The Swans, in contrast, can look forward with more optimism. They needed a win just as badly and did what they had to do, making their moments count and responding the right way in the few passages where the Bulldogs had the momentum.

The usuals starred: Isaac Heeney led the way with four goals, tying Lance Franklin - who had 2.5 - as Sydney’s leading goalkicker for the season in the process. Tom Papley also kicked 2.5 but laid on five goal assists (and was reported for front-on contact with Josh Dunkley). Paddy McCartin, in his 50th game, was terrific, nabbing a career-high 22 touches to go with 14 marks.

Sydney even navigated a second-quarter injury to their sole ruckman, Peter Ladhams, who broke his thumb when the ball hit it and will likely have surgery earlier this week. Versatile veteran Sam Reid stepped into the breach and won his battle with full-timer Tim English, who was playing his first game back from concussion.

“We had high-pressure acts across the board,” said coach John Longmire, who rated it as Sydney’s most consistent performance of the year, but acknowledged Ladhams was facing a decent spell on the sidelines.

“[We had] 35 scoring shots, but it was off the back of enormous pressure that we were able to sustain for the entire game. You can look at all sorts of things in AFL footy. But if you sustain that heat and contest and pressure, and you’re able to do that for the four quarters ... we were really pleased with that.”

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Slow starts have been a recurring problem for the Swans this year, but not here. They kicked the first five goals of the match inside the opening 15 minutes - with Heeney booting two of them - to lead by 31 points before the visitors finally managed their first through Cody Weightman.

At quarter-time, the Swans had the edge in contested possessions (54-34), clearances (14-6), inside 50s (22-10) and virtually every other metric of significance - to go with their lead of 37 points. Callum Mills alone had seven tackles; the Bulldogs as a team had 19. But for some slightly wayward goalkicking and smarter ball use in attack, it felt like Sydney could have been up by thousands.

Luke Beveridge gave his players a piece of his mind, and they seemed to respond. The ball spent most of the next quarter camped in their forward line, and the general improvement was clear and immediate. But unlike the Swans, they couldn’t convert it on the scoreboard, kicking three goals to Sydney’s two to put only a small dent into the margin, which was 29 points at the long break.

When Heeney danced through three pedestrian Bulldogs defenders in the pocket to snap his third goal, barely 30 seconds into the third term, that was basically that. The remainder was gravy for the Swans, who spent the balance of the night boosting their percentage, although probably not by as much as they should have.