The victory came courtesy of a stunning seven goal to zero final term, which turned a three-goal deficit at three quarter time into a four-goal win by the final siren.
Reserves Coach Leigh Harding heaped praise on his fast-finishing chargers' ability to "guts it out".
“We were 14 down at three quarter time and only had two active players on our interchange bench,” Harding said.
“Andrew Raines (who was the senior emergency) came off early in case he was needed for the senior game, and Matt Maguire spent the last quarter on the bench in his first game back for a month.
“So to guts it out was really pleasing.
Harding said the turnaround was sparked by an inspired midfield performance led by ruckman Sam Michael.
“We were getting beaten in clearances for the day, but got the first one of the last quarter which resulted in a goal only 12 seconds in,” he said.
“We got the next three clearances as well, which really started to put them under some pressure.
“The drive came largely from Sam Michael, who was just super against Swans big man Jesse White.
“Sam really got hold of him in the last quarter. It was his best game for the year by far.
“Patrick Karnezis and Richard Newell were on the end of some of Sam’s good work and converted goals. Because we were short of rotations, Newelly played the entire last quarter and was terrific.
Simon Black was as productive as ever, but more importantly emerged unscathed from his third NEAFL hitout.
“Blacky was unrestricted this week and ended playing more than 80% of game time,” Harding said.
“He was followed around by one of the Swans players, but he’s used to that sort of attention. It was good to have some bodies around him.”
The Lions Reserves will be afforded a Bye next weekend – along with the rest of the Northern Conference teams – due to the State match being played in Adelaide.
