Round 14 – This is it!
For four of the clubs, Mad Sunday will commence after the end of this round as their season finishes. For the other four clubs, half of their journey has just been completed as they now prepare for finals campaign.
In fact with the three competitive matches all starting simultaneously on Saturday 10am means that coaches, fans and players will be glued to their mobiles with their calculators to work out who is the Golden Boot of 2009.
There are so many permutations possible, they are:
Game 1 with match of the round status sees Balmain hosting the Western Wolves at Drummoyne Oval. Last time the runners-up pounced on the Wolves to record an upset back in round 1. However both teams are fairly even here so a bookie would be hard pressed to
offer a market with both teams having a very good winning streak. For Golden Boot, Rachel Mercer (Wests) is in contention in 6th
place and Balmain’s Belinda Pride (Dockers) is in 2nd place trailing by 2 goals. With all on the line for these two clubs, I expect no quarter given by all players.
Game 2 sees Sydney University hosting the Bondi Shamrocks at Sydney University Oval No. 1. Last time Sydney University failed to adapt themselves to the small ground and suffered a shock loss to St George. I’m sure lightening won’t strike twice! Sydney Uni will be looking to finish the season on a high. However the Bondi Shamrocks have emerged from their match against the Breakaways with some valuable lessons after suffering a 85 point thumping. Marie Keating (Shamrocks) leads the Golden Boot by only 2 goals and looks forward to retaining the trophy for a consecutive year.
Game 3 sees the St. George Dragons hosting the Newtown Breakaways at Olds Park. Last time the two sides met, the Breakaways didn’t play that impressively to beat the Dragons by 17 points. However the Dragons really have run over a black cat since that game
with major season-ending injuries to their senior players which have meant utilizing rookies a lot earlier than anticipated. The Dragons were fairly
impressive in using the wide spaces of Olds Park against the Dockers. The Breakaways will be keen to secure the minor premiership which will be a historic sixth time and averaging 129 points in attack in the last 3 games, the Dragons defence could potentially be in for a big day in the office. Bec Burridge (Newtown) is only 4 goals behind in 3rd place with Roxy McGee on 4th place 9 goals behind and Verna Iles in 5th
place, 11 goals behind.
Game 4 sees the development game between Macquarie University and UNSW-Easts at noon at Village Green. The addition of Macquarie University has been beneficial to the competition and everyone in the league hopes that the Warriors can build on this year’s team with a couple more extra new players to ensure they field a full competitive squad for next year’s league. The Stingrays should hope to go out with a high note with some positive signs amongst their team about those who stood up in an increasingly tough competition.
So for the Bombers, Dragons, Stingrays and the Warriors, enjoy your celebrations on a season well played. There has never been an easy match between all the sides involved in this year’s competition and we look forward to your participation in 2010.
For the other sides, the grind continues. There can only be one winner that will emerge triumphant out of this. To conclude I quote Rudyard
Kipling’s excerpt from the poem “If”:
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same....
Last Modified on 10/08/2009 13:31