Round 14: NT Thunder v Sydney Swans Reserves

[ugg]

Come Together
NEAFL Round 14

NT Thunder v Sydney Swans Reserves
Saturday 22nd June 2013 3.00pm
Traeger Park - Alice Springs

The NT Thunder were the inaugural NEAFL champions 2 years ago, and have topped the Northern Conference ladder in both NEAFL seasons but this year they are struggling with a relatively low position of 6th in their conference and involved in a dogged fight for a finals spot. Their once formidable home record is in tatters this season, dropping 4 of their 6 fixtures there this year (although they've only played once in Alice this year for a big win).

The Ressies are still a game clear on top of the ladder despite valiantly going down to a strong Suns Reserves outfit 2 weeks ago at Metricon Stadium but with further injuries hitting the club, they will be at a season low 11 listed players when they travel to Alice Springs for this fixture. In the only other previous meeting, the Swans played well at Darwin's TIO Stadium but struggled to finish the game out with the Thunder riding the momentum to come over the top to finish with the 4 points.

Eastern Conference Ladder

Team	Played	Wins	Losses	Draws	Byes	For	Against	Percentage	Points
Reserves	10	8	2	0	3	1224	611	200.33%	32
Belconnen	10	7	3	0	3	1187	943	125.87%	28
Queanbeyan	10	6	4	0	3	950	926	102.59%	24
Eastlake	10	6	4	0	3	835	885	94.35%	24
UWS	11	5	6	0	2	1133	1121	101.07%	20
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Ainslie	11	5	6	0	2	1019	1044	97.61%	20
Hills Eagles	10	4	6	0	3	939	1054	89.09%	16
Sydney Uni	10	3	7	0	3	951	1049	90.66%	12
Tuggeranong	10	2	8	0	3	563	1186	47.47%	8

Northern Conference Ladder

Team	Played	Wins	Losses	Draws	Byes	For	Against	Percentage	Points
Lions Reserves	10	9	1	0	2	1204	681	176.80%	36
Southport	10	8	2	0	2	990	739	133.96%	32
Suns Reserves	11	8	3	0	1	1164	934	124.63%	32
Aspley	10	7	3	0	2	1105	758	145.78%	28
Morningside	11	6	5	0	1	1007	966	104.24%	24
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NT Thunder	10	5	5	0	2	1151	985	116.85%	20
Redland	10	4	6	0	2	984	918	107.19%	16
Broadbeach	11	4	7	0	1	926	1150	80.52%	16
Labrador	10	1	9	0	2	652	1218	53.53%	4
Mt Gravatt	11	0	11	0	1	646	1441	44.83%	0

Past Meetings
2012
R6 Reserves 12.18 (90) defeated by NT Thunder 16.16 (112)
The Reserves were the superior side for 3 quarters of this game, however their profligacy in front of goal in the first half ultimately proved fatal when the Thunder stormed home with a 7 goals to 1 last quarter. The defensive duo of Heath and Lynch did a solid job on the dangerous Darren Ewing keeping him to a respectable 2 goals. Mitch Morton kicked 4 goals while Harry Cunningham was dominant in the clearances, especially in the first half

Goals: Morton 4, Dennis-Lane 2, Moore, Moody, Biggs, Gordon, Walsh, Lamb
Best: Heath, Moore, Wynn, Cunningham, Lynch

Recent Form
Reserves

Round	Team	Venue	Result	F	A
R1	BYE
R2	UWS	Away	WIN	107	102
R3	Gold Coast	Home	WIN	110	65
R4	Tuggeranong	Away	WIN	237	40
R5	Hills Eagles	Home	WIN	148	86
R6	BYE
R7	Brisbane	Home	LOSS	81	104
R8	UWS	Away	WIN	127	78
R9	Queanbeyan	Home	WIN	151	38
R10	Ainslie	Away	WIN	123	49
R11	Belconnen	Home	WIN	140	49
R12	Gold Coast	Away	LOSS	50	70
R13	BYE

NT Thunder

Round	Team	Venue	Result	F	A
R1	Broadbeach	Home	LOSS	102	104
R2	Aspley	Away	LOSS	90	128
R3	Mt Gravatt	Home	WIN	160	65
R4	BYE
R5	Labrador	Home	WIN	181	98
R6	Redland	Away	WIN	92	81
R7	Morningside	Home	LOSS	88	117
R8	BYE
R9	Broadbeach	Away	WIN	128	101
R10	BYE
R11	Southport	Home	LOSS	93	102
R12	UWS	Home	LOSS	74	120
R13	Mt Gravatt	Away	WIN	143	69

Last Round
Reserves 7.8 (50) defeated by Gold Coast Reserves 10.10 (70) @ Metricon Stadium

Goals: Membrey 2, Biggs, Lloyd, Dunn, Lamb, Jaffer-Williams
Best: Lamb, Lloyd, Cunningham, Biggs, Armstrong, Jaffer-Williams

Mt Gravatt 10.9 (69) defeated by NT Thunder 21.17 (143) @ Dittmer Park

Goals: Ewing 7, Dunne 4, Gorey 4, Vassal 2, Chambers 2, Palipuaminni 2
Best: Lockwood, Ilett, L.Argus, M.Argus, Staunton, Wills

Team List
Listed players

#	Name	Games	Goals	Votes	Notes
7	Harry CUNNINGHAM	5	3	9	Acting captain for this game, has played midfield since his return and will be the 'senior' onballer in this side.
22	Dean TOWERS	9	7	0	Was the traveling emergency 2 weeks ago for the Crows game.
23	Jordan LOCKYER	10	1	0	Has played all 10 games this year, now needs to start showing some form.
27	Daniel ROBINSON	9	9	3	Will lead the inside midfield brigade alongside Lloyd, Marsh and Cunningham.
28	Matthew DICK	6	0	0	Saw glimpses of him up forward in the highlights against the Suns Reserves.
31	Harrison MARSH	9	5	0	Will make a beeline to former B&F winner Cam Ilett who has ben racking up the possesions for the Thunder
33	Brandon JACK	9	11	9	(senior emergency) Back after his last quarter cameo against the Crows, he will be the Swans leading goalkicker out on the park for this game.
36	Alex BROWN	10	3	12	Been relatively quieter in his last 2 games, but his versatility is important to the structure of the side. May see time forward with Membrey out of this side.
42	Xavier RICHARDS	9	0	10	(senior emergency) A deserved senior promotion after improving throughout the season. May get the big job on goalkicking machine Darren Ewing. (see NT Thunder side below)
44	Jake LLOYD	10	8	22	Keeps the stats guys working overtime another 30+ touches and 7 clearances against the Suns, working hard all over the field.
46	Shane BIGGS	10	1	13	Has found form in the last month and pushed quite high up the ground against Gold Coast.

Changes
In: Towers (seniors traveling emergency), Jack (seniors)
Out: Tim MEMBREY (seniors traveling emergency), Jed LAMB (seniors), Tony ARMSTRONG (seniors)

A season low 11 listed players but this team under Crouch's tutelage have shown they can still be competitive even under such limited numbers. The makeup of the side is somewhat unbalanced with plenty of defensive types but little in terms of forward targets. Brown and Towers (as a hard leading CHF) have been utilised as forwards in patches in past games this season and may be required to do so again alongside the topups.

Academy Players/Topups

#	Name	Games	Goals	Votes	Notes
48	Doug HADDEN	6	2	4
49	Jack McKINLAY	1	0	0
50	Brad PLUG	1	0	0
51	Matthew MOKETARINJA	0	0	0
52	Warwick DICKSON	0	0	0
53	Josh PARTINGTON	0	0	0
55	Jasper WHEELER	0	0	0
57	Aaron SHARPE	0	0	0
58	Alan DICKSON	0	0	0
60	Jordan WEIR	9	5	1

In: A.Dickson, W.Dickson, Hadden, Moketarinja, Partington, Sharpe, Wheeler
Out: Wills BRASSIL, James DUNN, Tom GREEN, Yarran JAFFER-WILLIAMS, Erol SERTBAS, Hayden WASHINGTON, Stephen WRAY

The 2 Dicksons, Mokaterinja, Partington, Sharpe and Wheeler are local NT players.

Hadden and Weir have played in the forward line previously and both have shown good goal sense.

Topup Wills Brassil was the primary ruckman against the Suns but with his omission it remains who will take the ruck duties. It is likely that one of the new topups will have the height to take this role, otherwise Brown, Richards or even Lockyer might have to fill in just to give a contest at the throw-ins and ball-ups.


Reserves leading goalkickers

• Mitch Morton 26 (5)
• Jesse White 22 (8)
• Tommy Walsh 21 (6)

For full list: 2013 Goalkickers - RWOwiki

Reserves leading votegetters

• Jed Lamb 24 (7)
• Jake Lloyd 22 (10)
• Jesse White 19 (6)

For full list: 2013 Best Votes - RWOwiki

NT Thunder

B:	29. Justin BEUGELAAR	13. Lachlan ARGUS	33. Ben RIOLI
HB:	26. Jack LAWLER	32. Jordan WILSON-KING	44. Chris COOPER
C:	17. Shannon RIOLI	9. Brad VASSAL	1. Dean STAUNTON
HF:	3. Matthew ARGUS	11. Brant CHAMBERS	24. Chris DUNNE
F:	42. Thomas GOREY	43. Baydon NGALKIN	2. Darren EWING
Foll:	6. Julian LOCKWOOD	16. Cameron ILETT	34. Phillip WILLS
Int:	57. Shaun WILSON	31. Brad PALIPUAMINNI	39. Austin WONAEMIRRI
	5. Joe COLLINSON	40. Gareth REMFREY

In: Beugelaar, Collinson, Lawler, Ngalkin, Wilson, Wonaemirri
Out: Nathan BROWN, Patrick HEENAN, Robert HOWARD, Jayden PRIOR, Kevin VEARNCOMBE

Up forward, Darren Ewing is the danger man. A prolific goalscorer across his whole career, he may not get many touches but when he does he invariably turns them into goals as exhibited by his 7 kick-7 goals performance last week against Mt Gravatt and 10 kick-5 goals against UWS the week before. He is the leading goalkicker in both conference with 56 goals in total. Former Demon Austin Wonaemirri is also a major threat.
In the midfield, Cam Ilett is the Thunder's star player working both inside and outside. He is given great service by Julian Lockwood who has stepped into the big shoes of Kenrick Tyrell who retired last season.

- - - Updated - - -

Game being streamed from the NEAFL website but of course the start clashes with the 2nd half of the Power game

[ScottH]

I think last years game the heat in Darwin took it's toll in the last qtr too.

[wolftone57]

The boys have to go from freezing to hot and humid, hard to acclimatise and it does sap you. Too few listed players, it shows just how many injuries we have. Thanks once again Ugg. Jordan Weir can play FF.

[justabaraker]

Ugg, you are the BEST and you've done it again !
Thanks for making sense of all this for the rest of us.

[ugg]

If anyone is interested the live stream is working

NT Thunder v Sydney Swans Reserves; NEAFL Round 14 from Traeger Park, Alice Springs. - YouTube

Towers playing at FF and taken one strong grab and goal already.

[Rod_]

If anyone is interested the live stream is working

NT Thunder v Sydney Swans Reserves; NEAFL Round 14 from Traeger Park, Alice Springs. - YouTube

Towers playing at FF and taken one strong grab and goal already.

Thanks

Rod_

[ugg]

Thunder are a very quick skilful team, the young Swannies are putting in the effort but are being outclassed and outrun when they turn it over. If NT had taken more of their chances they could be further ahead. Towers probably putting his best game as a key forward, Dick has shown signs up forward. Cunningham and Lloyd our best onballers.

3quarter time
Swans 5.4 (34) Thunder 12.12 (84)
Goals: Towers 2, Dick, Jack, Plug

[wolftone57]

I couldn't get the stream Ugg. The NEAFL website is a joke. It still has last weeks stream of Thunder v Southport on. Bloody annoying. Looks as though just as bad as the seniors if not worse.

[ugg]

Tony see my link above, although the match is nearly over.

- - - Updated - - -

Full time Thunder 16.16 (112) Swans 9.5 (59) Goals: Towers 3 Jack 2 Dick 2 Plug 1 Wheeler 1 #goswans

Towers and Jack the standouts for me, Dick showed glimpses in a new role as a forward but we struggled to contain their transition from half back, and playing without a recognised ruckman our midfield had a tough gig. Hard to work out why from the stream's camera angle but I can't believe how often they had their key forwards totally free inside our defensive 50.

[liz]

I wish they'd stop trying to make Towers the next Mattner's and play him at half forward for extended periods. That's where he always seems to be most dangerous, playing the kind of role we wish Rohan was currently available to play.

[Auntie.Gerald]

agree......the coaching staff are no dumbies and they know Towers needs to build his defensive part of his game to tick the "Bloods code of football".......BUT he is electric up front and can apply serious pressure and sneak goals

The below 6 have us covered for a couple years yet...........with LRT when needed and Shaw comes back in for Rampe no doubt...... Cunningham is build nicely albeit bit by bit for Shaws role in the future.

So why continue building Towers in the back line ? Maybe it is about covering roles this year and given we have a stack of small to med talls he wont be needed there in 2013 but possibly in defence in 2013 if injuries in the backline continue ?

Smith, Ted, Rampe
AJ, Grundy, Mal

[ugg]

So why continue building Towers in the back line ?

Not sure of Towers' past before last year but he was played as an attacking half back at North Ballarat at the VFL and did well enough to earn a spot in the VFL Team of the Year as well as winning the VFL Young Player Award. So it's not really a stretch to that the Swans picked him with a view to playing him in a similar position, and given his mature status, playing some kind of senior football in 2013. The fact that he has his best reserves football has been as a forward is more of an indictment, in my opinion, on his performances down back because it shows he can play, he's just not doing it at the end of the ground in which he is expected to succeed.

He even spent part of the preseason training as a 3rd tall defender and really should be playing in our back six given the number of outs in that department. His game today as a key forward target was good, not that he took plenty of big marks or kicked a big bag of goals, but because he kept contesting, brought the ball to ground and more often than not recovered the quickest to get to the loose ball first and set up his teammates. He showed a sense of urgency and sharpness had been lacking from his game. He may well get a debut this week, but only because we seem to have run out of options and Armstrong's game was particularly poor today and I shudder to think of him (Tony that is) marking one of Carlton's fleet footed small forwards.