Scrappy Swans get the job done over Essendon in Gulden’s 100th

3 months ago 22

If anybody needed a metaphor for Sydney’s 2025 season, it came in the form of a paint bucket filled with sand.

When, about 10 minutes into Saturday’s wild and briefly wet 14-point defeat of Essendon, a work-booted groundsman lolloped onto the field and out to the centre square, then reached into the weathered white bucket and used its contents to fill a pronounced divot in the SCG pitch.

A mid-game turf repair at a venue notorious all year for its patchy surface since that Andrea Bocelli concert in April. A venue that is also the Swans’ home ground in their own fitful campaign that was confirmed as fruitless even before the bounce.

Last weekend’s capitulation to crosstown rivals GWS hammered the final nail in the coffin of a tough first year for coach Dean Cox marked by relentless injuries and dampened confidence.

On Saturday everything was a bit damp, and the weather could not be held solely responsible for the poor kicking and lacklustre play as both sides saw out this consolation clash in front of a comparatively sparse crowd by Swans standards.

And the younger among the 20,805 who turned up to watch the hosts withstand a nervy late Bombers comeback, a win that’s building towards nothing must feel kind of foreign.

Errol Gulden scored the opening goal for the Swans.

This time last year, the Swans were headed for a 24th finals campaign in 29 years. Here they bettered the Bombers in the bleak knowledge that this September will not feature any footy for only the sixth time in the last 30 years.

Only the rusted-on of pre-1996 – the year John Howard was elected prime minister and The Wiggles released Wake Up Jeff! – will fully understand the half a century of pain before it, dating back to the Bloodbath grand final of 1945.

Now these fans, so used to the outrageous consistency that accompanied that record run of finals, huddled together under heavy cloud and then scrambling for ponchos and brollies as sheets of torrential rain finally fell during the second quarter.

It was gone as suddenly as it came, but the wind stuck around and played havoc with accuracy to the point the overall goal count stopped at 16. Sydney’s Braeden Campbell and Justin McInerney were the only players from either team to score multiple majors in the 9.14(68) to 7.12(54) result.

Heavy rain falls on the SCG on Saturday.

Errol Gulden got on the board at least to mark his 100th career outing, kicking off proceedings just after four minutes to slot the first major of the annual Pride game and finishing with 30 disposals. And Brodie Grundy racked up a career-high 39 disposals – six more than his previous high – to steal the show.

And there was more promise amid the literal and figurative darkness, with Jack Buller producing a terrific strike from the tightest of angles in the absence of Joel Amartey, Logan McDonald and Hayden McLean.

Cox described the game as a “tale of two halves”, with Sydney on the ascension in the first and Essendon, who kicked only four goals until three-quarter time, cutting the deficit in the final term from 33 to 13 with minutes remaining.

Cox’s card now reads 10 wins and 10 losses with three games remaining – Brisbane Lions (away), Geelong (home) and West Coast (away) – and insisted motivation was not an issue, especially after the heartbreak of the derby.

“I didn’t find it tough to get motivated,” Cox said. “That’s probably a question you ask the players. I think as a footy club, you have to finish the year off as well as we possibly can, and that was the message from the start of the week: to make sure that we leave no stone unturned.

“It was tough to handle the start of the week when probably we weren’t mathematically possible to make it [to the finals]. But that was my job to try and turn their attention pretty quickly to something that we can try and chase.”

For Essendon this was a ninth-consecutive loss, despite a strong debut from the club’s 14th debutant in teenager Jayden Nguyen, who managed to keep Tom Papley relatively quiet.

“We’re searching for the positive in every situation we’re in but no excuses, we came here with a plan to get the job done and we fell just short of that,” said Brad Scott. “We were clearly outclassed early even though we managed to stay in touch. We got a lesson in workrate in the first half.”