The weather was a little weird, but the temperature outstanding for the latest nouvelle 'traditional rivalry' to play for some kind of minor cup or trophy: Sydney v West Coast.

That said, what followed was hardly an appropriate inaugural match for commemorating the horror of war, and the ultimate sacrifice made by those on board the HMAS Sydney II on 19 November 1941. (A more fitting game would've been the Port Adelaide v St Kilda game played half a continent away later in the evening, or for that matter any number of Sydney v West Coast games in the period 2005-2008). This one was a strangely bloodless affair, where both teams played for the most part as if the result was pre-determined. It was an unpleasant shock to look at the scoreboard 11 minutes into the 3rd quarter, and note that a West Coast side that had looked a class below almost all match, were somehow only 2 goals down. Fortunately, the Sydney players noted the incongruity as well, and within the next 10 minutes the game was put beyond the Weagles' reach.

Sydney's super-disciplined style, which could be described in a phrase with the old gambler's rule-- 'cut your losses, but let your wins run'-- dictates that its players are allowed to play open, fast footy against inferior sides. And West Coast rapidly established themselves as an inferior side. They have the best ruck duo in the comp in Cox and Naitinui-- who might become one of the best ruck duos of all time in 2 years' time if both can stay on the park and NicNat continues his stellar trajectory-- who are knocking it down to (relatively speaking) rubbish. And apart from the still-raw-and-improving Josh Kennedy, across 5 years they have still not fixed the achilles heel that cost them a 2005 flag-- an inadequate forward line. The only player in the Weagles' 50 otherwise worth noting is Mark LeCras, a man cut from the same cloth as Brett Ebert; he can destroy an opposition on his day, but is too unreliable to build a forward line around.

Saturday at the SCG was not so much 'men against boys', as 'professionals against amateurs'. Sydney narrowly lost the clearances across the match 36:31 and yet disposals finished a massively lopsided 414:279 in Sydney's favour. The #1 rule of all contemporary AFL teams, regardless of superficial variations in their game plan, is: Once you've got the ball, do not give it back. Even when Sydney weren't out of 2nd gear (as was the case for much of the game), the team is a pleasure to watch as a well-oiled machine where players know how to back up, where to run, and when to scatter, without the slightest prompting. Whenever the Weagles placed pressure on the ball-carrier (which they didn't do often enough), the Sydney player always had multiple release options. By way of contrast, West Coast won the tough footy, and then regularly committed simple disposal errors and dropped easy marks, denying themselves scoring opportunities and turning the ball over.

As you would expect in a game where Sydney lost the clearances, it wasn't a classic match for Jude Bolton and Kirk (while both players had their moments and both contributed a goal), allowing some oft-overlooked players to have their day in the sun. Certainly Goodes and McVeigh (the latter of whom now looks every inch an on-field leader) also both had their share of highlights, but there's been enough written about them.

Kieren Jack was simply inspirational, with a brutal, unflinching bump on Matthew Spangher in a classic one-on-one contested ball situation in the 3rd quarter leading directly to a goal to Jesse White, the clear highlight of the match. From then until the end of the game, Jack was running on air and could do no wrong.

Since his auspicious debut, Heath Grundy has switched ends of the ground and gone from questionable (2007-much of 2008) to promising (2009) to basically outstanding (2010). For a guy whose natural gifts vastly favour a static style of football that is no longer played, his ability to read the modern game is remarkable. He almost never loses a one-on-one, and frequently finds himself so well positioned that he is the one taking the mark, leaving the opposition forward sprawling beneath him. He was impassable in this game.

Lewis Roberts-Thomson is a man whose merits (or otherwise) as a key position defender are still keenly debated, over 100 games into his career. And he does provide some intermittently uncertain hands, along with imperfect disposal, in the most dangerous part of the oval to commit howlers. Fortunately, there is a fair bit of smooth with the rough. He works tirelessly for the team, chases around the biggest opposition forwards without giving them an inch all day, and is a fantastic competitor in the air. This match was Exhibit A for the LRT apologists, as the clangers were at a minimum, and the goal-saving punches in marking contests came to the fore.

Even though I couldn't find a place for Lewis Jetta in the best players, it would be near-impossible not to mention him. As well as being skilled and really, really quick, he's slotted in with the Swans gameplan eerily fast and easily (Vespa, your turn). You could feel an electric current go through the crowd when this young man got the footy, and the reaction when he went on a bouncing run, ran second in buzz only to when the Swans kick a goal. Speaking of which, his goalkicking is cursed; although the longer the build-up, the greater the excitement when he does finally nail one.

It says something about Daniel Bradshaw that despite kicking 6.2, someone not keeping score at the game, would be at no risk of thinking that he dominated. He doesn't generally push on long leads out to the wing or half-back flank, he doesn't do much high-flying or pack-busting (we have one Jesse White who specialises in those things, thanks), he doesn't display magic tricks with the football, and he doesn't generally fist-pump or carry on after doing something noteworthy. Despite his tattoo, he looks pretty non-descript; casual supporters who don't follow the Swans' off-season recruiting would have had to check their footy record to see who our new #19 is. He just gets the footy, either on the lead, by hand or on the ground, and kicks goals. And he's pretty darn good at it. Even after a bout of mini-yips in the 2nd quarter when he missed a couple of gettable shots in a row and it looked like it might not be his day in front of the sticks, he just stuck to his guns, got back on track, and booted another 4 for the day.

So, where are we at, with a series of improbable results in other matches of the long weekend catapulting the Swans to the top of the ladder after 5 rounds? The simple fact is that we don't know. You can only beat the opposition you play; but there is no changing the fact that (at least) 3 of the last 4 teams we have played have been performing at a pretty dire level. What we do know is that this Swans team, when on song, has a terrific balance of excitement and German-engineering precision; and unlike St Kilda, it's hard to see an injury to any one single player shutting off its scoring options or ruining its structure. The tough month is to come; but we can already say that 2010 has had a lot of fun in it.






Scorers:
Sydney: Bradshaw 6.2, White 2.1, Goodes 2.0, Kirk 1.1, McVeigh 1.1, Jack 1.1, Shaw 1.1, Mattner 1.0, J. Bolton 1.0, Jetta 0.1, Seaby 0.1, O'Keefe 0.1, Rushed 0.3
West Coast: Kennedy 3.1, Hurn 1.1, Cox 1.0, Priddis 1.0, Masten 1.0, Naitanui 1.0, Hams 1.0, Schofield 0.2, LeCras 0.1, A. Selwood 0.1, Spangher 0.1, Waters 0.1, Rushed 0.1

Best:
Sydney: Jack, Grundy, Bradshaw, Goodes, McVeigh, Roberts-Thomson.

Injuries:
Sydney: C. Bolton (achilles)
West Coast: Nil

Reports: Nil

Umpires: Rosebury, Kamolins, Meredith

Crowd: 28,422 at the SCG.