Swans can climb higher, says Farrell
we’ve got a lot of talent in there to not only compete but give ourselves a great opportunity to get back,” he said.
“We’re still the reigning premiers, and we’ve got something that everyone else wants.
“We’re not going to be happy to just hand it over to Leopold or St Mary’s, we want to make sure we’re doing everything possible to get another tilt at it.” FIRST-YEAR South Barwon coach David Farrell believes his side’s rapid rate of improvement is sustainable going into next season.
The Swans’ underdog run through the finals was brought to an end by St Joseph’s in yesterday’s 33points semi-final loss.
Struck a double blow on the morning of the game with Brandon Verfurth (hip) and Jonty Broughton (hamstring) withdrawn from the selected side, South Barwon never appeared in the contest and played second fiddle to St Joseph’s for most of the afternoon.
Despite this, Farrell said he was proud of the team, which jumped from six wins in 2017 to 13, despite being without captain Darcy Hansen, Ben Lusby (ACL) and Will Sexton (ankle) for most of the season.
“They probably can’t see how proud of them we are right now, but their effort again today was outstanding, as it has been all year,” he said.
“We spoke in-house where both sides were 12 months ago — St Joeys won a grand final by 12 goals and we got within five a year later, so for us that shows a lot of improvement.”
With 12 players under 22 in the side yesterday in the club’s first finals series since 2013, Farrell is bullish about South Barwon’s future.
“We’ll keep the group together and they’re not ageing, so if we can keep improving at the same rate as the rest of the competition, we could make another semifinal next year,” he said.
“Our list demographic at the moment shows maybe we have more improvement in our side than the rest of the top six.”
Ethan Baker and Trent Richards kicked two goals apiece for the Swans, with young defender Charlie Francis named his side’s best for his job on St Joseph’s Curtis McCarthy.