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Late
Sandgate surge buries the premiers
IT
was ‘a strange old day’, in the words of Sandgate player-coach Ben Long, when
the Hawks reconfirmed their premiership status with an extraordinary late burst
at Salk Oval on Saturday.
Sandgate maintained their dream start to the
season, making it seven wins on the trot, after their 20.18 (138) to 15.8 (98)
success at the home ground of last year’s champions.
The Hawks have now
beaten both 2009 grand finalists, Noosa and PBC, leaving no questions about
their ability to finally end lengthy premiership drought.
Yet Saturday’s
victory came, as we said, in extraordinary circumstances because, after trailing
by 25 points at three-quarter time, then by 30 points at the 15-minute mark of
the last term, fortunes switched sides dramatically.
Long admitted, for the
second time this season, he thought his side was gone when they trailed by so
much late in the game.
Yet this Sandgate side seems to have much more starch
to it than those of previous years and when Long pulled a couple of
fourth-quarter positional switches, the Hawks showed exactly what they are made
of.
Long swung veteran Danny Dickfos from a back pocket, where he had been
relatively ineffective, to full-forward.
He also employed Aaron Fabian in
the middle ina bid to maximise a feast of ball from outstanding ruckman Brendan
Forbes.
The impact was immediate because Fabian dominated in his new role
and the Hawks were able to feed so much ball forward that Dickfos kicked three
goals in the space of five minutes and the team a combined 10 as they rammed on
12.7 to 2.2 in that telling final term.
“I’ve never played in a game like
it,” said Long afterwards. “It certainly was a strange old day.
“I think
there were four goals kicked all match at the beach end of the ground.”
What
the victory will do for Sandgate is anyone’s guess, but one suspects it can only
do last year’s fifth-placed club a mountain of good.
“I had a feeling that
we were out of it, the same as we were late against Burleigh” said Long.
“We
were down to a good side on their home deck yet we found a way to get out of it.
Now, when we play those sides in the future, we know we can get out of tough
situations.
“And we have three or four class players who can do something
special to get us over the line.”
Former Sandgate junior Josh Walker, who
was with Aspley in QAFL division one last year, kicked six goals for the Hawks,
giving him 24 for the season from only five appearances.
He was best for the
winners, just ahead of Forbes, wingman Chris Pettitt and mastermind Long, who
had stints on-ball and at half-back.
As is usually the case when a team gets
a late roll-going, some players are able to produce something out of the
ordinary and goals kicked by Walker and Shane Rogerson, two absolute rippers,
were worthy of goal of the year honours.
Over in the the Palm Beach camp
things were not as gloomy as one would expect from a team that had just
surrendered such a big lead.
Keep in mind that the Lions lost champion
midfielders Mikal Bloom (hip) and Josh McLoughlan (calf) before half-time, so
they were hurt there.
But a damning statistic for coach Craig O’Brien was
discipline – or lack of the vital ingredient, to be more precise.
“We gave
away eight 50-metre penalties, and all of them were warranted,” said O’Brien,
who said the umpiring was ‘probably the best we’ve had’.
“Losing Bloom and
McLoughlan put a spanner in the works but, having said that, I thought we saw
the good, the bad and the ugly in us today.
“We started well, then we were
terrible for 10 minutes and they kicked six goals.
“We were good in the
third and for a while in the last quarter, but then Sandgate kicked 10 goals in
about 15 minutes.
“I believe our major problem at the moment is the
opposition has kicked blocks of goals in a short time. That has happened in
every loss this year.
“It is a concern because we had Sandgate on the ropes
twice.
Palm Beach had classy on-baller Brad Horn and livewire skipper Matt
Carroll (five goals) as their best, while Ryan Carroll and the versatile James
Drake also went well.
Erratic
Blues fall to Roos
TWO
quarters of solid toil running into a strong wind set up a well-deserved victory
for Maroochy-Northshore against Coolangatta at Len Peak Oval on Saturday.
Strong first and third quarter efforts set up the win, by 17.19 (121) to 8.9
(57), at a venue where the Roos invariably struggle.
The die was cast in the
opening term when the Roos held Coolangatta to 5.4 while scoring 3.2 themselves
into the breeze.
The win was then sealed in the third quarter when the
visitors ran on 4.10 to 1.2 by the home side before the visitors added another
6.1 with final use of it.
“That was pleasing,” said Somerville of the two
terms into the wind. “Perhaps it was just one of those things, but we had a few
tactics to use in the conditions and they seemed to work.”
Veteran Roo David
Hulsman had an outstanding game in a variety of roles that started in defence,
then on-ball and capped by two goals when pushed up front.
Teenage Victorian
recruit Ben King was solid on =-ball, ex-Sydney Swan Ben Mathews kicked four
goals in a dominant performance and ruckman Tyson Williams did a splendid job on
Queensland Country rep Jason Smith.
As for Coolangatta, blues by the Blues
continue to frustrate coach grant McKenzie.
An epidemic of wayward
disposals has hit Peak Oval and it is hurting his side big time.
“Yes, we
are probably the most hot and cold side in the competition at the moment,” said
McKenzie.
“I thought Maroochy won it through their first quarter and I
thought they had the better skills.
“But once again our turnovers were
enormous. We had 84 on Saturday – and that beat the 81 we had against Noosa.
“The worst thing is that most of them are in uncontested situations, that’s
the real issue.
“Yet the real positive is that we’re winning our share of
the footy. I thought the intensity was a bit better but we just keep kicking the
ball away.”
Dalton Sanderson, who arrived from Sorrento as a forward, was
used in defence by McKenzie and turned in his best game for the club this year.
Brendon White was used as a tagger on Maroochy midfield gun Ryan nWhite
after quarter-time and did a great job and McKenzie liked the effort of young
Daniel Carey in defence.
Tigers
too strong for young Demons
NOOSA
seemed to have unearthed two key attacking options to cover for the loss of 2009
leading goalkicker Matt Hicks.
Former Victorian Country rep James Brain,
recruited from the Albury area this year, kicked seven from a half-forward flank
and local product Tim Storrer
managed five at full-forward as Noosa
dominated Surfers Paradise by 21.20 (146) to 6.7 (43) at Weyba Road on Saturday.
“He goes all right,” said coach Wayne Fletcher when asked about Brain, who
moved to the Sunshine Coast to be with his family, who relocated north a couple
of years ago.
Brain’s father Greg coaches the Noosa under-14 side.
As
Saturday’s final scores suggest, Noosa were classes above their undermanned
opponents and dominated after opening with a term of 6.8 to 0.2.
But, as
Fletcher said, the young Demons stuck to their guns and battled on bravely
against overwhelming odds.
“Obviously they were undermanned and had a lot of
young blokes. But to their credit a few of them stood up,” said Fletcher.
“I
thought our defence was fantastic. They gave us a lot of run.”
Brain,
skipper Adam Bovalino at the back and Lucas Matthews stood out in a classy Noosa
side. Matthews showed his class with nine clearances and eight inside 50-metre
deliveries.
Surfers coach Rob Martin, describing Noosa as a very strong
side, aid the Tigers look to be just starting to gel.
“They have big and
strong on-ballers and they have some tall forwards,” he said of Saturday’s
conquerors.
Forced to play reserve grade (as did committeeman Wayne Davis)
because of the run of injuries at his club, Martin had a huge wrap for back
pocket Mark Strack, who played in Perth last year after moving from the Ovens
and Murray League.
Bulky Dan Green played strongly after overcoming a kidney
infection that threatened to sideline him for the weekend, and ruckman Max Davis
battled strongly against a good opponent in Brendan Page.
Last Modified on 10/05/2010 10:54