VFL Round 20: Hills Eagles v Sydney Swans Reserves

[ugg]

NEAFL Round 20
Hills Eagles v Sydney Swans Reserves
Saturday 11th August 2012 4.00pm
ANZ Stadium

The last home game for the Reserves will be the inaugural meeting between these two sides. The Hills Eagles are one of the two new Sydney teams introduced into the NEAFL Eastern division this year. However unlike their counterparts Sydney Uni, the Eagles have done well in their debut season and have already qualified for the finals due to start in a fortnight's time. Thanks to some smart recruiting adding to their solid player base carried over from their days as the East Coast Eagles in the SFL, the Eagles have claimed some notable scalps this year and will provide stiff opposition for the Reserves.

The Swans are still hanging in for a shot at the minor premiership; with leaders Queanbeyan assigned a tough fixture against Eastlake this weekend, the Swans will go top on percentage if they win and the Tigers lose to the Demons. However, while the minor premiership would be a proud accomplishment for Crouch and his charges, I wonder if the fact that the minor premiers will get the first week of the finals off (corresponds to AFL round 22) might mean that the Swans may not want to top the ladder after the regular season (although I'm not suggesting any badminton-style tanking will be taking place)

Eastern Conference Ladder

Past Meetings
First meeting between the two sides

Recent Form
Reserves
Hills Eagles
Last Round
Reserves 18.18 (126) defeated UWS Giants 9.10 (64) @ Skoda Stadium

The Giants jumped the Swans early to kick the first 3 goals of the match before the Swans clawed their way back in the contest to trail by only a goal. The 2nd half was a completely different story as the Swans caused the Giants to continually turn the ball over and hurt them on the rebound through their hard running and classy forwards. Morton led the goalkicking again but it was the key defenders in Heath and Lynch who were the real heroes keeping the Giants to just 2 goals after half time.

Goals: Morton 5, Lamb 4, Spangher 2, Crawford, Everitt, Heeney, Thurgarland, Roos, McNeil, Broome
Best: Heath, White, Lynch, Moore, Lamb, Thurgarland

Hills Eagles 17.11 (113) defeated Mt. Gravatt 8.13 (61) @ Bruce Purser

The Eagles took apart their lowly NEAFL Northern counterparts sprinting away to a 60 point 3 quarter tlead before the Vultures managed to peg the deficit back to 52 at full time. Matthew Edwins kicked a season high 6 to take his tally to 41 for the season. Defender Damien Charleston and forward Jamie Vlatko were amongst the Eagles' best players too.

Goals: Edwins 6, Young 2, Ure 2, Costello, Head, Spiteri, Vlatko, Houlihan, Charleston, Tungatalum
Best: Edwins, Charleston, Vlatko, Spiteri, Savage, Eastman

Team List
Listed players
Changes
In: Gordon (traveling emergency)
Out: Andrejs EVERITT (senior promotion)

In terms of structure it may be a case of straight-in straight-out as Everitt played a roaming role in the midfield last week and Gordon has been performing a similar task when selected.

Academy Players/Topups
Changes
In: Jack, Plug, Robinson, Roebuck, Sertbas, Wray
Out: Lewis Broome, Mitch Crawford, Jack McKinlay, Dane Rampe

No sign of a topup ruckman this week.

Reserves leading goalkickers

• Mitch Morton 69
• Trent Dennis-Lane 30
• Nathan Gordon 25

For full list: 2012 Goalkickers - RWOwiki

Reserves leading votegetters

• Jarred Moore 39
• Trent Dennis-Lane 28
• Mark Seaby 24

For full list: 2012 Best Votes - RWOwiki

Hills Eagles
In: Palipuaminni, Seebeck
Out:

As mentioned in the precis, the Eagles have recruited well. The list of names includes players with AFL experience in Ryan Houlihan (Carlton), Ross Tungatalum (St Kilda, also winner of the NEAFL Northern Conference Rising Star award in 2011), Scott Reed (Collingwood NSW scholarship holder, drafted on the rookie list), Jackson Dwyer (Hawthorn NSW scholarship), Thomas Head (Fremantle NSW scholarship) as well as Brad Palipuaminni who won the NEAFL with the NT Thunder with Tungatalum

In addition, Daniel Spiteri has played as a topup for our reserves and Tungatalum, Matthew Eastman and Thomas Head have played as topups for the Giants reserves.

And no, that's not the same Stephen Doyle that played for the Swans.

[barry]

And no, that's not the same Stephen Doyle that played for the Swans.

Damn. One last chance to say "plonk the donk". [translate: Put Stephen "donkey" doyle at full forward and leave him there]

[dimelb]

Thanks ugg, great work as usual. Will Twitter be operating? It was really helpful last week.

[ugg]

If it isn't raining too heavily.

[ugg]

A chance that this may be moved to Blacktown 2pm depending on the weather

NEAFL Match - Eagles V Swans UPDATE

[Primmy]

I am not listening ugg, not listening!!!

[wolftone57]

The NEAFL Website is still saying ANZ but I will keep looking. Thanks Ugg you do a marvelous job. I hope they don't shift it as I love my grass roots footy. Next year I am going to spend a bit of time watching the Balmain Tigers at home.

[liz]

According to the Eagles' website it is confirmed for ANZ.

[wolftone57]

According to the Eagles' website it is confirmed for ANZ.

Thanks Liz I looked also at the NEAFL Web and that says ANZ too. Thanks for confirmation & I will be heading out to watch the game as usual.

[ugg]

Hills Eagles

Hills Eagles 1.0 4.0 6.3 9.5 (59)
Sydney Swans 9.3 15.9 19.13 27.18 (180)

Hills Eagles

Goal Kickers: M. Edwins 3, T. Head 2, R. Tungatalum 2, D. Spiteri , T. Garlick
Best Players: A. Savage, J. Dimery, M. Edwins, J. Vlatko, D. Costello, T. Garlick

Sydney Swans

Goal Kickers: M. MORTON 6, T. WALSH 6, M. SPANGHER 5, B. MEREDITH 2, J. LAMB 2, J. WHITE , S. Wray , D. Robinson , B. Plug , H. CUNNINGHAM , E. Sertbas
Best Players: J. LAMB, J. WHITE, T. WALSH, M. MORTON, M. SPANGHER, J. MOORE

[Primmy]

ugg, did you consider that any of the ressies could have stepped into any of the senior's shoes against Collingwood? The scoreline says yes, and the fact is that there were a large number of toppies involved (goes to show just HOW far down the pecking order Hills Eagles are) but other than glimpses I would have said no, not really. Thoughts?

Mine are that Jesse looked terrific as almost full time ruck, but against much lower grade opposition, so possibly more dash than cash. You can see Steve Talbot has had his hands in his development of technique, it was on show. Perhaps they have given up on him being a key forward and are developing him as a backup ruckman? who can go forward. Lovely hands tho.
Jed continues to show why he is rated, and the possibility of where he could get to.
Matt Spangher took a terrific mark in a tumble roll and handballed off to advantage at the same moment - it was really worth the price of admission - could be ok for a senior call up.
number 55 played well and obviously is trusted by his team mates,
Meredith is such a good player most of the time (will he look for greener pastures elsewhere next year?),
Doggy is a gem, wish he could move quicker,
Harry is working hard but has a way to go,
Campbell Heath in charge of the backline and has very good voice and can read a game really well (where or when could he get a gig in seniors!),
Tommy is the real deal and I expect to see him early next year,
MM is good, can kick straight, but very uneven in his endeavour (my opinion and observation, open to enlightenment if others disagree).
Alex Brown does work hard, but I am not entirely sure what he is doing....kind of generic looking so I didn't notice him all that much.
Much to like about Jack Lynch. Not sure if he is a kid, or a bloke, or a kid in bloke's body. He has really come on since the start of the year, very steady development.


Not much of an opposition, not so bad back and mid, but they had not much power up forward.

[barry]

spranger or morton need to come in this week.

[ABloodsMan]

Lamb a possible in this week? Been hoping he can make his debut this. Year and seems to have strung a few solid performances together.

[Big Al]

Lamb a possible in this week? Been hoping he can make his debut this. Year and seems to have strung a few solid performances together.

If you look up the Jed Lamb fan club you'll see that the president is a cute albeit plump member of RWO and even he can't make a case for Jed just yet. Last week was his best game of the year after what has been a disappointing year. Next year after a solid preseason will be when we see the best of Chops.

[Ratna]

In relation to the question of who could be potential inclusions into the seniors, I only see Morton and Spangher, at the moment with Lamb a long shot for this year.
Morton's effort was good and I could see him as a potential swap for TDL.
Spangher looked good and may be able to provide something if needed in the firsts but barring injury there doesn't appear to be a spot unless it was a swap for TDL. Perhaps a better option than Morton for TDL's spot although it would possibly change the balance more
Lamb looked really good but will have to wait till next year.