VFL Round 4: Sydney Swans Reserves v Southport Sharks @ Drummoyne Oval

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NEAFL 2016 Round 4

Sydney Swans Reserves v Southport Sharks

Saturday 23rd April 2016
9.30am
Drummoyne Oval

After 3 rounds of the 2016 NEAFL season, the Swans Reserves sit atop the table as the only unbeaten team in the competition. They followed up their impressive first 2 wins over fellow AFL reserves sides by thumping Redland away. Another strong side of 16 listed players has been named for this game and the Swans will be favourites to continue their unbeaten start to the season

Southport have been boosted by the playing return of coach Nathan Bock, but have lost 2 of their 3 games. Having scraped into the finals last year on percentage, they'll be hoping for a win here to keep in touch with the Top 6.

NEAFL Ladder
Recent Form
Reserves
Southport
Past Meetings
2015
R6

Last Round
Team List
Listed players
Changes
In: Nankervis, Towers, Leonardis, Naismith
Out: James ROSE (senior emergency), Zak JONES (senior emergency), Tom DERICKX (injured), George HEWETT (seniors)

After Derickx went down early in the Redland game, Galloway became the number 1 ruck with back up support from the likes of Davis and Aliir. Nankervis's return after his late call up in Adelaide plus the return of Sam Naismith, who will only see limited game time, means that the ruck department is well covered for this game.

Towers played in the midfield in his last NEAFL game and looks to be a straight swap for Hewett.

Academy Players/Topups
In:
Out:

Unchanged topups this week, and this core group of topups have all done very well across all 3 games. Wilson and Hebron were named in the best players list in the first 2 rounds, and Reinhard made it 3 from 3 with his 6-goal game last week.

Statistics

Disposals
Marks
Tackles
Hitouts
Clearances
Inside 50s
Rebound 50s
Goals
Votes
Southport Sharks
In: Crowley, Grayson, Sully
Out: Andrew BOSTON, Blake ERICKSON, Joel STEVENSON

The Sharks have suffered a big blow with former Gold Coast Suns midfielder Boston ruled out with a rib injury. He is currently their leading clearance and 2nd leading disposal winner. Playing-coach and former Adelaide defender Bock along with former Collingwood and Fremantle forward Jack Anthony have formed a deadly team up forward, both currently sitting on 7 goals on their goal tally. Former Essendon rookie list player Fraser Thurlow has been an astute recruit for their ruck division.

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Match stream:

[Meg]

Thanks Ugg, as always a very comprehensive introduction to the Reserves' match.

Sometime, at your convenience, I would be very grateful if you would post an explanation of how the Academy players/top-ups are chosen each week, how and when are they and their usual clubs advised, is there ever any acrimony about this (for example, if their usual club is trying to make the finals of their own comp.), what coaching do the top-ups receive in the Swans' game plan - and anything else you might think of. As you can see this aspect of the Reserves is a mystery to me.

[wolftone57]

Well done as usual Ugg. Do you know what has happened to Dawson? Is he injured?

[ugg]

Thanks Ugg, as always a very comprehensive introduction to the Reserves' match.

Sometime, at your convenience, I would be very grateful if you would post an explanation of how the Academy players/top-ups are chosen each week, how and when are they and their usual clubs advised, is there ever any acrimony about this (for example, if their usual club is trying to make the finals of their own comp.), what coaching do the top-ups receive in the Swans' game plan - and anything else you might think of. As you can see this aspect of the Reserves is a mystery to me.

History of top ups from the top of my head.

AFL Canberra days, when we were the only AFL reserves team in this comp, we would actually be supplied youngsters from the other Canberra clubs that we weren't playing that day . This sometimes led to some (now) hilarious and absurd situations of topups who were clearly not very good or physically not ready to play against grown men. It also led to a a big and unwieldy list of players that constantly changed throughout the season. E.g. my records show 78 different topups were used in 2009

In later years this expanded to include our NSW rookies - such as Craig Bird, Nathan Gordon, Ryan Bottin-Noonan etc. Sometimes we were able to supply some topups of our own choosing, mostly NSW/ACT Under18 players who weren't required by the RAMS that weekend. This led to us trialling players such as Dylan McNeil (Swans rookie), Anthony Miles (GWS and Richmond), Aaron vandenBerg (Melbourne), Aidan Riley (Crows rookie and Demons), Josh Bruce (GWS and St Kilda), Sam Dwyer (Collingwood), Dane Rampe (more on him later) and probably most famous of all Luke Breust (Hawthorn).

The Swans Academy came in about the same time as the NEAFL (2010-2011) and with it allowed us greater control of the topups. Most but I believe not all were Academy players. The great advantage here was they could be taught aspects of the game plan and be familiar with the rest of the reserves players and this definitely could be seen on the field. Besides the Academy players we could also field some mature age players and the 2 most notable ones were Phelan Medalists (Sydney AFL B&F winners) Matt Carey and Dane Rampe.

I'm not sure who gets first dibs, especially when it comes to finals, but I'm sure this will be covered in the NEAFL Rules and Regulations if you want to have a look.

Reading the article that accompanied the announcement on Ned Reinhard as the NEAFL Round 3 Rising Star, the Swans have taken this a step further this year with the "NEAFL Development Program" and I quote

The program was formed this year, in partnership with Sydney University Australian National Football Club (SUANFC), to give the Swans priority access to 19-year-old ?graduates? of the Swans Academy and NSW/ACT Rams programs.The NEAFL Development Program aims to provide those players an extra season within an AFL club environment to further enhance their development.

Reinhard, who turns 19 in June, is one of eight members of the squad who will play the majority of 2016 as a top-up player for Swans? NEAFL side, otherwise playing for the Students when not required by Sydney.

And so far in 2016 we've had a very settled list of 8 topups across the 3 games, no doubt helped by our relatively healthy injury list.

Well done as usual Ugg. Do you know what has happened to Dawson? Is he injured?

No idea.

[wolftone57]

Thanks Ugg, as always a very comprehensive introduction to the Reserves' match.

Sometime, at your convenience, I would be very grateful if you would post an explanation of how the Academy players/top-ups are chosen each week, how and when are they and their usual clubs advised, is there ever any acrimony about this (for example, if their usual club is trying to make the finals of their own comp.), what coaching do the top-ups receive in the Swans' game plan - and anything else you might think of. As you can see this aspect of the Reserves is a mystery to me.

The top ups are training with the Swans Senior/development squad. Young Reinhard was saying it is amazing to get to know the senior players. The Toppies are all U-18 Academy players. Seeing they are training with the Swans they are trained in all the Swans tactics and game plans.

[Pmcc2911]

The Topups are not all U/18 most turn 19 this year.

[liz]

Most of the U18 academy players will be involved with the RAMS for the first half of the year - hence the reliance on the older group. We should probably expect some of the more promising under 18s to get some NEAFL chances later in the year, once the TAC Cup and U18 championships draw to a close. Some of the draft eligible players this year have already had some NEAFL exposure a year out from their draft year - Brown and Davis are two I can remember watching. Maybe we'll see a few of next year's crop in the NEAFL later in the year too.

(Most will remember Mills getting plenty of chances in his pre-draft year, while Heeney and Davis (Abe) made their NEAFL debuts at the very end of their pre-draft season.)

[Mug Punter]

Weather permitting I'm really looking forward to seeing the two tomorrow morning, hopefully I'll get to see at least three quarters before setting off to the SCG

[Meg]

Thanks Ugg and others for comments above re top-ups. Very informative.

[liz]

Anyone else watching the stream with no sound?

[ugg]

Anyone getting sound on the stream?

[ugg]

Sound now on, so clear you can hear Shaw's comments

[ugg]

Some rather risque comments for this PG rated stream.

[Matt79]

Anyone getting sound on the stream?

Yes have sound