Sydney makes the critics sit up and take notice
Michael Cowley, Sydney | June 2, 2008
ON FACE value, it was a comprehensive win over a team unlikely to be wearing footy boots in September. But forward Michael O'Loughlin believes Sydney's impressive win over Richmond yesterday might make some in the football world begin to rate the Swans as a premiership threat.
In a performance described by Sydney coach Paul Roos as their best of the year, the Swans clinically dismantled a Tigers side that had, in recent weeks, pushed the "big three" — Hawthorn, Geelong and the Western Bulldogs.
The match was over closer to the opening bounce than the final siren.
And O'Loughlin seems to be correct with his assessment. Sydney's 82-point win even prompted Richmond coach Terry Wallace to label the Swans "the best we have played this year, at this point in time".
"I think they're an extremely professional unit," Wallace said. "They're going to be right in the mix again this year."
Sydney's win moved it to fifth with a 6-1-3 record after 10 rounds. The Swans have moved under the radar as the big three and Collingwood have attracted all the attention, but O'Loughlin, who celebrated his 300th game yesterday, knows that if the Swans continue the way they are going, people will again start to look at them as contenders, instead of the "too old, too slow" team they were labelled at the start of the year.
"We've been hearing it for years and years now," he said. "We heard it in our premiership year. In the end, we've got a couple of wins together and maybe some people will start rating us again … but we don't care about those things."
From the opening bounce, Sydney was dominant in every aspect of the game, most notably intensity.
But while that sort of control can sometimes not be translated on to the scoreboard, yesterday, it clearly was.
Richmond barely had the ball inside its forward 50, unable to get past a wall of hardened, aggressive Sydney players.
Ryan O'Keefe continued his All Australian-calibre form for the Swans, while O'Loughlin, Amon Buchanan and Jarrad McVeigh finished with three goals each in a fitting way for the club to celebrate the 1000th victory in South Melbourne/Sydney history.
The match was as good as over as early as the 22nd-minute mark of the first term, when Adam Goodes' breathtaking run out of the middle and goal from outside 50 metres gave Sydney its sixth goal to none for Richmond.
When the Tigers did go forward, their execution was substandard. It wasn't until the 27th minute, when Shane Edwards kicked a behind, that the right-hand side of the SCG scoreboard had to move.
Moments later, it appeared certain the Tigers' first goal would come when Matthew Richardson marked just 20 metres out and on a slight angle. He hit the post and that was that for term one.
Richmond did have some thing to "celebrate" late in the second term. As the clock ticked to 20 minutes 25 seconds, Trent Cotchin swooped on a loose ball and slotted his team's first and only goal of the half.
At the break, Sydney led by 73 points, 13.7 (85) to 1.6 (12).
At that point and with rain looming, the Tigers were on target to produce their lowest score against the Swans, eclipsing the 3.8 (26) they kicked in 1909.
Three goals for the quarter made sure the Tigers averted that embarrassment, but there was hardly anything to rejoice about as, with rain making conditions increasingly difficult, they found themselves down by 76 points at the last change.
The last term was only about seeing whether Richmond could find some pride and add respectability to the scoreboard, or whether Sydney could maintain its intensity and build on its percentage. Most of the drenched fans just wanted the massacre to end.
There was a bit of both, but for the Tigers it was still their biggest loss since Geelong thumped them by 157 points in round six last year.
BEST: Richmond: Deledio, Bowden, Foley.
INJURIES: Richmond: Johnson (knee).
THE UPSHOTFOR Richmond, that there is a next week. And, not surprisingly, coach Terry Wallace was talking about the clean slate that round 11 presented, within minutes of his post-match press conference beginning.
THE TALKING POINTPAUL Roos' preferred conversation topic after the game was the improvement of Jarrad McVeigh, youngsters Craig Bird and Jarred Moore, and the impact that former Cat Henry Playfair and ex-Crow Martin Mattner — both additions to the 2008 list — were having.
HOT AND COLDIT'S a fickle old business, but the Tigers came into round 10 with their hopes and tails up after a strong win over Essendon and a month that provided them with admirers, if not wins. One stinking half of footy and the tail is between the legs.
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