Grand Final: Sydney Swans Reserves v Aspley Hornets

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I personally don't like the fact that the NEAFL is rigged. For a start we don't play any Queensland teams except AFL reserves teams. Then when we do play NSW/ACT teams then we have to fall back to 14-15 listed players. If this competition is to survive that has to change. The competition must be won on merit not on rigging it so the AFL reserves teams have very little chance of Premiership success. Our boys did extremely well under great duress. Firstly only playing with 3/4 of a list. Secondly having to travel to Aspley's home ground for a GF. Why couldn't it be played at a neutral ground? There are too many concessions made to the home grown NEAFL teams. If the competition is to survive then it should survive by these sides competing at a higher level not competing against teams that aren't at full strength. Aspley have recruited very well and I would have automatically had them favourites for today's match. It was played on their own dunghill, with a very strong ex-AFL player line up with some of the best players from other old NEAFL clubs.

The local clubs should be made to compete on an equal level to improve the competition. Make them recruit top players, develop their local area and improve their teams. This is the only way the NEAFL will prosper. At the moment the situation where we don't play the Queensland local NEAFL teams and the Queensland AFL Reserves sides don't play NSW/ACT sides is ridiculous. NT has to play us and the other three reserves sides without any concessions so why not the rest. It is an not a level playing field. The competition will be crap until the other sides come up to the standard of sides like Aspley, Redlands and Territory Thunder. The only way to induce sides to improve is to take away their concessions.

Congratulations to Aspley but I wonder if we would be saying that if we were allowed a full side.

At the end of the day, as devastated as the team must be and as amazing as it would be for them to win a premiership of any sorts, that is very much a secondary goal for the Ressies team whose primary objective is and always should be developing our youngsters so that they are ready to play at senior level should an opportunity arise for them. In the days before restrictions, our teams used to humiliate the weaker Canberra sides by scores of 25-30 goals and that did neither us nor the other local teams any favour. A right balance has to be struck and the restricted number of listed players has been continually adjusted as firstly AFL Canberra and now the NEAFL has grown. It used to be 12 listed players at one stage for finals!

With the departure of 2 Canberra teams and Hills Eagles hopefully we will be drawn to face some local Queensland sides next year to fill the void in our schedule.

[Ludwig]

The stream has stopped and they only got up to 11 minutes in the 2nd quarter. Hopefully they put the full replay up soon

The video stopped at 55:43 minutes and I would think that's all there's going to be from the professional NEAFL film crew. It's a shame, because it was a great game and would have been nice to watch, even knowing the outcome in advance. The commentary team from the Brain Taylor School of Sports Announcing are really on the ball as well. They even thought that may pick up Heeney in the draft this year; what a scoop, they are really on top of the NSW footy news.

From the video that was shown, there were some good signs from some of the boys. Towers and Membrey both looked good up forward. Tommy Walsh looked like an AFL player; I hope he gets another year. In light of the sad news on AJ, it's a bit heartening to know that even if Goodes retires, Reid and Walsh can cover down back and Towers and Membrey can handle the 3rd forward role. There's going to be big future for Zak Jones.

Despite the loss, I am pleased that there's such a strong independent club in the NEAFL. I hope the scheduling next year allows us to play Aspley a couple of times. They bring out the best in our players.

And thanks Ugg for the fantastic job covering the ressies all year.

[rb4x]

Looking at the stats I would expect it would be nice knowing you, see you later for Jordan Lockyer and Harrison Marsh.
Impossible to tell anything from the pathetic youtube stream.

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Marsh dislocated his thumb according to the NEAFL blog.

Grand final heartbreak for reserves - sydneyswans.com.au

Swans report says the last free was for a push.

[Meg]

Pity for Ryan O'Keefe, another premiership would have been a fitting way for him to finish his Swans career.

[ShockOfHair]

At the end of the day, as devastated as the team must be and as amazing as it would be for them to win a premiership of any sorts, that is very much a secondary goal for the Ressies team whose primary objective is and always should be developing our youngsters so that they are ready to play at senior level should an opportunity arise for them..

You've really punctured my hate for the Hornets there.

[jono2707]

Thanks for the updates from those that were there - I enjoyed following the progress of the match sporadically thru the afternoon.

I'm with Ugg in that the results really don't matter so much for the Ressies - what matters is that we develop battle-ready youngsters that are able to step in as and when needed into the big time. We've done that pretty well over the last few years.....

[Swansinger]

Rok misses out , narrowly , on joining LRT as a Swans triple premiership winner.

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No Cookies | Herald Sun

Sydney coach Jared Crouch was furious with the umpiring throughout the day and punched the door of the coaches box after the match, before reaching the field and screaming ?we were robbed??.

Ouch.

[Meg]

That's a very odd para for the writer to insert near the end of the article without any explanation or context of possibly contentious umpiring decisions.

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They've uploaded the first three quarters

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Last Quarter

About 34 min in for the throw, it was against Xavier Richards. It's hard to tell from the vision as the umpire himself blocks our angle at the moment when Richards is trying to handball it. Richards did not remonstrate very hard against the decision as you would expect if you were unfairly pinged for a throw and the umpire had the perfect view of it. It's a bad error if true as he wasn't being swung hard in the tackle nor was his left arm being pinned, probably it's a mixture of panic and trying to handball with his non-preferred hand.

Lockyer is also very unlucky not to be awarded a free kick just before that as the Aspley player comes rushing in and cannons him in the back not even attempting to spoil.

[Auntie.Gerald]

i have to say a few things

Well done to the Hornets.........their kick pressure, execution and physicalness was too much in the end for some of our very young swans.........also their fitness was very impressive running out every quarter and good periods of controlling the tempo of the game.

BUT - the umpiring was not particularly favourable to the Swans at all......in fact quite disappointing.......one of the more biased displays i have seen for a while

Overall the effort by our lads especially the young ones was encouraging in such a pressure game and big occassion........i did feel though our forward entries were rushed and we didnt really rectify that which was disappointing tactically and from a player awareness development..........we needed that extra HBF coming thru to create a tempo that worked for our superior forwards.........Membrey needed our passes to be a little calmer as he is a hell of a one on one player and he wasnt shown the advantage side for a mark much at all and he wasnt generally double teamed as Nanko has a little more attention with the defensive player in front.

Abe Davis is a lot slower then I thought in reaction speed to his opposite number and his closing speed in general play.....his fitness will need to be worked along with second efforts but he has good skill

I thought Sam Naismith had a great opportunity to shine in the ruck but didnt......and being upfront on this one he has some work to do quite frankly

X was very very good especially in the first half as is generally very cool under pressure. His closing speed to ability to change a dual is very very promising

More comments later as i need to rush out to breaky