The South Coast Buccaneers Masters AFL Team has just returned from a successful tour of Bali in which they played in the inaugural Bali Masters 9s tournament which was nine a side AFL played on the main soccer stadium in Kuta for players over 35 years of age.
With a touring party of 18 from the South Coast of NSW we had a total of 12 players which included Ricky Holt, Mick Revington and Scott McDonald from Pambula. Peter Lenehan from Tathra. Bluey and John Heenan, Shane Art, Craig Millman, Graeme White and Brian Firth from Batemans Bay. Rob McPherson from Canberra and David "Spike" Stewart from Cronulla.
The tournament was played between three teams; the Bali Geckos, the Singapore Wombats both made up with expats from Australia, and the South Coast Buccaneers the only team representing Australia. It was played in very unfavourable conditions with extreme heat and high humidity.
Our first game was against the Bali Geckos, who scored first to lead early but with some strong marks and goals to full forward "Butch" Lenehan and some nice goals to Shane Art, the Buccaneers hit the front and lead at half time. Early in the second half "Sudsy" White left the field with a torn hamstring and John Heenan was having a technicolour yawn on the sidelines, the Geckos came back at us but a really superb goal on the run to Ricky Holt kept us in the game, however the heat took its toll on the boys from the coast, and we ran out of legs with the Geckos winning 10-3-63 to the Buccaneers 7-3-45. Goal scorers Shane Art 3, Butch Lenehan 3 and Ricky Holt 1.
During the second game we had a well earned rest while the Geckos Played the Wombats and in a low scoring affair saw the Geckos run out narrow winners.
Game 3 saw the Buccaneers take on the Wombats, but before we could take the field we had to wake up our new recruit, surf shop entrepreneur Craig McGough from Geelong, who was that exhausted had fallen asleep while getting a massage after the first game. The Buccaneers took an early lead, great work out of the centre by Shane Art and Ricky Holt saw Mick Revington clear the ball resulting in goals to Craig Millman and Mick Revington. With solid defence from Scott McDonald, John Heenan and Craig McGough, and some strong marks to Rob McPherson, enabled the Buccaneers maintain their early lead, and when Butch Lenehan speared a handpass out to the roving Bluey Heenan who went on to score a brilliant goal to put the Buccaneers even further in front at half time.
In the second half we took the field with our secret weapon in new local Balinese recruit Wayan Capak, who was the former No1 pro Indonesian surfer playing in his first game of AFL, saw him baffle the opposition with his speed and ability. However the wombats came right back at us with a succession of unanswered goals and were back in the game.
By this stage the Buccaneers were again running out of legs, and the Bin tangs from the hard training session at the Expresso Bar the night before, were obviously taking their toll, and with two minutes to go the scores were level.
In the final minute, we saw the wombats kick a couple of quick goals to snatch victory 8-5-53 to the Buccaneers 6-5-41. Goal scorers Shane Art 2, Craig Millman 2, Mick Revington 1 and Bluey Heenan 1.
Many thanks to Shara Cooper and Rene Hunter for running the water and also "Spike" Stewart for warming the bench. The final saw the Geckos come from behind in the dying minutes to claim victory of the first Bali Masters 9s tournament.
Many thanks must go to Pam Firth for organizing the tour. As well as play footy, our team went white water rafting, cruised over to Nusa Lomboggan Island for a day's snorkelling and had a magnificent seafood team dinner on the shores of Jimbaran Bay.
All the Boys can't wait to go back next year and compete again, so if you would like to join us or maybe enter your own team, you can contact Pam Firth on 02 4472-6891 home, 0400 369 449 mobile, or email
furrypam@hotmail.com. Hope to see you there next year.
The Buccaneers are also hosting our third annual mini carnival this Easter at the Pambula Sporting Complex, so if you are free this Easter and keen for a game of Masters AFL you can call Ricky Holt on 0415 423 293 mobile or 02 6495-6035 home.
Last Modified on 20/03/2005 19:58