SYDNEY 4.4 10.7 14.7 20.11 (131) CARLTON 3.2 4.5 6.10 10.11 (71)
GOALS Sydney: Tippett 4, Franklin 4, Sinclair 3, Kennedy 2, Papley 2, Robinson, Hewett, Cunningham, Heeney, Parker. Carlton: Casboult 2, Kerridge 2, Everitt, Boekhorst, Gibbs, Curnow, Kreuzer, Murphy.
BEST Sydney: Mitchell, Hannebery, Sinclair, Papley, Kennedy, Franklin. Carlton: Wright, Weitering, Thomas, Gibbs, Docherty, Kerridge.
UMPIRES Jeffery, Findlay, Mollison.
CROWD 33,146 at Etihad Stadium.
Carlton came into Sunday evening's game against Sydney in a buoyant frame of mind. Rarely are season-opening defeats as heartwarming as the loss to Richmond 10 days earlier.
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The Swans have powered away from Carlton in a sometimes spiteful encounter in Melbourne.
Words like organisation, structure, system and endeavour replaced the less charitable adjectives that had dogged the Mick Malthouse years, when exasperated fans bemoaned watching a team that had regressed while seemingly everyone else evolved. From the MCG terraces on opening night came other gleeful exhortations: Cripps! Weitering! Kerridge! Murphy!
Against an opponent that had won its previous eight games at Etihad Stadium and not been bettered down by the docks since 2012, a 10-goal defeat was something of a reminder that for all Brendon Bolton is doing to transport the Blues from the past into football's present and future, he hasn't got a Delorean time machine.
In his post-game debrief Bolton told his players they needed to look no further for a template of what they aspire to become than down the corridor to the opposing dressing room. He called the Swans a well-oiled machine with a powerful culture, praise delivered with more than a hint of envy.
A lack of polish undid them against the Tigers, but Sydney exposed a deficiency common in developing teams - lack of consistency at the contest. Take away the third quarter and the Swans won the contested possession count by 34.
Yet there were still shards of light to guide Blues' fans into the night. The game began with one particular change to normal transmission that hadn't been mustered against the Tigers, fuelling optimism that this could be the exclamation mark on a weekend of upsets.Â
Inside three minutes they made their first positive foray down the waterside wing, Sam Kerridge gathered and propped, letting friend and foe alike wash past him in a mini-reprisal of Michael Long in the 1993 grand final. At length he roosted inside 50 and Levi Casboult marked.
The most tormented goalkicker in the game went back, paced through his routine and split the middle from 45 metres. When Kerridge kicked the second of the game five minutes later all in navy were up and about. It was a false dawn; Casboult had just one more scoring shot (incidentally another long-range goal for a 100 percent success rate) and the Blues managed only eight more for the night.
By the last quarter they were wilting, failing to match red and white numbers around the ball and allowing Sydney to open them up and kick goals of apparent ease. A familiar angst seeped through the crowd, but then Michael Jamison denied Lance Franklin a four-bounce goal, Dale Thomas outmarked Buddy, and Charlie Curnow kicked his first in navy blue.
This isn't the Carlton of old, and for reassurance the home fans needed only look to the No.23 at the heart of their defence. One of the early joys of 2016 has been the wealth of first-year talent, and with another performance of composure and creativity beyond his years Jacob Weitering kept his name at the heart of the rising star conversation.
Gains can take the form of grinding perseverance. In the opening 12 minutes of the second quarter the Swans went forward nine times but had only a Harry Cunningham goal to show for it. A Matthew Kreuzer 50-metre penalty squared the ledger for the term, and if the gods of football fractions hadn't denied Blaine Boekhorst with a shaved poster, Charlie Curnow's athletic snap and Patrick Cripps another shot that found timber they might have been in front.
Instead the Swans piled on six in a row to effectively bank a win that was underpinned by a greater spread of class and a knack for kicking goals in clusters. Assuredly there will be many more "what ifs" in this period of navy blue change and growth, which is a much less frustrating lament than a long winter of plaintive cries of "why".