THE Sydney Swans made a statement in more ways than one during their AFL Women’s win over the Western Bulldogs yesterday. It was the highest ever score in their short AFLW history, but it was the way they went about it that was most impressive.

One area of the Swans’ game that has particularly grown and was on display yesterday was their ball movement. It has been on the improve for a while but yesterday it really shone and was a huge factor in their success.

One thing that was consistent all game was the Swans’ speed with ball in hand and their ability to find the space.

All game the Swans were a lot quicker with ball in hand, which caught the defending Bulldogs players out and allowed the Swans to move the ball down the ground with not a lot of pressure. This was in stark contrast to the Bulldogs who were not as quick, which allowed the Swans to get back and defend and create the pressure.

This went hand-in-hand with the Swans’ ability to find better space with their disposals than the Bulldogs did. Whether it was by hand or by foot, the Swans found the space a lot better than the Bulldogs did, which also helped in their ease of transition.

Another thing the Swans did was change up their preferred method of disposal. In the first quarter they tended to use long kicks the most, but when the second quarter rolled around they had reverted more to their natural handball chain game.

This was contrasted with the Western Bulldogs, who persisted with a short chip kick game and did not change things up, which ultimately proved disastrous. They also tended to kick to packs more than the Swans did, which did not work for them.

This change up in preferred disposals method also saw the game open up a lot for the Swans as the match progressed.

In the first quarter the Swans kicked three goals five to one goal, but in the second quarter as they revered more to their natural game, they went on to kick five goals two to one goal one.

The other thing about how impressive Sydney’s ball movement yesterday was it was the usual suspects coming to the fore, everything just seemed to click. Laura Gardiner (33 disposals, six clearances and 543m gained), Chloe Molloy (28 touches, one clearance and 636m gained) and Sofia Hurley (24 touches, four clearances and 453m gained) all saw plenty of the ball and all made huge contributions to the team’s ball movement being so successful.