Swans chase outright

By Ben Hope
CASEY-South Melbourne coach Mark Ridgway is hoping the weather will hold off this weekend as his team looks for an outright victory against Hawthorn-Monash University.
Hawthorn batted first on its home ground last weekend, but strong fielding from the Swans saw them all out for 111 in just over 44 overs.
“We got the first innings points and we are happy with that,” Ridgway said.
“We bowled Hawthorn out in just over 40 overs so I think we will be in with a reasonable chance to win an outright if we stick to a process,” Ridgway said.
Tom Hussey and Jake Best managed two catches each and Jayde Herrick (6/37) also proved invaluable with the ball.
Confident Casey bowling from both Herrick and Ashley Perera left Hawthorn struggling to get runs on the board with its highest scorer, Ben Cookson, caught out for 29.
Hawthorn’s Joshua Henry, Matthew Hewat and Lucas Hoogenboom all went out for ducks.
“The fielding was fantastic, we dropped one easy catch but we took the rest so it was pretty good,” Ridgway said.
The Swans managed 9/180 in reply, mainly thanks to the efforts of Tom Hussey (72) and Jayde Herrick (57) who staved off disaster after a top-order batting collapse left them at 5/32.
“Hopefully if the weather holds on we can push on for an outright win; at 9/180 there’s not much point batting on,” Ridgway said.
“We have some work to do in the top-order batting but that has been the story of our lives for the past month or so.”
An outright win would see the Swans return to second place on the ladder after last week’s loss to the Camberwell Magpies dumped them to fourth place.
“We already have six points in the bag so if the game is washed out we will go back to second place anyway,” Ridgway said.
Whatever happens this Saturday the Swans can look forward to playing in the finals after winning eight of their 14 games this season.