The King!
Chosen One
Its my turn to write the preview, ive been busy and decided to cut it short but heres what i got, its not great sorry
Such a big game, such a long long long buildup, I think hawks and Swans fans can agree on one thing, just bring the bloody game on please.
First things first to any Hawk fan who may read the preview, yeah it’s a Swans fan previewing the game, I don’t give a stuff what potential some Box Hill level toss showed in a game back in round 4, I don’t watch Hawthorn every week, they are clearly a good side, but it is my intention to review from a swans view.
Going into the round it was First v Second, (yeah Geelong jumped in during the split round) but this is a big MCG blockbuster.
Sydney are coming off 12 straight wins, seasons have come and go since this side last lost, we have managed through these 12 wins with a reasonably average run of injuries to key players and have managed to inject plenty of youth, chief amongst them Lucky Lloyd, who has played 12 career games, for 12 career wins, he must think AFL is easy.
The media are currently unsure wether to heap praise upon us and declare the flag ours or bang on about COLA and the academies, I miss the buddy deal being a waste of time and Sydney terrible some times.
Realistically there are 4 sides other than Sydney who can win the flag, Hawthorn, Geelong, Fremantle and Port Adelaide. Sydney are currently undefeated against them all, Hawthorn have only beaten Fremantle, perhaps they need a big scalp more than us.
Still the media when it comes to Hawthorn are torn between banging on about injuries like it’s the first side to ever get them, or telling us how they are gone and no chance, a ridiculous notion for the reigning premiers still sitting in second.
So here we are the two last premiers facing off in a big overhyped, bloody long awaited game and heres a look ahead
Previous Meetings
Sydney have won 2 of the last 5 v Hawthorn. Lets face it they dismissed us easily last year, we had a few injuries of course but only a pissweak group of fans uses that as an excuse hey. Regardless we won the one of the 5 I would want to win, and its fair to say there is a teeny tiny bit of offended lingering from this game. The last time we played was Tippetts return game and boy did he look good, lets hope we get a repeat of a successful return game this week. The margin was only 3 goals but the scoreboard was not reflective of the way Sydney played, if Buddy kicked straight we would of won by at least 6 goals, a much fairer margin.
In all honesty the last 4 games at least one or both teams have been off full strength, this trend will continue on the weekend and may affect what we can read into this result.
List of Injuries
Hawthorn- per their website
Injury list as at 23 July, 2014
Anderson (shoulder) season
Gibson (pectoral) test
Hill (knee soreness) test
Rioli (hamstring) 5-6 weeks
Sewell (hamstring) 1 week
Webster (hamstring) test
Whitecross (knee) indefinite
Tatupu (foot) season
By all reports Hill and Gibson will play. They are also without the boston strangler which will weaken their defence a litte. As an outside observer I must say I feel for Whitecross, he never catches a break, but clearly has talent
Sydney- Per their website
SYDNEY SWANS INJURY LIST - 22/07/2014
Player
Injury
Estimated Return
Alex Johnson
Knee
Season
Lloyd Perris
Knee
Season
Aliir Aliir
Shoulder
Season
Tom Derickx
Hamstring
2-3 weeks
Tom Mitchell
Knee
1 week
Dan Hannebery
Ankle
Test
Rhyce Shaw
Ankle
Test
Harry Marsh
Hamstring
Test
Zak Jones
Achilles
Test
Toby Nankervis
Finger
Test
Kurt Tippett
Knee
Tes
The list is clearly longer than we would like, but the most recent reports suggest Shaw and Tippett are likely to return this week, interesting who has the longer list despite what we CONSTANTLY hear.
Possible Changes
Provided Tippett and Shaw are fit then it looks like they would come in this week, reading between the lines it seems unlikely that Hannebery would play. I would expect Zac Jones to be available and return especially if shaw were out. I will predict Dean Towers magnet will be chucked in the bin post hast, Brandon Jack and Gary Rohan would also be possibly out should Jones, Shaw and Tippett come in. Rohan looked good at half back so may keep Jones out, im never good predicting this.
Hawthorn will play Gibson by all reports, they seem rather desperate to rush him back to try and cover our forward line, Hill will come in for his pace. They will drop two other players, had a look at the Hawks board for some ideas, but was hard to sort through the pissing contests and BS, so well who cares
Key Stats
Sydney are going for a record 13 wins a row
Sydney have won only 1 game since 2007 at the MCG v Hawthorn- but I wouldn’t swap the other 6 for it
Oh well look keep it simple
They get the ball more
They mark it more
They get more hit outs
They get more frees
They get less frees against
But despite this we win more and why? Because when both teams play at their best we have a better side, we bat deeper and if we bring our intensity and switch on we will win. It’s a big game, but I think they need the win more than we do, a loss wouldn’t hurt us, especially thanks to Stkilda
The thing I admire about the hawks is their precision with the ball use, they also capitalise on opposition mistakes better than most and they will continually hurt you on the overlap. Their forwards bring the ball to ground so well and the small guys crumb and convert a lot, I have no stat to support it but they seem to have way more shots at goal from close range than anyone else, and that is because they are smart players.
What I like about us this year is our intensity, our work rate, our tackling and we have taken our momentum most weeks and capitalised when its our time. Our delivery forward can be frustrating at times, we have a nasty habit of taking a while to get it going into games. When we lower our eyes and deliver the ball well and have our running game going we are close to unbeatable.
If we play at our best I think we can win this comfortably.
Sydney by 30 points
Such a big game, such a long long long buildup, I think hawks and Swans fans can agree on one thing, just bring the bloody game on please.
First things first to any Hawk fan who may read the preview, yeah it’s a Swans fan previewing the game, I don’t give a stuff what potential some Box Hill level toss showed in a game back in round 4, I don’t watch Hawthorn every week, they are clearly a good side, but it is my intention to review from a swans view.
Going into the round it was First v Second, (yeah Geelong jumped in during the split round) but this is a big MCG blockbuster.
Sydney are coming off 12 straight wins, seasons have come and go since this side last lost, we have managed through these 12 wins with a reasonably average run of injuries to key players and have managed to inject plenty of youth, chief amongst them Lucky Lloyd, who has played 12 career games, for 12 career wins, he must think AFL is easy.
The media are currently unsure wether to heap praise upon us and declare the flag ours or bang on about COLA and the academies, I miss the buddy deal being a waste of time and Sydney terrible some times.
Realistically there are 4 sides other than Sydney who can win the flag, Hawthorn, Geelong, Fremantle and Port Adelaide. Sydney are currently undefeated against them all, Hawthorn have only beaten Fremantle, perhaps they need a big scalp more than us.
Still the media when it comes to Hawthorn are torn between banging on about injuries like it’s the first side to ever get them, or telling us how they are gone and no chance, a ridiculous notion for the reigning premiers still sitting in second.
So here we are the two last premiers facing off in a big overhyped, bloody long awaited game and heres a look ahead
Previous Meetings
Sydney have won 2 of the last 5 v Hawthorn. Lets face it they dismissed us easily last year, we had a few injuries of course but only a pissweak group of fans uses that as an excuse hey. Regardless we won the one of the 5 I would want to win, and its fair to say there is a teeny tiny bit of offended lingering from this game. The last time we played was Tippetts return game and boy did he look good, lets hope we get a repeat of a successful return game this week. The margin was only 3 goals but the scoreboard was not reflective of the way Sydney played, if Buddy kicked straight we would of won by at least 6 goals, a much fairer margin.
In all honesty the last 4 games at least one or both teams have been off full strength, this trend will continue on the weekend and may affect what we can read into this result.
List of Injuries
Hawthorn- per their website
Injury list as at 23 July, 2014
Anderson (shoulder) season
Gibson (pectoral) test
Hill (knee soreness) test
Rioli (hamstring) 5-6 weeks
Sewell (hamstring) 1 week
Webster (hamstring) test
Whitecross (knee) indefinite
Tatupu (foot) season
By all reports Hill and Gibson will play. They are also without the boston strangler which will weaken their defence a litte. As an outside observer I must say I feel for Whitecross, he never catches a break, but clearly has talent
Sydney- Per their website
SYDNEY SWANS INJURY LIST - 22/07/2014
Player
Injury
Estimated Return
Alex Johnson
Knee
Season
Lloyd Perris
Knee
Season
Aliir Aliir
Shoulder
Season
Tom Derickx
Hamstring
2-3 weeks
Tom Mitchell
Knee
1 week
Dan Hannebery
Ankle
Test
Rhyce Shaw
Ankle
Test
Harry Marsh
Hamstring
Test
Zak Jones
Achilles
Test
Toby Nankervis
Finger
Test
Kurt Tippett
Knee
Tes
The list is clearly longer than we would like, but the most recent reports suggest Shaw and Tippett are likely to return this week, interesting who has the longer list despite what we CONSTANTLY hear.
Possible Changes
Provided Tippett and Shaw are fit then it looks like they would come in this week, reading between the lines it seems unlikely that Hannebery would play. I would expect Zac Jones to be available and return especially if shaw were out. I will predict Dean Towers magnet will be chucked in the bin post hast, Brandon Jack and Gary Rohan would also be possibly out should Jones, Shaw and Tippett come in. Rohan looked good at half back so may keep Jones out, im never good predicting this.
Hawthorn will play Gibson by all reports, they seem rather desperate to rush him back to try and cover our forward line, Hill will come in for his pace. They will drop two other players, had a look at the Hawks board for some ideas, but was hard to sort through the pissing contests and BS, so well who cares
Key Stats
Sydney are going for a record 13 wins a row
Sydney have won only 1 game since 2007 at the MCG v Hawthorn- but I wouldn’t swap the other 6 for it
Oh well look keep it simple
They get the ball more
They mark it more
They get more hit outs
They get more frees
They get less frees against
But despite this we win more and why? Because when both teams play at their best we have a better side, we bat deeper and if we bring our intensity and switch on we will win. It’s a big game, but I think they need the win more than we do, a loss wouldn’t hurt us, especially thanks to Stkilda
The thing I admire about the hawks is their precision with the ball use, they also capitalise on opposition mistakes better than most and they will continually hurt you on the overlap. Their forwards bring the ball to ground so well and the small guys crumb and convert a lot, I have no stat to support it but they seem to have way more shots at goal from close range than anyone else, and that is because they are smart players.
What I like about us this year is our intensity, our work rate, our tackling and we have taken our momentum most weeks and capitalised when its our time. Our delivery forward can be frustrating at times, we have a nasty habit of taking a while to get it going into games. When we lower our eyes and deliver the ball well and have our running game going we are close to unbeatable.
If we play at our best I think we can win this comfortably.
Sydney by 30 points
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