Australian Football

Match Report

Saturday's match at the SCG between Sydney and Fremantle was a quintessential encounter between a side tuning up for the finals and another for whom the end cannot come quickly enough. From the very beginning the Swans belted the Dockers from pillar to post, an eight-goal-to-one first quarter setting up a 104-point thrashing, one which saw Sydney's percentage rise from 117.2 to 123.6, enough to see it overtake Port Adelaide's as the second-best in the league and lift the Swans up to fifth on the ladder.

The first three minutes of the match suggested that this could be a dour, low-scoring affair reminiscent of many of the two sides' encounters in recent years, with neither side registering even a behind for three and a half minutes. But after Gary Rohan broke through for the Swans' first major and Isaac Heeney kicked their second four minutes later, an avalanche of goals - all but one going Sydney's way - followed. The Swans kicked the first eight of the match, two each to Rohan and Luke Parker, to open up a 49-point lead before a strong mark and goal to Matt Taberner finally gave the Dockers their first just before the quarter-time siren.

That first term set the tone for the entire match, and while the Swans did not quite score as heavily in the second quarter as they had in the first, their rock-solid defence prevented Fremantle from kicking even a solitary major. The Dockers hit the scoreboard only twice, with behinds to Taberner and Cam McCarthy, while Sydney added 5.4 for the quarter, three of those going to Lance Franklin, to open up a 75-point gulf between the two sides at the long break.

With three goals in the first five minutes of the third quarter - one each to Sam Reid, Kieran Jack and Tom Papley, Sydney's lead was out to 93 points and it looked very much like all sorts of records were going to be under threat before the match was over. The Dockers, to their credit, did manage to shore up their defence after that, allowing the Swans only one more goal for the quarter, while adding two of their own through David Mundy and McCarthy. Sydney still won the term, however, and took an 80-point lead into the final turn.

Formalities were all the remained in the final quarter, and after the two sides added a goal each in the first 10 minutes, the Swans resumed their dominance, kicking four goals to nil over the final 20 minutes to take the margin into three-figure territory. When the final siren sounded to put the Dockers out of their misery, the difference was 104 points and Sydney's premiership odds were firming, remarkably so considering the Swans failed to score a win in their first six matches of 2017.

The Swans probably had 22 winners, but the standouts were Parker (29 disposals, three goals), Dan Hannebery (29 possessions, six marks) and Franklin (four goals, eight marks). For Fremantle, skipper Nat Fyfe never stopped trying. He picked up 28 touches and laid six tackles to be one of the few Dockers who could walk off the ground with head held high.

Sydney's march towards September will continue with a tough match against Adelaide in Adelaide in Friday night, followed by what should be a comfortable home win over Carlton in round 23 (although the Blues did beat the Swans in round six). Fremantle will try and salvage something from a disappointing season in its matches against Richmond at home in round 22 and Essendon at Dockland in round 23.

GOALS
Sydney: Franklin 4; Parker 3; Reid, Rohan, Tippett, Hayward, Papley 2; Heeney, Sinclair, Jack, Jones, McVeigh
Fremantle: McCarthy 2; Taberner, Mundy, DeLuca

BEST - AFL.COM.AU
Sydney: Parker, Hannebery, Rampe, Franklin, Heeney, Lloyd, Jack
Fremantle: Fyfe, Darcy, Taberner, S. Hill

BEST - THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
Sydney: Hannebery, Franklin, Rampe, Parker, Hewett, Smith, Grundy
Fremantle: Fyfe, Hill, Taberner, Pearce, Darcy

INJURIES
Sydney: Nic Newman (knee)
Fremantle: Nil

UMPIRES: Donlon, Hosking, Wallace 

TELEVISION BROADCAST: Fox Footy

COMMENTATORS: Brenton Speed, Jason Dunstall, Paul Roos, Brian Lake