The Gold Coast SUNS came up against a formidable Sydney Swans outfit in Round 2 of the VFL at Metricon Stadium on Saturday morning.
A SUNS side was boosted by the return of ruckman Zac Smith from a knee injury and he took his place alongside Will Brodie, Alex Davies and Darcy Macpherson at the first centre bounce.
After a strong performance in Round 1, Patrick Murtagh led the SUNS forward line joined by Joel Jeffrey, Malcolm Rosas Jnr, Rory Atkins and Hewago Paul Oea.
Jarrod Harbrow came back to the VFL and lined up alongside Jack Hombsch, Jordan Murdoch, Rhys Nicholls and Aiden Fyfe.
In a tight start, the SUNS bought plenty of pressure early, but it was the Swans who got the first two goals of the morning after the SUNS kicked four straight behinds to start the contest.
SUNS got on the board late in the first quarter when Rosas Jnr found Macpherson with a smart kick Inside 50. Macpherson went back from 40m out on a slight angle and the kick never looked like missing.
Swans led by five points at the first break, Will Brodie with 11 touches and Zac Smith with nine hit outs.
In similar fashion to the first quarter, Sydney got the first three goals of the second.
Strong pressure in the middle of the ground a string of tackles led to a deep inside 50 from Jeremy Sharp as Rory Atkins cleverly kept the ball in play and handballed to Macpherson who had an easy second for the day.
An impressive gut busting run from Hewago Paul Oea from well inside his own half ended in him finding academy product Will Bella open in the goal square to get the SUNS third goal of the afternoon.
SUNS coaches would have been pleased after a strong contested mark on centre wing from Smith saw Alex Davies dish off to Macpherson, who kicked to Bella who marked in a one on one contest.
A high scoring second quarter saw the SUNS kick five goals to the Swans four to take a one-point lead into halftime.
Zac Smith notched a goal to his name on return to the side after working hard forward and taking a strong mark from an Hewago Paul Oea centring kick.
The SUNS took a 17-point lead into the final term.
Will Brodie made sure the SUNS were finishing off the game strong with two goals in the final quarter.
However, the Swans weren’t going to give up though and kicked three goals straight, in quick succession to bring them within a kick.
But steadying goals from the SUNS including one in the final two minutes from Academy product Will Bella (brother of SUNS AFLW player Lauren Bella) saw the SUNS over the line for a 14-point win.
Q1 SUNS 1.4.10 v Swans 2.3.15
Q2 SUNS 6.7.43 v Swans 6.6.42
Q3 SUNS 10.8.68 v Swans 7.9.51
Q4 SUNS 14.11.95 v Swans 12.9.81
Best: Johnson, Macpherson, Rosas Jnr, Sharp, Brodie, Oea, Fiorini
