A lovely Sunshine Coast day at the “Neil Uppy Upton” Fishermans Road sports complex greeted all for day one of the 2010 AFL Queensland State under 14’s championships.
Game two of the day had the Suncoast Power pinned against the Papua New Guinea boys who greeted the team in the middle of the field with their traditional “Ollie Ollie” (haka) war dance, a fantastic international flavor to get the day really fired up.
The PNG boys had a solid hit out against the North Shore Jets under 16’s on Saturday and from all accounts they are a good running energetic team. The first half of our game certainly was a challenge for the Power with just three points the margin our way at the main break – 2.4.16 to 2.1.13. The run and chase and harassment from the PNG players was fantastic and where ever they could make a contest they did, plenty of scrimmaging was their challenging manner for our boys. Clancy Miller was superb in the first half and support game from many when they had to with Captain Stevenson, Vice Captain Brandon Maki with Brad French, across half forward presenting well whilst Jack Clouston was giving a contest down back on all occasions.
Little Blake Kennedy cleaned up Daniel Henderson in “friendly” fire but both boys just giving their all. No injuries in the first half once ‘Hendo’ shook off the Blake cobwebs and the boys came in for the second half chat and regrouping. Much positive talk at the main break and simply reiteration of our game plan as the processes were right and with clear thinking all seemed confident assistant coach Mitch Hyde felt.
The third quarter was generally fantastic as the Power boys controlled play for the duration and at last we exerted some scoreboard pressure. Young Jason Lamb had a first quarter goal next to his name and in the third he nailed another following a great tackle (the fifty metre penalty helped) in all ‘Lamby’ was providing good contest across half forward and should be pleased with his first up Power game in his second season of AFL. Michael Eather was swung forward and began giving a solid second marking target up forward as ‘Frenchy’ continued on his way, although he had a few misses he still managed to bag two majors at important times.
Miller and Maki were solid through the middle and kept running and receiving well and with booming kicks continually placed the PNG defence under duress. Tom Buckle also began to find space and show all that he is a most dangerous option when he has the ball. Jed Brain, Jonah Bryant and Jasper Duane-Davis became more confident down back creating contests every time the ball was near.
At the final break one felt the Power had the game in the bag with a 31 point lead 6.8.44 to 2.1.13, but we all know footy isn’t over till the final siren or the fat lady tunes in. The fat lady wasn’t tuning up at this point as in past years the Power have lost three quarter time leads when looking to have the chocolates.
The final quarter started off with a bang, as Eather marked strongly from an intelligent centering kick from ‘Lamby’ to the hot spot but only a point resulted. Kick in, turn over as Buckle marked strongly and squared to Maki who put it into the goal square where Eather again marked strongly. Eather nailed a second from a crumbing position not long after and it was game set and match – 7.8.50 to 2.1.13.
The PNG boys then continuing to fight hard found the ball down back and moved it around the outer wing to nail a good running goal. Back to the centre and forward the PNG Binatangs went again to get back to back goals that livened all the boys up with plenty of enthusiastic back slapping, but this was to be where the scored ceased for PNG as the Power rounded the game out with a behind and then a deserved goal to ‘Hendo’.
So a great start to the weeks carnival for our boys that will now see us playing at 1.45pm on Wednesday against the South East Bushrangers. The Bushrangers accounted for the North Gold Coast team in the first game of the morning, so from here the going gets tougher.
Suncoast Power 8.10.58 to Papua New Guinea 4.1.25
Power Goals - Jason Lamb 2, Brad French 2, Michael Eather 2, Tom Buckle 1 and Daniel Henderson 1
Power Best players – Clancy Miller, Billy Mahony, Brad French, Cameron Stevenson, Daniel Henderson, Jason Lamb, Brandon Maki, Jack Clouston and from there a quality team contribution
Other day one results:
Bushies 5.11.41 def. Gold Coast North 4.8.32
Raiders 15.10.100 def. Gold Coast South 3.2.20
Kookaburras 8.4.52 def. Taipans 7.9.51
Last Modified on 13/07/2010 15:49