Sydney overcame an early dose of the goalkicking yips to beat a tenacious Gold coast team by 19 points in a NAB Cup match at Blacktown on Saturday.
Late goals to ruckman Shane Mumford, rookie Harry Cunningham and midfielder Jarrad McVeigh broke an 84-84 deadlock, with Sydney winning 14.19 (103) to 13.6 (84).
Mumford amassed 42 hitouts in a strong performance around the ground.
Sydney led by seven points after the first quarter despite kicking a horrendous 1.7 for the term and nine of their first 10 scoring shots were behinds.
Conversely, the Suns were far less wasteful, kicking nine goal from their first 11 shots.
Sparked by two early second-quarter goals from Daniel Gorringe and a major to 18-year-old Jaeger O’Meara, Gold Coast kicked six majors to two in the period to lead by 15 at halftime.
The Swans kicked the first four goals of the third quarter and eight majors to four in the term to lead by 11 at the last change.
Gold Coast forged ahead by one point in the final quarter, before Sydney produced their decisive late flurry.
One potential worry for Sydney was young speedster Gary Rohan who limped off the ground in the first half.
Sydney coach John Longmire gave a number of players a run up forward in support of Sam Reid, who was held goalless by Matthew Warnock.
Versatile Lewis Roberts-Thomson kicked two set shot goals from close to 50 metres in the second quarter and Andrejs Everitt kicked 1.4 for the game.
Gary Ablett and Daniel Gorringe booted three goals, with the latter also tallying 24 touches, one behind David Swallow.
Josh Kennedy led Sydney’s possession getters with 34.