Why are Sydney so dominant over West Coast?

[Deadly Assassin]

Sydney have now won 14 of the last 17 encounters between them and West Coast.

This dominance spans the last 15 years and 15 years is a long time.

Sydney and West Coast have been mostly good sides over that time yet the Swans continue to put the Eagles away.

Why is that?

 

[The Gong]

Academy picks. Can't be anything else.

 

[robbieando]

Length of the SCG. Can’t be anything else.

 

[adammania9]

COLA

 

[Upstart Swan]

Umpires

 

[Scotland]

Fun fact: in this 14-3 run a grand total of 4 matches out of 17 have been played at the SCG, our worst venue by win %.

1-1 at COVID neutral venues (Metricon, Kardinia Park)
2-0 at Stadium Australia
4-0 at SCG
5-2 at Subiaco
2-0 at Optus Stadium

Considering our W-L record prior to this streak starting was 19-18 I can only deduce something changed in 2007. Assassination of Benazir Bhutto? Release of the first iPhone? Geelong winning a flag? Who can really know...

 

[Falcon3518]

It’s because their players can’t do lines at half time anymore to get their energy back. Cousins took all the Coke home. Hahah


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

 

[RUNVS]

Not sure why but West Coast just seem to give our players a tonne of space, or at least more space than most teams give the Swans. It allows us to play an attacking and quick game style.

 

[Blue1980]

Victorian bias

 

[Roobs321]

We struggle to beat them at the SCG, and we seldom upset them either when they are the better side. The Swans had victorious debuts at Subi and Optus, and won their first three SCG matches against us by an average of 75 pts. It goes back to the very beginning really if you disregard that horrid run they had in the early 90s. They have always felt like one of our couple bogey teams, at least going back to the mid-late 90s. It can be frustrating. As an Eagle growing up in a Swans family, the SCG fixture was the first match I'd circle on the calendar each year, and a lot of those encounters started promisingly before bending over in the second half. Might also be psychological as we rarely put them away easily, especially away. There needs to be a stark difference in class and formline for us to get off the chain and win comfortably.

Our biggest ever win was a 61pt win in 1990, and our 2nd biggest win outside WA was a 15pt win in the other 1990 fixture. So it is very tough. We don't really take a win against them for granted.

 

[Hoops]

It's quite bizarre really. I'm guessing West Coast or maybe Geelong maybe have the highest W/L ratio since their inception.

AFL Tables - West Coast Win-Loss Records

afltables.com