Round 13: Sydney Swans Reserves v Queanbeyan Tigers

[dimelb]

A pretty comprehensive win, then. And I hope the spirit of bloodthirstiness continues when they hit the firsts.

[ugg]

I have to agree with liz that relatively speaking Jetta had a very quiet game. Spent the first half either a kick behind play or skirting the edges of the pack. They moved him in the center square in the second half, no doubt in an effort to get more involved but his involvement was still limited. I thought there were a few occasions that he actually used the ball and pinpointed a teammate instead of just blazing away but given that most of the forwards had a paddock to work with it wasn't anything special.

TDL - I suspected that they tightened up on him after halftime (funny that, after an 8 goal first half) which left ample space for Nipper and Spangher to lead into. He did miss two gettable shots in the 3rd quarter before getting his ninth in the last with a crumbing effort.

Byron is sporting a (new?) tatt on his left arm, some kind of bird looks very slick.

The sore toppie might have been Mitch Thompson, I don't recall seeing him in the second half.

Some non-playing Swans were doing a (timid) kick to kick at half time. AJ was there was with Lamb and there were other people in Swans garb, one tall and one small that I couldn't place. Thinking about it now, I think the tall one might have been Haren although I don't really remember his face anymore. The other is possibly Brain who I'm sure didn't play today.

[Big Al]

How did TDL not get 10???

Did he play further up the ground in the 2nd half?

Nipper and Spangher were the ones doing the lead up forward work on the 2nd half with TDL playing further up the ground. He did miss some gettable shots so he still should have cracked the 10.

Parker and Nipper were outstanding and would share BOG honors for mine. Spangher was impressive when played forward. Had great hands and an accurate kick.

Jetta didn't dominate but his touches were all class. Still needs to back himself and take the game on a lot more.

Pykes tap work was excellent and I lost count the amount of effective taps he put into the path of Parker.

Sumner was excellent as well and does a lot of work. He doesn't mind mixing it with the bigger bodies either. The more I see of him the more I'm convinced he'll make a regular senior AFL player.

[ugg]

Spangher was good as a forward wasn't he. Nice size but moves quickly for his bulk, strong hands and a prodigous kick (45m set shots cleared just short of post height)

[liz]

The tall playing kick to kick was definitely Haren. The small looked vaguely familiar so it was probably a regular toppie. Nice to see Mummy out supporting the team too.

The start of Byron's tatt was on show up in Brisbane a couple of weeks ago but it looks like it has grown a bit since then.

[ugg]

Ah good. The rumours of his demise must have been greatly exaggerated

I didn't realise tattoos came in organic form. The wonders of technology

[ugg]

Do you think Trent could release a biography after he is done playing entitled "Nine is never enough"?

Sydney Swans
Goal Kickers: T. DENNIS-LANE 9, N. GORDON 7, M. SPANGHER 6, J. MOORE 3, E. MOODY 2, B. SUMNER 2, L. PARKER , D. CURRIE , A. Moody , M. PYKE
Best Players: N. GORDON, J. MOORE, L. PARKER, M. SPANGHER, D. CURRIE, B. SUMNER

[ugg]

First 200+ score in the Ressies since the 2007 season where we had 5. 2011 is starting to resemble 2007 where we were unbeaten and finished with a percentage of 370.60 %. I wonder if the grumblings will start from the Canberra clubs, in particular the use of our Academy players as topups.

We shouldn't overlook that with the withdrawal of LJ and Meredith and then the loss of Kruger midway through the second we only had 13 listed players for most of the game.

[AnnieH]

Can we get TDL over to ANZ for tonights game?!?

He was there .... unfortunately he was sitting in the stand behind us.

I'd love to be able to swap a few of the seniors out and replace them with a few kids.

Now is the time to do it - before we get to the pointy end of the season.

[AnnieH]

We shouldn't overlook that with the withdrawal of LJ and Meredith and then the loss of Kruger midway through the second we only had 13 listed players for most of the game.

We're only allowed to play 13 from the list aren't we?
They'll be wanting to drop our limit to 10 next!!

[R-1]

I'd love for the NEAFL structure to give us games against the likes of Mount Gravatt and Northern Territory Thunder. I realise our dominance isn't always this complete (with the lack of injuries and all) but still, there's some stronger teams up north.

FWIW it'd probably benefit Ainslie too.

[ugg]

So what can turn a team who has been as competitive as any side has been against the Ressies into virtual witches' hats in just 2 weeks? From what I have gleaned over at BF, a combination of league suspension, club disciplinary suspension and a few injuries meant the Tigers made 10 changes for today's game, which included some U18 players. As it was, the Tigers' pressure was very lax for most of the day and the Swans players had a picnic with the amount of space they received. It was a rare case when an inside 50 did not result in a score. They did tighten up a little in the fourth quarter (does pride kick in when you're facing a 200 point deficit?), but that was certainly a case of too little too very, very, very late.

The electronic scoreboards weren't turned on so they had to rely on the manual one. The two boys did a good job for a while but due to a combination of lack of concentration and maths skills, it started going askew from the middle of the 2nd quarter (they added 6 goals to our score for one of the goals LOL) until the RWO contigent twigged them onto it at the end of the 3rd. I think they should hand the job back to Big Al.

Luke Parker continued where he left off last week with a dominant display in the middle. He racked up touch after touch with his bullocking strength around the packs and he took a great overhead mark for his goal. He will be pressing for a spot, especially now that Kieren looks to be out.

Nathan Gordon was a real livewire up forward, buzzing about the half-forward areas with purpose and intent just as he was last week. He could offer something to the senior team in this role. Ball use looks to have improved - laid off a few assists - and he still possesses that strong pair of hands. He really turned it on in the 2nd half kicking 5 goals as his superior running power came to the fore as the opposition trailed off. Earlier in the year I questioned whether he might not make it due to a lack of a suitable position for him in the seniors, well I think he may have found it. He could offer something similar to what Bevan is playing at the moment, I don't doubt for a second that he could be just as tough as Bevan - just needs experience under his belt.

Byron Sumner was full of run today, playing midfield instead of the half-back flank. What impressed me was the number of times he kept running forward, mostly unchecked to offer an option when a teammate had marked just outside the scoring zone. In the mid-season review, Playfair highlighted that Uncle needed to improve his fitness and today was a good step in that direction.

I'm puzzled by Trent Dennis-Lane's omission from the best list. Was it a case of TDL being a flat track bully and being the recipient of easy goals? By my count, he kicked 5 from uncontested marks, 1 from a great contested mark tumbling back into the goalsquare and 3 from crumbs. Furthermore he missed 3 from set shots (very unlike him) and 1 from a crumb. Was his defensive pressure not up to scratch again? Again from my point of view I thought he chased as hard as the other players so I wouldn't fault him there. Boy I would love to be a fly on the wall on the player review meeting for this week. I know they give out the votes not long after the game and perhaps they'll change their assessments after watching the tape again.

Matthew Spangher started in defence on Ryan Quade, but soon moved forward with great success. He led hard with good pace, gave good contests in the air and finished off his chances accurately. I suspect they just wanted him to see action with the ball and that was going to be up forward rather than down back, and I think if he does play seniors it will be as a defender. Still, it is nice to know that he can play this role if needed as well.

The ruck division dominated as usual with Mike Pyke and Daniel Currie getting first hands to the majority of the ruck contests. Pyke was first ruck for most of the day until he was taken off (due to time management coming back from injury) which allowed Currie to resume the mantle. Crusher wasn't as dominant up forward as he was against GWS but this can be explained due to the number of uncontested marks for the other forwards. His one goal did eventuate after he took a strong grab against two TIgers defenders and kicked from a tight angle. Pyke was constantly on and off and in his resting phases up forward he took 2 grabs but could only convert one of them.

Jarred Moore played well at half-forward but wasn't as prominent as the other forwards. He did take some good grabs in the forward 50 area and in addition to his 3 goals he tallied up clearances in tight. It didn't feel that he was as clever with his distribution as we 've come to expect from him at this level, this was more of a crash and bash approach from Jarred today. Where does he stand in the seniors pecking order? No idea.

Dylan McNeil was taken out of his usual inside midfield role and played mostly an outside role on the wing. He was quieter than usual and while it's a good way for him to learn to spread, it also highlights how effective he is in that usual role.

I liked Chris McKaigue's game more than usual. His spoiling was very good today and was rarely beaten in the few opportunities that Queanbeyan had moving forward. Max Otten must have been cursing his luck having drawn a defensive post rather than his forward position from last week. Campbell Heath was also quiet for most of the game but started to get into the game more after he was pushed to the wing later on and was involved in a few successful transitions from defence into attack.

Lewis Jetta had a relatively quiet game and I'll be very surprised if he makes it back for the Adelaide clash. He spent the first half playing off halfback where he was adequate but I thought he could have run and carried it a little more. In the second half, they placed him in the centre where he didn't particularly shine. He did spot up a few players on the lead which is a good sign as his ball use has been one of my major bugbears this year.

Eugene Kruger was hurt after he made a good spoil in defence, looked to have landed awkwardly on the way down. The amateur doctors (i.e. the crowd surrounding me) offered diagnoses ranging from dislocated shoulder to elbow to ribs. I think they just took him off as a precautionary measure and he looked in good spirits on the sidelines. After all, we were hardly playing for sheep stations today!

The toppies were very good as usual. Mitch Thompson was handed an inside role and played with his usual aplomb before disappearing I believe to injury. The Moody brothers Andrew and Eric are very light on their feet and have an eye for goal. Eric in particular, has an uncanny innate ability to twist and turn his way through traffic and yet know which way he's supposed to be going. While Eric is no giant, he's certainly bigger than his brother who is tiny! Both did fall off some tackles so that would be the major concern for them at the moment. I liked what I saw from the younger topups in Stephen Wray and Daniel Robinson. Wray looks quiet big for his age and should still be growing while Robinson looks like a tough nut who was unfazed in the different roles he was handed, including a stint at fullback. Kane Murphy not his most dominant game but had a hand in 2 goals. Tim Wales saw some action in the last quarter in defence and needs to use it a little more directly. I don't know why but I must have a blind spot for Nathan Kenny because yet again the only memories I have of him are on the sidelines. As mentioned previously, don't think James Brain played

And forgive me for not listing the goals a la last week's report. But 33 goals gets a teeny bit tedious especially when a good majority of them would be "midfielder gets ball, kicks to forward on lead who marks uncontested with defender a few metres behind. Forward kicks the set shot from (30-50)m". As a peace offering I'll highlight my goal of the day.

Just before halftime, from the center bounce, the Swans can't get a clean possession but keep pushing it forward. Suddenly Bulldog emerges from behind the pack and snaps a high bomb in the general direction of the goals. TDL follows the flight of the ball, stretches his arms as he falls back and hangs onto it!

A trip to Canberra next week awaits the Ressies against the young but improving Hawks who have lifted themselves off the foot of the ladder where they had been marooned for a few years now. With a few injuries mounting and travelling emergencies required along with the possible returns of Rohan and Lamb, it might quite a different side that runs out next week.