Wombats, Swannies and Tigers. Photo, Ross McRae.

National Coach, Josh Little reviews the Swannies semi final at the 2011 Asian Champs against the Singapore Wombats.

Twelve months ago, the Swans had never won a match at the Asia Champs. Just a week ago, the Swans had never reached the Semi Finals at the Asian Champs. Reaching this game marked an incredible achievement by the Club that used to travel to the Champs and come back empty handed. The Club now knows what it takes to win these games, they know what it takes to reach the finals and now, they know what it takes to win the Asian Champs.

The Swans went into this game full of confidence knowing that they were one win away from a Grand Final. After being beaten by Hong Kong the match before, we now had a chance to take on another Asian heavy weight in the Singapore Wombats.

The Swans came out hard but the speed and fitness of Singapore was evident from the first bounce. Our midfielders were helpless with the Wombats getting numbers to the center bounce instantly so it was four of our guys against 6 or 7 of theirs. Kev and Nicko did their best in the middle to try and assist Dukes, Aido and Trent but it appeared futile. Dezza was busy down back but as soon as he looked up, he was confronted by a “wall of Wombats” which made it difficult to clear the ball. The Swans went into half time well and truly down.

Having an extended break helped and the boys cooled down in the hot Bangkok heat. We gave it one last call, one last half of footy to show that the Swans could do it against the best.

The Swans came out hard. The first five minutes was good, strong, contested footy. Singapore was not able to play the free flowing game they did in the first half. David Skowronski was shifted to half back and was giving us something but a similar problem across the final two matches was the lack of options at half forward. The Swans gave it everything at the start of the half but Singapore got back on top to run out the match as the clearly superior team.

The Singapore Wombats took on the Hong Kong Dragons in the Grand Final with Singapore proving too strong. The Wombats had lost 3 Grand Finals in a row and now they finally got a chance at redemption.

The Swans took on the 2 strongest teams in Asia and lost. The Swans know they can be a top 4 team in Asia and possibly higher. We just need to keep setting our goals and working towards them. The Swans are getting close to our first ever Asian Championship!