By Shredder the Shark
The Sharks swam up to the Duck Pond expecting a tough contest in the wet, but the weather gods managed to hold off the rain for the 3rd game of the 2012 season, against Swan Districts.
Despite the Sharks having most of the play, and numerous inside 50's, the first quarter saw the Swans take advantage of the breeze and their limited opportunities to kick 3 goals, with the Sharks only major coming from the captain after an urgent session at "Jules's Kicking School" during the week.
A new look defensive unit of Jen "Jendawg" Dawson, Jordan"Whisper" Rowe, Olivia "young un' Bate, Sammy "where you been?" David, Kelly "hit em hard" O'Brien and newcomer Tracey " I'm so stoked you're tall" Anderson were a well oiled machine during the second quarter, taking strong grabs and working as a team to restrict the Swans to only 1 goal 2. The back 6 repeatedly turned defence into attack, with Jen Dawson running straight lines to dominate across Half Back and creating opportunities for link ups through the middle. Avril, Kymbo and CJ showed the potential of our midfield with good skills and long kicking both through the corridor and using the width of the wings where fast improving Ingo and first gamer Keshia were always patrolling. Half forwards Taps and Brettley led strongly to create constant targets at Half Forward with Taps kicking truly from an impossible angle and the wiley veteran number 4 (who still looks really good for her age) kicking a couple of goals to have the Sharks ahead at the long break by 3 points.
After some words of wisdom by the Big Fish, the Sharks were raring to go in the 3rd, with Georgie dominating the ruck taps and Kymbo starting to find space in the middle to give the sharks first use of the footy. The Sharks then lost 2 players to injury so were up against it with only 16 players on the field for the remainder of the game, leaving 2 spare Swannies across half back to mop up the footy and they came back hard to kick 4 goals to the Sharks 3, to be up by 3 points at the siren.
The last quarter saw Caz and Sammy moving into the midfield to provide some extra spark and had immediate results, with Kymbo pushing forward to kick a classy running goal and the Sharks putting on some great shepherds and blocks to allow their running players time and space to deliver to the forwards, with Neiks always on the lead and dangerous around the loose ball. The arm wrestle continued for all of the last quarter and the Sharks fought hard until the final siren, only going down by 7 points in a close contest, but with a genuine sense that the best is still to come from this rapidly improving side.
Final Scores
Swand Districts 9-4-58
East Fremantle 7-9-51
Goal Kickers: Nichols 3, George, Lavell, Worthington, Tapper
Best: Dawson, Lavell, Chow
Last Modified on 02/05/2012 13:52