Home sweet home? Swans aiming to make the SCG great again
The Sydney Swans are preparing for a fierce contest against Adelaide as they attempt to reclaim their home ground advantage and reverse a disastrous run of losses at the SCG last season.
Despite a reputation for strong performances on their home turf in recent years, the Swans capitulated at the SCG in 2018, losing a remarkable seven matches at their spiritual home.
While returning to winning ways at home will be crucial if the Swans are to avoid a slide down the ladder, their first clash on home soil shapes as a tricky proposition.
On Friday night the Swans face a fancied Crows outfit chastened by a heavy home defeat to Hawthorn after entering that match as favourites.
Young gun Isaac Heeney and co-captain Dane Rampe said the Swans were anticipating a fierce battle.
“Obviously we’ve both got to respond, so it’s going to be on,” Heeney said.
“It’s going to be hot [this] week and we’ll make the SCG our fortress."
Rampe said the Swans focussed during the off-season on maintaining a "really strong mindset" to avoid repeating last season's troubles on the home front.
"We couldn't shy away from the fact that we had a really poor record here last year," Rampe said.
"In the past teams have come up expecting a really big contest.
"It's probably just matching that intensity and bettering it, and being prepared for a hostile environment when [teams] come up against us."
Reigning Swans best-and-fairest winner Jake Lloyd said the easiest way to arrest the slide from last year was by getting back to basics.
“I mean, we were winning games of footy away from home, just not at home,” Lloyd said.
“It just comes back to playing our brand of football, being hard and clean inside. It’s a bit smaller ground - winning it inside and getting it forwards [is important].
The Swans’ seven home defeats last season was their worst tally this century.
Between 2010-17, the Swans averaged just two SCG losses per season. Their worst tally prior to last season was a dark period in the early 1990s when they lost nine games in three consecutive seasons, collecting the wooden spoon each time.
The one upside - which enabled them to make finals - was the team’s away fortunes, winning nine games and losing just twice.
Of the seven losses last year, two stood out: a shocking game against the Gold Coast Suns in round 18, and a thrashing at the hands of crosstown rivals the GWS Giants in an elimination final where the Swans scored just two goals in the first three quarters to finish the season with a whimper.
Swans legend Jude Bolton said the key to making the SCG a fortress again will be “consistency of effort”.
“I felt that they got opened up at different stages across last year, but it also was reflective of a very young side still forming that chemistry of a good solid unit,” Bolton said.
“They come off the back of a really disappointing performance last week, so they need to make amends and no better opportunity than against a really talented side in Adelaide to find that confidence to take them on."
Heeney, for his part, will be hoping for more time in the middle after spending most of last week up forward.
“I didn’t have much time in the midfield until the last quarter. It was a bit frustrating because I couldn’t get in there,” he said.
“I do love the midfield, but I felt dangerous up forward ... I was happy I could hit the scoreboard.”
While the Swans have earned a reputation as September specialists, making finals 15 out of the past 16 seasons, most experts have tipped the Swans to plummet this year.
It will be their home form that will go a long way in determining whether they can prevent that slide and prove the doubters wrong, as they have done so often in the past.