The Bloods have run ice-cold. After a year marked by big moments, huge individual performances and a late-season surge to the grand final that few had foreseen, Sydney face-planted at the final hurdle.
From the very start, Geelong were scary good. At times, the Swans looked almost scared. So many of their players, so good for so much of the year, saved their worst performances for the grandest stage the AFL has to offer.
The final margin of 81 points represented the Swans’ largest defeat of 2022; the heaviest loss they’d sustained before this was roughly four goals. After 2014 and 2016, they have now lost their last three grand finals.
Did they seize up, or were the Cats too good? It felt like a bit of both, but as the match wore on, more the former than the latter. The second half of Saturday’s decider turned into a house party for Geelong, who were kicking goals from everywhere – six to Sydney’s zero in the third quarter, in which what was left of Sydney’s resistance was snapped clean in half.
This was the MCG’s first grand final since 2019, when another Sydney-based team – the Giants – were mauled by Richmond. In the end, the Swans suffered an eerily similar fate, falling 20.12 (133) to 8.4 (52). It sets up a long, hard summer of introspection for coach John Longmire and his players, who will be wondering where on earth this catastrophe came from.
Everything that could go wrong, did. The punt on Sam Reid, who injured his adductor last weekend but was backed in to play, proved ill-advised. The brittle veteran looked proppy from the outset, trudged down the race and into the rooms before half-time, and was subbed off early in the third term.
Geelong’s Jeremy Cameron celebrates after kicking a goal.Credit:Getty
Sydney’s midfield was obliterated, their defensive systems totally overwhelmed, and so they rarely had a chance to attack. Lance Franklin copped Bronx cheers in the last quarter when he touched the ball.
Isaac Heeney didn’t touch the ball until 18 minutes and 29 seconds into the second quarter, although nobody looked good on the stat sheet, aside maybe from the fearless Chad Warner and relentless Robbie Fox.
The early signs weren’t great. Sydney’s trademark pressure was there, but the execution was not, and a series of miscued kicks suggested nerves among players who had previously shown none. The Cats and their hardened stars, in contrast, looked not just ready, but robotic.
After nine minutes of territorial dominance from Geelong, Tom Hawkins grabbed the game’s first goal at a throw-in, manhandling Tom Hickey, turfing him out of the way, and kicking truly. Then Hawkins did the same thing again, in the same position, six minutes later. Sydney’s ‘Ruck Jesus’ was being crucified.
Geelong cruise to an 81-point victory against the Swans in front of 100,024 fans at the MCG.Credit:Eddie Jim
Will Hayward replied almost instantly with Sydney’s first, crumbing a pack on a rare inside-50 entry. But then Geelong piled on the next four in a row. At quarter-time, the Cats had almost twice as many possessions (113-67) and 11 scoring shots to one.
Tyson Stengle’s brilliant set shot blew the deficit out to 40 points, until a one-handed grab in the goalsquare from Hayden McLean snapped their run, and precipitated a period in which the Swans, led by Warner, began to turn the tables in general play.
But every time they landed a punch, Geelong smacked them straight back. Both sides kicked three goals apiece in the second stanza, but the Cats actually managed to improve their quarter-time margin by one point, to 36 – so whatever ground Sydney were making up was not reflected on the scoreboard.
Sydney needed a good start to the third term to be any hope. When Tom McCartin was run down for holding the ball by Mitch Duncan right in front of goal, less than two minutes in, any remaining hope was extinguished. Moments later, McCartin’s kick across goal was intercepted by Brad Close, and he went back and goaled too.
They may as well have brought out the medals then and there.
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