The unpredictability and evenness of the competition asserted itself in Round 8. As I stated in the mid-year review, teams that took St. George too casually would pay dearly and so it came to be. The Dragons adapted themselves to the small Sydney Uni Oval No. 1 a lot better than Sydney University Bombers and won their round 8 match. It was a historic moment as it was the first time St. George had defeated anyone apart from UNSW-ES Stingrays in their history in SWAFL.
Round 9 sees Sydney University hosting Balmain at St Paul’s Oval at 10am. Balmain 3rd on the ladder will be keen to taking on a wounded 4th
place Sydney University who will be keen to return to the winners circle and catch up with the rest of the pack after losing to St. George. The Bombers earlier in the year sprung a surprise on the Lady Dockers to win by 9 points. Whether history repeats itself remains to be seen. For both clubs being equal on points a chance to solidfy a top 4 place whilst for the vanquished, the 5th placed team will be breathing down their necks.
Head to head record, Sydney University 13 wins, Balmain 10 wins.
At 10am at Mahoney in the first of three matches sees the match of the round of 2nd placed Wests hosting league leaders Newtown. Last time it was an el-clasico match with the Newtown Breakaways asserting itself over the premiers with a twenty point win. No doubt most spectators will be seeing a high quality ruck duel once again by the 2009 All-Australian Ruck Natalie Redford vs basketball representative Georgia Woodyard as well as the full-forward duel between Rebecca Burridge and the nimble pocket rocket Cassi Bell who used to play for the Breakaways. Finally the duel between center / ruck rover Talei Owen and Natasha Devlin will be a delight to watch. For Newtown it's effectively an 8 point game to put a bigger gap on the rest of the competition, while for Wests a chance to equal up to Newtown.
Head to head record, Newtown 16 wins, Wests 7 wins.
The 12 o’clock game sees the development game between Macquarie University vs St. George.
The final game at 2pm sees the UNSW-ES Stingrays hosting the Bondi Shamrocks. Last time the two teams played a Friday night game with the Shamrocks getting their act together after a slow start to win by 64 points before both teams partied into the night afterwards. The music have now stopped for both teams with the Shamrocks keen to regain some of their winning feeling whilst the Stingrays would dearly like to knock off the final aspirations of a SWAFL Club. The Shamrocks has a chance to regain 4th spot whilst the Stingrays would be keen to get their first win for the year.
The head to head record shows the Shamrocks at one win from their first inaugural game.
May all teams (players/coaches and supporters) play in the spirit of the game, respect for the umpires, it’s laws and remain injury-free.
Last Modified on 22/06/2009 06:22