On a night when the Sydney Swans honoured the heroes of their famous 2005 premiership win, the battlers of 2025 showed just how far they have fallen – and the troubling extent to which they have strayed from the club’s foundational ‘Bloods culture’.
This was an utter bloodbath. An embarrassment. For the Adelaide Crows, it was like shelling peas as they waltzed to a thumping 90-point win at the SCG to further underline their flag credentials.
This time last year the Swans were clearly the best team in the competition. It was only eight months ago that these players – most of them, anyway – were playing off for a flag on the AFL’s biggest stage. It feels like a lifetime ago.
Falling 21.5 (131) to 5.11 (41), in front of 35,229 fans, this was one of their worst displays at home in recent memory, and their biggest loss at Moore Park in 27 years.
Yes, they have injuries, but that doesn’t explain everything. At some point, and we’re probably there now, serious questions need to be asked of the coaching, and whether Dean Cox is capable of charting a way out of this malaise his team is in.
Handed a squad that was more than capable of contending for honours by his predecessor John Longmire, they look miles off the pace, and a shadow of their old selves.
Coming off a listless defeat to the Demons at the MCG, the Swans needed to start well, and they did. Sort of. Hayden McLean gave the Swans the game’s first goal inside the opening three minutes, and the crowd felt alive. The effort was there. The first 10 minutes or so were decent. And then … well, just nothing.
Riley Thilthorpe.Credit: via Getty Images
The Crows kicked the next 12 goals, and did so with increasing ease. They had free men everywhere, and everything they tried – long shots, narrow snaps, raking cross-field kicks, a desperate toe poke on the line from the imposing Riley Thilthorpe – came off. The opposite was true for Sydney, whose slow and sloppy ball movement and aimless attacking raids invited further pressure. Every entry was actually a door slammed shut by the Crows. As the visitors piled on the hurt, the effort and application from the Swans began to drop away.
In the second quarter, Adelaide scored seven straight goals while the Swans could only muster two behinds – the latter of which, from Angus Sheldrick’s stray shot, was greeted by ironic cheers from the SCG faithful.
Long before the 2005 team did their half-time lap of honour, the outcome was assured. And when the match resumed in the third quarter, there were suddenly a whole lot of empty seats across the ground, left vacant by Swans fans who’d seen enough and headed home.
They missed a slightly improved performance from Sydney, who kicked four of the first five goals after the break, though the Crows had more than earned the right to take their foot off the throttle. And it was worth nought – less than nought, actually, because Adelaide extended their half-time lead by 10 points.
The sight of former Swan Jordan Dawson slotting one from the top of the goal square, having been brought to within point-blank range by an undisciplined 50-metre penalty, rubbed further salt into the wound. The pain didn’t end there, either.
