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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.

Thee opening weekend of our football season saw us set sail South down the picturesque 65 to Louisville for Kings of Louisville tournament between Nashville Kangaroos, Columbus Jackaroos, Ohio Valley River Rats & a mix up of the spares and a new team from Cleveland.

Some of the boys loitered overnight in Indianapolis; a few others couldn’t drive past the birthplace of John Cougar Mellancamp and set up camp in Seymour, IN. On paper the squad of 22 heading down looked really solid; which also included a number of star recruits donning the Chicago jersey for the first time. Congrats to those boys, Russ, Dennis, Xavier & Toby.

The scene was set on a sunny 70 odd degree day, with three quarter size grounds and 14 a side format proposed. Upon our arrival, we were informed that only 4 teams would play, with the lads from Cleveland not having enough players to make the trip.

So the schedule was set, Chicago Swans V Columbus Jackaroos and the Nashville Kangaroos V Ohio Valley River Rats. We ended up playing a full game against the Jackaroos, a game they were desperate to win, having never beaten Chicago previously. Chicago knew the Jacks would come out firing, and really took the game up to us. In a game where Chicago never really threatened saw Columbus ultimately run out winners by 5 points.

A good tough hit out first up, from a team that had been nipping at our heels for a while now. Led well by a solid defense and an excellent game from one if the best center half forwards in the game.

That said, considering it was our first game of the season, and with blokes like Ponyboy sunning himself in WA, regular full back Hoyty plucking a few notes at some dive bar in Chi-town and ‘Big Bad’ Al McGlashan preserving his last hurrah for a home game, the boys needed to pick up the slack and fill the holes.

There were indeed some promising signs of good things to come from new recruit Russ, working his way around the ground in a tireless performance. Since defecting from Milwaukee a couple back, Pat Defors has become a rock solid defender for Chicago. And a big improver, who could make a push for this year’s MVP award, Jayson Schmelzer was in and under everything on Saturday. There were signs shown yesterday that Jays might be useful as a pinch hit midfielder in the future.

The second game was played in Nationals format, with 20 minute halves. Once again we battled hard in tough conditions; We really let ourselves down in the second quarter kicking 6 behinds. While the work rate was pleasing, we can’t allow teams to get four goals ahead and expect to peg them back later in the game. We did eventually run out of legs in the last few minutes of the game, however were still a chance to take the win with 90 seconds to go.

Solid efforts by newcomer’s Russ Adams and Toby Patterson, and regulars, Dave Fitzpatrick, Frank Bradley, Josh Edwards & Mike Panek gave us a lot of drive from their respective positions on the field.

After a grueling four session boot camp at LA Boxing and a few outdoor training sessions down at the lakefront, the footy season is ready to kick off. The first real hit-out of the season will be in Louisville, KY on April 28th.  This will be a tournament between a number of teams from the mid-west and will be a good warm up for the blockbuster against New York at home the week after.

To prepare for the Kentucky trip, the first round of “metro” footy was converted into an intra-club scratch match. With brand new goal posts spiking out of the Waveland fields, over 30 players took the field for the first game of the season. Those travelling to Louisville vs those staying at home, the final result had the travelers the victors but inaccurate kicking kept the contest tight.

Final Score:

Goals:

United: Oscar 4, Crackers, Xavier 1
Tigers: GG 2, Keith, Joe, Sars, Nolan S 1