Phew.
Two games into Rd. 4, and the other 7 games have alot to live up to if they're going to be as good as these.
A great matchup in the first game. Sydney stayed unbeaten, squeaking by an Essendon club coming off a trouncing of the Saints. Buddy Franklin paced the Swans kicking 3 goals, 1, while Sam Reid and Justin McInerney combined for four goals. Cale Hooker and Jake Stringer combined to kick 6 goals, 1 for the Bombers.
The Swans hung on, scoring on almost 50% of the time that they got the ball inside their own 50. Unfortunately, 17 of their 28 scores were behinds. On the flipside, the Bombers scored on only 34% of their entries inside 50, but kicked one more goal than the Swans kicked.
The Swans had an almost 2-1 free kick advantage (29-16), and put those to good use.
Essendon was much more effective in their tackling with an almost 3-2 ratio (78-54).
The Bombers were impressive, but the Swans kept getting the ball back into their own 50, and did just enough to earn the 4 points, moving to 4-0 on the ladder.
In the Friday night game, we saw what many thought as a possible Grand Final preview, with the defending Premiers invading the Adelaide Oval to face the Power. It was a hard hitting contest, with both clubs expending almost every last ounce of energy. 17 different players kicked goals during the course of this hard fought contest, with the score separated only by two behinds.
Dusty Martin had a rather pedestrian day for himself, while Jayden Short paced the club with 31 disposals.
Dan Houston paced Port Adelaide with 23 disposals, a goal and behind, along with 7 tackles.
Port Adelaide was hampered by niggling injuries during the course of the contest, with Connor Rozzee battling through a corky, and Xavier Duursma took a very hard shot late in the contest, and awaits some information about the knock he took on his knee.
The clubs were almost even in tackles, hitouts and disposals for the game, while both clubs scored 34% of the time they got the ball inside their own 50.
Overall, a very spirited contest, which may very well be a Grand Final preview.
Here is to hoping that the remaining 7 contests will be as good as these two contests.
