Swans are tough to top

By David Nagel
CASEY-South Melbourne’s (7/306dec) Clive Rose timed the last piece of a brilliant all-round performance to perfection on the weekend as he bowled the Swans to victory over Camberwell (275) with just 10 minutes to spare.
After coming within a whisker of defeating the undefeated Carlton in identical circumstances in the previous round, Rose’s successful LBW shout against Magpie tail-ender James Pearson gave the Swans a hard earned and well deserved victory.
The Swans won the toss on Saturday and elected to bat first on a lively pitch and at 3/33 it looked like a not to wise decision. Coach Mark Ridgway defended the choice to bat.
“We have to learn to bat first, it’s a big advantage if you can do that properly so even though the track was lively and we were three down, it was still the right decision,” Ridgway said.
Earlier in the season this situation would have been ominous for the Swans but Jolyon Leaver (84) and Shaun Foster (28) showed real grit against the Magpie attack and put on 50 for the fourth wicket. Foster departed with the score on 83 but that brought Rose (62) to the crease and he and Leaver continued to build the innings.
Leaver was next to go after an 84 run union with Rose who then hung around to be the seventh wicket to fall with the total on 231. Shane Maggs (49 not out) and Nathan Hibbins (43 not out) then took the fight into Sunday morning until the Swans eventually declared on 7/306.
The home side then took to the crease and after a couple of early hiccups, the Magpies looked well on top. James Crosthwaite (126) looked like spoiling the visitor’s party until Rose (6/88) trapped him in front to make the score 3/212. That wicket changed the course of the match.
Matt Hawking (2/40) struckshortly after and then Maggs (2/46) settled into an hour long partnership with Rose. The left arm china man and the left arm orthodox worked brilliantly together to take the last six wickets for 63 runs to help the Swans to a memorablevictory.
Ridgway said there’s been no secret recipe for the Swans turnaround in form.
“No not really, we’ve had some pretty candid team meetings recently, discussed game plans and we’re just following those plans much better now,” he said.
“We re-jigged the batting line-up and it seems to be more solid now, we’re a lot more stable and there’s a bit of self belief now.”
Despite some below-par performances earlier in the season Ridgway said the attitude of the players had never been a problem.
“The attitude at training has always been good… we just chopped and changed a lot early in the season whereas now we’re a much more settled combination,” he said.
“We’ve taken 19 wickets and made 650 runs in the last two games so we’re going ok, not many other sides can claim that sort of form.
“We’ve got a lot of young blokes in the side who are improving, so we might be able to make something out of this season after all looked lost a few weeks back.”
The twelfth placed Swans play their last game of 2011 at Casey Fields this Saturday when they take on North Melbourne in a one-day encounter. The game starts at 11am.