SYDNEY remains alive in the hunt for a finals spot after defeating Collingwood in a huge win at home in blustery conditions. The Swans held firm with the breeze in the last quarter kicking the final three goals of the game to secure a 19-point win, 9.4 (58) to 5.9 (39).

Basking in the glory of yet another win in front of a huge home crowd at Henson Park, coach Scott Gowans was just enjoying the moment.

“It’s pretty special isn’t it? I think we reflect back to where we were last year and then just the support here that we got,” Gowans said. “Big crowd, a pretty a perfect day to be honest and keeps us alive for next week.”

After finishing winless wooden spooners in their inaugural year, Sydney hit the off-season hard with some big name recruits. Three of those recruits Laura Gardiner (30 disposals, 10 tackles, 10 clearances), Lucy McEvoy (22 disposals, two marks, eight rebound 50s) and ex-Pie Chloe Molloy (18 disposals, three marks, four clearances, three inside 50s and three goals) were instrumental in the win.

The other massive contributor was second season player, Sofia Hurley who had 20 disposals, one mark, four inside 50s, three clearances, eight tackles, five score involvements and two goals. Gowans described her as the “key to the game”.

“She’s got a lot on her plate this year, she’s heavy into university,” Gowans said. “Sometimes can’t make trainings and not main sessions, but just the captain’s run. It’s really important for her, she’ll follow up and it’s important for her to feel as though she’s not missing anything football wise while she’s still maintaining her studies, and she does a really good job of that. To come out and play like she has the last few weeks is awesome and she’s got a very big future.”

Sydney refused to give in despite Collingwood snatching the momentum at different points during the match, with Gowans believing there was no more than a “five-minute block” at any one time where the Swans lost momentum.

“I thought the indication for me was the first quarter where Collingwood got two goals up and then we were into the wind but we were able to come back from that,” he said. “I actually turned to the other coaches and said ‘I think we’re on today’ and it was a really good indication no matter what went wrong through the game where Collingwood to their credit grabbed momentum, I never felt like we lost more than about a five-minute block in the game which is really a big step for us against a top eight side.”

Though the Swans coach admitted he would like his team to reduce the amount of turnovers, he could not fault their work rate, effort and intensity which he said “brings belief”.

“We turned the ball over a lot but it’s you’ve got to accept that if you want to play the style we want to play,” Gowans said. “With that belief we’ll be able to maintain possession a little bit longer as we grow as a side.”

The Swans are on the verge of an incredible season season finals series, and when asked if he thought finals were a consideration at the start of the season, Gowans was transparent.

“No if I’m honest,” Gowans said. “Right from the preseason camp we honestly did talk about this sustained success. Never mentioned where we’d finish on the ladder, didn’t even talk about winning the first game. It was all about improvement each week.

“It definitely isn’t a cliche, because it’s absolutely true. We came up at a set of stats that we look at as a team and as a unit and we fall back on those and even today we won six out of the seven that we chase, which is the best we’ve done so far this year which is great. But we do have a little mark on us, we’ve got to fix our defensive stuff.”