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Hall stands tall for Swans

14/06/2003 10:04:23 PM Comments (0)

A Barry Hall inspired Sydney celebrated a landmark appearance for captain Stuart Maxfield by ending its run of outs against the Western Bulldogs with a 64 point victory in their AFL clash at the SCG.

The Swans trailed by eight points at halftime, but kicked six goals to one in the third before finishing off to win 19.13 (127) to 9.9 (63) in what was technically a Bulldogs home game.

Up by 12 points at the first break, the Bulldogs increased their lead to 19 in the second term, but Sydney dominated proceedings from that point.

The Swans kicked 12 goals to one in the second half, limiting the Bulldogs to just three behinds in the final period.

It was Sydney's first win in six matches against the Bulldogs and its first in five tussles against them at the SCG.

The Bulldogs, winless since round one, fought gallantly in a closely contested first half but ran out of legs and fit players after the long break.

Back Steven Kretiuk left the field in the second quarter with a calf injury while Brian Harris and Wayde Skipper also spent time on the bench with injury.

At one stage, Maxfield looked as if he could spend a significant portion of his 250th AFL appearance on the bench as well.

The veteran mid-fielder was forced from the field after 20 minutes of the first quarter with blood seeping from a wound on his forehead following a head clash.

He emerged for the start of the second quarter, but left the field again to have a bandage wrapped around the wound before returning later in the term.

Key forward Hall had another strong game for Sydney kicking 6.4 with Ryan O'Keefe kicking three majors and Michael O'Loughlin two.

Hall also accumulated 22 possessions and 10 marks and tallied only two less touches than Jude Bolton who headed the Swans' list.

It was Sydney's seventh win in its last eight matches and for the sixth time in that period it had at least 10 goal-kickers.

O'Loughlin got Sydney off to the perfect start with a mark and goal inside the first minute and O'Keefe added a second major.

The Bulldogs retaliated by kicking five of the next six goals, highlighted by brave marks by Mitchell Hahn and Ben Harrison.

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