Last time they met - 2011 Semi final

Hawthorn 3.5 10.5 12.6 19.8  (122)
Sydney Swans 0.1 4.1 9.6 13.8  (86)

Best: Hawthorn - Gibson, Hodge, Mitchell, Smith, Burgoyne, Hale, Franklin, Puopolo. Sydney Swans - Kennedy, Mumford, Goodes, McVeigh, Shaw, Bolton.

Crowd: 55,198 at MCG

The Swans are always a tough opponent, and it seems that this season they have improved once again. When looking at the overall team stats, the Swans are prevalent in all the key performance indicators in which teams are reliant.

The Swans’ ruck division is particularly dominant, with Shane Mumford and Mark Seaby able to compete well both at the centre bounces and at ground level. The two ruckman are complimented by an ever-improving on-ball brigade consisting of former Hawk, Josh Kennedy, Kieran Jack, Jude Bolton and Daniel Hannebery. The blue-collar midfield has started the 2012 season in outstanding fashion, ranked third in the competition for clearances, only six behind league-leader, Carlton.

All sides place an emphasis on winning the contest ball, and Sydney, under former coach Paul Roos were arguably the ones who started the trend. The Swans have, in recent years always played a tough, contested, finals-like defensive brand of football and they are arguably the masters and shutting the game down. That history has enabled the Swans to do what is in their nature - win the contested football and be ranked second in the competition - just 23 behind the Crows.

The Hawks, however, aren’t strangers to a hard, contested brand of football as this season’s Hawthorn team is the number one ranked side for tackles, a feature of their game to date. The Swans, ranked fourth combine their contested ball-winning ability with the desire to shut down their opponents’ time and space - something that will be on show on Sunday. If these stats are anything to go by, we may well be in for another hard-fought battle to the last second contest befitting of a final on Sunday.

As the Swans look to close down their opponents’ running capabilities, they struggle too, to use their spread to get the ball out in space. Ranked 17th in the competition for uncontested possessions, it is more a reflection of the style of football the Swans choose to play, rather than their opponents shutting down their outside running players like Lewis Jetta.

Contributing too, is the fact that the Swans have played two of their opening four matches at the SCG, a notoriously small and narrow ground. The stats are unreflecting of Sydney’s run and spread capabilities, boasting a number of damaging players if allowed time and space. Names like Lewis Jetta, Hannebery, Nick Malceski, Rhyce Shaw and Adam Goodes hurt their opposition if allowed time and space.

Coach Alastair Clarkson will be aware, however, of the Swans’ marking ability up forward. Despite boasting one of the best young key position forwards in the competition, Sam Reid, the Swans are ranked 17th in the competition for marks inside their forward 50. The ability of the Hawks defence to create a third-man-up situation will be important to expose this perceived weakness.


Brendon Bolton: "We know up forward for them they’ve got some real firepower. Ben McGlynn, Lewis Jetta and Sam Reid they’re all very dangerous forwards. To put it down to one thing to win this game is difficult, we’ve just got to be good for 120 minutes across lots of different areas."


Brad Sewell: “They’re exceptional and their players (in the midfield) are playing particularly well at the moment. They’ve got a terrific on-ball brigade and they just have a crack every time so it’ll be a big game."


Sam Griffiths on Facebook: "Short, sharp and quick movement up the ground to a one on one target - no long bombs to a pack situation to give forwards the best chance. We’ll need to slow down the opposition coming out of our 50 and our contested possession count needs to be high as well as the tackle count. Win those two areas and you’re on your way to a good result."