Sydney have locked up second spot and two AFL home finals, beating last-placed Essendon by 36 points.
The Swans dominated from the start and despite some resistance from the Bombers, easily won 17.10 (112) to 11.10 (76) in the Sunday twilight game at the MCG.
Errol Gulden racked up a career-best 47 possessions and Charlie Curnow kicked four goals as he closes on his third Coleman Medal as the league’s top goal kicker.
While the Bombers were never going to stage a massive upset, they scrapped hard after a blowout loomed early in the game.
Sydney missed the finals last year in Dean Cox’s first season as senior coach and have rebounded superbly this season.
Curnow kicked three of the first four goals and looked set for a night out as the Swans took control from the start.
Sydney’s first four inside 50s all resulted in goals and the last-placed Bombers were their own worst enemies, gifting the Swans with turnovers.
When former Victorian Sheffield Shield fielding substitute Billy Cootee marked his AFL debut with the first goal of the second term, the Swans were out to a 44-point lead.
But Essendon rallied to at least stop a blowout, kicking four goals to two in the second quarter and reducing the margin to 24 points at the long break.
Nate Caddy and Peter Wright were providing targets in attack and Isaac Kako was frenetic with his work rate for the Bombers.
While fourth-gamer Vigo Visentini was up against Brodie Grundy in the ruck, the young Bomber’s effort also could not be faulted.
Visentini delighted the Essendon fans with a couple of big tackles, taking down Chad Warner early in the third quarter.
Archer Day-Wicks kicked the first goal of the third quarter and a couple of minutes later, Will Setterfield launched a bomb from outside 50m. Improbably, the Bombers only trailled by 11 points at 13 minutes.
But that only sparked the Swans. First Logan McDonald set up Jai Serong for a goal and then McDonald kicked his own from 50-plus to stop the rot.
The gulf between the two teams was summed up early in the last quarter when Caddy was running into an open goal. Sam Wicks came from nowhere to run him down and force the rushed behind.
Seconds later, Sydney had run the ball down the other end of the ground and Curnow snapped his fourth goal.
Visentini marked strongly and kicked his first AFL goal in the last to cap a solid game.
