Inside Eddie Betts\u2019 selfless act for Pies star<\/a><\/p>\nStar Swans defender Nick Blakey was also dominant with a career-best 39 disposals to go with 10 marks and 893 metres gained.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s huge, it\u2019s Friday night and a packed crowd,\u201d Blakey said post-match.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was the story of our games the last few weeks, we\u2019re just not at our best.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is hard to stay up for so long and we started the season so well, but far out we just keep finding a way to win and I\u2019m just so proud of this group.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were up against it (early) and could have easily folded over and thought it was a bit too hard, but never say die.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was Rowy\u2019s (James Rowbottom\u2019s) 150th and how fitting that the toughest bloke on the ground relays that last tackle (on Dan Houston in the dying seconds).<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just so proud of him as he does all the grunt work and lets the rest of the boys flourish.<\/p>\n
\u201cFar out, I\u2019m stoked with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
It sets up a mouth-watering top four clash between Sydney and Geelong, coming off a road win over reigning premier Brisbane, at GMHBA Stadium next week. <\/p>\n
The 3-2-1 (what we learned) …<\/p>\n
3. SWANS STAR TAKES FULL ADVANTAGE AFTER \u2018DISASTROUS\u2019 PIES BLOW<\/p>\n
Already missing Darcy Cameron, a knee injury concern to Oscar Steene against Brodie Grundy at a wet SCG was some turning point on the night. <\/p>\n
And Grundy took full advantage in a dominant performance from the star ruckman. <\/p>\n
Steene\u2019s knee buckled during a contest in the third quarter in a costly blow for the black and white.<\/p>\n
After being grounded for some time, Steene went straight down to the rooms in what looked like a potential serious injury concern. The young ruckman soon after was ruled out for the rest of the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey can ill afford to lose him… this would be disastrous for the Pies,\u201d Hawks great Jason Dunstall said.<\/p>\n
Brisbane champion Alastair Lynch added: \u201cDon\u2019t like the look of that. It collapsed inside, that doesn\u2019t look good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brodie Grundy had his way with Collingwood (Photo by Phil Hillyard)Source: News Corp Australia<\/p>\n
Grundy completely took over with 32 disposals, 24 contested, one goal, 12 clearances and 47 hit-outs to give his midfield full ascendancy.<\/p>\n
The Swans dominated contested possessions (+16) and inside 50s (+15) to constant put the Magpies under siege.<\/p>\n
\u201cBrodie Grundy just took over a game like you don\u2019t see players do too often these days,\u201d Melbourne legend Garry Lyon said. <\/p>\n
Even prior to Buller\u2019s injury, Grundy was a problem.<\/p>\n
Dunstall noted Collingwood backup ruck Jack Buller was giving away too many free kicks to Grundy in a \u201cbig issue,\u201d while Lynch noted the Swans star ruckman\u2019s \u201cdominance\u201d was a \u201cmassive concern.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the end it had a massive say on the game. <\/p>\n
2. SWANS \u2018TIDAL WAVE\u2019 \u2018COMPLETELY FLIPPED\u2019 GAME<\/p>\n
The Swans went bang, alright. <\/p>\n
Sydney\u2019s dominant third quarter blitz \u201ccompletely flipped\u201d Friday night\u2019s game in a frightening burst from the home side.<\/p>\n
It was irrepressible.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust a tidal wave of momentum in Sydney\u2019s favour,\u201d Hawks legend Jason Dunstall said. <\/p>\n
\u201cDominant possession, dominant territory and now they\u2019re starring to take their opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tom Papley kicked two goals for Sydney (Photo by Phil Hillyard)Source: News Corp Australia<\/p>\n
Dean Cox\u2019s side had started to turn the game during the second term after Collingwood\u2019s red-hot start. <\/p>\n
But the third quarter was something else. <\/p>\n
The hosts kicked six goals to two as they finally capitalised on their good play. <\/p>\n
That included Sydney dominating in points from turnovers (+14), points from clearances (+9), contested possessions, (+2) and inside 50s (+17) as it was all one-way traffic. <\/p>\n
They aren\u2019t the ladder leaders for nothing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe could see the game starting to turn late in that second quarter. And it completely flipped on its head in that third quarter,\u201d Geelong great Cameron Mooney said at three-quarter time.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust had all the game in their half.\u201d<\/p>\n
1. \u2018THEY WERE BRAVE\u2019: YOUNG PIES IMPRESS<\/p>\n
There was a lot made of Collingwood\u2019s decision to manage Scott Pendlebury this week in addition to Darcy Moore, Darcy Cameron and Patrick Lipinski missing through injury. <\/p>\n
But a youthful Magpies side was \u201cbrave\u201d and showed its chops against the benchmark of the competition on Friday night. <\/p>\n
Collingwood, the most experienced side in the competition, had eight players with 20 games or less at the SCG as its youngsters got a proper chance to show what they could do. <\/p>\n
The likes of Ned Long, Angus Anderson and Ed Allan showed great fight through the midfield, while sparkplugs Will Hayes and Roan Steele provided energy with some bright moments. <\/p>\n
It had the early makings of a signature backs-to-the-wall Collingwood win on the road. But Sydney overwhelmed Craig McRae\u2019s side in the second half. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey took some beating the Collingwood Football Club. They were brave,\u201d Demons great Garry Lyon said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey led by 33 points at the 17-minute mark of the second quarter \u2014 a quarter in which they kicked 1.7 \u2014 they\u2019ll be ruing the missed opportunities.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the top-of-the-table Swans, like a vert good side does, found a way to win when they are nowhere near their best.\u201d<\/p>\n
Triple-premiership Cat Tom Hawkins says the Pies lost no admirers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were terrific tonight,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir young kids, we lauded them in the first half. I thought they really stuck the game out really well.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut in the end Sydney just controlled the game <\/p>\n
Recap Sydney v Collingwood in our live blog below!<\/p>\n
If you can\u2019t see the blog, tap here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sydney has survived a big Collingwood scare in an epic second-half comeback as Brodie Grundy took full advantage…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[23,133,531,6522,527,12878,12877,368,260,120,12879,8621,415,12876,247,5009,5007,12838,6642,5003,68],"class_list":["post-12064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sydney","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-ben-cotton","tag-charlie-curnow","tag-collingwood-magpies","tag-darcy-cameron","tag-darcy-moore","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-melbourne","tag-oceania","tag-patrick-lipinski","tag-robert-cianflone","tag-scott-pendlebury","tag-seventh-straight-win","tag-sydney","tag-sydney-swans","tag-sydney-v","tag-toby-bedford","tag-toby-greene","tag-tom-mccartin","tag-victoria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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