MCG, Saturday 29th September.
Fittingly, the two best teams during the season face off for the 2012 Premiership Flag. The Swans are aiming for their first Grand Final victory since defeating West Coast in 2005 and their first appearance since 2006, where they lost by an agonising point to the same team. Hawthorn will be looking at making it two flags in five years having won the premiership in 2008 – their last appearance in a Grand Final. Sydney’s first final was a daunting task, having to travel to Adelaide to take on the Crows whose home record this season was impeccable however, as the Swans have shown all season, they are not to be underestimated and secured the second week of the finals off, by running out victors by 29 points. Last week, they broke an eleven match losing streak against Collingwood and secured their place in this weekend’s final by posting 26 point victory. As Minor Premiers, the Hawks were super impressive in their first final of 2012, drumming Collingwood by 38 points which earned them a spot in the Preliminary final against Adelaide last week. It was a much tougher assignment than most expected and despite leading comfortably by 22 points late in the third quarter, the Hawks momentarily lost the lead in the last quarter before two late goals by stars, Buddy Franklin and Cyril Rioli, saw them scrape home with a five point win.
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Last week Hawthorn were without inspirational leader Luke Hodge who was reportedly struck down with a bout of gastro. Hodge is a confirmed starter this week and the 2008 Norm Smith Medalist will be a big boost for the Hawks. For Sydney Ben McGlynn hasn’t been able to overcome the hamstring injury suffered in the Swans win over Adelaide in the first week of the finals and it looks as though Mitch Morton, who made his debut for the Swans in Round 21, will be named in the starting line-up. The sides have met twice this season. Firstly in way back in round five at Aurora Stadium where the Swans triumphed 106-69, handing the Hawks their third defeat from the opening five rounds. Since then the Hawks have only lost two matches and had their revenge in Round 21 over the Swans winning narrowly at the SCG, 102 – 95. At the completion of the regular season, Sydney had the best defensive record of the competition; the Hawks conceded only an additional 104 points from their 24 games. It’s in attack ability that there appears to be a significant difference between the two sides with the Hawks having accumulated 389 (approx 64 goals) more than Sydney. The Sydney defence will be hard to crack and the Hawks will have to kick truer than last week’s 13.19 effort however, the Hawks have averaged 132 points per game since round 15 this year and during that time have only twice failed to surpass the 100 point mark (95 v West Coast and 97 v Adelaide last week), in the end, they should have too many guns for the Swans.
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