Chicago vs New York

One week is a long time in football when you are champing at the bit to have another go! The boys were pretty psyched up for the challenge of playing against a previous Div 1 Premiership team in the New York Magpies. It wasn’t since the halcyon days of Bergmann had the Big Apple Pies come into town, and what an epic encounter that was.

The scene was set for a great afternoon with a 3 goal breeze headin down south on Lakeshore Drive at the home of the Swans, Waveland Park. Chicago had a couple of injuries from the week before and some were unavailable to play, saw 10 blokes out of the squad that headed down to Louisville last week.

The new Australian Consul General Roger Price, a big fan of Aussie Rules came down to spectate and got roped into tossing the official double headed coin; incidentally the opposition captain called correctly and they kicked with the breeze in the first.

All we could ask for was an honest effort from the lads and see where we stood against a New York side that boasted 5 top Aussie midfielders, led from the front by Jordan McIntyre. His form didn’t disappoint the few New York faithful, and a tagging role was given to one of the new fellas to the game, Keith Campion.

The Swans team really played well in the first quarter. Our backline under a barrage of pressure held NYC to three goals and we managed one into the breeze which was pleasing. Our tackling was most likely the best I have seen from the club and if it wasn’t for a bit of polish on the finish scores at the end of the first quarter may have been closer.

Strsaight kicking in the second quarter and a direct attack on the ball saw us win the quarter and go into half time 14 points in arrears. With no respite from the breeze, we felt all we needed to do was hold in the third quarter. Another great effort from the backline in the premiership quarter to keep New York to only two goals.

With the scoreboard showing the Swans behind by 19 points, there was an air of confidence from the boys at three quarter time that we could really win this game. As history tells us this early in the season, the lads ran out of puff and were unable to utilse the breeze and apply scoreboard pressure. In the end, New York ran out winners by 34 points.

Aside from the fadeout in the last quarter the Swans played some really good footy in patches. There were some really pleasing signs, a solid backline that fought all day, under duress, to Nolan McKeegan up forward finding the goals on four occasions. Lot’s of positives to work on in the next few weeks, before we come up against Milwaukee on 23rd June.