TOPIC:

mikeh wrote: For any Swans supporter reading this and who doesnt know, Kirk Ugle is retiring after the match this afternoon. How did I find this out? It was buried in an article in the West by Russell Reid which mainly dealt with the South Fremantle match but mentioned the Swans game as well. Nothing on the clubs website or facebook page and in the article written about him a few weeks ago, Kirk was very positive about continuing into next year. So what has changed over the last few weeks?
I will hold my fire about this until I know all the facts but I would urge any Swans fan who can get to Bassendean this afternoon to go along and pay tribute to a great servant of the club.

Do we add Notte, Howard, Riggio?

Fantastic win by the reserves. Thanks to the other results they have sneaked into the finals. Great news and thoroughly deserved.

Geez pipped right on the tiles of the piss trough - hard luck Swans

Well done Tiges

Great game of footy to finish the season. While it was disappointing to lose the game with a kick after the siren, there was so much to be positive about from a Swans point of view today. I hadn’t seen the team live since the appalling performance against East Perth at Bassendean in late July and what I observed today was a return to the desperation and intensity that the boys showed early in the season. It was a worthy effort to pay tribute to Kirk Ugle’s career.

I think we caught Claremont a bit off guard in the first quarter and a half and we steadily built up a very handy lead in that time. At one stage we got out to a 29 point advantage. Our midfield was completely on top in the first half .Turner, Ellard, Riggio and Palmer were feeding the ball consistently to Noble and Notte who had an open forward line to work in. Noble took a screamer in the first quarter and he was very dangerous during the first half. He also works hard and chases back too which is a good trait for a forward. Gault and Doc were dominating the ruck during this period as well and even though the Tigers steadied a bit towards the end of the second, we still had a handy break of 16 points at half time.

Claremont really came out strongly in the 3rd quarter and there were times during this period where I thought they were going to run away with it but Swans dug in and stayed in the game. Toby Watson kicked a fantastic goal where he tapped the ball away from the Tigers defenders to his advantage and we went into the last change with a 1 goal lead.

The last quarter was a real battle with the game see sawing from one team to another. Claremont knew at this stage that they were playing for a home final and a loss would see them fall to 5th. Our boys kept persisting though and they were set alight by a brilliant individual goal by first gamer Mitchell Bain, who picked up the ball at half back for Swans, evaded several Claremont tackles, bounced the ball multiple times and kicked a goal that levelled the scores. It was just a sublime piece of skill which the Claremont supporters clapped as well. Tony Notte, not to be outdone by Noble also launched himself for a screamer.
There was a stage about 23 minutes in where I thought we had them, but a couple of poor decisions in Swans forward 50 when we had the ball in a scoring position caused some turnovers which kept the Tigers alive.

Claremont kept coming and when the siren went we were one point in front but Jai Bolton had a kick on the 50 metre line to win the game. I have always been perplexed as to why this guy is not on an AFL list. He is an absolute gun and a lot better than many of the guys running around in the top level competition. His kick was never in doubt and they rightly celebrated their home final.

I wish the Tigers all the best against the alignment team, I will be barracking for them and hope they can repeat the result they had over East Perth last time they played.

Both teams got something out of that game this afternoon. From Swans point of view we have finished the season in a positive manner and we can now look forward to guys like Bain, Reidy, O’Sullivan, Erceg, Maguire, Italiano, Raynor, Mackenzie and Hackett developing their game further in 2019.

Thanks for the wrap up Mikeh as I could only follow the scores on the net and knew nothing about the game. Was it a free kick to Bolts? I too am amazed that he never got a second afl shot, he is one of the fittest blokes in the country, he certainly knows how to find the ball, he has a bit of size, and as you said is definitely a better footballer than a heap of blokes earning hundreds of thousands of dollars

Good game, and congrats to the 'Monts. In the last two games at home Swans have run out of steam that I find remarkable at such a stage in the season. The lack of fitness I think resulted in Dean's diabolical decision to handoff his set shot at goal to only provide Claremont with the football, while Blue Watson couldn't raise his feet late in the last quarter when the ball was in Swans' forward line for the last time. Granted, Dean wasn't going to make the distance, but Notte and Noble were both waiting in the square and both had their marking gloves on the entire game.

Young blokes look good - O'Sullivan, Italiano - whose absence from the contest in the second and third quarters saw Claremont slowly get back into the game - and Hackett abode for better things in 2019.

Tiger, Bolton's kick after the siren came from a mark.

Losing a game of footy after the siren is certainly not a pleasant way to go under but it was very apparent in the 2nd half we were out on our legs with blokes cramping up left right and centre whilst Claremont were running out the game strongly...if ever the club & football department needed confirmation (the last 4 weeks) that a greater emphasis on the fitness-strength & conditioning side of things then hopefully yesterday may awaken them from their slumber not to mention their foot skills!

Congratulations to 17yo first gamer Mitchell Bain who provided the highlight of the season with his 6 or 7 bounce run down the members wing from half back all the way inside 50 to kick a goal in the last qtr to level the scores and the other highlights being 2 mark of the year contenders from Noble & Notte.

Good luck to the Colts & Reserves in the finals and hopefully we see a far more stronger SD in 2019 if the WAFL is still around and hasnt been completely destroyed by either the WAFC and or their partners in crime $ubiaco!

Finally congratulations to Kirk Ugle on a fine career in the Black & White you will be sorely missed and all the best in retirement.

A couple of other thoughts

1. Well done to the Claremont players for participating in the guard of honour for Kirk Ugle. It was much appreciated.

2. Bolton's kick to win the game was not an easy one. It was just inside the 50 metre arc in front of the Swans members area, so you can imagine there would have been some "encouragement" being thrown at him. His ability to shut all that out and kick the goal was a testament to his quality and I cannot understand why AFL clubs would not have a look at him.

3. I agree with SH and BH about the fitness. Many of our players looked like they were running up and down on the spot in the last 5 - 10 minutes

4. Cory Gault will win the Swan medal in my opinion

5. I am still pissed off that the club didnt communicate better with the members to let us know about Kirks retirement. We are inundated with stuff about social events, Dad and Sons days, panel shows and junior days which is great but there has been very little information this year about the football side of things. I have really missed the bulletins that Harding used to write. I will be giving the club some feedback about this before I renew my 2019 membership.

6. To finish on a positive note, good luck to the reserves and colts teams in their finals next week

Could not make it to the game ysrda.Good finish to the season .Against a side that always seem to manage to have our measure narrowly.