LAST weekend’s Sydney Derby produced a very different one to the inaugural one a year ago, with the Swans creating history this time to defeat the Giants and record their first ever win in the AFL Women’s.

Things were not looking as good for the Swans at half time though, as the Giants were two goals ahead and playing some exciting football.

Then, the gears started to shift for the Swans.

Playing her first game in new colours, new Swan Chloe Molloy was playing a midfield role but was not able to have the level of influence on the game she is renowned for.

Particularly in the second quarter, she was well tagged by Annalyse Lister, had no room to move or run and in the second quarter only had one disposal to her name. Also importantly, she did not kick any goals in the first half.

In the second half though it was a different story.

She finally broke free of her tag, and although she had less disposals in the second half than she did in the first she certainly made them count and her influence on the game is one of the main reasons the Swans were able to turn things around and create history.

Even from the opening bounce of the third term Molloy turned from tackled to tackler as she brought down Alyce Parker and stopped her again sending the ball forward for the Giants. Speaking of Parker, it was almost like Parker and Molloy flipped in the second half in the sense that Molloy finally started to become influential on the game while Parker’s influence was quelled.

The key thing for Molloy to truly have an influence on the game is physical space. Like most players life is much easier when you have got space to work in, but Molloy in particular is one of the players where if you give her an inch of space is able to sprint away into the metaphorical sunset.

This is what happened in the second half where Molloy was able to get the space she needed to run away with the ball, whereas in the first half she was rarely able to go anywhere near the ball without one or two opponents on her tail ensuring she could not get a clean touch.

This was also nowhere more evident in the two goals she ended up kicking in the second half.

Her first goal came in the dying minute of the third quarter where he had just enough space – not even a metre between her and the nearest Giant – to side step and snap a goal with the outside of her foot from the pocket.

Her second goal came with about 10 minutes to go in the last term, and again came through the fact that she had caught her opponent napping and had managed to sprint away, grab the handball from Rebecca Privitelli and snapped from essentially directly out in front.

There were plenty others who aided Molloy in getting the Swans over the line – including the likes of Privitelli, Ally Morphett and then Brenna Tarrant late – but a lot of the Swans’ run and momentum helped get Sydney’s attacking momentum going in the second half, which she was unable to do in the first.