VFL Round 9: Sydney Swans Reserves v Queanbeyan Tigers

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NEAFL Round 9
Sydney Swans Reserves v Queanbeyan Tigers
Saturday 18th May 2013 4.00pm
Sydney Cricket Ground

Last week's grand final rematch didn't go the Swans way but the Reserves will be hoping that they can emulate Hawthorn's feat by beating the current premiers. The Reserves came away from last week's 'mini Sydney derby' against the Giants with a meritorious victory thanks to great defensive pressure and tackling. The Tigers, after a strong 5-0 start to the season, are struggling with injuries to key players and have dropped their last two games by big margins.

Eastern Conference Ladder
Past Meetings
2012
R11 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

Second Semi Queanbeyan 13.5 (78) defeated by Reserves 21.12 (138) @ Manuka Oval

The Tigers were the better for most of the first half with their maniacal tackling and chasing opening up plenty of scoring opportunities as the Swans struggled to counter their opponents' ferocity. However once they adjusted, a late flurry of goals in the time on period of the second quarter saw the Swans wrestle back the lead at half time, and despite Queanbeyan pulling back the margin to 20 points at the start of the last, the Reserves steadied through a captain's goal via Moore and pulled away for a comfortable victory, and direct passage in to the Grand Final.

Goals: Dennis-Lane 5, Morton 3, Lamb 2, Plug 2, Moore 2, McNeil 2, Cunningham, Sertbas, Gordon, McKinlay, Spangher
Best: Lamb, Gordon, White, McNeil, Moore, Cunningham

Grand Final Reserves 13.13 (91) defeated by Queanbeyan 18.13 (121) @ Manuka Oval

Goals: Dennis-Lane 5, Lycaks 3, Cunningham 2, Meredith, Gordon, Hadden
Best: Heath, Weir, Cunningham, Lycakis, Dennis-Lane, Spangher

Recent Form
Reserves
Queanbeyan
Last Round
UWS Giants 11.12 (78) defeated by Reserves 19.13 (127) @ Blacktown International Sportspark

Goals: Membrey 5, Morton 3, Everitt 3, Walsh 2, Lloyd, Robinson, Mitchell, Wray, Kilpatrick, Brown
Best: Walsh, Everitt, Biggs, Membrey, Lloyd, Mitchell

Ainslie 22.6 (138) defeated Queanbeyan 11.10 (76) @ Ainslie Oval

Goals: Kavanagh 3, Liddle 2, Daniher, Atkinson, Conroy, Kerlin, K.Klemke, B.Klemke
Best: Jolliffe, Jensen, Conroy, Atkinson, King

Team List
Listed players
Changes
In: Lamb (seniors), Armstrong (seniors), White (seniors)
Out: Tim Membrey (???), Mitch Morton (seniors), Tommy Walsh (seniors), Matthew Dick (???)

Not sure why Membrey and Dick are missing, but they also missed the last time we played a non AFL reserves side so it might be related to player restriction numbers. Membrey would have been useful in this side that has been shorn of its main attacking weapons from the past few weeks - Mitch Morton and Tommy Walsh.

In their absence, you would suspect some of the defensive types to be shifted forward, most likely Alex Brown and Dean Towers who have filled these roles in past games, albeit for parts of a game rather than a full game.

Academy Players/Topups
In: Bosschieter, Dunn, Gilbert, Jaffer-Williams, Sertbas, Weir
Out: Wills Brassil, Calum Johnston, Lachlan Kilpatrick, Thomas Thurgarland

Wray and Weir return after representing the Swans Academy U18 side. Dunn and Bosschieter have played as topups in previous years while Jaffer-Williams and Gilbert make their Swans reserves debut.

Reserves leading goalkickers

• Mitch Morton 26 (5)
• Tim Membrey 14 (5), Tommy Walsh 14 (5)
• Andrejs Everitt 10 (4)

For full list: 2013 Goalkickers - RWOwiki

Reserves leading votegetters

• Tommy Walsh 17 (5)
• Jed Lamb 14 (4)
• Andrejs Everitt 13 (4), Mitch Morton 13 (5)

For full list: 2013 Best Votes - RWOwiki

Queanbeyan Tigers
In: Armstrong, Griggs, Grintell, McCormick, Stevens
Out: Mitch Daniher, James Kavanagh, Timothy Shea

The Tigers suffer a huge blow with leading goalkicker James Kavanagh and former Mulrooney Medalist Mitch Daniher both not named for this game. Both were instrumental in the Tigers' GF win over the Swans, in particular Kavanagh who was damaging on the scoreboard when given time and space to work in.

Add to that the still missing Ryan Quade and the Tigers also lack height in their forward line.

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The NEAFL site is streaming this game. A first for ressies games from the SCG IIRC.

[wolftone57]

Thank you wonderful as usual Ugg. A bit disappointed that Membrey is not playing as he would have to be a player to look at for the future of the forward line. Wow great to see the game will be streamed as I am at home with the flu and definitely won't be at the game tonight. Too sick to go out in the cold. good luck this arvo to the Twos and to the resies watchers, have a wonderful evening.

[ugg]

@swansreserves: Full time Swans 23.13 151 Tigers 5.8 38. White 10 Robinson 2 Jaffer-Williams 2 Weir 2 Mitchell Lamb Marsh Lloyd Wray Dunn Gilbert #goswans

@swansreserves: Best players: White Mitchell Lloyd Brown Hadden Weir

[AnnieH]

Jessie kicked 10 goals????

Where the F was he last week when we needed him??

Gobsmacking win.

[goswannies]

Jessie kicked 10 goals????

Where the F was he last week when we needed him??

Gobsmacking win.

I know where he was THIS week when we needed him! Cruel that he gets a game against the world beating Hawks, isn't our worst, gets dropped when he would've played a Freo side that was short of talls because of injury & then kicks a swag of goals in the twos while Walshy & Mummy struggle.

[0918330512]

I know where he was THIS week when we needed him! Cruel that he gets a game against the world beating Hawks, isn't our worst, gets dropped when he would've played a Freo side that was short of talls because of injury & then kicks a swag of goals in the twos while Walshy & Mummy struggle.

It'd be good if they gave as much latitude to Jesse as a few others get. I'm not saying Armstrong, Goodsey, Jetta & others don't deserve to be there. But Jesse doesn't get 2-3 weeks in a row to find some form. Not sure who contributes more or has more potential ... a fit White or an unfit Mummy

[AnnieH]

Still gobsmacked.

10 goals???

[707]

Worried about this - we have a massive win and Lamb doesn't make the best players. I'm really worried about our depth of seniors if guys like Lamb can't burn it up in a win like that.

Fingers crossed for Mitchell's run of injury to be over because he looks the only one capable of stepping up into a senior side that really needs to find some players and quickly.

Looking forward to the comprehensive player thumbnails from our excellent ressie watchers so we can really know what went on yesterday.

[liz]

Worried about this - we have a massive win and Lamb doesn't make the best players. I'm really worried about our depth of seniors if guys like Lamb can't burn it up in a win like that.

It's dangerous to use the Swans' list of best players in the reserves to make judgements about where players are, relative to others. Over the years there has been a wide discrepancy between the most influential players to the watcher's eye, versus the list the club publishes. These lists definitely seem to be on a relative, rather than absolute basis.

I thought this was a very scrappy game, and the team played at nothing like the level of cohesion, skill or pressure-on-the opposition level as they did against Gold Coast or Brisbane (for three quarters). I didn't see last week's game against the Giants. Queanbeyan were missing a lot of regulars, especially from their tall, strong marking forward line. And we had pretty much just Jesse as a tall target up forward, splitting time with the ruck. Both teams tried to run the ball through the middle but there was a degree of overuse and lots of turnovers. We had a higher number than usual of top-ups, and most of them were quite small. For a least a couple, it was their first time playing at this level, and they probably weren't ready for the level of physicality required.

Lamb was OK, as were most of our other mids. OK, not great. Even Mitchell, to me, was OK rather than great. He got a fair amount of the ball but didn't look as much of a stand-out, class wise, as he has in other games. I would probably have put Lamb's contribution ahead of Lloyd's, who was named in the best list - Lloyd has been very good all season but I thought he was relatively quiet yesterday.

[Primmy]

They played against a team who didn't kick a goal until the third quarter, and that was a free!!! Its not exactly a great comparison. Queanbeyan didn't seem to have a selection of forwards available. Some big blokes, but..... however they did have a vocal cheer squad (2) in the Trumper Stand which made for a bit of fun.

Jesse kicked straight. Beautifully straight, and that is his strength. His anticipation is still not good though, but he is leading better. And the one big thing I take out of this is that he is still improving, even at this stage. He has not plateaued. (sigh of relief).

The other thing I will make a statement on is that he should have played seniors this week. I am sorry to say that Tommy Walsh's gap into AFL is too much - but that is only my opinion.

The toppie in number 60 stood and watched the play go by last time he got a gig. Looked totally lost. I am very pleased to announce that the kid has found his mojo, he was fighting down there in the 50 meter arc and he did some fantastic stuff. Absolutely terrific, resulting in I think 2 back to back goals from 3 attempts and a number of assists. His name is Jordan Weir. Good for you young man (very young man).

Things softened up after Tony was 'subbed' the second half (against non afl affiliated teams there is a senior player limit). He was having a bit of a "You Dropped Me - I'll Show You" game which was a bit of fun to watch.

Even though the opposition was pretty big it appeared to be quality player depleted and the final score flattered us. Importantly even through I don't think a number of players had their best or hardest game of the season, the Swans did not put the cue in the rack at any stage. They played out the game from beginning to end. Nothing worse than seeing a game played at half pace because it wasn't worth the effort. The score may have crept up to being positively indecent if three of the more inexperienced toppies hadn't been such gooses at times, but to win by the huge margin they did meant the team played every quarter like they had to. Kudos to the coaching quite frankly - never saw Jared Crouch play anything but four quarter games, and he is making sure they do the same.

Academy player Jaffer-Williams is a tiny soul, but I don't think anyone has told him that yet. Busy little nuisance and given time could be a good'n.

The lesser known Harry Marsh and Dan Robinson are going to be good players. They have sneaked their way up the leader board and are improving week in week out. Rather satisfying to watch their work in progress. You get to see how quick between the ears they are, how much they have learned etc. They didn't arrive knowing it all, but they must be absorbing a lot of information.

X Richards never disappoints.

[Nico]

By the sound of it Mitchell is bound to play in the second half. 2 more games in the ressies perhaps? No matter how good we "think" our midfield is we need someone who is a smart player. Hanners and Mitchell with big tanks will tear them up in tandem.

[Jupiter]

correction

Some local info on two of the top up kids. The club they are both coming from is Sydney Uni. Yarren Jaffer-Williams has come on recently having played under the tutelage of the great Rocket Rod Carter in the U/18 Colts. Weir has come across to SU this year to be part of the NEAFL system there. Both are now in SU's senior squad program as well as the academy as noted here. So between their club being in the NEAFL, participating in academy and topping up they are on the best local fast track possible. As a doubter re: the NEAFL Sydney club experiment its good to see a couple of local youngsters like this benefiting from the current system seeming to work in their favour.

[Gezball]

Queenbeyan were 2nd on the ladder before the game. Sheesh the scoreline is a bit of a concern in terms of the quality of the competition.

[ugg]

As mentioned previously they are missing a lot of players, in particular their talls.