Swans recover to sink Cats by 30 points at SCG

Sydney still has work to do to become an AFL premiership-winning side after overcoming a goalless start to beat Geelong by 30-points, coach John Longmire says.

The league leaders trailed by 29 points at Sunday's first change before Joel Amartey kick-started a chain of five unanswered majors to bamboozle the Cats.

Amartey and Tom Papley slammed through two goals each in the third quarter to help Sydney to an 11-point lead before a high-octane Swans unit overwhelmed the Cats to win 16.16 (112) to 12.10 (82).

The victory before a 44,714-strong crowd at the SCG was coach John Longmire's 200th at the helm.

"You can't flirt when you're playing well," Longmire said after their eighth-straight victory.

"We've still got a bit of work to do on our starts. We certainly got exposed.

"We saw what happened in the first quarter against a good team when you just take the pressure off a little bit.

"We don't want to be just one that relies upon talent.

"When we're working hard and we're putting pressure on, our talent then is able to come through. It doesn't work the other way around."

Errol Gulden (one goal, 37 touches) went to work in the Swans' engine room while red-hot Chad Warner (two, 26) and Brownlow Medal favourite Isaac Heeney (two, 26) also dominated, with seven of the game's top eight possession-getters being Swans.

Papley kicked a game-high four goals - his first coming after 26 minutes in the third term - while Amartey had three.

Sydney's James Jordon was again deployed as a defensive forward against All-Australian defender Tom Stewart, restricting him to 20 touches.

Stewart's fellow Geelong backmen Max Holmes and Tom Atkins were earnest in their attempts to hold down the fort, while Jeremy Cameron was held goalless until he kicked two in the final term.

"The challenge for us is to find a way to close the game down a little bit better," Cats coach Chris Scott said.

"We had a couple of really bad structural issues that gave them some goals when we were up a few goals. I think that's the issue we'll focus in on."

Geelong had stunned with a cutthroat opening-term performance, punishing the hosts from turnover and kicking five goals to none.

Tyson Stengle (three goals) showed flashes of his 2022 premiership best with a magnificent dribbling goal from the pocket, before kicking his second to send the Cats into the first change well on top.

The visitors looked primed to continue their dominance until Amartey finally kicked Sydney's first major of the evening to reignite his wayward side late in the second term.

Playing like a team possessed, Sydney trimmed their 35-point deficit to five points within 10 minutes, with big guns Will Hayward, Warner and Heeney piling five unanswered goals on the visitors.

Geelong tried to scrape back into the game, kicking three consecutive majors in the final term, but Warner killed their momentum with a spectacular individual goal.