IT WASN'T about the massive win, the goal-kicking hauls, or even the four competition points. At Homebush yesterday it was all about joints, specifically knees.

One story a jubilant return, the other a painful departure, as the much-vaunted football gods decided it would be a case of robbing the Swans of Tadhg to pay for Nick.

Nick, as in Malceski, made an astonishingly successful return to football, a mere three months after receiving a "season-ending" knee injury. Tadhg Kennelly got to spend less than an hour on the park with his fellow defender, crashing to the ground in the second quarter having dislocated his left knee.

Kennelly dislocated his other knee in round five last season and missed only two matches before making a spectacular return. But he continued to struggle with knee problems later in the season.

"He will have a scan tomorrow to see how he is," coach Paul Roos said. "It's a similar thing to what he did last year. The dislocation causes the damage so we're not sure, but at this stage it doesn't look anywhere near as bad as last time.

"It's obviously a bit disappointing, but hopefully it's not too bad and hopefully we can get him back as soon as possible."

The Swans would have been so eagerly looking forward to having the pair on the park at the same time. Yesterday was only the 35th time the two have played together in Sydney's senior team and remarkably the Swans have won a staggering 29 or 83% of those matches.

Just six minutes into the game, the crowd of 34,904 got what many had come for as Malceski stood up from the bench and walked the short distance to the interchange entrance.

As he stepped inside the line, his amazing comeback was complete. Only 13 weeks after he been helped from Launceston's Aurora Stadium thinking his season would be over, and just 86 days since surgery to repair his ruptured anterior cruciate ligament with a durable industrial-strength synthetic fibre, Malceski was back playing elite football.

"It's one game and it was good he got 73 minutes," Roos said. "He looked good, he's pulled up really well, he was able to perform pretty much the way we thought he would, and he'll have a good rest and training this week and play again.

"Until the end of the year we're not across the line, but everyone saw today the operation has been a success, the rehab's been a success, and hopefully he can keep going for the rest of the year."

Malceski's knee has been described as bionic. Roos was asked if perhaps his Irish player needs a bionic limb.

"I think he needs a bionic body. He probably thinks why did I come here? Gaelic footy … they don't tackle in Gaelic footy," he said of Kennelly.

There had been reports that perhaps the condition of the ground, which was used for a rugby league match on Saturday, might have played a part in the injury, and Malceski admitted that he had been a little nervous as "the ground is not in great condition". But Roos said he just thought it was one of those things that happen in football. "It looked like he just hit his knee on the ground. He's not really sure."

Knees aside, it was a successful afternoon for the Swans as they piled on 21 goals, six coming from Michael O'Loughlin in their 91-point win that moved them to fifth on the ladder.

For two quarters it was a battle, and Essendon got to within two goals in the 18th minute. But from that point, Sydney kicked 13 unanswered goals to give it its biggest win over Essendon since 1987, when it won by 163 points at the SCG.

SYDNEY 4.5 6.11 13.15 21.17 (143)
ESSENDON 0.2 4.7 7.9 7.10 (52) O'Loughlin 6, Playfair 3, Jolly 3, O'Keefe 2, Moore 2, Kirk, Barry, Buchanan, Richards, Jack. Essendon: Welsh 2, Hille 2, Lloyd, Jetta, Neagle.

GOALS Sydney:

BEST Sydney: Kirk, O'Loughlin, Goodes, O'Keefe, Moore, Jolly. Essendon: Stanton, McVeigh, Fletcher, Reimers, Monfries.

INJURIES Sydney: Kennelly (knee).

UMPIRES McBurney, Armstrong, Avon.

CROWD 34,904 at ANZ Stadium.

THE UPSHOT For Essendon, that the final siren blew. The Bombers were holding up OK against some of the competition's clearance kings until midway through the third term, but after Sydney got on top in that department the game turned into nothing short of a mauling.

THE TALKING POINT Pre-match, it was a good-news story: the return of Nick Malceski. But before half-time the focus had switched to a gloomier topic after teammate Tadhg Kennelly dislocated his left kneecap in a tackle.

HOT AND COLD Some of the Dons' returnees were among the team's shining lights yesterday — Mark McVeigh, Kyle Reimers, Sam Lonergan and Jason Winderlich. But after their stints on the sidelines, they could keep up the intensity for only so long.