24/05/2009 4:37 PM
Sydney has posted back-to-back victories for the first time this season, thrashing a lacklustre Port Adelaide by 55 points at the SCG on Sunday.
The Swans burst out of the gates kicking the first seven majors of the contest, and the Power never recovered going down 18.15 (123) to 10.8 (68) in front of 23,229 supporters.
Port Adelaide showed some fight to limit the damage in the second half but it was all Sydney who made it five-from-five at home this season to climb back into the top eight.
Key forward Barry Hall (two goals) picked up where he left off against West Coast in what was a trademark team effort from the Swans which saw 12 players kick majors.
Skipper Brett Kirk again led from the front while Jarrad McVeigh and Ryan O'Keefe also played dominant hands in the midfield.
Warren Tredrea (two goals, 10 possessions) was well held by Ted Richards while Daniel Motlop struggled his way to 13 possessions and two majors before limping off early in the final term with cramp.
Kane Cornes, Domenic Cassisi and Hamish Hartlett can all hold their heads high but their efforts were not enough to avoid a fourth defeat of the campaign.
Sydney made a perfect start with early majors to Hall and Kirk sparking a seven-goal onslaught as the hosts opened up a 43-point lead in the 21st minute.
Tredrea's first touch of the contest led to the Power's first score two minutes later as young-gun Hartlett connected from outside 50, but the hosts had the final say of the opening term to lead 8.1 (43) to 1.0 (6) at the first change.
It was a better start to the second term for the visitors as Tredrea kicked his first inside the opening minute, however, McVeigh and Darren Jolly quickly restored Sydney's ascendancy with quick-fire majors.
Sydney stayed on the attack as Adam Goodes and Michael O'Loughlin celebrated Indigenous Round with spectacular diving grabs, but neither could convert from close range to give the visitors a glimmer of hope.
The spectacular grabs kept coming as first Heath Grundy took a contender for mark-of-the-year as he soared above the pack, before the mercurial Daniel Motlop chimed in with a brilliant running mark which led to his first major of the contest.
Daniel Motlop was at it again late in the quarter with a spectacular leaping effort, but his failure to convert and Hall's late score saw the Swans take a 51-point buffer