Swans and Hawks Crash the September Party, No Notes
Footy finals are supposed to throw up chaos and this week’s AFLW elimination finals delivered it in bucket loads. The Swans scrapped their way past the Western Bulldogs in conditions that looked more like a Tasmanian winter than a finals Friday, while Hawthorn finally got their first ever post-season win on the board at Gold Coast’s expense.
If you’re still sleeping on AFLW finals footy, genuinely what are you doing. This is exactly the kind of content that should be getting pushed to every footy fan’s feed, not buried somewhere after the men’s trade period gossip.
Sydney Survive the Elements and the Dogs
Let’s start with the Swans, because what they pulled off was legit gutsy. Wet and windy conditions at their home deck turned the contest into an absolute arm wrestle, the kind of game where clean disposal basically goes out the window and it comes down to who wants it more at ground level.
The Bulldogs have been building something really exciting all season and on paper you’d have fancied them to cause an upset, but Sydney’s forward pressure in that final term was the difference. When the ball’s greasy and the wind is doing weird things to kicks for goal, it’s the sides that commit bodies first that usually get rewarded, and the Swans did exactly that.
Credit to the Bulldogs too, they didn’t just roll over. They had their moments where you thought the upset was on, but finals footy in the wet is brutal and unforgiving, and Sydney’s experience in the contest got them home. It wasn’t pretty, but nobody remembers
