Riley Bice stepped up and will maintain our skinny half-back flanker quota, after an impressive debut outing.
Tom McCartin will likely have to shift back into a severely depleted defence, to accompany Joel Hamling, the 6 foot 4 premiership defender that Horse Longmire spent a year trying to turn into a VFL standard half forward.
As for who comes in, Dossa McLean, Pete Ladhams and Gus Sheldrick were all mentioned in the coaches’ post-game presser. Sid Mitchell seems to have fallen off the radar, but is still an option. Caiden Cleary’s nose issue has reportedly resolved and he is also available for selection.
Coaches under pressure tend to take a conservative approach and its somewhat unlikely we’ll be seeing any more debutants this week.
As for Freo, ask any Dockers’ fan who their most important player is & they’ll probably plump for Jeff Farmer or “Pav”. Those that do actually have a clue will, however, tend to nominate Hayden Young – their smooth moving skinny half back flanker cum midfielder. His absence was extremely noticeable in the Geelong game. Much like the Swans missing Errol, Freo without Young lacked composure and a player capable of putting the Sherrin on a platter for the forward line.
Sam Switkowski goes out injured, which is also a blow to the Dockers.
Shai Bolton will, however, make his debut in purple and is likely to be introduced to Samuel Wicks.
The Verdict
Sydney has a few bogey sides. Freo isn’t one of them, but the Swans face a tough ask travelling to Optus with a very limited player pool to choose from.
The biggest threat – Freo are a very good stoppage / clearance side. Luke Jackson, Caleb Serong, Andrew Brayshaw and Jaeger O’Meara are capable of dominating that aspect of the game. And the Swans can’t really regard it as a strength, especially with Heath Grundy seemingly playing on ankles borrowed from a late-season Isaac Heeney.
Both sides will be desperate to avoid an early season crisis.
Expect it to be a tight game, but Sydney to scrape home courtesy of an Ollie Florent goal after the siren and the POTY thread to be dominated by 5 votes O.Florent.
Post Script
Keep an eye out for caesar88 in the Optus crowd. He’s promised to unleash some new dance moves, with a 70’s disco revival rumored to be on the cards. The Justin McInerney apology video will be released pre-game on the Optus big screen.
