Richards says Swans buckled under pressure
Sydney defender Ted Richards praised Hawthorn's ruthlessness in the wash-up of Saturday's grand final demolition job.
He said the Swans were never given any chance to build some momentum because of the sheer pressure the Hawks applied.
Richards said Sydney believed they were a chance to get back into the contest and even went to half-time feeling confident they could win.
Richards was still thinking about an unlikely win at three-quarter time when the Hawks led by 54 points.
But he said Hawthorn's relentless attitude made them impossible to stop.
"People speak about momentum so much," Richards said.
"At any stage it looked like we were able maybe to have a little bit, Hawthorn were able to win the clearance, win the hard ball, kick a goal and just shut it down. They did it for four quarters.
"At no stage were we able to wrestle it back, have a win and then start to build some momentum and give ourselves a chance.
"I knew at three-quarter time that the situation we were in was quite a tough situation.
"Teams have kicked 10 goals in a quarter before but I knew if we were going to go and do it, it was a bloody tough chance. We tried but Hawthorn came at us again."
Sydney's defence was under siege for the entire match.
The Hawks had 64 inside 50s and also kept it in there when the Swans tried to run the ball clear.
Hawthorn's score - 21.11 (137) - was the highest kicked against the Swans since 2010.
The Swans simply couldn't prevent Hawthorn from scoring.
Richards said the team's defensive attitude had to change to an attacking focus once the Hawks kicked clear and that allowed Hawthorn to have more freedom.
"At some stage, you have to recognise the situation you're in," he said. "Percentage doesn't count for anything so as they started getting on top and it was getting later and later, we had to get more and more aggressive."
