The keys to the Sydney Swans’ mid-season AFL favouritism

Halfway through most football seasons, the wheat has been sorted from the chaff and contenders distinguished from pretenders.

Not so much in 2024.

Perched at the mid-season break bye weeks, little seems clear about this year in the AFL.

Above the bottom few teams, little appears to separate the middle of the ladder.

Eighteen per cent of all games have finished with a margin less than a goal — the highest proportion since 1950.

Geelong, GWS and Melbourne threatened to edge away from the pack before getting dragged back into the chaos.

In the last few weeks, another side has staked its claim to frontrunner status while other flag fancies have stumbled.

The Swans have surged ahead by two wins and a large chunk of percentage, owning a 5-0 record against current top-eight sides.

The Bloods are no strangers to success, having played in four of the last 12 grand finals and rarely missing finals.

But few of those sides have sat so well placed at this stage of a season.

This is the blueprint of how the Swans have charged to the top in the first half of 2024.

In club backrooms around the league, the focus is never as simple as “giving 110 per cent” or “wanting it more”. Rather, gameplans and strategies are discussed in obscured terms that evolve steadily over the years.

Talk about ‘alphas’, ‘roosts’ and ‘getting skinny’ might be heard regularly in 2024.

Winning at the clearance coalface is out, instead the focus has shifted to post-clearance contested possessions — the hard ball beyond the stoppages.

A recent trend at many clubs is aiming to be a “front-half team” — keeping the ball in your half, and generating turnovers and stoppages closer to your goal.

It’s about stopping the transition before it starts and generating repeat inside-50s.

Front-half teams look to generate intercepts forward of centre and convert them to scores. Forward-half intercepts are the most prolific source of scoring in the modern game, despite occurring about half as often as back-half interceptsaa