Sydney are sweating on the fitness of Aliir Aliir after the in-form defender suffered a knee injury in the Swans’ AFL preliminary final romp over Geelong.
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Swans were simply too good for the Cats after storming into a massive early lead.
But Sydney medical staff strapped the joint in the second term and appeared set to send him back on the field before the decision was made to put him on ice.
A first quarter scoreline of 44-5 to Sydney signalled the bloodbath to come and the Cats slipped 10 points further behind by half-time despite finally kicking a couple of goals.
But by that stage the game was already lost, as the Swans cruised through the final stages knowing they were going to their third Grand Final in five seasons.
GWS Giants will meet the Western Bulldogs in the other preliminary final at Spotless Stadium on Saturday having had the same three-week period with only one game.
Injuries: Sydney – Aliir Aliir (knee), Luke Parker (knee).
Geelong veteran Jimmy Bartel, who kicked a great goal in the second term, faces an uncertain AFL future.
Asked what happened to his team in the opening quarter, Scott said the Swans were extraordinarily efficient with the ball and forced his team into errors with their relentless pressure.
“This is finals footy – you’re not going to have it all your own way”, he said. We were confident going in, and we thought we gave ourselves every chance.
“They were a lot cleaner around the contest than we were and they tackled really well”.
Aliir joins Jarrad McVeigh (calf) and Callum Mills (hamstring) as key injury concerns before the grand final.
“So are we”, was Longmire’s response.
Cats coach Chris Scott said their opinion on the finals bye was unchanged – that they would rather have had it.
“I said a fortnight ago I wouldn’t be sitting here if we don’t get the result saying, “it was the bye in round 23 that killed us”.
“It was completely in our control and we just didn’t deliver”.
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“We clearly need to analyse how we approached it”.
