Six crucial goals from Tom Papley have helped the Sydney Swans hold off a second-half Richmond rampage and notch a much-needed 44-point win in a pulsating game three of the AFL’s Gather Round.
The odds were stacked against the Swans, who were without their three best key defenders in Paddy and Tom McCartin and co-captain Dane Rampe – and then lost forward Joel Amartey, who kicked two first-quarter goals, to a hamstring injury early in the second term.
Tom Papley celebrates a goalCredit: AFL Photos / Getty Images
While they still did it relatively easy in the first half against an off-colour Richmond – who were also undermanned with spearhead Tom Lynch, ruckman Toby Nankervis and midfielder Jack Graham sidelined – the Tigers roared into life after the long break.
Indeed, they were nearly willed over the line by a heavily bandaged Jack Riewoldt, who had blood streaming from his head after being split open in a first-term marking contest with Hayden McLean.
Riewoldt finished with four goals in an inspiring return from injury: his second sparked the Tigers’ best period of the match, as they kicked six goals to one in the third quarter to turn the heat up on the Swans, and his third, after plucking a terrific pack grab at the top of the goal square, pulled them to within six points just before three-quarter-time.
But he was well and truly upstaged by Papley, who popped up at crucial moments for the Swans to kick a career-high bag of six – four of which came when the match was on the line in the second half, and the other two at the death after this 18.14 (122) to 11.12 (78) victory had been sealed.
Swans coach John Longmire was thrilled with the way his players persevered through adversity, in the build-up and then on the night.
“Very rarely do you have what happened during the week – [I’ve] been around for a long time, and they just kept on falling,” Longmire said of Sydney’s cripping key-position shortage.
“To lose Joel was disappointing, particularly the way he started. We had to throw the team around, but I thought we went about it really, really well – a really young team, challenged really hard, and [to] respond like that was just fantastic.
“To be able to come across tonight and do we did … the youngest team for the round by a fair margin, I think, a couple of first-gamers, and it was just a ripping win.”
Richmond could have no complaints about the result, which was their third loss in a row and their biggest since round 8, 2021 – they looked a yard off the pace from the outset, were let down by sloppy errors and a couple of undisciplined acts, and kicked only one goal to Sydney’s seven in the final term as the scoreboard blew out badly late.
“I thought our discipline was incredibly poor tonight,” Tigers coach Damien Hardwick said.
“A couple of incidents we just look at and go, ‘That’s ridiculous, what we’re doing.’ It’s all good to push and shove but the reality is you’ve got to pick the ball up. That’s tough footy. I’m disappointed with that and our fans will be and I’m sure [the players] will be when they see it. We’re not where we need to be.”
Nick Blakey (30 touches, 13 intercept possessions) was also excellent for the Swans across their second-string backline, as was Chad Warner (26 disposals, six clearances), who led the way in midfield.
The result improved Sydney’s record to 3-2, after back-to-back defeats to Melbourne and Port Adelaide, and ahead of next weekend’s grand final rematch against Geelong.
This was the last match of Gather Round to sell out – but there were more than a few empty seats in the crowd of 42,134, and outside of the splashes of yellow, black, red and white in the stands, there was a rather passive atmosphere at Adelaide Oval, which was probably to be expected for the first contest at the venue between two out-of-town teams.
The Swans were also without Lance Franklin, but these days their forward line arguably functions better without him – and so it proved again as young talls Amartey and Logan McDonald made a bright start as Sydney outscored Richmond four goals to two to lead by 14 points at the first change.
On the other side of it, Amartey’s exit triggered a long-awaited debut for Will Gould, who was in doubt early in the week due to fitness concerns but recovered well enough to be named as the substitute. Drafted by the Swans just a few months after playing for Glenelg in their 2019 SANFL premiership win, Gould has been stuck behind Sydney’s more established names in defence but finally got his first taste of the top level in front of family and friends.
He wasn’t the only first-gamer – Chad’s brother, Corey Warner, was quiet in his maiden AFL game but was mobbed by teammates when he kicked a goal in the second quarter.
It was one of three majors in the term for Sydney; they should have had another, but Jake Lloyd’s set shot from 50 metres out was chalked off on review because the ball clipped an exposed flap from the padding on the goalpost, which wasn’t properly secured. That grounds keeping blunder left the Swans with a 21-point buffer at half-time, and in retrospect, that breathing space would have made the next portion of the game slightly less stressful than it needed to be.
