Dangerfield leads the way as Geelong Cats stun Sydney Swans in AFL semi-final

Alex Broun 08:32 18/09/2017
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  • You shouldn’t be greedy.

    After a thrilling platter of finals footy last weekend, Saturday’s semi-finals were a damp squib in both the AFL and NRL with thrills and spills in very short supply. The surprises however continued.

    First up in the AFL, Geelong came from nowhere to stun the Swans 98-39 at The G on Friday night.

    Sydney will still be shaking their heads all the way to Mad Monday celebrations – that is if they even bother to have them now. For a second year in a row they have looked bound for glory only to fall apart at the crucial juncture in the most spectacular fashion.

    Last season it was in the Grand Final where the Western Bulldogs snapped a 62-year drought to kick the last three goals and defeat the heavily favoured Swans 89-67.

    This year it was the Cats, who the Swans hammered back in August and who were beaten by Richmond by 51 points last weekend, turning the tables to end the heavily favoured Sydney’s season.

    The credit must go to the often criticised Cats coach Chris Scott who completely flummoxed the Swans by moving Patrick Danger- field (below) from his usual role as follower to full forward, where he created havoc for Sydney that spread from their defensive line through the ruck all the way to
    their own forwards.

    It was a ‘worldie’ from Scott that could have misfired spectacularly, but instead he broke a three-game losing streak against the Swans of 46, 37 and 38 points.

    The Swans and coach John Longmire simply had no answer. The game was over at half-time with the Cats leading by six goals and many of the Swans stars like Buddy Franklin M.I.A.

    Dangerfield, the 2016 Brownlow Medal winner, kicked 4.3 while Franklin’s meek effort was 0.3. No Swan kicked more than a single.

    Scott refused to take the credit for the master stroke explaining the decision to play Dangerfield in attack had been a collective call by
    the Cats’ coaching team that was made early in the week.

    “You want your best players in the game putting your opposition on the back foot,” said the two-time premiership winner post-match.

    “It doesn’t always work that way, but (playing Dangerfield forward) got our guys believing that when we got the ball forward, that we had a pretty potent threat up there.

    “It obviously destabilises the opposition as well.”

    Patrick Dangerfield was deployed as a full forward to devastating effect.

    Patrick Dangerfield was deployed as a full forward to devastating effect.

    The Swans’ loss was their first to any team other than Hawthorn since they opened the season 0-6.

    Longmire said nothing his team tried seemed to work.

    “We had things in place,” he said, “we didn’t get them done as well as what we could have.

    “We tried a number of things, we weren’t efficient at getting those things we wanted to get done completed. It was just one of those nights.”

    Like last year’s Grand Final.

    “Those nights” are becoming a habit for the Swans.

    Sydney however will be represented in the final four as GWS turned around a 36-point defeat last week to the Crows to smash West Coast 125-58.

    In this week’s preliminary finals GWS will meet Richmond while Adelaide host the Cats.

    One thing is certain, unlike last year it will not be a team from the bottom half of the eight taking the flag with the four remaining teams those who finished first to fourth after the regular season.

    That isn’t the case in the NRL where the eighth placed finishers, North Queensland Cowboys defeated the fourth placed Parramatta Eels 24-16 to reach the final four.

    In the other semi-final Brisbane edged out Penrith 13-6 to keep their season alive, for one more week at least.

    Unlike last weekend, which was mired in ‘Bunker’ controversy, the biggest talking points of the weekend were the finals spirit of the Cowboys, who are without their star playmaker Johnathan Thurston, and the injury toll of the Broncos who finished with just one player on the bench.

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