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August 08, 2005
The Wait Is Over.............
.......sadly now all that us Melbourne based Swans fans have to live for now is waiting for the unthinkable to happen and see the Swans win a Premiership sometime in the next 60 odd years (only asking for one, God).
What the hell is this shit your asking yourself right??? Well this is the match review of the the Swans first win in Melbourne against Essendon in 16 years and in my case the first time I've ever seen the Swans beat those smug fools from out Essendon way "LIVE". Never mind the Swans didn't play to their best (well what's new in that I suppose) and that we struggled to put away a side that is having its worse season in over 25 years.
Still I guess the fact we were playing away from home, had this little jinx against us and faced an Essendon side that managed to have all three umpires in their pockets all night (more on that later) meant it was hard for the club to get into the match as they would of hoped. Still it was pleasing therefore that the Swans managed to play poorly and still soak up all the pressure the Bombers could throw at them and run away with a hard fought 20 point win.
Early in Saturday Night's match the Swans were in deep trouble. Essendon were getting the ball forward at will and Leo Barry was clearly struggling to contain Matthew Lloyd who managed to outmark Leo, or got Leo to commit the sin of holding on (despite most of them being soft in the extreme).
Three goals down quickly, the Swans turned to Barry Hall as he led from the front in the Swans march back to the lead shortly before quarter time thanks to goals from Hall, O'Keefe and then Ball. But just as it looked like the Swans would manage to take a lead into quarter time the Bombers got 2 goals within the final 30 seconds of the quarter and the good work of the Swans was undone.
Essendon started the second quarter off with yet another goal and the Swans were looking goners, however just like the first quarter the Swans though Hall managed to work their way back into the match and back in front of the match. Started by a goal to Hall, followed more goals to Goodes, Buchanan, Vogels and Hall. At this point it basically was goal for goal with the Swans looking like going into Half Time less than a goal down, only to again fall victim to a last minute goal to Essendon and therefore were 10 points down at the long break.
Knowing that they had to make a charge at the Bombers and quickly the Swans started the third quarter off quickly and moved within a goal quickly thanks to Hall followed by further goals to Goodes, Ablett, Hall again and then O'Keefe to make it a 5 point Swans lead again going into three quarter time.
However in a match highlighted by a lopsided free kick count in favour of Essendon, the umpires made sure they made themselves look stupid with what will go down as yet another sign that the umpires hate us. Scott Lucus managed to get a free kick in front of goal right on the break for what appeared to be a normal marking contest with no player holding or pushing. Either that or the umpires got fooled by an Olympic Style dive. That meant Essendon were up by 1 point.
Still that didn't stop the Swans as they got a quick goal soon after play re-started thanks to Michael O'Loughlin's freakish trap and goal off the outside of his right foot in the final quarter. However this was followed up by a moments of magic from Andrew Lovett. The sickening roar from the Bomber sheep felt that the game was slipping from us but thanks to some hard work from the midfield and goal to Ryan O'Keefe meant the Swans were 7 points up and looking like they had seen off the Bomber challenge.
Even when Nic Fosdike's clever goal was replied to by Essendon the Swans stood tall and saw off the Bombers with 2 goals from Barry Hall that put the game beyond the Bombers and allowed those Swans fans lucky enough to be at the ground to start their party.
SYDNEY 18.10 (118)
ESSENDON 15.8 (98)
Goals: B Hall 7 R O'Keefe 3 A Goodes 2 L Ablett, J Ball, A Buchanan, N Fosdike, M O'Loughlin, L Vogels 1.
Best Swan On Ground: Barry Hall
Posted by robbieando at August 8, 2005 04:56 PM