News

Jun 27, 2023

Young guns aim high

Craig Watson / 27 July 2023 Young guns South Barwon are confident they can reach the finals in the GFNL, if they keep improving in line with their recent performance, as they take on third-placed

Craig Watson / 27 July 2023

Young guns South Barwon are confident they can reach the finals in the GFNL, if they keep improving in line with their recent performance, as they take on third-placed Newtown and Chilwell at McDonald Reserve in Belmont this Saturday.

“Newtown have had a great season, they’ve been a powerhouse of the Geelong Football Netball League for a long time and it gives us, being a young group, the opportunity just to go out there and see how we go,” Sth Barwon head coach Mark Neeld said.

The Swans come off two impressive wins against Lara (36 points) and St Joseph’s (61 points), but are taking it a week at a time.

Neeld pointed out that Sth Barwon is a young team, with only three or four players over the age of 25, and is still developing its playing style.

“There’s a lot of confidence around the club,” Neeld said.

“It’s a club that is young in terms of the player personnel…and with that comes enthusiasm and excitement,” he said.

“The coaching group have committed to the club for at least three seasons, and after 13 games we’re still establishing, really, our style of play, how we want to train as a group, so for us making finals, etc, is very much an outcome of getting our stuff right, or at least improving each week.”

But whether they can beat Newtown and Chilwell remains to be seen.

In their last contest early in the season the Eagles won by three points, so Neeld said a win for the Swans is a real possibility.

“We did play them in Round 3, and it was a really good contest and I’m sure both teams have changed just a little bit,” he said.

“I’m sure that we’ll go out there, we’ll show a great deal of enthusiasm and we’ll have a go and hopefully it will be another strong contest by our club.

“We had a good game against St Joseph’s football club last week.

“There’s a couple of things the player group brought up on Tuesday that they’d like to keep doing with a view to improving that, so if we can do that, we might finish a little bit higher than where we currently sit.”

If the Swans can manage to beat Newtown, Leopold will need a win against top-placed St Mary’s in order to stay in the top four and could even topple to sixth on percentage, in the likely event that St Joseph’s beats North Shore .

Image: South Barwon Coach Mark Neeld (Sports Media Image - Marcel Berens).