- Jude Bolton torched his former club’s efforts on Saturday
- Bolton said it was ‘shameful’ to let the game go uncontested
- Swans humiliated by Lions in AFL decider
Swans great Jude Bolton has torched Sydney’s performance in Saturday’s AFL decider after the team suffered a humiliating 60-point defeat to Brisbane.
After being the best team since round nine and looking like they had their ducks in a row, the Swans were overwhelmed in the second period on Saturday at the MCG and fell to an absolute thrashing by the Brisbane Lions.
This follows their 81-point humiliation against Geelong two years ago.
Bolton, 44, who won two flags with the Bloods in 2005 and 2012, broke into the performance.
“Only 33 tackles from the Swans (up to three quarters),” Bolton posted on X.
“It’s shameful to let it become such an undisputed game and not have any control of football.
‘Belt on strikes. “Fantastic performance by the Lions.”
Since John Longmire led the Swans to an epic grand final victory over Hawthorn in 2012, Sydney has lost its last four deciders.
Swans legend Jude Bolton criticized Sydney’s performance in Saturday’s AFL decider
The Swans were swamped in the second term at the MCG on Saturday
The Hawks reversed the result in 2014 and two years later the Western Bulldogs memorably broke their premiership drought two years later.
They’re not quite the Colliwobbles, but whoever lost on Saturday would face despair given Brisbane had fallen in last year’s grand final.
The fact that these are two big losses in three years compounds Sydney’s pain.
“I don’t think we did our best, compared to what we’ve been doing, and we didn’t do what was required that day,” Longmire said after the game.
“I don’t think we took enough advantage of our run from the beginning. We shot too much.
“Then they hit us at ground level and they were able to recover it, go through us too easily.
“We didn’t put enough pressure around the ball.”
Swans had no answers to Brisbane’s attacking brilliance
The Lions beat Sydney by 60 points to claim their first AFL premiership in more than two decades.
Sydney’s fate was sealed when Brisbane went on a seven-goal rout in the second period, giving them a decisive 46-point lead at the main break.
Nothing worked. Isaac Heeney, so influential in Sydney’s two final victories, finally succumbed to the stress fracture (Longmire called it a stress reaction), had been suffering from a shin splint and had had a bad day.
But Longmire has backed Sydney to bounce back, pointing out that they have done it before after a major final heartbreak and have the stamina to do it again.
“It’s a hard thing to do; you’d rather get in the ring and swing than stand on the outside looking in,” he said of reaching the grand finals.
‘In the end, we were able to put ourselves in a position where we had an opportunity and we didn’t take advantage of it today. We didn’t pass the test.
‘We have a group of people, on the other side of the football club, who are capable of doing that. “It’s very difficult to win it if you’re not in it.”
This is also the second time, after the Bulldogs in 2016, that a club has beaten Sydney to the flag after emerging from outside the top four.
It will put a new focus on the pre-finals break, introduced in 2016. While the Lions gained strength with three consecutive games before the grand final, Sydney had the week off after winning their qualifying final.
“I’m not going to attribute it to that, but it’s not the advantage it once was,” Longmire said of earning the double shot by finishing in the top four.