‘Devised a plan’: Evidence of huge Swans shift revealed in ‘unthinkable’ flag chase

The Swans took the AFL by storm in the first half of the season with their scintillating forward-handball game.

But as they prepare to host an unlikely preliminary final on Friday night, it’s a wildly contrasted style of play that has them in with a chance of booking another grand final ticket.

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It’s no secret the Swans are missing superstars, with Isaac Heeney, Chad Warner and Nick Blakey all suspended for the rest of the season for breaching behavioural standards.

And without that significant chunk of star-factor talent, dual All-Australian Leigh Montagna believes senior coach Dean Cox “devised a plan” to win in September a different way.

The Australian Football Media Association’s newly-minted Best Analyst explained on Thursday night how the Swans might be able to pull off “the unthinkable” against the Dockers at the SCG.

“It does look to me like Dean Cox, over the bye, devised a plan with the personnel he has, to say ‘how can we win September without our gun playmakers and our line-breaking playmakers?’” Montagna began on Fox Footy’s First Crack Preview.

“Because all season long, we’ve spoken about Sydney’s handball game, and how it revolutionised the first half of the season. Teams couldn’t handle it.

“And then slowly, they’ve been looking at different ways. But the way they played in the qualifying final against Brisbane makes me think that they’ve changed it up.”

For the season, Cox’s Swans have ranked first in the AFL for handballs, first for handball metres gained, and third for disposals.

But in their stirring 53-point qualifying final win over Brisbane, they registered season-lows for disposals and handballs.

Instead, according to Champion Data, the Swans posted a season-high for ‘long kicks’ and their second-highest contested possession rate this year.

“They’ve almost completely flipped their game style, come finals,” Montagna said.

“By far it was the most long kicks they’ve had — not just a couple, it was 14 more long kicks than they’ve had in any other game this season, which meant they played a high-contest game.

“It was their highest pressure differential game since Round 11, and it just looks to me like the coaching staff have said, ‘Right, we are going to win in September by playing a contest and pressure style of game, as opposed to our handball game and the metres handball game that won us so many games in the home and away season’.”

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In vision from the Brisbane final exhibited by the First Crack team, examples showed that even when the Swans had streaming numbers to use to run and carry and handball, they instead opted to kick long.

One passage saw Gulden, Sydney’s best decision-maker with the footy, overlook three handballing options in the corridor and go long by foot inside 50.

“All season long, we’ve seen them use their numbers to give the forward handball and run and carry, but there was no doubt an intent in this game to just drive the ball in long and deep (and) give our tall forwards a chance,” Montagna continued.

“But if the forwards couldn’t get it, we’re going to get numbers front square … a lot of the time it was one handball and drive it in deep.

“And use the players, the role players that are now in the side — Dattoli, Cleary, Sheldrick, all these guys — to say ‘Right, what we want you to do, we’re going to drive it in, get to the contest, either try and win it and set up a score, or you pressure like all hell and get after the opposition.

“And I just wonder whether this could be a masterstroke. If they’re able to pull it off … this method of just relying on pressure and contest and role players to give themselves a chance, I think they’re full of confidence, and they could do this.”

Dual premiership player David King acknowledged what Cox and the Swans have been able to do in “one of the most unique situations we’ve ever seen”, but he remained apprehensive about their chances.

“They’ve gone to work and devised something that they think will give them an opportunity,” he said on Fox Footy.

“But I’m just looking at Fremantle, at almost pure health, coming up against an undermanned Sydney Swans … this would be some sort of coaching performance.”

Watch Leigh Montagna’s Swans breakdown on First Crack Preview in the video player below:

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