The Curra Swans 2009 campaign came to an end at Neil French Oval on Saturday.
Playing neighbors Hermit Park on their home turf in the knockout semi the Swans came out ready and led the Tigers by 3 points at the first break.
The Tigers lifted in the second and unfortunately for the Curra faithful the Swans were unable to match their opponents. At the long break the Tigers had opened up a 24 point advantage.
To the Swans credit they fought hard in the third quarter and outscored the Tigers by a goal to go to the last break trailing by 21 points.
The margin was within the Swans capabilities and the game was still there for the taking.
Hermit Park for their part were not prepared to lose to the Swans for the third time in a row and completely shut the Swans out in the final term kicking 30 points to 1 and book a berth in the Preliminary Final next Saturday.
The Swans will reflect on a season of improvement but also on some missed opportunities.
League Best & Fairest winner, Brent Doyle was missing from the Swans midfield and his presence was sorely missed.
Young ruckman, Dylan Bycroft also missed the game with injury and the swans found it hard to dominate the midfield as easily as previous encounters with the Tigers.
The drop off over the final two weeks of the season with injuries and some players having better things to do left coach, Peter Pyle a little bemused.
Pyle reflected on the beginning of the year when his side was getting flogged on Saturdays. We had 35 to 40 at training. Yet we win a few games, draw one and be competitive in a few others and the numbers at training dropped. We were in this competition and some players unfortunately found more important things to do or were not committed to the team. I feel bad for the lads were worked hard all year. They deserved a better finish to the season.
All in all though Pyle was pleased with the overall effort of his charges for 2009.We came a long way this year. We promoted some talented juniors. We picked up a number of good players and are in a very good position going into the next season.
Last Modified on 26/08/2009 11:46