INVERELL Saints kept themselves in the running for this year’s grand final on Saturday, when they managed to come home over the top of the Narrabri Eagles 12.22 94 – 7.9 51 at Varley Oval.
Saints captain Nick Baird said it was a tough game and conditions probably weren’t too great, with stiff breeze blowing across the field.
“It was also a bit wet underfoot from the previous week’s rain,” Baird said.
“We were certainly made to earn our win. Now we move on to fight another week.
“We beat them pretty easily last time over at Gunnedah, but we knew they would be a different team coming over here this time, and they were. They were pretty dogged and played a pretty good brand of footy in the conditions.”
Baird said the Saints were a little slow to start and the Eagles made them pay for that.
EXTREME: Chris Schneider goes to a lot of extra trouble to get his hands on the ball.
“We got caught napping a little bit in the first 25 minutes, but we settled down well after that and started to play a bit of our own footy and started to stick to our structures,” Baird said.
“Once that happened, we probably wore away at them a bit. Then in the last quarter, we ran away with the game.”
This weekend Saints travel to Tamworth to take on the Tamworth Kangaroos for a spot in the grand final. Baird said there is no reason why the Saints could not be at the top of their game and give the Kangaroos “a bit of a shake”, but he holds no illusions about how hard the game will be.
“They’ve always been our arch-nemeses, back in the old days when we were winning premierships. It was always the Kangaroos that we were going to get in the grand finals,” Baird said.
“This year they have beaten us twice, but in saying that, we haven’t put a side in the park against them that was even close to our strongest.”
He said the Saints had come through the weekend’s match unscathed and were carrying no injuries.
“If we can get a full-strength side on the park this weekend, anything is possible this Saturday,” he said.
Source: The Inverell Times Tuesday 8th September 2015
Last Modified on 09/09/2015 20:33