Kurt Tippett is no certainty to earn a senior recall despite starring for Sydney’s reserves
DROPPED Swan Kurt Tippett put in a strong performance for Sydney’s reserves on Saturday but coach John Longmire says he’s no certainty to earn an immediate recall for the clash against Richmond.
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KURT Tippett performed strongly in an enormously one-sided reserves match but that doesn’t mean he’s certain to return for next Saturday’s critical AFL clash with Richmond at the MCG.
The highly paid big man kicked three goals, took nine marks and made five tackles in Sydney’s 171-point win over a heavily undermanned GWS Giants reserves on Saturday at Blacktown.
Swans coach John Longmire was on hand to watch Tippett and came away pleased.
“He was pretty solid,” Longmire told the Sunday Telegraph.
“He’s got some specific things he needs to work on but more generally he needs to play at a more consistent level and have more of an impact across the game and he did that today which was a good result.”
It wasn’t the first NEAFL game Tippett has played for the Swans — he has returned from injury through the reserves twice — but it was the first time he has been dropped the reserves.
Despite his promising display, he is unlikely to be selected ahead of Sam Naismith and Callum Sinclair who were in good form in the victory over the Bulldogs on Thursday night, winning the hitout count 65-16.
“The other two boys were pretty solid last week,” Longmire said.
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“It’s good from a team point of view. Richmond at times play just the one ruck so we have to consider all that when we sit down at match committee.
“Kurt played in the ruck against Dawson Simpson and up forward against Tim Mohr so it was good for him to play against quality players who can give him a good hitout.”
It was one of the strongest reserves teams the Swans have ever put together. Tippett was among 10 players to have played senior football this year including Aliir Aliir, Gary Rohan, Ollie Florent, Jeremy Laidler, Jordan Dawson and Jordan Foote.
Aliir is steadily getting back to his form of last year and moved well with the ball in hand.
“They had a massive win but it’s difficult to gauge with the Giants having so many players out,” Longmire said.
“I thought all our blokes played well, Gary (Rohan) played well, Aliir was good and so was Ollie Florent who had a role on Tendai Mzungu. He’s continuing his development, learning about AFL and that was another different thing for him today and he did it well.”
The standout performance came from Dawson, who debuted in Round 3 this year against Collingwood. He finished with four goals to go with 26 disposals and 11 tackles.
After a shocking start to the year with injuries things are definitely turning Sydney’s way.
“Everyone takes their turn with surges and injuries,” Longmire said.
“Ours was at the start of the year when we had a lot of our senior players out. With their return it’s made a big difference.
“The Giants are going through a hard run at the moment, everyone seems to have their turn with a tough run.”
The GWS reserves had just five AFL listed players in their team.
Originally published as Kurt Tippett is no certainty to earn a senior recall despite starring for Sydney’s reserves
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