New England Nomads were at their scintillating best when they wiped out Tamworth Swans at home on Saturday.
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The Nomads punished the Swans from the get-go and held a 8.8-55 to 0.1-1 lead at the end of the first quarter.
By halftime the Nomads had more than doubled their opening quarter score and the margin was increasing. By the end of the third quarter the match was decided as the New England team held a more than comfortable 28.12-180 to 1.1-7 lead.
Their form continued into the last stage of the match with the final score blowing out to the Nomads 41.28-274 to the Swans 2.2-14. President Adrian Walsh said his side played to the best of their abilities against an under strength Tamworth team.
“There is always a danger when you play a game like that in people trying to hog the ball but we continued to do the team things even though the opposition weren't as strong, they didn't bring their strongest side,” he said.
“In order to score that many points you really do need to maintain team structures and players need to maintain their discipline and they did so that was probably the most positive thing about it.
“The guys in the middle Jesse Petrascu, Jeremy Ratcliffe, Tim Keys, Jeremy Mitchell and Luke Raymond, they are just unbelievably quick getting the ball out of the centre and just putting it into spots where we can use our legs.”
Clarrie Barker, whose game Walsh highlighted, and captain Dave Richards were unstoppable in nailing each goals each.
Harry Wakefield made an impact with seven while Cameron Graham and Ethan Karpany booted three each.
The pleasing thing with that is they really have come along with their football.
- Adrian Walsh
“Clarrie played a different kind of game, he is not so quick but played a strong forward and really provided a lot of structure on Saturday through the forward line,” Walsh said.
“He took a lot of marks. He was involved in a lot of defensive structure in the forward line.”
Barker and Graham recently returned from playing for the Swans Academy against the Greater Western Sydney Giants development squad. Walsh believes their game has stepped up a notch since their return.
“The pleasing thing with that is they really have come along with their football,” he said.
“They’re on the way up and you can really tell the improvement from their two weeks in Sydney. They’re getting good coaching down there and playing with people their own age.”