“It’s a worry”: King's major concern with Sydney's tall timber

Although Sydney got the job done in a hotly contested Qualifying derby against GWS, there may be alarm bells surrounding the Swans’ tall timber.

The six-point victory was a product of an impressive final term anchored by the likes of Isaac Heeney, Tom Papley and Chad Warner, and despite Joel Amartey kicking the goal to win the game, the Bloods’ key forward stocks failed to add much to the sides’ late charge.

Amartey and Logan McDonald lined up as the two key talls up front, with Hayden McClean as a ruck/forward rotation.

Between them, the forwards managed just two goals, combining for just 23 disposals, of which only 11 occurred in the front half.

“We’ve talked about them all year, the tall forwards (at Sydney),” David King told SEN Whateley.

“They’ve never looked more impotent than they did on the weekend. (Joel) Amartey couldn’t draw you (a goal). For 120 minutes he didn’t know where it was going.

“He is not the only player to not beat (Sam) Taylor, and maybe his role was to take him out of the way a little bit, but he could have been three-foot-six instead of six-foot-six to kick that last goal, (Tom) Papley did all the heavy lifting for him.”

Logan McDonald spent a majority of the first half down back, collecting seven touches with little impact before being shifted forward, where he managed a goal and just one disposal inside the forward 50.

“McDonald, he did some things that really hurt the team on the weekend,” King continued.

“The non-give when the game was hot in the last quarter, when he picked it up and snapped it, he had two Swans teammates in front of him saying ‘give us the ball and we’ll tap it through’.

“He didn’t give it. He lunged with one hand a couple of times that were costly turnovers, he had some very ordinary kicking.”

“It just makes me wonder, I know (Sydney have) come a long way with this structure, are you rusted on, that this is how it should look? Are you one tall too heavy in the forward line?

“It’s one of things that John (Longmire) will say ‘this is what we do’ and I understand that, but it’s a worry.”

With Amartey and McDonald featuring in 22 and 23 games respectively through the home and away season, it is difficult to imagine Longmire makes any drastic changes with just two weeks to prepare for their Preliminary final.