Sydney fans will sleep soundly tonight and can enjoy the rest of this weekend safe in the knowledge that their gap at the top has grown a little bit. The Swans are the real deal, and proved it yet again tonight.

That's it from me tonight! The blog will be back tomorrow as Sir Doug Nicholls Round continues, and I hope you will join us then. Goodnight!

No surprises there, despite some other stand outs. Warner was pretty breathtaking tonight, especially when the game was there to be won in the second quarter.

Warner finishes up with 28 disposals, three goals, 14 score involvements and 561 metres gained. And a whole lot of sidesteps.

How do you stop them? I guess you could ask Richmond, who remarkably are the only team to beat Sydney this year.

But when they are really cooking, and their engine room is playing as well as this, it's hard to see many teams coming close. This was a clinical win, built from a resolute base of team defence and elite pressure and elevated by incredible individuals like Chad Warner and Isaac Heeney.

Carlton might have reached a tipping point with their injury list, and certainly without Jacob Weitering in the second half they looked very light on down back. The Blues looked tired and unable to match the Swans physically, which probably is to be expected.

The Swans are now two games clear on top of the ladder, and by most metrics the best team in the league right now. There is a long way to go before we get to September and the games that really matter but right here, right now, Sydney are the best team in it by some distance.

We're into the part of the season where fatigue is starting to hit every team, which explains the fairly pedestrian pace this dead rubber of a last quarter has been played at.

Sydney are a couple of minutes away from a convincing win.

McLean was trying to chip a little pass to Joel Amartey in the goalsquare there, but overhit his kick.

No matter, the ball easily cleared Amartey and his defender and instead trickled through for another goal. Been that sort of night for Carlton.

Chad Warner broke a couple of tackles and dished off to Rowbottom who broke a couple more. He threw the ball on his boot and watched it tumble end over end and straight through the middle.

Sydney's midfield has had a day out.

So the heat is already well and truly out of this one, but the margin is now under 40 points. I reckon we'll see some goals at both ends in this quarter, not unlike last night's bizarre shootout in Darwin.

Better pressure from the Blues inside 50 forced the turnover and Hewett marked the squaring kick directly in front of goal.

Heeney and Warner seem locked in a little battle tonight, with Brownlow votes up for grabs and goals seemingly easy to come by.

Both now have three goals, the latest for Heeney coming from a 40 metre set shot from an angle.

Nick Blakey got a little bit excited and tried to take on the whole Carlton defence with one of his lizardy runs, but Williams wasn't having it.

His tackle was excellent, and the set shot from the resulting free kick just carried the line.

Not the contest we had hoped for, or thought we were getting during the first quarter. Instead Sydney have completely overwhelmed Carlton, who have run out of options and a little bit of fight in that third quarter.

There's just no stopping Chad Warner and Isaac Heeney right now, but every single Swan out there is playing his role to perfection and at 100 per cent intensity at all times. They've suffocated Carlton to breaking point, and now all there is to determine is the final margin.

Sydney will soon be two games clear on top of the ladder, Carlton could soon be out of the top eight.

Just moments after Charlie Curnow hit the post from a long-range set shot, Kennedy converts from much closer range.

Muted celebrations as the third quarter winds down.

Remember Carlton kicked the first four goals of this game. It has been an absolute hammering since about halfway through the first quarter.

So many goals are coming from straight from centre clearance, and the same is true there. Heeney laces out McLean, McLean finishes it off.

End to end in the blink of an eye, Sydney have cut Carlton to ribbons after quarter-time tonight.

Cunningham was the final link in a sumptuous handball chain from half-back, and having run about 100 metres to get the footy he wasn't going to waste his moment. Great goal.

At some point, Michael Voss might want to think about putting a Carlton player somewhere in the vicinity of Chad Warner.

He was just lurking about 15 metres off the pack inside 50, all by himself. Eventually the handball came out to him, and he's just not missing tonight. Sydney running away with it now.

It's a bloodbath in the centre clearances now. The Swans are just walking straight out the front door and raffling off goals.

Adams, Grundy and Wicks combined that time with slick hands. The latter nailed the goal, and half the team got together to celebrate.

This is kinda what we feared might happen in this third quarter, as Sydney look just about ready to blow Carlton off the park now.

James Jordon's set up kick was great, but Heeney is just too strong for any Blues defender when he goes forward. He marks and goals from close range.

Pristine Sydney football from the centre clearance! Grundy to Rowbottom, Rowbottom to Warner, Warner to goal.

Amartey got pretty handsy with the Blues defender on the line to usher the ball through, but the umpire was happy enough. Warner was even happier.

With Weitering now out of action, that Carlton defence is going to be stretched all night. The Swans did well to bring it to ground, and McDonald's little tap gave Heeney the chance to snap another one through.

Curnow's early goal is quickly cancelled out.

He copped a cork in the first quarter and clearly has been hampered by it, but at half-time the Blues have pulled the trigger on making that sub.

Carlton can't take a trick on the injury front.