Round 4 of the AFL 2013 season starts tonight with the match between Sydney Swans and Geelong Cats. The game is set to commence at 7:50pm local time with the match being played at the Sydney Cricket Ground. The home team Sydmey Swans are the current favourites for the match but Geelong have received late support to win the match. View our live scores and results for the game between Sydney Swans and Geelong Cats.
WHERE AND WHEN: SCG, Friday April 19, 7:50pm
Sydney Swans $1.66 vs Geelong Cats $2.28 at Sportsbet Australia
Sydney Swans $1.65 vs Geelong Cats $2.28 at Luxbet Australia
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Preview:
The first match this weekend is the most anticipated, with Sydney taking on Geelong at the SCG, 7.50pm Friday night. With both teams sitting unbeaten on top of the ladder at 12 points, this encounter will be watched closely by everyone. While both teams have won three in a row for 2013, Sydney has had a much easier time of it with wins against GWS and the Gold Coast. In contrast, Geelong have come out on top of tight contests with Hawthorn, North, and Collingwood, all of who were top eight sides last season. Sydney will be hard to beat at home however, and go into this clash as slight favourites against the Cats.
Sydney Swans:
B: Lewis Roberts-Thomson, Heath Grundy, Nick Smith
HB: Marty Mattner, Ted Richards, Nick Malceski
C: Ryan O’Keefe, Kieren Jack, Lewis Jetta
HF: Jude Bolton, Sam Reid, Dan Hannebery
F: Mike Pyke, Adam Goodes, Ben McGlynn
Foll: Shane Mumford, Josh Kennedy, Jarrad McVeigh
I/C: Tony Armstrong, Mitch Morton, Luke Parker, Dane Rampe
Emerg: Craig Bird, Andrejs Everitt, Jesse White
IN: Morton, Rampe
OUT: Bird (omitted), Everitt (omitted)
Geelong Cats:
B: Taylor Hunt, Tom Lonergan, Corey Enright
HB: Joel Corey, Harry Taylor, Andrew Mackie
C: Mitch Duncan, Jimmy Bartel, Billie Smedts
HF: Paul Chapman, James Podsiadly, Steven Motlop
F: Trent West, Tom Hawkins, Steve Johnson
Foll: Mark Blicavs, Joel Selwood, Matthew Stokes
I/C Jared Rivers, Josh Caddy, George Horlin-Smith, Allen Christensen
Emerg: Jordan Murdoch, Mitch Brown, Jackson Thurlow 40
IN: Rivers, Horlin-Smith
OUT: Varcoe (Shoulder), Murdoch (Omitted)
Stats:
HEAD TO HEAD: Played: 212, Sydney 95, Geelong 117
LAST TIME: Geelong 17.10 (112) def Sydney 11.12 (78), Round 23, 2012 at Simmonds Stadium
What a great way to kick of round 4!
The Swans were gifted a good start to this year’s draw with Gold Coast and GWS their first two matches, which they duly won by 41 and 30 points respectively. The took on North Melb last week and despite being slow out of the blocks, reeled in the Kangaroos to win by 41 points.
Geelong has produced outstanding come-from-behind performances to defeat Hawthorn, North Melb and Carlton at their three outings for 2013 thus far, proving that there is still plenty of life in this champion side.
Makes for a cracking match – as has been the case the last four times these two sides of met with honours split two apiece.
Sydney’s two wins have been by six and thirteen points and come up against their stiffest test to date this season.
Recommended Bet: Either team Under 15.5 points at $2.70
Match rivalry:
It ought to be one of the AFL’s fiercest and most famous modern rivalries.
There’s just one thing missing as unbeaten sides Sydney and Geelong prepare to meet at the SCG on Friday night – venom.
They’re the two most successful clubs of the past decade, sharing five flags in that time.
Of the past eight grand finals, only one – in 2010 – hasn’t featured either club.
They’ve had tense, thrilling clashes, including one of recent history’s most memorable finals.
That was their 2005 SCG heart-stopper, when Swan Nick Davis’s four-goal last quarter proved the defibrillator that saved Sydney from seeming near-death but killed off Geelong’s season.
They produced another SCG classic last year, when the Cats came from 35 points down to snatch the lead in time-on in the last term, only to be denied by a late Swans goal.
There’s been an off-season poaching move, when the Cats were forced to trade out ruckman Shane Mumford at the end of 2009 because the Swans offered him more than Geelong could afford under their salary cap.
But somehow – perhaps because the 2005 thriller was their only finals meeting in the past 79 years – none of it has created the enmity that truly ignites a rivalry.
While the Cats and Hawthorn have the Kennett Curse to spice up their meetings, Geelong and the Swans have only mutual admiration.
Maybe it’s because they feel like they’re looking in the mirror, having both built their recent success on a stable, no-fuss culture and emphasis on winning the hard ball.
Swans coach John Longmire says the Cats’ ability to perform on a weekly and yearly basis is a model for his club.
“There is a test every week when you play AFL footy, but Geelong, simply because of what they’ve been able to do over the past six or seven years, puts them right at the top of the tree,” Longmire said.
“They continue to do it week in, week out and they’re never out of the game.”
Geelong’s Chris Scott returned the compliment, saying while the Swans’ game plan had become more sophisticated over the past two seasons, their strength remained the man-on-man, contested football that the Cats also pride themselves on.
But one key difference Scott notes is that Geelong are prepared to give relatively inexperienced players – such as Billie Smedts, Steven Motlop, Taylor Hunt and Mitch Duncan – important midfield jobs, while the Swans rely almost exclusively an an experienced core.
“They’ve got hardly any first to fourth-year players in their team,” he said.
“They’ve got plenty of guys with 200 games or thereabouts experience.
“They’re hard, they’re match-conditioned, they’re always really competitive so it’s going to be a challenge.”
Scott believes the Cats will have to lift their form to match Sydney.
The scene is set for another tight, high-class tussle.
Just not a bitter one.
