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I thought some RWOers who are not OptusNet customers might like to read this week's match report by Jared Crouch.
G'day Swans Fans',
The bookies had us at eight to one to win in a two horse race. One in about 50 experts who tip in the papers gave us a chance. Some of our supporters were already ringing the club trying to book tickets to a game that 'should' of had us playing the winner of Essendon vs Fremantle; Michael O'Loughlin had torn a hammy; the Coach had ruptured his Achilles tendon playing basketball and when it seemed as though nothing else could go wrong; Ryan O'Keefe hurt his shoulder in the very last training drill before we were set to travel. On top of all this we were playing the minor premiers, who had lost only four games all year at AAMI stadium whose crowds are notorious for being hard to face as they are avid SA AFL team supporters. Also it's a very loud stadium. Yes the odds seemed to be stacked against us, but hey, what did we have to lose? Nothing!
We charged onto the field as a team just wanting to enjoy the experience, a team that had faith in the bloke standing next to him. I believed that we could win the game. I guess I never believed we would win the way we did. We need 22 contributors each week to have a chance and during the first half we certainly had that. If you had of told me that at half time that the same curse that had struck us all week would remerge and that we would have three injured blokes on the bench unable to contribute physically in the second half, maybe then I would have believed the experts who said the game was mission impossible. But! After playing so well in the first half the nineteen fit men weren't going to be happy with an honourable loss, instead we stood shoulder to shoulder as the Power threw everything at us. We stood firm together to register a game that will be remembered for sometime.
In winning this game we may have lifted the curse that has dogged us last week. The week off allows most of our injured players the opportunity to push for selection in the Preliminary Final. It allows the weary warriors who stood tall as comrades fell beside them the opportunity to rest their weary bodies and to charge the batteries for a game were there is no tomorrow for the loser.
Words cannot describe how I feel about my teammates. I am just looking forward to going into battle with them again, with them standing next to me in the trenchers then anything is possible.
Jared Crouch
The bookies had us at eight to one to win in a two horse race. One in about 50 experts who tip in the papers gave us a chance. Some of our supporters were already ringing the club trying to book tickets to a game that 'should' of had us playing the winner of Essendon vs Fremantle; Michael O'Loughlin had torn a hammy; the Coach had ruptured his Achilles tendon playing basketball and when it seemed as though nothing else could go wrong; Ryan O'Keefe hurt his shoulder in the very last training drill before we were set to travel. On top of all this we were playing the minor premiers, who had lost only four games all year at AAMI stadium whose crowds are notorious for being hard to face as they are avid SA AFL team supporters. Also it's a very loud stadium. Yes the odds seemed to be stacked against us, but hey, what did we have to lose? Nothing!
We charged onto the field as a team just wanting to enjoy the experience, a team that had faith in the bloke standing next to him. I believed that we could win the game. I guess I never believed we would win the way we did. We need 22 contributors each week to have a chance and during the first half we certainly had that. If you had of told me that at half time that the same curse that had struck us all week would remerge and that we would have three injured blokes on the bench unable to contribute physically in the second half, maybe then I would have believed the experts who said the game was mission impossible. But! After playing so well in the first half the nineteen fit men weren't going to be happy with an honourable loss, instead we stood shoulder to shoulder as the Power threw everything at us. We stood firm together to register a game that will be remembered for sometime.
In winning this game we may have lifted the curse that has dogged us last week. The week off allows most of our injured players the opportunity to push for selection in the Preliminary Final. It allows the weary warriors who stood tall as comrades fell beside them the opportunity to rest their weary bodies and to charge the batteries for a game were there is no tomorrow for the loser.
Words cannot describe how I feel about my teammates. I am just looking forward to going into battle with them again, with them standing next to me in the trenchers then anything is possible.
Jared Crouch
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