“We just buggered it up today,” John Longmire said after the 2022 grand final. “It’ll take a long time to get over that.” That afternoon, they were a middleweight fighting a heavyweight. Geelong’s team was the oldest to ever take the field in a grand final. Half the Sydney team were 23 or under. They were a team still learning, and not quite ready. They were surprisingly passive, constantly rushed, and often pushed aside. With the exception of Chad Warner, their stars were barely sighted. In selection, in method, and in execution, they erred. “We hardly got anything right,” Longmire said.
It was a grim task, but they reviewed that game forensically – the lead-in and the first half in particular. But 2023 was a bit of a nothing year. They gave up a lot of three-quarter time leads. They’d go to sleep for 15 minutes and let games slip.
Superstar forward Lance Franklin retired and their captain Callum Mills was in a sling. But a far more mature, better balanced and premiership-ready team emerged this year. They’ve found the right mix of height, talent, role, and experience. They complement and gravitate around a trio of star midfielders – the immaculate Isaac Heeney, the exquisitely skilled Errol Gulden and the turbocharged Warner.
For so long, the Swans were a team that put the work boots on and battered and blunted the opposition into submission. This is a very different team, a team for its era, a team that is remarkably expressive in how they play, how they communicate, and how they celebrate.
That top echelon carry themselves with such confidence, and play with such flair, they can leave their home crowd swooning. Watching them gambolling about after they had toyed with Port Adelaide, it was easy to see them swaggering into Melbourne with their boyband looks, collecting their silverware, and kickstarting yet another golden era for Sydney.
But it’s never that easy, of course. For a start, as unencumbered by the past as they seem, Heeney, Gulden and many other Swans will be all too aware of their output two years ago. Heeney, the player of this year’s finals series, didn’t touch the ball until an hour into the game that day against the Cats, and Gulden finished with less than a dozen possessions.
Longmire plays the straightest bat since Geoffrey Boycott, but there are other doubts that will nag away. Since that grand final, they’ve won two games from seven appearances at the MCG. Through gritted teeth, they’ll say something along the lines of “it is what it is”. But it’s still a factor. Brisbane’s last game at the MCG was a win in one of the great finals against Geelong. Sydney haven’t played there since late April. A few weeks before that, at the same ground, they were harassed and beaten by the eventual wooden spooner.
No one at Sydney would dare say this publicly. But they would have loved another crack at Geelong this Saturday. Partly because of what happened in 2022 but also because the Cats looked so banged up at the end of the preliminary final. Brisbane go in without their first-choice ruck Oscar McInerney, and will have to put their faith in a man who has played two senior games this year. But they’ve beaten Sydney five of the last six times they’ve played them. And right now, they have the whiff of history about them, a team that’s proved – most importantly to themselves – that they can win from any position.
In the first half of the season there were patches – a half hour here, a 15-minute burst there – where Sydney played almost perfect football. It begged the question: how could any team sustain that for an entire season? The competition had months to pick them apart and to zero in on their weak points.
Like Collingwood in 2023, the Swans had a period when they were flat, where they were heavy-legged and where they looked particularly vulnerable. The Port Adelaide game in particular was a bloodbath.
But the Swans didn’t panic. They didn’t make wholesale changes. They gradually pieced their game back together and have now won their past five matches. They’re a magnificent team – a team that’s solved its problems on the run, a team with a point to prove, a team that brooks no doubt and a team that’s well placed to contend for years to come. But exactly the same thing could be said of their opponent. It’s what makes this grand final so intriguing, so hard to pick, and one of the most eagerly anticipated in years.
Crunching the numbers
“I’ve seen some great games but, being a Swans supporter, I’ve seen all the grand finals but we’ve only won two,” 87-year-old McDermott told SEN on Tuesday. “Hopefully we make it three this week.”
Player to watch this week
With his brilliant third term and his nerveless goal on his non-preferred foot to seal the preliminary final, Cam Rayner stepped into the light on Saturday night. He’s tended to fizzle in and out of games and hasn’t had the endurance to be a full-time midfielder.
But Rayner has had some excellent performances for Brisbane this year – most notably against Melbourne at the MCG, and Sydney at the Gabba. His ability to spin out of trouble and to affect games when he’s most needed have been notable. He had a disappointing grand final last year and will be desperate to atone on Saturday.
From the archives
Judith Durham singing I Am Australian was one of the great grand final performances. As she fronted the Seekers in the middle of the MCG, the cameras panned to the Geelong rooms. Almost to a man, they looked as if they were preparing for their own execution. The 1994 grand final really was a stinker. The Cats put up a good showing in the first term, but from the moment Garry Hocking injured his leg, they lost all run, and soon all hope.
Wrapping up his book, Football Ltd: The Inside Story of the AFL, Garry Linnell reflected on the game, and the seismic shift that West Coast’s dominance represented. “Excess was out,” he wrote. “If Geelong was a team of entrepreneurs still playing by the old rules, then the West Coast Eagles were the chartered accountants sent in to clean up and rescue the old, debt-laden companies of the 1980s. You eliminated the variables. You only took a chance when the odds were with you, when the likelihood of success outweighed the pitfalls of failure. West Coast played grim, methodical football. And won by 80 points.”
They said what?
The 2021 Melbourne premiership player made an emotional toast during the function on Monday night, after being forced to retire earlier this year on medical grounds.
“I sincerely hope that everyone in the retiring class of 2024 finds something that provides them with the passion and the purpose that I derived from playing AFL,” Brayshaw said.
View from the stands (or the couch)
“Reflect the nature of the national comp. In Melbourne every second year. Rotate around the other capitals every second year. Independent of who is playing. Set it early. Stick to it. Perth did a great job of hosting the Dees and the Dogs. Richmond beating the Cats at the Gabba added to the thrill of it all.”
Lookupthenumber makes a strong case on whether the AFL grand final should be moved from the MCG.
Footy quiz
Which club has had the longest-ever premiership drought in the VFL/AFL? Bonus point for adding how many years it lasted.
If you think you know it, hit reply and let me know!
Last week’s answer: Which clubs hold the record for the most consecutive grand final appearances since the AFL era started in 1990? Brisbane (2001-04) and Hawthorn (2012-15) each appeared in four in a row.
Congratulations to Paul Murphy, who was first to reply with the right answer.
Want more?
Sydney glitz or Brisbane grit? Casual onlookers are given a helping hand to decide which bandwagon to climb on to on Saturday. But there is little question that we should all admire 2024 Brownlow medallist Patrick Cripps.
The Lions have been dancing on thin ice through the latter part of the season, even as they have learned painful lessons from last year’s decider.
The MCG will squeeze the most out of the grand final with 100,000 tickets set to be sold, while for those following at home, Daisy Pearce will be away from our screens while on club duty but three women have been added to the broadcast.
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