Footy legends Jason Dunstall and Alastair Lynch could barely believe their eyes watching Charlie Curnow suffer a mental meltdown during the Swans’ win over Gold Coast.
Sydney had too much class for the Suns and the 14.16 (100) to 9.14 (68) win at Norwood Oval on Saturday took the Swans to the top of the ladder.
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Sydney pulled off the win despite finishing the match with a diabolical set shot record of three goals and 12 behinds.
Curnow was the worst offender, finishing the match with 0.4 and one kick that went out on the full nowhere near the behind post.
The former Carlton gun’s dreadful night at the office was captured brutally in the third quarter when he missed from point-blank range when trying a snap from the edge of the goal square.
His shank left footy greats bewildered.
Dunstall said on Fox Footy:
“He just can’t miss from there. He cannot. I was about to say he’d have to fall over to miss that and he fell over,” he said.
“Poor old Dean Cox. He’s going, ‘Serious, what do we have to do to get a goal?’”
When Curnow kicked the ball out on the full from outside the 50m ark moments later, Dunstall said Curnow would be looking to handball off any set shots he had for the rest of the game.
“He’ a little bit scrambled between the ears at the moment,” he said.
“Just a little bit scrambled.”
Former Geelong forward Josh Jenkins said on SEN: “He’s all at sea with his kicking today”.
Another SEN commentator said: “He would not get a kick in a street fight at the moment. That’s a stinker”.
To make matters worse for Sydney’s forward line, Joel Amartey also kicked 0.3 for the match.
Outside of the forward 50m arc, it was an impressive display by the Swans.
Isaac Heeney put on a masterclass in racking up 33 possessions (18 contested), 11 tackles, 10 clearances, seven forward entries, five score assists and two majors to be the most influential player on the ground.
The Swans’ relentless pressure stood out and was underscored by their domination of the tackle count (96-52), while they also finished with comfortable gaps in contested possessions (151-135) and disposals (391-333).
Chad Warner was also important with 22 touches (13 contested), six tackles, five clearances, nine inside 50s and two goals, and ruckman Brodie Grundy starred again with 20 disposals (10), seven clearances, 36 hitouts and a career-high 12 tackles (all achieved before the last quarter).
Cox hailed Heeney as “phenomenal” after the game.
“I just can’t ever question what he does on the football field,” Cox said.
“His effort’s phenomenal, (so is) his attention to detail, and he performs on the biggest stage as often as anyone does.
“And that’s why he’s the player that he is but he was phenomenal again tonight – really tough and uncompromising.”
Meanwhile, Gold Coast failed to take a contested mark all game, while the Swans recorded 10.
After making a barnstorming start to the season with three wins in a row by an average of 10 goals, and being installed premiership favourites, the Suns have now lost back-to-back games and Suns coach Damien Hardwick insisted they weren’t in the top tier of teams yet.
Hardwick was bemused by the fact that the Suns failed to take a contested mark for the entire game.
“I haven’t seen that before,” he said.
“There was opportunities I thought we got hands to the ball. We just didn’t nail them.”
— With NewsWire
