The Yass Magpies are continuing their consistency in Reserve Grade, and The Times caught up with Andrew Swaffield who was quick to joke he wasn’t as old as Chris Rawlinson or Tony Worthy.
“I’ve been around a while, not quite as long as Tony Worthy or Chris Rawlinson,” he said.
“At the moment I am co-coaching reserve grade at the Magpies. Last weekend we took on the Goulburn Bulldogs at Goulburn.
“We didn’t have a full bench as we were pretty short on the weekend, due to a few injuries and just general unavailability.
“We got the win on the weekend with the score around 29-10.
“The majority are younger people coming through and they’re in some key positions and then you’ve just got a couple of older guys on the fringes helping to guide and support them.
“I think we are either equal 2nd or 3rd on the ladder at the moment, it is a very compressed top four. I think it’s all separated by about two points.
“Our biggest focus area all year has been our defence and something we’ve really tried to lean into.”
Swaffield is a former first grader and his experience for the younger players coming through is phenomenal.
“As a 36-year-old, I’m a former first grader at the club and playing reserve grade now,” he said.
“We train pretty hard as a group, pretty well doing fitness each and every session, the whole squad’s really embraced that. I think it shows at the back end of most games that our fitness level as a team is pretty good compared to other teams we’re coming up against. So it’s something we really pride ourselves on that we’ve lent into.”
Looking to the finals, the Magpies will be there, it’s a question of who will they play.
“I think having a glance at the table currently, It would probably give you an indication that the top four, there’s not a lot separating those top four teams. I really think it’s kind of anyone’s to win on their day. So, I think that out of that top four, really anyone can win that,” said Andrew.
“On the weekend Ryan Prins stood out for us, he’s been fantastic all year. He’s killed it in the front row. And probably the other one and the one that picked up the players’ player vote for the weekend was the old fellow, Chris Rawlinson. He filled in for us in the halves and helped set up a couple of tries and was pretty instrumental in the win.
“I am officially playing fullback still, currently but probably worth mentioning that we’re really trying to put some of the younger players into those key positions to develop them for the next generation.”
Yass has done well by mixing their youth and experience through different positions as the season’s gone on to give everyone experience.
“We have got a team bye coming up this week and then we have got another three round games to go before it kicks into finals,” said Andrew.
While First Grade continue to fly the flag in a very difficult competition, it’s clear that some of the old war horses have to move on and head back to reserve grade to help the next generation.
It will pay dividends in the years to come.
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