| SWANS THREE CLEAR AT THE TOP - Round 9 - 12th August 2006 |
In a hard fought battle on the weekend the South Dublin Swans took on the Cork Leeside Lions at the Swans home ground at Terenure. Always a tough hard running side the match promised to be eventful as the Lions looked to get one back on the Swans after their last encounter.
At the first bounce the Lions came out running, quickly kicking two goals and putting some early pressure on the Swans. With a shaky start the Swans began to find some form and halfway through the first quarter Adam 'The Steam Train' Helner and Mick 'Oats Man' Oakes found the ball a couple of times off halfback and hit the coach Ben 'Lets smash these blokes' Fitzsimmons who scored without blinking to bring the swans level.
During the second quarter the Swans began to find their feet kicking a couple of early goals to get away to an early lead. Damo ran well all day sticking with the Lions quick on-ballers and helping the midfield with the clearances. Once again 'The Brainchild' (you know who I mean) swept through the midfield and with Steave 'Tugger' Waugh leading hard and kicking two more in the forward line the swans were looking good.
Coming into the third quarter the swans got a little complacent and the Lions took full advantage again kicking the first two goals. Once again the swans clawed back at the score line but slowly as inaccurate kicking from the forwards prevented the boys from pulling away. Donegal lad Macca continued his development in the forward line adding one major and with continued persistence paying off the swans went into the last change three goals up.
In the forth quarter the boys came alive getting most clearances out and the back line worked hard to stem the Lions tide. A best on ground performance was delivered from Wes 'I love this game' Fellows controlling the backline all-day and finished forward with two goals. Top performances were seen from Sean, Simon and fast eddy working out of the backline.
Highlights of the day included BIG KEV having a stella day in the ruck against a seasoned, extremely tall (although Lanky as) Lions ruckmen. He took a massive blow to the head but came back on looking like a war victim to finish the day off strongly. The 'Steam Train' Helner took a heavy blow halfway through the match but came back from the dead to finish strong (copped a bit of flack about his fitness early in the year but boy turned on a gazelle like performance). Jase took mark of the week deep in the forward line but pushed it right (backline for him next week). Club ox Brent took some great marks all around the ground and Neil stood tall all day after an intimate meeting with a transit van early in the morning.
A great win by the lads to go three clear on top against a tough side taking it out 12 18 90 to 9 6 60.
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