GOLD COAST 3.2 4.5 5.5Â 6.5 (41)
SYDNEY 1.3 6.6 8.13 11.13Â (79)
Goals - Gold Coast: Sexton Davis Lonergan Lynch Rosa Matera. Sydney: Rohan 2 Parker 2 Sinclair Lloyd Franklin Rose Mitchell Jack Heeney.
Best – Gold Coast: Rosa Ablett Miller Prestia. Sydney: Tippett Mitchell Hannebery Rohan Jack Kennedy.
Injuries – Gold Coast: Lonergan (knee). Sydney: Hewett (concussion).
Umpires: Rosebury O'Gorman Wallace.
Crowd: 4368 at Metricon Stadium.
Ten minutes before this game's first bounce, fog was illuminated well below the light towers of Metricon Stadium. Water had pooled on the wing and sidelines around the player dugouts. A massive east coast low had already dumped more than  100 millimetres of rain at the Gold Coast seaway since 9am.
The elements literally hung over this game, which was never going to be anything but the toughest of wet-weather slogs. As the Gold Coast and Sydney  players' boots churned up the turf and the rain worsened, so the pools of water grew, conjuring memories of the Swans as South Melbourne, when their home  was Lakeside Oval.
The conditions doubled appreciation for the most routine skills, but they didn't halve the gap between two sides at opposite ends of the ladder. While both teams threw themselves desperately at the contest – 246 tackles were laid in the match, 131 by the Swans – it was acts of dry-weather skill that tilted the game their way.
Like Gary Rohan's speed and clean hands in close. Or Isaac Heeney, hitting Lance Franklin on the chest for the champion to roll through his first. Most outrageously, Luke Parker dribbling through a check-side goal in the second quarter, the Swans' fifth in 15 minutes to wrest the initiative from the Suns, who had won the first quarter.
The Swans' greater efficiency was borne out by the statistics: while the Suns won the contested possessions and only  lost the entries inside their forward 50 by two, it was the Swans that made more of their opportunities, despite kicking a wasteful 2.7 in the third quarter. Still, a 26-point lead entering the final quarter was as good as 50.
The Suns just didn't have enough players capable of breaking the game open. Once, Gary Ablett might have been the difference in this kind of match; the champion never stopped working, but his 13 tackles belied the truth; that he was beaten to the ball for much of the night by Tom Mitchell, who laid 14 tackles of his own.
Then there was the old adage about big men not getting any smaller as the game goes on. Kurt Tippett was a colossus for the Swans in a game that demanded everything from its ruckmen. And while it wasn't a night for key forwards, Franklin had the edge in an absorbing duel with Steven May.
In the last quarter, the differences between the two sides widened, both in class and on the scoreboard. Rohan, the silkiest player in the sloppiest conditions all night, snapped his second goal; Parker likewise drilled a set shot from near the boundary on his wrong side, arguably an even better goal than his first.
The Suns also have worries with the Match Review Panel on Monday, with star forward Tom Lynch reported in the final quarter for striking Jeremy Laidler in the stomach. There didn't look much in it, but it was still an ill-disciplined act.
It was scarcely a surprise that the crowd figure of 4368 was a record low, many of them Swans fans who had flown up for what they probably thought would be a pleasant weekend away. Given the conditions, really, everyone who turned up deserves free entry in a fortnight.Â
GOLD COAST v SYDNEY
Votes
K Tippett (SS) 8
T Mitchell (SS) 8
G Rohan (SS) 7
D Hannebery (SS) 7
K Jack (SS) 7