Despite missing senior coach Scott Carey and big forward Ben Martin, the Baggies were able to take the contest up to the Horsham District league premiership favourites at the weekend.
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Although putting in a much better performance than last weekend, Swifts could not get over the top of a strong Harrow-Balmoral outfit, going down 15.9 (99) to 13.10 (88) at Balmoral.
Coming off their first loss of the season, Swifts increased their intensity and applied pressure all over the ground to trail by just three points at the main break of the game.
The third quarter proved to be the difference, with the Southern Roos kicking five goals to three.
The teams kicked the same amount of goals in every other quarter.
“It was a good day for contested football and both teams definitely brought that out in the first quarter and continued that for the majority of the game,” Swifts coach Scott Carey said.
Damon Folkes led the way for the Swifts with five goals.
Carey said he was pleased by the improved efforts of his team after a disappointing performance against Edenhope-Apsley last weekend.
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“It’s always a hard task to travel to Balmoral and play. I was happy with the way the boys came out and they really took it upon themselves to make a good task of it.
“We had our chances to pinch the win but it didn’t fall our way.
“During the week we talked about the things that let us down against Edenhope and we went out there and changed it on Saturday.”
Swifts drop to fifth after the loss.
Carey said despite two consecutive losses he believes his side has shown signs they can take it up to any team in the competition.
“If we play at the same level every week we well be competitive and win a lot of games,” he said.
“They touched us up by more than 100 points last year so to cut the margin down to two goals is really promising.”
“It was a lot easier to try and get the message across at quarter and half time. I was able to see first hand what was going on without having to focus on my own game,” Carey said.
"The surgery went well and I already have a bit of movement in there.”
Sean Wales
