Macpotata
Norm Smith Medallist
- Mar 22, 2017
- 9,595
- 10,877
- AFL Club
- Geelong
Champion Teams. The Sydney Swans have only missed the finals once in the last 16 seasons. That's staggering to say the least. In this time they've played in 5 Grand Finals for 2 premierships. Hawthorn has only missed one finals campaign once in the last 12 seasons and played in 5 Grand Finals for 4 premierships making it the most successful side since......Hawthorn of the 80's. Quite simply a champion team and the most successful of all time in VFL/AFL history.
They sure have played some crackers over the years or at least met on the big stage. In 1996 they met in the first week of the finals where the 8th placed Hawks gave the top of the table Swans an almighty fright up at the SCG, which was also played on a Saturday night. The Swans escaped with a narrow one goal victory setting up a place in the preliminary finals. In the last ever game played at Waverley Park in 1999, the Hawkers ripped the Swans to shreds conjuring out an 80+ point victory where Nathan Thompson booted 6 majors. In a 2001Elimination Final at Etihad Hawthorn trailed by 5 points at half time only to run riot in the 2nd half piling on 14 goals to the Swans 5 setting up an emphatic 55 point victory. A 2010 home and away game in round 10 at the MCG was decided in the dying stages as the Hawks clung on for a 2 point victory after a Swans player missed the chance to win the game right at the death.
Another final this time coming in 2011 and Hawthorn withstood a Swans rally where they got back into the game after getting massacred in the first half, and once again pulled away in the 4th to have a comfortable 6 goal victory. A 2012 home and away classic in round 22 as they played each other in a top of the table clash up in Sydney. The ladder leading Swans led by 40 points in the 2nd term only for a miraculous fightback which saw the Brown and Gold trailing by just 5 points at the main change. It must be said the umpiring was dubious at best in that encounter as the Hawks, helped by the umps got the chocolates by 7 points. But the Swans would get the greatest of bragging rights when it mattered most on the biggest stage of them all, in perhaps of one of the best games of them all. The 2012 AFL Grand Final, the greatest that I have witnessed. Momentum swings, freak goals and great adversity overcame by the willing Red and Whites.
In 2013 The Hawks met the Swans up at ANZ stadium in a round 23 fixture trailing all game and at every break, but in true Hawks style finished strong with a 6 goal to 3 final term. The Hawks would go on to be premiers that year exacting revenge for the 2012 Grand final loss and also gave them a hiding a week later in the first qualifying final in a Friday night MCG fixture. In 2014 an epic Saturday night MCG Special saw the Hawks go into the game in 3rd place up against the 1st placed Swans, yet the Hawks came away with a 10 point victory. The second meeting of that year, the Grand final, saw the Swans go into the game as red hot favourites. Hawthorn barely survived the week before falling over the line against Port Adelaide in the prelim, and now faced their former player and mate, the great Buddy Franklin. No buddy, no worries. The Hawks massacred the Swans once and for all exorcising the demons of that 2012 Grand Final loss with a humiliating 63 demolition of the Sydney Swans.
The proceeding season once more Hawthorn took on the Swans who were a spot above them up at ANZ stadium and beat them to a bloody pulp to the tune of 89 points. That came a week after belting the first placed dockers by 12 goals up in Tasmania. A 2016 Friday nighter at the G saw a few moments of Buddy magic give the Swans a hard fought 14 point win in a low scoring blistery affair played in tricky conditions. Later that year up at the SCG on a Friday night blockbuster Cyril Rioli kicked the match winner in the dying stages to give Hawthorn a 5 point victory.
Two upset wins to the Hawks in 2017 both by a goal in a season where they missed the finals, a hard fought one goal victory in yet another Friday night SCG stunner, and again at the G in the return fixture. And of course the close encounter earlier in the year this season where Ben Ronke burst onto the footy scene bagging 7 in what is now becoming a familiar pattern, a tight, low scoring Friday night blockbuster going down to the wire. Swans by 8 points.
This game is 4th vs 5th with winner take all for the double chance heading into September action. We've had numerous heavyweight bouts on the biggest stage of them all, close finishes, and shellackings, who do you think will emerge triumphant in what looms as another epic champter between two of the games biggest and best rivals over the last decade or so.
They sure have played some crackers over the years or at least met on the big stage. In 1996 they met in the first week of the finals where the 8th placed Hawks gave the top of the table Swans an almighty fright up at the SCG, which was also played on a Saturday night. The Swans escaped with a narrow one goal victory setting up a place in the preliminary finals. In the last ever game played at Waverley Park in 1999, the Hawkers ripped the Swans to shreds conjuring out an 80+ point victory where Nathan Thompson booted 6 majors. In a 2001Elimination Final at Etihad Hawthorn trailed by 5 points at half time only to run riot in the 2nd half piling on 14 goals to the Swans 5 setting up an emphatic 55 point victory. A 2010 home and away game in round 10 at the MCG was decided in the dying stages as the Hawks clung on for a 2 point victory after a Swans player missed the chance to win the game right at the death.
Another final this time coming in 2011 and Hawthorn withstood a Swans rally where they got back into the game after getting massacred in the first half, and once again pulled away in the 4th to have a comfortable 6 goal victory. A 2012 home and away classic in round 22 as they played each other in a top of the table clash up in Sydney. The ladder leading Swans led by 40 points in the 2nd term only for a miraculous fightback which saw the Brown and Gold trailing by just 5 points at the main change. It must be said the umpiring was dubious at best in that encounter as the Hawks, helped by the umps got the chocolates by 7 points. But the Swans would get the greatest of bragging rights when it mattered most on the biggest stage of them all, in perhaps of one of the best games of them all. The 2012 AFL Grand Final, the greatest that I have witnessed. Momentum swings, freak goals and great adversity overcame by the willing Red and Whites.
In 2013 The Hawks met the Swans up at ANZ stadium in a round 23 fixture trailing all game and at every break, but in true Hawks style finished strong with a 6 goal to 3 final term. The Hawks would go on to be premiers that year exacting revenge for the 2012 Grand final loss and also gave them a hiding a week later in the first qualifying final in a Friday night MCG fixture. In 2014 an epic Saturday night MCG Special saw the Hawks go into the game in 3rd place up against the 1st placed Swans, yet the Hawks came away with a 10 point victory. The second meeting of that year, the Grand final, saw the Swans go into the game as red hot favourites. Hawthorn barely survived the week before falling over the line against Port Adelaide in the prelim, and now faced their former player and mate, the great Buddy Franklin. No buddy, no worries. The Hawks massacred the Swans once and for all exorcising the demons of that 2012 Grand Final loss with a humiliating 63 demolition of the Sydney Swans.
The proceeding season once more Hawthorn took on the Swans who were a spot above them up at ANZ stadium and beat them to a bloody pulp to the tune of 89 points. That came a week after belting the first placed dockers by 12 goals up in Tasmania. A 2016 Friday nighter at the G saw a few moments of Buddy magic give the Swans a hard fought 14 point win in a low scoring blistery affair played in tricky conditions. Later that year up at the SCG on a Friday night blockbuster Cyril Rioli kicked the match winner in the dying stages to give Hawthorn a 5 point victory.
Two upset wins to the Hawks in 2017 both by a goal in a season where they missed the finals, a hard fought one goal victory in yet another Friday night SCG stunner, and again at the G in the return fixture. And of course the close encounter earlier in the year this season where Ben Ronke burst onto the footy scene bagging 7 in what is now becoming a familiar pattern, a tight, low scoring Friday night blockbuster going down to the wire. Swans by 8 points.
This game is 4th vs 5th with winner take all for the double chance heading into September action. We've had numerous heavyweight bouts on the biggest stage of them all, close finishes, and shellackings, who do you think will emerge triumphant in what looms as another epic champter between two of the games biggest and best rivals over the last decade or so.
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