VFL Round 13: Sydney Swans Reserves v Sydney Uni

[ugg]

NEAFL Round 13
Sydney Swans Reserves v Sydney Uni
Friday 22nd June 2012 4.10pm
Sydney Cricket Ground

The Reserves return from their bye with an unusual fixturing time: a Friday twilight game against Sydney Uni. Uni have been the weaker of the 2 new Sydney NEAFL teams but are still a game and a half clear of the dreaded wooden spoon. The Swans meanwhile are locked in a 4 way battle for the minor premiership, although their gigantic percentage gives them a break on the other 3 teams.


Eastern Conference Ladder
Past Meetings
2012
R7 Sydney Uni 5.6 (36) defeated by Reserves 38.11 (239) @ Blacktown International Sports Park
The Reserves were too powerful for the NEAFL new boys, crushing Uni by a mammoth 203 points. Forwards Nathan Gordon and Mitch Morton both kicked 10 goals straight and were ably supplied by midfielder Jarred Moore and half-back flanker Tony Armstrong.

Goals: Gordon 10, Morton 10, Walsh 4, White 3, Pyke 3, Lamb 2, Meredith 2, Biggs, Moore, Cunningham, Armstrong
Best: Moore, Armstrong, Morton, Gordon, Walsh, Wynn

Recent Form
Reserves
R1 UWS Away WIN 151-34
R2 BYE
R3 Gold Coast Home LOSS 55-91
R4 Ainslie Away LOSS 85-111
R5 Tuggeranong Home WIN 213-41
R6 NT Thunder Away LOSS 90-112
R7 Sydney Uni Away WIN 239-36
R8 Brisbane Away WIN 120-86
R9 Eastlake Home WIN 144-43
R10 Gold Coast Home WIN 109-56
R11 Queanbeyan Away WIN 137-96
R12 BYE

Sydney Uni
R1 Hills Eagles Away LOSS 81-96
R2 Queanbeyan Home LOSS 118-141
R3 Eastlake Home LOSS 82-109
R4 Tuggeranong Away WIN 106-104
R5 BYE
R6 Queanbeyan Away LOSS 55-135
R7 Sydney Home LOSS 36-239
R8 Ainslie Home LOSS 88-124
R9 Hills Eagles Away LOSS 58-163
R10 Belconnen Away LOSS 43-134
R11 Tuggeranong Home WIN 170-87

Last Round

Both teams had the bye so let's look at the previous round.

Queanbeyan 14.12 (96) defeated by Reserves 20.17 (137) @ Dairy Farmers Park
The Swans were fired up for the top-of-the-table clash and they stormed away to a 42 point half time lead. However the Tigers fought back to come within 2 goals during the 4th quarter before the Swans steadied to take home the points. Mark Seaby had yet another BOG performance while Mitch Morton kicked his 4th 6+ goal haul of the season

Goals: Morton 8, White 2, Cunningham 2, Lycakis, McNeil, Wynn, Biggs, Jack, Cullen, Walsh, Potter
Best: Seaby, Cunningham, Moore, Morton, McNeil, Heath

Sydney Uni 26.14 (170) defeated Tuggeranong 13.9 (87) @ No 1 Oval
Uni took advantage of a Hawks side in disarray, who had sacked head coach Glenn Gorman just a few days earlier. The 83 point victory complemented Uni's other victory of the season also against the Hawks. Forward Arron Everett kicked 6 goals to lead the way with dimunitive rover Alex Lee chiming in with 4.

Goals: Everett 6, Lee 4, Clancy 3, Elkington 2, Campbell 2, Haggerty 2, Barrett 2, Caspersonn, McConnochie, Clarke, Orton, Cole
Best: Elkington, McConnochie, Everett, Cole, Lee, Edwards

Team List
Listed players
Changes
In: Mitchell (knee), Meredith (???), Dennis-Lane (seniors demotion), Malceski (seniors demotion), Gordon (traveling senior emergency)
Out:

Sydney Uni have the misfortune to come up against one of the strongest reserves sides this year. The return of TDL, Meredith and Gordon adds extra potency to already talented forward line of Spangher, Morton, Walsh, White and Seaby. Mitchell and Meredith will return to bolster the midfield stocks which were looking a little slim but held up well by Moore, McNeil, Cunningham and Biggs.

Academy Players/Topups
Changes
In: Bosschieter, Dunn, Naismith
Out: Brandon Jack, Calum Johnston, Nathan Kenny, Monty Krochmal, David Lycakis, Alexander Wynn

RAMS are playing again and Brandon Jack has earnt a recall to their side.

Reserves leading goalkickers

• Mitch Morton 47
• Tommy Walsh 17
• Trent Dennis-Lane, Nathan Gordon15

For full list: 2012 Goalkickers - RWOwiki

Reserves leading votegetters

• Jarred Moore 32
• Mark Seaby 24
• Tommy Walsh 16

For full list: 2012 Best Votes - RWOwiki

Sydney Uni

• 1. Joshua COLE
• 2. Alexander LEE
• 3. Adam McCONNOCHIE
• 5. Jack CASPERSONN
• 8. Christopher CLAREBROUGH
• 11. Ryan SILVESTER
• 14. Monty KROCHMAL
• 18. Anton TURCO
• 20. Dean McKAY
• 21. Nick ROBERTS
• 23. Lachlan CLANCY
• 25. Jordan McCREARY
• 27. Peter CASEY
• 29. Samuel ORTON
• 30. Matthew LEMME
• 31. Nicholas BOWEN
• 33. Tom ELKINGTON
• 35. John HAGGARTY
• 37. Ryan EDWARDS
• 41. Dominic VINCENT
• 45. Ryan KENNEDY
• 48. Glenn SMITH
• 49. Aron EVERETT

Summary
Swans should win this game quite easily, the only question is by how much.

[707]

Top quality work again Ugg, thank you.

Will we be getting updates on the ressies?

Are they the curtain-raiser to the main game tonight or has there been a change of venue?

[ugg]

Yep on twitter http://www.twitter.com/swansreserves

No change in the venue AFAIK

[ScottH]

It is very interesting that Morton is head and shoulders above in the Goal kicking ladder, and 2 of his closest rivals have already played seniors this year.
He must be close to getting a gig.

[aardvark]

It is very interesting that Morton is head and shoulders above in the Goal kicking ladder, and 2 of his closest rivals have already played seniors this year.
He must be close to getting a gig.

Crouchy says....

Crouch said while Morton?s goal kicking is not in question, the forward still has some areas of his game to improve before he makes the transition to senior football this season.
?Mitch is certainly kicking a lot of goals, but if we look back to last year in the reserves, Trent Dennis-Lane kicked a lot of goals as well and it was certainly difficult for him to get in the seniors,? Crouch said.
?When it comes to goal-kicking, we certainly have no questions on Mitch. He just has to continue to work on the pressure aspects of his game.

[707]

I want to see Morton make the grade as he is a genuine x factor forward/mid that would add class and firepower to our forward line.

If he wants it badly enough he'll do what's needed.

Could be a wildcard for later this year/finals, the same way Tom Mitchell could be. To get both would be a real bonus and add much needed depth for a tilt at the flag.

[stellation]

Game underway- are all senior emergencies playing?

[aardvark]

Game underway- are all senior emergencies playing?

According to swans twitter all emergencies are playing.

[ScottH]

RT @swansreserves Qtr Tim Swans 4.5 (29) Uni 3.1 (19) Goals: Seaby Dennis-Lane Morton Spangher #neafl #goswans #fb
I think Seaby has 2 goals

[707]

Any sign of Mitchell yet?

[Sandridge]

Anyone got a final score for the ressies please? (Don't understand Twitter!)

[ScottH]

Ft swans 28.20 188 Uni 6.4 40
Goals Morton 5 Spangher 4 Gordon 4 White 3 Gordon 2 Seaby Mitchell tdl Walsh McNeil Lynch Biggs unknown

[Sandridge]

Thanks Scott!

[liz]

Ft swans 28.20 188 Uni 6.4 40
Goals Morton 5 Spangher 4 Gordon 4 White 3 Gordon 2 Seaby Mitchell tdl Walsh McNeil Lynch Biggs unknown

That second listing of 'Gordon' should read Cunningham - or at least, I have Harry down for two goals.

The second half became a bit of a romp after Sydney Uni had applied decent pressure for much of the first half. It became a bit hard to keep the attention focussed towards the end. I was watching the game with Ugg, and there were a couple of goals we watched but couldn't tell who kicked them, and then a couple towards the end where we had both let our attention wander and didn't even see the goals get kicked.

It was a game of pretty even contributions across the team, which was just several classes ahead of the opposition. Spangher was my stand-out, but I might be a bit biased because he's become a bit of a favourite of mine. I just thought his work in the forward line was full of energy, both in the air and on the ground. Morton was classy in front of goal, as we have come to expect, but I also thought his chasing and tackling was a couple of notches up from previous games. Speaking of chasing and tackling, I thought TDL was tremendous in this aspect, but his radar in front of goal needed a bit of a re-tune. He sat out the second half (as senior emergency) so didn't benefit from the significant drop off in pressure from Sydney Uni in the second half.

Other players who were busy and relatively impressive included Gordon, Cunningham, Moore and Biggs. Jesse played an interesting game, spending large chunks of it in the midfield. He continues to tantalise with his mixture of impressive athleticism for a chap his size, and some moments of great play, mixed with dropped marks he should be gobbling up, occasionally losing his feet at inopportune moments, and his tendency to drift in and out of a game.

Seaby was out of the game from sometime in the second quarter (I think) - he could be seen hobbling around with ice strapped to his calf.

[ugg]

Yes that was my fault, I wrote Gordon twice instead of Cunningham. We had 3 unknown goalkickers and after talking to another ressies watcher who reckons Morton kicked 7, looks like 2 of those belong to Mitch.

Will write a more detailed report tomorrow but agree with a lot of what liz said. I would also add that the team was caught a little off guard by Sydney Uni's endeavour in the first quarter and while they rectified that somewhat in the other 3 quarters they were still guilty of not being as clean as they would have liked. This applied to both their goalkicking and their general use of the ball going forward. I thought Moore was outstanding in the middle although it seems to matter little to his chances of a senior recall. I also liked Gordon's busyness in the midfield and his set shot accuracy in the forward line. I love Spangher's unselfish work and his second and third efforts on the rare occasions he fails to mark the ball. Other potential key forwards take note! He is just so damned competitive you get the feeling that he'd fight tooth and nail for the last slice of bread in the loaf.

White's midfield adventure was just bizarre to me - they've tried it in spurts in the last month but today it moved up another notch. I'd love to see the reasoning behind this move. Biggs I liked for this ball use, hardly seems to waste a possession. Brown was also in this category. Malceski found a lot of the ball in all areas of the ground but I wouldn't class his performance as fantastic. But the rest were really a much of a muchness for me or perhaps the parts of my brain responsible for memory recall had frozen off by then.