2010 Grand Final: Premiership Reflections by Brian Dawson

‘Premiership Reflections’ tells the story of Swan Districts’ eight premiership seasons, with special emphasis on the Grand Final matches, intertwining comments and details from those years with the 2024 reflections of those who were intimately involved: Ken Bagley and Bill Walker 1961-63; John Todd, Graham Melrose and Keith Narkle 1982-84; Peter Hodyl and Brad Shine 1990 and Brian Dawson and Josh Roberts 2010.

Keep reading for a sneak peak from Dawson’s latest work.

2010 Grand Final last quarter

Claremont then added two more points as they kept the ball in their forward half; after the second one Wayde Twomey kicked in, looking for Michael Walters on the flank, but overcooked the kick and sent it out of bounds on the full. Ian Rowe kicked to the top of the square where a large pack of players flew for the mark, with Claremont’s David Crawford coming down with the ball:

(BD) “If you watch the replay, the only tall we had in the contest was Ash Hansen, and being a typical forward he tried to mark it, no thought of a spoil….we had two tall defenders in Tallan Ames and Matt Spencer and neither one was in the camera frame……I’m still waiting for an explanation as to where they were……”.

Crawford’s goal put the Tigers up by 5 points with two and a half minutes left to play, which was relayed to the Swans players. Unsurprisingly, Claremont tried to bottle up the play and put players behind the ball to try and protect the lead. There were six ball ups in a row as the play slowly inched towards the Swans goal. Then, Llane Spaanderman swatted the ball forward and Claremont were awarded a free kick for kicking in danger, as Brett Wolfenden fell over his opponent when attempting to win the ball. The recipient of the free kick was David Crawford. He took his kick 45 metres from the Swans goal, with Andrew Krakouer standing on the mark:

(BD) “For some years I always told the story that Kraks stood on the mark in order to shake his tag, but he eventually told me that he was ‘just cooked’ and cramping up, so he took the mark to have a quick rest……as it turned out, it was a piece of genius….”.

Crawford’s kick was a ’flour bag’ punt, which didn’t travel as far as expected onto the outer wing; Ben Colreavy spoilt the ball, which was gathered by Stephen Coniglio, who handballed onto Tom Roach, who quickly did the same to Wayde Twomey, who then kicked a drop punt forward off the outside of his right foot. A pack of players contested the ball about 25 metres from goal, with the ball sliding backwards off the fist of Claremont defender Lewis Stevenson into the waiting arms of Andrew Krakouer, who gathered and then had the presence of mind to loft his kick at goal to avoid the Claremont defender rushing at him. The ball split the middle of the goals (for his third for the quarter and fourth for the game), although it was reported that in the Claremont coaching box someone was quick to say ‘he’s missed it’. Swans were back in front by the barest of margins with 28 seconds of play left. It was the sixth (and final) lead change in the quarter.

This beautifully presented coffee table history book comes with photos from each premiership year and has a recommended retail price of $50, but pre-order now until 5 September for the special price of $40 and save!
For your $10 discount insert PREORDER in the coupon code panel on the checkout screen.

Click here to purchase or follow the link: https://buy.stripe.com/6oUfZi8Nq2t6byl5lg5J60a