After big wins, Sydney’s change room in the SCG is always busy, but after Friday night’s 36-point preliminary final demolition over Port Adelaide, it was strained almost beyond capacity.
In the middle of it all, forward Joel Amartey couldn’t stop smiling, and why not? After scoring the winning goal in the qualifying final against the Giants, he followed up on Friday night with dominant three-goal performance that helped propel his Swans side into the grand final next Saturday against either Geelong or the Brisbane Lions.
Joel Amartey of the Swans marks against Port Adelaide.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images
It will be Amartey’s first grand final after missing out on selection in 2022 and after being asked what the achievement of getting to the last weekend in September meant to him, he was almost lost for words.
“I don’t even know at the moment,” Amartey said. “It will probably take me 48 hours for it all to come to mind and realise what we’ve done, we’ve just got to soak it up for the next day or two and then get back to business.”
In the qualifying final against the Giants, the SCG crowd had been loud, but against Port Adelaide in the preliminary final it became difficult for the players to hear each other on the ground.
Amartey admitted that the raucous 44,053 fans in the ground had caused him to catch his breath after the first bounce.
“The first half I was floating in air, my legs were like jelly,” Amartey said. “It took me about half a game of footy to realise what was going on. But you know, the boys just [went] contest by contest, and we got through.”
Amartey has averaged 1.8 goals a game this year, aided by a career-high nine goals against Adelaide in round 14. Against Port Adelaide, the full-forward provided a strong target for the Swans and grew in confidence as the game went on.
Amartey believes that his game should not just be judged simply on goals, even if they came a little easier against Port Adelaide, with a major in each of the first three quarters.
“All we do, is everyone just plays their role,” Amartey said. “My role last week [against the Giants] was to compete, bringing the ball to ground and ‘Paps’ [Tom Papley] last week did the damage, and now everyone got their lick of the ice cream tonight … whoever kicks the goals, kicks the goals, as long as we’re winning.”
There will be a brief moment to celebrate the victory against Port Adelaide, but Amartey and his teammates are aware that the job is far from finished with either the Lions or Cats looming at the MCG.
If Amartey needs someone to discuss the pressure of playing in a grand final, he doesn’t need to look far, given he has several teammates from the 2022, 2018 and 2016 losses with Luke Parker to call on from the 2012 premiership.
“A lot of the boys have played in grannies,” Amartey said.
“I haven’t, so I’m sure they’ll talk me through and all the boys who haven’t played in grannies before talk through it. We’ve beaten Port, we know our game stacks up against the best team, and it’s all we can do.”
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