Swans should kick themselves after draw with Geelong

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Bad kicking is bad football. There were as many examples of this cliche as you could possibly hope to see on Friday night – but the worst came right at the death, when the match was there to be won by the Sydney Swans.

With less than three minutes left, the Swans surged forward. The crowd of 32,098 at the SCG came alive. Down by two points, despite dominating most of the match against Geelong, their second meeting since last year’s grand final, this was their chance.

The Swans rue the one that got away at the SCG on Friday night.Credit: Getty

A deep inside 50 entry sat up beautifully for Robbie Fox, who nudged his opponent under the flight of the ball and then galloped away to collect it.

Then he charged into an open goal square, albeit on a slight angle, and … hit the post.

This was the most egregious miss of the night, but there was some hot competition when it came to the men in red and white. Isaac Heeney somehow hit the point post with a regulation set-shot from 35 metres out in the first quarter – one of three he put out on the full. Tom Hickey fluffed two separate attempts from point-blank range in the middle quarters. Others such as Hayden McLean, Braeden Campbell and the usually dead-eye Errol Gulden also had their radars scrambled.

It was cold and windy in Sydney on Friday night, but that only partially explains things.

Then, after Fox’s failure at the death, in the dying embers one more desperate swing by Heeney faded across the face of goal, and that was that – a draw, the second of the season, and the first ever in VFL/AFL history between these two teams. Sydney kicked 6.18 (54) to Geelong’s 7.12 (54). Nobody could quite believe it, yet at the same time, it made perfect sense.

“We executed exactly what we wanted to do,” Swans coach John Longmire said.

“I thought we were very strong in all aspects of the game except the finishing. That’s an important part of the game, and we didn’t do it.

“We played some really good footy and we just didn’t hit the scoreboard – then we got eight points down and then fought back. It’s a strange one, you don’t know how to feel after games like that.

“The disappointing thing to come out of tonight is we didn’t get ultimate reward for effort. Could have been worse – we could have been sitting here without two points.”

This result helps neither team. In a way, that’s entirely fitting, because it seemed like neither team wanted to win this match, or was capable of doing so. Geelong were pretty bad in front of goal, too, as the scoreboard suggests – but in general play, across the four quarters, Sydney were the better team. The four points were there to be taken, but they couldn’t stop fumbling.

“I thought it was a poor game of football, in terms of the skill level,” said Geelong coach Brad Scott.

“It feels like we were outplayed for most of it … we didn’t execute very well with the ball. It was a lot windier than I think most people would have expected here at the SCG so maybe a little bit of an allowance for that. Two points is better than none. But none is probably what we deserved for large parts of it.”

The spark is still there in Sydney’s play – even without star midfielder Chad Warner (calf), whose absence was barely felt – but the polish is not. The inside 50s were evenly split (50 apiece) but the Swans had 20 marks in their attacking arc to Geelong’s 11, and a litany of looks on goal that should have been converted.

After scoring over 200 points in last weekend’s demolition of the West Coast Eagles, they left their kicking boots at home on this occasion.

Demolished by 81 and 93 points in their last two clashes with the Cats, the Swans had a golden opportunity to break free of the psychological stranglehold Geelong seem to have on them. They will be furious to have passed it up, but they only have themselves to blame.

Overall, this was a very ugly watch, which became utterly gripping in the final stages as momentum surged one way then the other, neither team able to land a winning punch.

“If someone had have said at the start of the year that there’s going to be a grand final replay in round 16 at the SCG, and it’s going to finish in a draw, you’d be desperate to get a hold of that tape,” Scott said.

“Not this one.”

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