VFL Sydney Swans Reserves v Brisbane Lions Reserves @ Newcastle

[ugg]

The NEAFL Fixture has the venue as "Newcastle Oval". However when one searches for Newcastle Oval in Google Maps, there are no results.

Does anyone have any idea where Newcastle Oval is, or where this match is meant to take place?

[Big Al]

I assume they mean this. This is where the Swans played a NEAFL match a few years ago.

newcastle no 1 sportsground - Google Search

[Northern_Swan]

Correct, game at No1 Sportsground, corner of Union & Parry st Newcastle.

For those intending to head up for a look, the trains now terminate at Hamilton, and buses will take you to the remaining stations on the line.

Link to more info here: NEAFL Game this Saturday | Hunter Junior AFL

[ugg]

Correct, game at No1 Sportsground, corner of Union & Parry st Newcastle.

For those intending to head up for a look, the trains now terminate at Hamilton, and buses will take you to the remaining stations on the line.

Link to more info here: NEAFL Game this Saturday | Hunter Junior AFL

Cheers. What's the parking situation like up there?

[Northern_Swan]

Cheers. What's the parking situation like up there?

Will be able to park in the ground.

[ugg]

NEAFL 2015 Round 8

Sydney Swans Reserves v Brisbane Lions Reserves

Saturday 30th May 2015
12.00pm
Newcastle Number 1 Sports Ground

The Lions Reserves team have struggled for consistency this year, with a long injury list (in double figures) hampering the ability to put out a competitive teams most weeks. Last week against Aspley they had to call on one of their assistant coaches to make up the numbers, retired ex-Kangaroo Leigh Harding (who kicked 3 goals). They had a big contingent of the Queensland U18 team but with those youngsters on TAC Cup duty on Saturday, their top up replacements will be of a lesser quality.

After dropping all 3 games to the Lions reserves in 2013, the Swans turned the tables last year by winning all 3 clashes, and keeping the Lions to scores of 35, 50 and 38.

The Reserves have played at Newcastle once, with a 60 points win over Eastlake in Round 16 of 2013.

The Swans will be looking to secure the 4 points here to keep their place in the Top 6, with a resurgent Sydney Uni charging up the ladder with 3 consecutive victories after 3 close losses to start the season.

NEAFL Ladder
Recent Form
Reserves
Brisbane Lions Reserves
Past Meetings
2014
Round 1
Round 5
Round 8
Last Round

Swans had the bye, they played Southport the week prior.
Team List
Listed players
Changes
In: Jack, Towers
Out: Harry CUNNINGHAM (?), Zak JONES (?), Daniel ROBINSON (seniors)

A net loss of 1 listed player, but the balance of the side will have to shift. Robinson, Cunningham and Jones played a lot of midfield minutes against Southport. Jack should take one of these places but the other may go to someone like Foote who could be asked to perform a run-with role.

Academy Players/Topups
In: Crawford, Krochmal
Out: Brayden KILPATRICK (Rams), Oscar OSBOURNE


Statistics

Disposals
Marks
Tackles
Hitouts
Clearances
Inside 50s
Rebound 50s
Goals
Votes
Brisbane Lions Reserves (listed players in bold)
In: Bewick, Cutler, Golby, Mayes, Mason, Mauch, Rolls, Stackelberg, Stevenson, Walton, Watson, Yabsley
Out: Jacob ALLISON, Isaac CORVO, Nate DENNIS, Leigh HARDING, Eric HIPWOOD, Ben KEAYS, Jack MAMMONE, Aaron MARICIC, Oliver RITCHIE, Corey WAGNER, Nicholas WELLER, Reuben WILLIAM

1 or 2 listed players out of Bewick, Cutler, Golby, Harwood and/or O'Brien to drop out as they have been named in their seniors' extended side. So the Lions will start with around 16-17 listed players on the day.

If he does play O'Brien has been their standout player in the NEAFL so far. Ignoring the much publicised incident with his coaches Leppitsch and Woewodin, O'Brien leads the Lions in disposals and clearances and the Swans will have to target him. He had an amazing 41 disposals, 6 tackles, 13 clearances and 12 inside 50s in a losing team last week.

Up forward, Hammelmann leads their goalkicking with an accurate 16 goals 5 behinds this year, good enough for equal 5th in the NEAFL. He has a bag of 5 goals and 2 hauls of 4 already this year.

[dimelb]

Great work again ugg. I assume the game will be on the NEAFL site live?

[ugg]

Great work again ugg. I assume the game will be on the NEAFL site live?

I wish it was, but my wishes went unanswered. Will be driving up to the game, I'll be tweeting from there.

[Northern_Swan]

Keep an eye on BarTV Sports on YouTube. Have heard they may be doing it.

[ugg]

So with Jack playing last night he won't be playing in this game. Will the Swans find a replacement in time or go in one short?

[ugg]

SYDNEY SWANS
Goal Kickers: D. Towers 4, T. Nankervis 3, J. Rose 3, S. McLaren 2, J. Hiscox , Z. Fyffe , C. Bird , J. Foote
Best Players: , A. Davis , T. Derickx , D. Towers , J. Rose , C. Bird , G. Hewett

[undy]

Swans won by 11 or 12 goals

[Zlatorog]

Swans 16.14.110 vs. Lions 5.5.35.

[mcs]

Sounds like a pretty decent performance, with a few of the better performers for the Ressies missing on seniors duty last night. Looking forward as always to Ugg's report

[ugg]

An enjoyable day of grassroots footy at Newcastle Number 1 Oval, lovely conditions all day for football (take note Sydney footy/weather gods!) $5 entry, parked on the hill, grabbed a bacon and egg roll before first bounce and settled into a seat in the stands.




As mentioned in the preview, the Lions had a weak team out there with only 11 listed players and the bulk of their usual topups away at the Queensland U18 TAC Cup. Most importantly they were missing genuine midfielders in the side and had to make do with a mixture of experienced players who don't usually play that position - Golby, Cutler and some of the young top ups. The Swans were in control for the whole game, but never really seemed to kick out of second gear for the first 3 quarters. We had the advantage of dominating the ruck and having the bigger bodies at both ends of the ground but through slow or poor ball movement didn't generate enough shots at goal that our dominance demanded.

I managed to listen into parts of Crouch's 3 quarter time huddle and he was as unimpressed as a coach could be with a 47 point lead. The two key points he raised were that they weren't running hard enough, or as he put "you're not running as hard as you think you are. When I look at the GPS numbers later this week, they will back me up." and "our handball receives are non existent". He moved Marsh from defence, where he had been playing well, to the wing and McLaren back to defence. He implored Marsh and Aliir to provide the rebounding drive from half back and gave them licence to really take the game on. And it had the desired effect. From the first bounce of the last quarter, the Swans pushed forward hard and kicked a goal inside a minute and that continued for the rest of the term as some hard running past tired Lions players created opportunity after opportunity - we kicked 6.5 in that term and finally managed a margin (74) that our dominance deserved.



Players:
Abe Davis had a ball on a string in the first half, he was handed a role off a wing and he used his running power to full advantage, popping up forward, mopping up down back or providing run and carry through the middle. I was originally going to describe it as a Sam Reid type role but I think Reidy has a defensive bent to his game when he plays off a wing whereas Davis had more freedom to run where he liked. He didn't seem to have a tight matchup assigned to him - I guess the Lions coaches didn't think a player on a wing could cause so many problems, and they probably would have planned to rotate some of their topups through that role. The Swans site say he finished with 30 disposals, I reckon he would have 20 of them in the first half. In the second half he started quite a few centre bounces without having the same kind of dramatic impact and also spent the dying minutes of the game at FF. It will be very interesting to see how he is used for the rest of the season and what position the coaches think best suits him.

James Rose impressed me again with his workrate, footy smarts and most strong, sticky hands across half forward. He likes to fly in from the side or behind and with his great leap, gets himself in excellent position to hang onto those hangers. Rose also has the kicking skills to convert as an opportunist small forward. But to concentrate on those flashy parts of his game would be to undersell how tirelessly he works off the ball with his tackling and chasing. Slowly becoming a favourite of mine.

George Hewett and Craig Bird were the main beneficiaries of the great ruckwork of Sam Naismith and Tom Derickx. Archie Smith was walloped in the middle (with no real backup mind you) and our ruckmen continually fed the ball down their throats with their tapwork. Hewett was the better of the 2 inside midfielders, his work around the crowded stoppages was a highlight with his weaving, low centre of balance and ability to kick off both feet . Bird wasn't as dominant, he was somewhat tagged by Golby but not a particularly tight tag. Naismith and Derickx split the ruck duties about 50/50, Derickx did more around the ground, taking some strong saving marks in the defensive 50. Jordan Foote was the other onballer for most of the first half, and Davis as mentioned spent some time there in the 2nd half. The absence of Brandon Jack could have caused a reshuffle in this area.

Toby Nankervis was usually too tall for whichever undersized Lions defender was marking him, but also contributed well with his chasing and especially his ferocious tackling. When he hones in on the defender with the ball, I wince in anticipation of the hit he is about to deliver. He's also a very underrated set shot for goal, his left foot drop punts are as clean and long as anyone's in the reserves. Sean McLaren had a purple patch in the latter part of the 2nd quarter where he took one strong grab and two others uncontested, converting 2 of them in the process. He moved well today and also had touches just outside the forward 50m zone. He needs to be more involved across the whole game though.
The defence worked well as a unit - Xavier Richards, Nic Newman, Harrison Marsh and Aliir Aliir. Marsh and Richards in particular have developed a solid rapport down back, working hard for each other and knowing when to peel off their respective opponents and help each other out. Aliir was used in a very attacking role in defence - he often started centre bounces right on the defensive edge of the centre square and he took quite a lot of our kick ins. Without having a real tall to play on (Richards took their only genuine tall forward Hammelmann), he had the liberty of running off frequently. Newman started on the bench but came on after about 10 minutes and looked mostly very comfortable in a distributor role. There were 1 or 2 hairy moments when he was a little fancy instead of taking the safer option but we were not punished by the Lions. Newman has a penetrating left foot kick (dare I say Eski-esque?), if he gets his fitness up I have no doubt he can play seniors. Marsh was isolated standing Leigh Harding (yes that Leigh Harding), and didn't have any real issues defending the former Kangaroo.

Dean Towers may have kicked 4 goals but I thought his output offensively was quite muted. 3 of the goals were end products of over the top handballs to him running into an empty goal square. But he did work hard off the ball and caused a few Lions turnovers with his tackling inside forward 50 and that's what probably impressed the coaches more. Jack Hiscox mainly played across half forward pushing up onto the wing. He was involved in many of our scoring chains as a linkman through the middle but didn't kick a goal in this manner himself. There was one chance where he looked to have got a jump on his man but the Lion topup Jacob Watson just managed to mow him down. His only goal was a mark on the 50m line and a booming kick to convert.


Swans 2.5 6.8 10.9 16.14 (110)
Lions 0.1 2.3 3.4 5.6 (36)

Swans
Goals: Towers 4, Nankervis 3, Rose 3, McLaren 2, Hiscox, Fyffe, Bird, Foote
Best: Davis, Derickx, Towers, Rose, Bird, Hewett

Lions
Goals: Harding, McGuinness, Copland, Hammelmann, Mason
Best: McGuinness, Bourke, Golby, Beasley, Mason