2013 Swans at Minnesota

With 7 Metro games under our belts our Swans season kicked off on Saturday with 20 of us heading up to the Land of 10,000 Lakes to take on the Freeze, who are the current Division II Premiers. A perfect afternoon for football with the sun shining and what appeared to be a 3-4 goal breeze down the City end.

The Freeze were switched on from the outset and were able to quell any forward movment by the Swans. Given we were aided by the breeze in the first quarter were unable to capitalize, heading into the first break 1 point in arrears. The second quarter saw the mid field for the Freeze gain the ascendency, Pony owned the aerial dual and in the end the Freeze roved his taps very well and gave our backman some real headaches. At this stage in the game the scoreboard was getting away from us, at half time the score 32 to 14.

After some soul searching at half time, the Swans came up and really took the game up to the Freeze and you could feel a momentum shift and all of a sudden the Swans got a sniff. Xavier went into the forward line after half time and made an instant impact, Big ‘soon to be wise’ Al battled all day against what must have seemed to be a wall of opposition. The mid field began to click and guys that had been relatively quiet, Keefy, Alex, Sars, Dougy, Rocky started to find the ball and create some quick movement into the forward, something that had been lacking in the first half.

We had outscored them in the 3rd quarter, and there was a buzz in the huddle about the fact we were still in it. The last quarter began with a real sense of urgency, Pony Boy began to give our mid fielders first use of the ball, this kick started some real genuine chances with quick movement into the forward line and all of a sudden opportunities began to present. Of the four behinds registered in the last quarter, three were from set shots, so to go down in the end by 9 points was a pretty reasonable effort given the first half performance being below par.

There were some really excellent efforts from the boys and to get so close with only 20 blokes gives us some real positives moving into the second half of the year. New Swan recruits and first gamers, Wade Porter, Quin McMillan, Alex Wallach, Andrew Woodman, showed us their value and ability and we look forward to having them be a string part of the group for the rest of the year.

Revolution ruckman, Jason Wilhelm seems to get better and better every time we play and am sure Revo Coach Bishop is excited knowing Pony Boy will be up for the challenge in the upcoming Parallel Cup in Edmonton, Alberta, CA on August 3rd.

A really good start to the year overall! I beleive as a Club and as individuals the programming this year has been beneficial. With the mid season break upon us, it gives a bit of breathing space before we head into the business end of the year.