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.