Swans seek top-two push against Saints in season finale

On the final Sunday of the AFL home-and-away season, Sydney and St Kilda met at Marvel Stadium carrying the weight of two very different kinds of hope — one grounded in genuine possibility, the other in the stubborn refusal to let go. The Swans, fresh from ending Collingwood's remarkable eleven-game streak, stood within reach of a top-two finish if results aligned in their favour. St Kilda, trailing Carlton by nearly nine percentage points, played the role that sport occasionally demands: the team that fights not because the numbers are kind, but because the final siren has not yet sounded.