HUNTER Sydney Swans star Isaac Heeney’s break-out AFL season has ended in a tense, shattering grand final loss to the Cinderella-tale Western Bulldogs.
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Heeney brought his customary workload to the biggest game of his career so far, tallying 22 disposals to be among the Swans’ leading contributors.
But the 20-year-old could do little to influence a knife-edge final quarter, which slipped by the Swans as the Bulldogs finished with a rush of goals.
As the partisan crowd counted down and roared the final siren, Heeney dropped to his haunches near the Swans’ goalposts, head in hands. He stayed there as the Bulldogs’ bench emptied onto the ground around him, then got up to congratulate the winners and stand with his teammates for the trophy presentation.
Three hours earlier, Heeney had warmed up in sunshine for his first grand final as one of the most watched and scrutinised players on the MCG.
Betting markets had him in the second tier of favourites – behind the likes of Swans teammate Lance Franklin and the Bulldogs’ Marcus Bontempelli - to win the Norm Smith Medal for best on ground.
Melbourne shopfront ads had featured the neon-blond Swan heavily in the days leading up to the game. The camera lingered on him during the warm-up, and applause greeted his appearance on the stadium screen.
With the promise his mother Rochelle would whistle her piercing whistle above the throng of the MCG – “it’d put a tradie to shame,” quipped Heeney’s father Adam – the boy from Stockrington had no shortage of support.
Black Diamond AFL players from across bitter club divides packed into the Duke of Wellington Hotel in New Lambton, as Hunter viewers got behind their first AFL grand finalist since the Swans’ Craig Bird in 2012.
All would be disappointed, a mood diametrically reversed south of the Murray as the Bulldogs won their first flag since 1954 and did it from seventh on the ladder.
Sydney toiled and failed to break down the Dogs’ midfield and defence, led by backman and Norm Smith medallist Jason Johannisen, which jammed them across half back, forced them into long kicks down the line and made turn-overs into counterattack.
Heeney went goalless and had more the “OK in a beaten side” impact his old Cardiff Hawks coach Adam Dugan surmised of his game in the Swans’ finals loss to Greater Western Sydney, than the dynamism of his efforts against Adelaide and Geelong.
It was that kind of afternoon for Sydney. Few will begrudge the Dogs. Heeney ended his second AFL season with a runners-up medal and a glittering future in the game. Still to be measured, also, is the influence his rising star will have on the health of Aussie rules football in the Hunter.
AFL Grand Final 2016
Western Bulldogs 13.11.89
Sydney Swans 10.7.67