World news – Swans fly to attract Lions

BEST: Brisbane Lions Bailey Zorko Rich McCarthy Sydney Swans Mills Gulden Heeney Hickey McDonald ParkerVOTESC Mills (Swans) 9E Gulden (Swans) 8I Heeney (Swans) 7Z Bailey (Lions) 7T Hickey (Swans) 7

After With all of the fears voiced last year for the look and future of AFL football, you wouldn’t have blamed Steve Hocking and Gillon McLachlan for smiling faintly at halftime between the Lions and Swans at the Gabba. It’s very early in the 2021 AFL season. But the game looks different.

Both, possibly both sides, were able to break 100 points. 16 goals were scored, several changes in leadership, wild mood swings and exciting climaxes as the ball swung from end to end. When everyone tried to adjust to the traditional longer quarters again, there was hardly a chance to breathe.

And to make all football fans smile, there was Joey Daniher: He was moving well in his new club, scored goals – but faded to finish with 2.2 – and was reported in the first quarter (a careless, shrugging opponent, Dane Ramp, unlikely to be more than a fine drawn.) and giving the Lions a real target , with the now second great striker Eric Hipwood defeated.

But the result was a massive surprise. The Swans set the Lions on fire with a third of nine goals and won by 31 points. Tom Papley threw the visitors 41 points ahead of the last change. Even in a free-spinning game like this, there was no way the Lions could pull that back when the drizzle fell.

The Swans were served by brilliant performances from Callum Mills, Isaac Heeney and Tom Papley. But their AFL debutants were the real revelation: Logan McDonald, last year’s No. 4 draft pick, the academy product Braeden Campbell (No. 5), and especially Errol Gulden, also an academy selection (No. 32).

McDonald and Gulden scored six goals between them, with the latter also dropping a handful of others on a sensational debut. The Lions were beaten inside and out, with Brownlow medalist Lachie Neale being held up well and Charlie Cameron not reaching the scoreboard. to hit the home team’s first goal within the first minute of the game. Less than two minutes later, Bailey was back on the board, and the Swans couldn’t stop the speed of their opponents in the central square.

Then Daniher nudged Rampe under an incoming ball and floated through his first Brisbane-colored goal – a mixed breed snapshot, but it was enough to please a solid home crowd. After that, the goals for the Lions dried up as the swans buried themselves and dragged themselves back into the game.

Gulden was a real handful. He found Callum Mills early in the second quarter when Mills put the Swans in front for the first time. Then he floated freely into space in a front pocket and kicked his first from a hard angle, found more space on the leash for a second, and then found Heeney with a surgical passport.

Meanwhile, Brisbane was in real trouble and alarm bells were ringing really when Sam Wicks scored the Swans’ seventh goal in his eighth game. Now it was Lions’ turn to interfere. They needed a spark. They got it from the gifted Keidean « Kiddy » Coleman, whose tip on Jarryd Lyons swung the game again.

The Lions kicked the next three, including one against Coleman on his « wrong » foot (you wouldn’t have guessed) and one against Daniher after a free kick. Daniher raised his arms in front of the crowd and his teammates. During the break, both teams were suspended with eight goals each on 52 points.

It was rushing stuff. But the Swans owned the Lions by the third quarter and broke the game apart with a frenzied outbreak that saw McDonald and Gulden again heavily represented, with Papley and veteran Luke Parker also stepping up their games. But the children? They’re better than okay and the Swans will be great fun to see them this year.

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