In charge: Adam Goodes looks to get the ball away.

In charge: Adam Goodes looks to get the ball away. Photo: Sebastian Costanzo

SYDNEY 4.5 7.9 11.11 15.12 (102) COLLINGWOOD 3.2 3.4 4.5 8.7 (55)
GOALS Sydney: Goodes 3, McGlynn 2, Hannebery 2, Pyke 2, Bird, Bolton, Jack, Jetta, Morton, Reid. Collingwood: Cloke 3, Elliott 2, Witts, Seedsman, Dwyer.
BEST Sydney: Goodes, Hannabery, Jack, O'Keefe, Parker, Grundy. Collingwood: O'Brien, Pendlebury, Reid, Clarke, Ball, Elliott.
UMPIRES Meredith, Nicholls, Margetts.
CROWD 65,306 at MCG.

Sydney arrived by tram, thanks to a team bus malfunction, and went home by limousine. Having broken the Magpies' six-year, 11-game hold over them in last year's preliminary final, the Swans now seem intent on imposing a spell of their own. This was the reigning premiers' most complete  performance of a year of slow gathering, and in many ways Collingwood's most abject defeat in a year of often stuttering performances. Decimation by injury is no explanation; the Swans also had cornerstone players out.

It might yet go down as an even more infamous night. Late in the last quarter, Adam Goodes, who had put in yet another irresistible performance, gesticulated his disgust to a knot of Magpie supporters.

Collingwood's Travis Cloke battles with Sydney's Ted Richards. Click for more photos

AFL Round 9: Collingwood v Sydney

Collingwood's Travis Cloke battles with Sydney's Ted Richards. Photo: Sebastian Costanzo

Collingwood versus Sydney
View Match Statistics
Players Cloke (3.2), Elliott (2.0), Seedsman (1.1), Dwyer (1.0), Witts (1.0), Clarke (0.1) Scorers Goodes (3.2), Hannebery (2.1), McGlynn (2.0), Pyke (2.0), Jetta (1.2), Morton (1.2), Bolton (1.1), Jack (1.1), Bird (1.0), Reid (1.0), Lamb (0.1)

After the game, Goodes' anger was still palpable. More will emerge. It made for a distasteful start to indigenous round.

Collingwood brings out Sydney's miserly best; that much is clear. The defining phenomenon of this encounter was the total breakdown of the Magpies' forward line.

It was ill-balanced from the start, and the Swans knew that if they contained Travis Cloke, who was double-teamed most of the night, it would leave a black hole.

Jude Bolton battles Nick Maxwell.

Jude Bolton battles Nick Maxwell. Photo: Sebastian Costanzo

It took the Magpies three quarters to score what the Swans did in the first. Their four last-quarter goals were consolations. The paucity of opportunity merely reflected the burden of play in midfield, where the Swans run, spread and intensity reduced the Magpies at times to a rabble.

At the other end, the Swans did themselves an injustice with their profligacy. Again, the scoreboard deceives; at least three times, the Swans kicked out on the full. They could and should have turned this into a rout.

The night had begun more nobly than it ended, with a hug by proxy captains Lewis Jetta and Andrew Krakouer. Varying tactics of other weeks, neither team began with a dedicated tagger; this one would be sorted out on its merits. Sydney swarmed all over Collingwood from the start, but was oddly extravagant around goal. Goodes, of all people, missed two sitters. At the other end, Collingwood, from limited chances, kicked three goals from leads and marks. It was a strength that became a weakness when it became clear that the Magpies had no plan B.

The stoppages were ferociously contested, but Sydney's run and spread made it always the more threatening team. In the second quarter, the Swans made good that threat, shredding Collingwood with piercing football on the rebound. Sydney made the lumbering and ponderous Magpies look outnumbered at both ends of the ground, no mean feat on the MCG. At half-time, the Swans led in uncontested possession by 130-92. Collingwood led the tackle count 58-43, but that an indication only of the remedial work it was forced to perform.

Fittingly in indigenous round, Goodes bobbed up in every play. Collingwood tried to tighten up, detailing Macaffer to Kennedy, but in the meantime, unsung Craig Bird had blotted Dane Swan out of the game. Again, only Sydney's profligacy near goal spared the Magpies; Morton, twice, was culpably lax. Three goal to none was right as a ratio, but meagre as a return for the Swans. Collingwood went goal-less for a quarter and a half.

The last quarter was footnotes. The match finished on an apt note when Swans' veteran Jude Bolton threaded a goal after the final siren.

What was beyond the Magpies all night long, the Swans could do even as an encore.


Adam Goodes had a range of opponents - Nick Maxwell, Jordan Russell and Harry O'Brien among them - all of them rotating on and off the dual Brownlow medallist when he went forward or back. But none of them had any significant effect. Goodes copped a knee in the quad in the first term but it did little to slow him up as he was the dominant player on the field. Goodes was either too strong in the pack or too mobile getting up and down the ground, particularly exploiting the open field the Swans like to run in to towards goal.


In a game of Swans and Magpies a Bird beat a Swan, but the Swans beat the Magpies. Craig Bird was tasked Dane Swan early on and Bird did an excellent job shutting him down. Swan had eight touches to half-time, of his five kicks four were rated clangers or ineffective. After half-time Swan had a range of others, like Luke Parker and Kieren Jack.


It was Sydney's elder statesmen that led the way, with Goodes, Ryan O'Keefe, Jarred McVeigh and Nick Malceski all racking up 30 or more disposals. O'Keefe's tackling was a highlight, applying a game-high 14.