Reserves auditioning for AFL final

Swans reserves coach Jared Crouch said his team will approach this weekend’s NEAFL Eastern Conference Grand Final against Queanbeyan trying to play ‘Swans-style’ football.

With the senior side advancing straight to the Preliminary Final next weekend, Crouch said the reserves Grand Final could be a chance for fringe players to get some much-needed game time ahead of next Friday night’s AFL final.

“We go in there with the fact that our seniors are playing a Preliminary Final, so there is a good chance that some of the guys who are playing in this week’s game may still be in and around for finals with the seniors,” Crouch told SwansTV.

“I guess what I’m going down there to do is coach the team in such a way that the boys continue to play a ‘Swans-style’ of football.

“I think the guys in the reserves have played some good football, and have played like the senior team in terms of their structures.

“It gives John (Longmire) and the other senior coaches confidence that these guys have been playing the style of football, that should there be an injury or a suspension that they can come into the senior side.”

Crouch praised the recent efforts of Swans forward Mitch Morton, who last week played his first full senior match for the Swans against Adelaide at AAMI Stadium in the Qualifying Final win.

The coach said Morton was one of a number of players who had proved themselves within the NEAFL ranks this season, along with Jarred Moore and Jesse White, with all three recently named in the NEAFL Eastern Conference Team of the Year.

“Mitch Morton obviously played well enough to get himself into the senior side,” Crouch said.

“I also can’t speak highly enough of Jarred Moore, he’s a real leader and what he does week-in, week-out with our younger players in our reserves side probably goes unnoticed because you see the captains of our club leading the senior team, but I can’t speak highly enough of Jarred.

“Jesse (White), especially his last two months of football at NEAFL level, has been some of the best football I’ve seen Jesse play at that level.”

Crouch also highlighted the improvement in second-year player Jed Lamb, who has lifted his performance in the second half of the season.

“Jed Lamb certainly has had some great games. His last six games have been the type of football we thought we were going to get from Jed,” he said.

“He probably struggled a little bit early, but he’s certainly running with pace and really taking the opposition on and showing his skills around the ground as well as kicking a couple of goals.”

With NEAFL rules impacting the number of Swans listed players allowed on the ground during the finals’ series, Crouch said he would be faced with a number of difficult calls ahead of this weekend’s Grand Final.

“It’s a really tough decision but I work in with John Longmire and the other senior coaches and it is about what’s best for the senior team,” he said.

“We’ll sit down during the week and we’ll have a look at what (Longmire’s) plans are and who he needs to be playing in case of injury or in case players are not in the form they need to be in and to give them a hit out.”

But no matter the line-up, Crouch said the Swans side that takes to the field this weekend will do everything they can to secure the Eastern Conference premiership.