The Key Details:
Sydney Swans (10th) vs Port Adelaide Power (11th)
Venue: SCG
Date: Sunday April 20
Time: 3.20pm AEST
Hinkley Status: not sacked
Preamble
Ask any Port fan who they despise the most (aside from the Crows) and the answer will usually be the Sydney Swans.
The hatred stems back to August 2nd, 2024, when the board of the Port Adelaide football club had decided it was time for Ken Hinkley to be “given the full support of the board”. Ken’s exit was imminent.
I am reliably informed that this news filtered back to Swans HQ and a crisis meeting was called for 4pm that same day. A clever plan was formulated by Horse & co, which the Swans team executed to perfection. A 112 point defeat on August 3rd ensured Ken’s survival and maintained the smug view at Alberton Oval that Sydney are Ports’ bitch.
History will show that the Swans started to play properly again the following week & went on to secure the minor premiership, before feasting on a complacent Port come finals time.
It was classic rope-a-dope. And it worked.
Of course Port don’t take these things lying down. In between choruses of Never Tear Us Apart, fans fundamentally rioted and tore the place apart. Hinkley watched it all burn, secure in the knowledge that the Swans had gifted him another year.
Funnily enough, Sam Mitchell, the cunning old fox, appears to have tried to adopt the same tactics in tonight’s Port vs Hawks game. It’s the only explanation for Hawthorns sheer spudery in the first half. Ken Hinkley, however, wasn’t letting it happen again & clearly directed Port to tank the second half. There’s a certain irony in the timing of all these shenanigans tonight, given that the original victim of rope-a-dope, the great George Foreman, sadly passed away this week. George would doubtless have turned off Hawthorn vs Port in disgust at 3/4 time and grilled a nice steak.
Anyway, back to matters at hand.
Wind the clock forward to 2025 and neither side is travelling particularly well.
The injury-ravaged Swans are coming off a fairly beige performance against Collingwood. At 2-3, things are precarious. A victory to make it 3-3 will calm the farm. Should, however, it become 2-4, the prospect of playing finals starts to look in real jeopardy and things could start to unravel.
For the Swans, it’s a critical match.
As for Port, the 2025 season was, prior to tonight, being viewed as nothing more than a holding pattern. Ken is effectively just a caretaker and the team’s performances have been flat. Having said that, it is still a list packed with talent and the Swans have beaten Port only once since 2016 (in the aforementioned 2024 final). As tonight shows, if they decide to really have a crack (which admittedly only happens a couple of times a year), Port can steamroll anyone.
Port remains a real bogey side and I’ll save everyone the effort by declaring it here & now:
DANGER GAME.
The Teams
A thorough review of expert commentary on the Swans board indicates that the following players should not be dumped to the VFL this week:
1. Heeney, I
2. Bice, R
That being the case, there will be 21 inclusions this week. Lewis Melican is likely to be one, and J Mac a second, but I’ll be damned if I can figure out who the other 19 will be.
Assuming Dean Cox takes a slightly more measured view, changes look likely to be fairly minimal. The cupboard is relatively bare in the VFL ranks and the fact that they seemingly only play once every 6 weeks or so doesn’t help.
Joel Armatey goes out, because he’s “aware of a hamstring” (read: 4-6 weeks).
Harry Cunningham is perhaps a chance to return – but without any match practice after a fairly long lay-off, that seems unlikely.
Dean Cox certainly hasn’t signaled that Logan McDonald’s return to the seniors is imminent either. Whilst its not beyond the realms of possibility, it seems another hit-out in the twos is likely.
Elsewhere, the two-ruck policy worked reasonably well against North Melbourne, but Pistol Pete Ladhams didn’t take his angry pills and was therefore hardly sighted against Collingwood. Cox might decide to revert to a more mobile, less volatile set-up with Hayden McLean performing the ruck chop-out duties.
And finally, it is rare for the sub to survive a loss. Gus Sheldrick worked into the Collingwood game nicely, but his position remains on a knife edge.
Its difficult to see who could be promoted from the VFL. Sid Mitchell has been around the periphery for a few weeks now, whilst Francis and Paton could also re-appear, particularly if Melican doesn’t return this week. But none have done much that screams “PICK ME!”.
So, in DQ’s (usually inaccurate) view, changes will be as follows:
In: Melican, McInerney
Out: Armatey, Ladhams
Melican is the big watch. Without him, Collingwood destroyed the Swans’ back 6 in the air and the key defender’s name will eagerly anticipated come team selection time on Thursday.
Port appears to have come through their win over the Hawks without any major injury concerns. Miles Bergman was subbed out with a dodgy knee, but it didn’t look too mangled.
The Port midfield unit of Butters, Rozee, Horne-Francis, Wines, Boak, Burgoyne and Drew is very handy (on paper at least). And whilst they don’t have star power in the forward line, it won’t matter too much if the Port mids get on top. At the other end, Aliir will gobble up aimless long bombs and the rest of the Port back 6 is functional.
Darcy Byrne Jones likely comes back in for Port and if Bergman is indeed ruled out, the chronically underrated Ryan Burton may be a chance to return.
Port will be at near full strength.
The Verdict
The Swans’ form up until last Friday was pretty good, despite all the injuries.
Unfortunately, our fate against Collingwood was sealed at precisely 4.34pm the afternoon prior to the game, when the following appeared on the Match Preview Thread:
Assuming an A-grade mock of this nature does not re-appear this week, the Swans will likely start favorites.
Having said that, the SCG is no longer a fortress, the Swans injury crisis isn’t getting any better and this one could go either way.
Nonetheless, I’m going to predict Swans by 3 goals – without any great degree of confidence.
And if Gianfagna / Stevic are announced as umpires for this week, knock a couple of goals off that margin.
Cheer cheer.
PS: I’m advised that a special fireworks display is scheduled for half-time, to celebrate Zac Butters reaching the $50,000 in AFL fines milestone. Well played Zac, well played indeed. And despite the AFL viewing you as a complete plonker, you’re still a better bloke than Willie Rioli.
Sydney Swans (10th) vs Port Adelaide Power (11th)
Venue: SCG
Date: Sunday April 20
Time: 3.20pm AEST
Hinkley Status: not sacked
Preamble
Ask any Port fan who they despise the most (aside from the Crows) and the answer will usually be the Sydney Swans.
The hatred stems back to August 2nd, 2024, when the board of the Port Adelaide football club had decided it was time for Ken Hinkley to be “given the full support of the board”. Ken’s exit was imminent.
I am reliably informed that this news filtered back to Swans HQ and a crisis meeting was called for 4pm that same day. A clever plan was formulated by Horse & co, which the Swans team executed to perfection. A 112 point defeat on August 3rd ensured Ken’s survival and maintained the smug view at Alberton Oval that Sydney are Ports’ bitch.
History will show that the Swans started to play properly again the following week & went on to secure the minor premiership, before feasting on a complacent Port come finals time.
It was classic rope-a-dope. And it worked.
Of course Port don’t take these things lying down. In between choruses of Never Tear Us Apart, fans fundamentally rioted and tore the place apart. Hinkley watched it all burn, secure in the knowledge that the Swans had gifted him another year.
Funnily enough, Sam Mitchell, the cunning old fox, appears to have tried to adopt the same tactics in tonight’s Port vs Hawks game. It’s the only explanation for Hawthorns sheer spudery in the first half. Ken Hinkley, however, wasn’t letting it happen again & clearly directed Port to tank the second half. There’s a certain irony in the timing of all these shenanigans tonight, given that the original victim of rope-a-dope, the great George Foreman, sadly passed away this week. George would doubtless have turned off Hawthorn vs Port in disgust at 3/4 time and grilled a nice steak.
Anyway, back to matters at hand.
Wind the clock forward to 2025 and neither side is travelling particularly well.
The injury-ravaged Swans are coming off a fairly beige performance against Collingwood. At 2-3, things are precarious. A victory to make it 3-3 will calm the farm. Should, however, it become 2-4, the prospect of playing finals starts to look in real jeopardy and things could start to unravel.
For the Swans, it’s a critical match.
As for Port, the 2025 season was, prior to tonight, being viewed as nothing more than a holding pattern. Ken is effectively just a caretaker and the team’s performances have been flat. Having said that, it is still a list packed with talent and the Swans have beaten Port only once since 2016 (in the aforementioned 2024 final). As tonight shows, if they decide to really have a crack (which admittedly only happens a couple of times a year), Port can steamroll anyone.
Port remains a real bogey side and I’ll save everyone the effort by declaring it here & now:
DANGER GAME.
The Teams
A thorough review of expert commentary on the Swans board indicates that the following players should not be dumped to the VFL this week:
1. Heeney, I
2. Bice, R
That being the case, there will be 21 inclusions this week. Lewis Melican is likely to be one, and J Mac a second, but I’ll be damned if I can figure out who the other 19 will be.
Assuming Dean Cox takes a slightly more measured view, changes look likely to be fairly minimal. The cupboard is relatively bare in the VFL ranks and the fact that they seemingly only play once every 6 weeks or so doesn’t help.
Joel Armatey goes out, because he’s “aware of a hamstring” (read: 4-6 weeks).
Harry Cunningham is perhaps a chance to return – but without any match practice after a fairly long lay-off, that seems unlikely.
Dean Cox certainly hasn’t signaled that Logan McDonald’s return to the seniors is imminent either. Whilst its not beyond the realms of possibility, it seems another hit-out in the twos is likely.
Elsewhere, the two-ruck policy worked reasonably well against North Melbourne, but Pistol Pete Ladhams didn’t take his angry pills and was therefore hardly sighted against Collingwood. Cox might decide to revert to a more mobile, less volatile set-up with Hayden McLean performing the ruck chop-out duties.
And finally, it is rare for the sub to survive a loss. Gus Sheldrick worked into the Collingwood game nicely, but his position remains on a knife edge.
Its difficult to see who could be promoted from the VFL. Sid Mitchell has been around the periphery for a few weeks now, whilst Francis and Paton could also re-appear, particularly if Melican doesn’t return this week. But none have done much that screams “PICK ME!”.
So, in DQ’s (usually inaccurate) view, changes will be as follows:
In: Melican, McInerney
Out: Armatey, Ladhams
Melican is the big watch. Without him, Collingwood destroyed the Swans’ back 6 in the air and the key defender’s name will eagerly anticipated come team selection time on Thursday.
Port appears to have come through their win over the Hawks without any major injury concerns. Miles Bergman was subbed out with a dodgy knee, but it didn’t look too mangled.
The Port midfield unit of Butters, Rozee, Horne-Francis, Wines, Boak, Burgoyne and Drew is very handy (on paper at least). And whilst they don’t have star power in the forward line, it won’t matter too much if the Port mids get on top. At the other end, Aliir will gobble up aimless long bombs and the rest of the Port back 6 is functional.
Darcy Byrne Jones likely comes back in for Port and if Bergman is indeed ruled out, the chronically underrated Ryan Burton may be a chance to return.
Port will be at near full strength.
The Verdict
The Swans’ form up until last Friday was pretty good, despite all the injuries.
Unfortunately, our fate against Collingwood was sealed at precisely 4.34pm the afternoon prior to the game, when the following appeared on the Match Preview Thread:
Assuming an A-grade mock of this nature does not re-appear this week, the Swans will likely start favorites.
Having said that, the SCG is no longer a fortress, the Swans injury crisis isn’t getting any better and this one could go either way.
Nonetheless, I’m going to predict Swans by 3 goals – without any great degree of confidence.
And if Gianfagna / Stevic are announced as umpires for this week, knock a couple of goals off that margin.
Cheer cheer.
PS: I’m advised that a special fireworks display is scheduled for half-time, to celebrate Zac Butters reaching the $50,000 in AFL fines milestone. Well played Zac, well played indeed. And despite the AFL viewing you as a complete plonker, you’re still a better bloke than Willie Rioli.
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