No place like home for Swans in huge victory at SCG

Sydney Swans coach John Longmire had the perfect homecoming at the SCG with his side turning in a dominant 53-point victory over Gold Coast on Sunday in the sun in front of over 35,000 fans.

The Swans had stuttered in their previous two rounds with a loss against Richmond in Melbourne and a hard-won victory against West Coast in the Adelaide Hills. After resting and recuperating in the bye round, Longmire’s side looked unstoppable for much of the game against Gold Coast and sent a statement to the rest of the league with the 110-57 win.

“It was fantastic, to be away from home for a month almost and to be able to come today and look out and see so many people here and have such a big crowd, it was awesome for the players, they loved it,” Longmire said.

“You know they really feed off our supporters, our fans turn up and [the players] really appreciate that when they run out and they see a big crowd like that.

“I don’t know whether any of us expected [the crowd] to be that big and that’s a great thrill for the players and great for the footy club. Hopefully the fans get a good feeling when they leave the game and want to keep coming back.”

The Swans are still nursing key players back to health, including defender Dane Rampe, midfielder Luke Parker and captain Callum Mills, but their absence has allowed others to step up across the side to provide leadership when it is needed. Ruckman Brodie Grundy particularly stepped up in his 200th game with a goal and 11 tackles, the most for the Swans on the day.

Isaac Heeney celebrates a goal against the Gold Coast.

The Sydney forward line was also firing. Tom Papley acted as a ball magnet and caused issues for the Gold Coast defence all afternoon, popping up with three important goals, just beaten by his teammate Joel Amartey, who kicked four in an impressive performance.

The Swans’ star forward was pleased with the response of his teammates in Sydney after a brief drop of form against Richmond and West Coast on the road, and the fight they showed in responding to a strong Gold Coast performance in the second quarter.

“It’s good to be back to our best today,” Papley said. “I thought for that second quarter, the Suns played the way they wanted to play, but they’re going to have their turn and it was good to get back to our footy that we want to play because probably against Richmond and West Coast we probably weren’t at our best.”

Isaac Heeney played his part in a midfield that outran and out-pressurised a Gold Coast side that had previously specialised in this craft, and helped to provide a silver service for his forward line.

Logan McDonald enjoys a goal at the SCG.

Heeney is in career-best form since moving into the midfield from the forward line and enjoyed a physical encounter against Gold Coast alongside Errol Gulden, who had 30 disposals on the day.

“I love being in the midfield and I love going to war with the boys each week,” Heeney said. “I enjoy cracking in and [the midfield] suits me nicely. And then we’re playing good footy as a team which also helped, so now I just have a lot of fun.

“It’s amazing back to be back with the home crowd and obviously, they go hard when we’re here. We’ve had a big turnout every week, so it’s nice to be able to come back to the SCG and good to do them proud. They’re [the Suns] a good side when they’re allowed to be, and I feel that we stopped a lot of their run and contested ball.”

Gold Coast coach Damien Hardwick described Swans defender Nick Blakey as a “superstar” and he lived up to the praise with 21 disposals that helped to provide the catalyst for a lot of Sydney’s attacking opportunities.

Blakey was noticeably limping in the last quarter and Longmire is hopeful the injury is not too serious ahead of next round’s fixture against Hawthorn at the MCG.

“I don’t really know, he was able to keep playing, which is a good sign,” Longmire said. “I think it was an old ankle injury that he might have flared up a bit, but hopefully he’s okay, you really won’t know until tomorrow, the good thing was, he was able to keep playing.”

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