Swans outlast Thunder in Friday thriller

29.04.17 12:01

by Murray Silby

Sydney Swans have won a hard fought Round 5 tussle against NT Thunder for its first NEAFL victory in Darwin.

The 24-point win on Friday night was only secured late in the final quarter after Thunder got to within one point of the Swans thanks to an Adam Sambono mark and snap for goal, one of three he kicked in the term, 10 minutes in.

The promised come-from-behind victory didn’t materialise though as Sydney responded with five of the next six goals.

The final score was the largest margin of any of the breaks with Thunder leading by eight at quarter time, Sydney by seven at half time and Sydney by seven at three quarter time. Consequently, the win came as a big relief for Swans coach Rhyce Shaw.

“It’s our first win up here as a club so it’s pretty huge,” he said. “I came up here last year and all number of things went wrong, we lost about four players, had no bench at one stage. Tonight we still lost one, we had a lot of kids playing, it was just a really good effort, I’m just really proud of the boys.”

The player the Swans lost during the game was Territorian and Sydney rookie Shaun Edwards with what was described as a “stinger” to his shoulder. Edwards was given a warm welcome in the centre of the ground before the first bounce with hugs from Thunder’s captain Shannon Rioli and ruckman Neil Vea Vea.

In a free flowing first quarter Thunder looked to have the Swans’ measure for most of the term, but some uncharacteristically poor turnovers by its defence gave Sydney some easy opportunities to goal.
While at the other end of the ground a couple of bad misses prevented NT’s lead from being larger than the eight points it was.

In the second quarter, Sydney was able to turn that deficit into a seven-point lead. Poor delivery into NT’s forward line allowed regular Swans senior player Aliir Aliir to mop up across half back and compound the pressure on NT’s backline by turning defence into attack for his side.

Goals to Nicholas Yarran and Darren Ewing were against the run of play as Sydney forced Thunder into reacting rather than creating the play.

Thunder lifted its intensity in the third quarter and as the skills improved so did its time with ball in hand, enabling it to outscore the Swans four goals to three. Despite this though, the deficit it was facing actually grew by one point to eight at three quarter time due to Sydney adding seven behinds as well as its three majors.

Thunder was still having trouble with its delivery into the forward line and a couple of gettable shots at goal that went out on the full by Sambono and Kyle Emery seemed worse for the effort players up the field had put in to create them.

Emery made amends late in the term when he kicked his first goal in Thunder colours to the delight of his team-mates. The final term promised much for Thunder when Sambono kicked two of the first three goals, but the Swans’ pressure and class snuffed out the dreams of NT romantics just as quickly.

NT coach Andrew Hodges said his side has to learn from the mistakes it made at crucial times during the match.
“We had some lapses in our concentration and intensity, probably in the second and fourth quarters,” he explained.

“We played some good footy in patches, but we just didn’t do it for long enough and consistently enough over four quarters and Sydney was pretty good. They worked hard, they were extremely clean in the contest and we just fumbled when we didn’t have any pressure on us, which was disappointing.

“A good little experience for our young kids and we’ll learn something from that and come back and be better and stronger for it.”

For Sydney, AFL-listed players Aliir in the backline, Dean Towers in the ruck and pick 11 in the 2016 draft, Oliver Florent, were among its best.

While for the NT, ruckman Neil Vea Vea battled all night with his usual ruck partner Ryan Smith not playing, while Shannon and Ben Rioli desperately tried to get their team over the line. Daniel Weetra and Camron Ilett were again among their side’s best mopping up around the backline and Adam Sambono refused to be held for the whole match.


RESULT
NT Thunder 4.3, 6.3, 10.3, 13.6 (84)
Sydney 3.1, 7.4, 10.11, 16.12 (108)

GOALS
NT Thunder: Adam Sambono 4, Darren Ewing 2, Nicholas Yarran 2, Shannon Rioli 2, Davin Ferreira, Hugo Drogemuller, Kyle Emery.
Sydney: Jack Mapleson 3, Tyrone Leonardis 2, Toby Pink 2, Sean Harlen 2, Harrison Carr, Jordan Dawson, Max Lower, Darcy Cameron, Colin O’Riordan, Oliver Florent, William Gowers.

BEST
NT Thunder: Shannon Rioli, Benjamin Rioli, Neil Vea Vea, Adam Sambono, Daniel Weetra, Cameron Ilett.
Sydney: Aliir Aliir, Dean Towers, Oliver Florent, Jack Mapleson, Jack Mapleson, Jordan Dawson.