At Bellevue Oval in Armidale the New England Nomads needed to win against the Tamworth Swans to rekindle their good start to the 2009 season. Unfortunately for them that didn't happen with the Swans getting the chocolates by 8 points. Just like round 1 the Swans got the better of the Nomads in the first quarter to go in at quarter time 8 points in front. Last time this was when Nomads coach Brendan Meehan urged his players to dig deeper for a bigger effort. It started to work in the second quarter as the Nomads pegged the Swans back but the Swans defence, which has been growing as a tight nit joint all year, minimized the damage to barest possible margin, 1 point, as they went into the half time break 7 points in front of the Nomads. In the third quarter the Nomads showed their never say die attitude outscoring the Swans leading by 1 point at three quarter. Swans coach Rick Watt would have felt a case of deja vu coming on, this is what happened to the Swans in round 1 against the Nomads, but he settled his side down at the break and sent them back out into the last quarter with renewed confidence. the last quarter was another tight tussle with the Swans prevailing in the end by the margin it had at quarter time 8 Points. For the Swans Gavin Knee, who is having an outstanding year, was there best player and also booted 5 goals along with Tristan Jones and the other old reliables Lachlan Rowling and Captain Damien Wendt. For the Nomads Ken Clayton was their best player with help from new Recruit Adam Wright, Will Hamilton and Captain Matty Maxwell.
Up at Varley Oval there was another classic match between the Inverell Saints and the Tamworth Kangaroos. The clock had barely been started in the first quarter when the Saints got the jump on the Kangaroos kicking the first goal of the game in just 11 seconds. But then the Kangaroos took control of the quarter to go into the first break with a 23 point lead. The Saints copped a good old fashioned bake at quarter time from Coach Darren Bailey that could be heard all around the ground, and motivated them in the second quarter. The Saints kept the Kangaroos scoreless for the first 12 minutes of the second quarter while scoring 4 goals 2 behinds themselves. The Kangaroos did score 2 goals in the quarter but the Saints kicked another 2 goals to go into half time leading by a slender 4 points. The third quarter saw the two teams trade goals before the Saints kicked away late to lead at three quarter time by 13 points. The last quarter started with Saints scoring a behind and then a goal. But then the game became a good old fashioned arm wrestle with neither team being able to score. With the Saints holding a 20 point lead with 10 minutes to go and keeping the Kangaroos scoreless for 15 minutes, one could have thought the Saints would be able to score a good win. But an off the ball incident by the Saints, when the ball was on their half forward flank, resulted in a free kick to the Kangaroos in front of goal, which they converted. This sparked the Kangaroos and they came home like a freight train getting within 1 point of the Saints before eventually losing by 2 points. The Saints were best served by Alex Dasey, Peter Heath, Young Mick Corcoran and Shaun Mansbridge with Mick Viney kicking 5 goals. For the Kangaroos their best were Ben Commbes, Mitch Penberthy, Daniel Ray and Pat Walton with 3 goals.
In the last game down at the Kennel the Gunnedah Bulldogs were wondering how many Muswellbrook Cats would turn up for them to chew on. But the Cats fought hard in the first quarter not letting the Bulldogs have it all their own way with the Bulldogs only leading by 8 points at quarter time. Bulldogs Coach Dave Chapman asked for more from his charges at quarter time and they responded in a big way kicking 10 goals 7 behinds to just 1 goal for the Cats. This set up the rest of the day for the Bulldogs as they went from strength to strength over the struggling Cats. The third quarter saw the Bulldogs kick another 6 goals to the Cats 1 goal. In the last quarter the Bulldogs kept the Cats scoreless while kicking 7 Goals 7 behinds themselves to run out winners by 150 points. The impressive thing for the Bulldogs is that they had a full 22 players for this game and boom new recruit Shane Higgins, in only his second game for the Bulldogs, was best on ground kicking 8 goals. The Bulldogs were also well served by Scott Hardy, youngster Pat Lebraux and Peter Chapman with Farran Lamb also kicking 5 goals. While for the Cats their best were Grant Ellis, Mark McLaughlin, Grant O'Leary and Quinton Foxcroft with the ever reliable Stuart McAdam kicking 3 goals.
Last Modified on 14/06/2009 09:44