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Thread: Practice Match 2: Sydney Swans Reserves vs Sydney Uni

  1. #13
    Senior Player DamY's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ShockOfHair View Post
    Of course, only Ugg would've noticed...

    Is Mumford playing?

    Thanks, Liz.
    Yah he was on not long ago

  2. #14
    Wats the score

  3. #15
    Senior Player DamY's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by chatovadafloor View Post
    Wats the score
    Sorry, no scoreboard up lol but swannies are like 10 goals up or something

  4. #16
    Can you feel it? Site Admin ugg's Avatar
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    Adding up Liz's updates the swans were winning 21 goals to 3 at three quarter time

  5. #17
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    Six goal to one final term (subject to a count back when I get home). Fantastic all round performance from the team. Bird would have had well over 40 possessions I suspect. Membrey will dominate the Neafl unless senior call up cuts his Neafl career short.

    More later.

  6. #18
    pr. dim-melb; m not f
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    Thanks Liz. Sounds like it was fun to watch.
    He reminds him of the guys, close-set, slow, and never rattled, who were play-makers on the team. (John Updike, seeing Josh Kennedy in a crystal ball)

  7. #19
    Support Staff Old Royboy's Avatar
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    Fun night. The midfield of Smith, Lamb and Bird pretty well did as they liked. Lamb looks much fitter. All the boys trying to get fit for next week appeared to get through OK. Smooch may be a bit sore, ran around looking like a question mark for a couple of minutes after a collision in the last quarter. Membury has a good pair of hands and appears to be a dead eye Dick in front of goal.
    Coaching panel very relaxed. Horse had a few words to players as they came onto the bench, but played kick to kick with his son at half time. Stews Dew was the behind goals ball shagger and showed off marking the Swans goals one handed.
    All night you could hear Mattner giving orders, notably dispensing advice to Towers on positioning and disposal choice. Laughed when Mattner was wanting to come off the bench, all the kids feigned deafness, guess they were having too much of a good time.

  8. #20
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    I'll qualify my comments with an observation that a difficult ground to watch at (due to lack of elevation) becomes even harder when the lights go on, especially for someone like me whose vision isn't great in the dark. So it is possible that I have attributed some goals to the wrong player - and there are a couple I don't have a clue who kicked. But my tally is:

    Membrey 7 (or 6 see Walsh) , Robinson 4, Morton 3, Jack 3 (or 2 or 1 - see Marsh), Walsh 2 (or 3 - see Membray), Lamb 2 (or 1), Marsh 1 (or 2 or 3 - see Jack), Bird 1, Lloyd 1, Biggs 1

    That accounts for 25 goals. I have a total tally of 27. One of the others was kicked by someone relatively tall and dark haired (I think) - it could have been Towers, Mattner, Brown, maybe Marsh, even Wray (top up). The other I think was kicked by a shorter midfielder - could have been any of Lloyd, Jack, Cunningham, Lamb, Robinson or possibly even Marsh again.

    The 2013 reserves team is filled with a swag of players who just run, run and run some more. It was a warm and sticky night, with the brief late afternoon shower failing to clear the air. Some of them started to look a little tired in the last ten minutes or so, but they still worked their butts off to the final siren.

    They dominated at centre bounces, with Bird, Lamb, Smith and others feeding off Mumford. And then the ball was just moved relentlessly towards goal, sometimes with pinpoint precision, sometimes not. All these runners are good on the outside but they're not averse to putting their heads over the ball too, when required. When they did lose possession, the tackling was strong and relentless, and mostly it didn't take long to win it back. There were many passages where a swath of runners cut loose through the corridor, handballing to a player in a little more space when they were closed down. Sometimes they overdid the handballing, but mostly it was pretty sound.

    It was not a night to judge the defenders, so little time did the ball spend down that end. Uni did have a few forays forward in the first quarter that brought X into the action. He looks to read the ball well in flight but doesn't quite (yet) get his body in position to mark against his opponent. Still, I don't recall him having any marks taken on him, and he keeps his feet well when the ball spills to ground. He spent part of the final quarter in the ruck once Mumford had had enough for the night.

    Brown was moved forward in the second half, and Cunningham also pushed himself a bit further up the ground as the game went on to get into the action. Towers mostly stuck to his HBF posting, so didn't see a huge amount of action. Still, he took a couple of very nice overhead marks and his intensity looked good. His kicking was a bit of a mixed bag. He definitely has a bit of the Mattner about him in terms of build, speed and running style. It remains to be seen if he can be relied on for match saving tackles a couple of times a season.

    Like last week, Biggs started modestly (apart from kicking the second goal of the game. But he had accumulated a heap of possessions by the end of the game. Most of these came from running into space but he worked reasonably well through traffic too, took one excellent overhead mark in a pack, was very clean picking the ball off the ground and dished off some intelligent handballs. I remain to be convinced whether he can adapt to the increased pressure and speed of senior football, but I reckon he's in for a ripper NEAFL season.

    The performance that excited me the most was Membrey. It wasn't just the goals he kicked, but the variety of ways he kicked them. This wasn't a case of a White or a Grundy monstering smaller, weaker opponents. He took uncontested marks on leads. He took marks on leads with an opponent on his hammer. He took marks behind his opponent, judging the flight perfectly as he ran backwards. He kicked one goal 40m or so out off one step after a handball receive. And he converted one from a long Jack kick into the goal square with just inches to spare and an opponent hanging off him. Just as impressive was what happened when he didn't mark the ball. One of Robinson's goals eventuated after Membray brought the ball to ground in a contest and followed up with second and third efforts to keep the ball moving to the Swans' advantage. On another occasion he spoiled, kept his balance perfectly and had moved into a strong tackle almost before his feet landed back on the ground. When he tackled, he did so with controlled aggression reminiscent of Hall at his best.

    It is hard to gauge how good his endurance is at the moment, given the quality of the opposition. But he was running as hard at the end as he was at the start, and he certainly didn't just stay parked in the forward 50m for the whole game. The question mark over him at draft time seemed to be whether he could ever develop into a midfielder. It is early days yet, but I am not sure if that matters. He understands the craft of a forward extremely well, and plenty of players his size have carved out effective roles as a second forward. I can definitely see him fitting into a forward line of Tippett owning the goal square, Reid wandering high up the ground and back again, and Goodesy darting this way and that way as he terrorises the opposition. I'll be very surprised if Membray doesn't get some taste of senior footy in 2013. And it might be sooner rather than later.

    Just a quick word about the Sydney University team. Even though they were cruelly outclassed, they did keep running all night, and carved out three or four excellent thrusts forward, moving the ball quickly and crisply. They couldn't catch the Swans players most of the night but they at least chased hard enough to put some physical pressure on the young Swans. It was a stronger Swans line up than they are likely to face again this year, with barely any top-ups being called upon. I noted 47 (Wray), 48 (Perris, I believe), the same big lump of a 59 that played last week (and relieved Mumford in the ruck for short periods) and a number 60 who ran out with the team but I didn't notice at all out on the ground. Up against a team containing the likes of Mumford, Smith, Mattner and Morton, it was a tough gig for them.

    Jack was in attendance, wearing 'civvies' rather than Swans gear, so I presume he was there in the role of big brother, rather than club captain. I also spotted Kennelly watching on with interest.

  9. #21
    pr. dim-melb; m not f
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    Great work Liz. You obviously spent as much time working on notes as having fun!
    He reminds him of the guys, close-set, slow, and never rattled, who were play-makers on the team. (John Updike, seeing Josh Kennedy in a crystal ball)

  10. #22
    Veterans List wolftone57's Avatar
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    Wonderful Liz I will send you a pair of Binoculars, if I ever meet you, as I know how hard trying to view these games can be being an 'Grumpy Old bugger'.

  11. #23
    Proud Tragic Swan Primmy's Avatar
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    thanks liz. yeah and I know oldboy that those boys can hear bellows from the side lines, would have been fun to watch marty being ignored.
    If you've never jumped from one couch to the other to save yourself from lava then you didn't have a childhood

  12. #24
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    awesome Liz!

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