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July 18, 2005
Hall Leads Swans To Best Win Yet!
After months of winning ugly and slowly but surely moving up the ladder the Swans in back to back weeks have turned popular belief on its head and beaten two teams above them on the ladder for the first time all season, played near all out attacking football and moved into a prime position to claim a spot in the Top 4 and the Double Chance that goes with it.
After last weeks massive win over a injury hit Geelong outfit the Swans came up against the free falling Demons at Telstra Dome and went in believing that they could do away with the team that flatters to descive on a yearly basis.
All night the Swans had the match under control, kicking out to handy leads early in quarters, withstanding a late charge back from the Demons before kicking a handy late goal to put the Demons back on the back foot going into the games three brakes. The Swans started the game with a 6 goal quarter which showed that the player were swiched on in particular Barry Hall kicking two goals and clearly having no trouble with his man - Ryan Ferguson. But thanks to David Neitz and his fantastic diving show (should of been in Montreal for the Diving World Champs - better chance of winning something) the Demons managed to go into quarter time 11 points down.
The second quarter was the complete opposite to the first quarter with the game slowing down from its somewhat fast begining. Nick Davis and Ben Mathews managed to kick two goals in the first 15 minutes of the quarter and again the Swans were out to a handy 25 point lead. Thats where things went black for me (had a seizure therefore couldn't see what was going on). But as I was out of it, David Neitz shocked the football world by kicking a goal without the help of an umpire and as I was in the Rest Room he kicked yet another by fair means (I know shock horror), that meant the Swans went into Half Time only up by 10 points and looking like a match was about to brake out.
Alas I was wrong, a match didn't brake out, but a trashing did as the Swans put the Demons to the sword with another 6 goal quarter, sparked by two quick early goals from Barry Hall on his way to a four goal quarter, the first after a brilliant effort from Buchanan, re-established a four-goal break.
Then came the funny moment of the match when Phil Read was paid a free just outside the Demons forward 50 when ridden to the ground, but instead of getting up and taking his kick he decided to slap around his tackler Amon Buchanan around the head right in front of the umpire - cue the free kick being reversed and from that play the Swans got the ball forward to Magic who passed to Captain Kirk for a goal and what effectively was a 12-point play. Two more goals to Hall and one to Nick Davis saw the Swans charge out to a 31 point Three Quarter Time lead.
The Last Quarter saw the Demons put in a late effort to get something from the match first with a brilliant goal from Aaron Davey, followed by two two goals from Neitz with the later from yet another free kick that should NOT of been paid. All of a sudden the Swans were stuggling and the Demons were within two goals. For the next ten minutes the Swans slowed down the match and made sure that it would be them who would get the next goal so to brake the Demon spirit.
Step forward Barry Hall to claim his 7th goal for the night and soon after Amon Buchanan topping off his night's fine work with a goal and the Swans had the match all wrapped up and that was all she wrote as the game ended with the Swans winning by 26 points.
On to West Coast with confidence.
SYDNEY: 16.8 (104)
MELBOURNE: 11.12 (78)
Goals: Hall 7 Davis 2 O'Loughlin, Goodes, Mathews, O'Keefe, Jolly, Kirk, Buchanan 1.
Best Swan On Ground: A Tie - Adam Goodes for his work around the ground and Barry Hall for finishing the good work off.
Posted by robbieando at July 18, 2005 06:48 PM