Under 18s had a good away win
against a formidable and well performed opponent that had taken the points in a
pre season clash. In a bunched field the boys are one of five sides on five
wins chasing two on 6 and two on 7 wins respectively. Sunday’s victory over a higher placed
side, Mt Gravatt, augers well and we are now chasing some healthy margins to
boost percentage that will probably play a part in finals participation this
season. The seniors suffered a heart-rending loss by a goal and the Magoos, after
looking like taking a win in adversity were over run in the final stanza.
Seniors
No real niggle as expected, indeed
the game was played in pretty good spirit. R-Pants had his detractors but the
players appreciated there was more on the line than manufactured bad blood and
the ball was the target.
In his 50th senior game
Stewie stood out early reading the play and effecting a couple of clearances. Unfortunately
he did an AC and was to take no further part in the game. That hurt as the
sides were well matched in size to that point..
After some arm wrestling Redlands were
first on the board. They were running hard, flooding our forward half and
playing their CHF as an on-baller. Either as a tactic to take Stewie and or
Quickie out of defence or to relieve the flood when in possession of the
sherrin when coming back into their half. It seemed to work in that they
created spare players in attack and our blokes were blowing hard trying to keep
up. They snuck a couple and it would have been more but for Rhino, Clougho and
Searlo. The adjudicators called a few stoppages which resulted in some
contested balls that appeared to raise our intensity. Perhaps we need the
physical confrontation to remind players that the game is indeed underway. Any
way we lifted and Cookie goaled from a free and Stalk followed up. It was at
this point that Stewie went down. Stalk was immediately deployed to CHB and
Ranga O’Hare went to full forward.
Ash Palmer, in his first game for a
good while, had lost none of his nous and made good position for possessions,
and further hit the nut to space or the top of the square. He was to do this
time and time again throughout the game.
We made some desperate plays to push forward through the Redlands woods (their
box kept yelling “fortress”) and fortunately the ump awarded a free to Cookie
as Bachus Ryan snapped inaccurately. Cookie’s kick was accurate.
Tinka started to come into the game. He was being worn by a forgettable bomber
but you can’t keep a good Tinka down.
Quickie took a courageous mark against the fence, found Tinka on the switch, on
to Bower but the flood was in place down the fat side and the corridor turnover
resulted only to be returned by some determined Cats. This pattern of play,
rudely described as aerial ping pong by the bum sniffers, continued until
Redlands, aided by some poor decisions by us, started to play wider and bomb
the nut in for a couple of goals.
Rusty, Squiz and Tinka were giving
it their all and then an infamous JD smother, pick up and centre clearance
found Fults about 45 out on the outer flank kicking to the Brisvegas end. The
old bloke had his boots on the right feet and brought up his 6 hundred and
umpteenth career goal.
Our notes suggest that Tinka then took on the whole Redlands side and the footy
appeared in Fults safe hands once more in pretty much the same position. He
proved he had his kicking boots on with his second for the quarter. Time ran
out as O’Hare, JD and R-Pants emulated their skipper’s desire and Quickie was
tripped after a courageous marking attempt. We were lucky that Redlands had not
taken advantage of their superior inside 50s (13 to 8) and our scoring
efficiency was at 75%.
Quarter time: Broadbeach 5 1 to Redlands 6 2.
The second stanza was to prove our
worst on the day with the bombers adding 5 big ones to our two. Emblem was at
full back and Stalk and Nicholls were sharing the ruck load.
Hales started well, he has very quick hands and is quick to follow up with a
block, and the usual suspects hunted the nut but we were not able to penetrate
the ‘fortress’. Ryan put in a great NRL kick to space in front of Fults and he
had his third on the trot. Unfortunately Redlands immediately responded with a
major – they did that three times on the day and it hurts to flog yourself to
get a goal only to watch the opposition with apparent minimal effort reply
within seconds of the centre bounce.
Rhino, Cloughy, Jacko, Fifey, Frawles, Squiz and Ash got their hands on the
ball but like Jessica Watson had on
where to go. Rusty was his usual self throwing himself in places where Jessica
wouldn’t go and after a great passage of play found Fults again but this time
he fell short. Old age has its detractions.
Again Fults had an opportunity after some intense defensive pressure and a
great tackle by Ryan and again it
was short. Rusty, Cookie and Ryan Bower potted points until Ground Hog Game
produced another short shot by Fults with the assist coming from Squiz, and to
rub salt in, the bombers whipped the ball downfield for a goal. Our structure
was absent, we looked lost.
Searly found Hales whose loooooong handball was plucked by Stalk who calmly hit
R-Pants on the chest. Pants goaled but again the bombers replied immediately.
We now faced the biggest margin of the game and were fortunate with 20 seconds
to go that a bomber kick was off target.
Half time: Broabeach 7 2 to Redlands 11 5
We needed an effort, needed to grow
a brain, improve our ball handling and get the set ups right. The bombers
continued to play well up field and we continued to turn the ball over after
good passages of play. Ash was featuring in a lot of them and again Fults was a
target but couldn’t spend the shopping vouchers. Tinka decided to get in
amongst it and slippered a ripper after Rhino, Jacko, Searlo and Fultso
handled the ball in a rare error free transfer of the air conveyance.
The opposition box was heard to
demand 100% defensive of Tinka’s tagger. The lad was not up to it. JD took a
hospital pass (from Jacko – remember that JD) and kicked to Hales, across to
Stalk and Tinka accepted the perfect pass for another goal. There was an
atmosphere emerging with a patch of panic in the bombers box and a touch of
fight in us. Players were keen to be in amongst it and the bench was a bit
prickly when players were pulled into rotations that they thought were too
early. Tinka had another crack but was inaccurate but the poster spurred us on.
Rusty won a clearance and Glenn Ryan picked up our third from Fulton corner.
Tom Nicholls took a couple of handy catches and the Stalk and Cookie chipped in
with aerial skills. On one such
occasion, Tinka gathered the footy from Stalk and went the switch to Ash, who
used an NRL two-paced run to get within distance and put one through. The
quarter finished with Rhino displaying the persistence required if we were to
get up.
Three quarter time: Broadbeach 11 6 to Redlands 11 6
With Smithy calling for the players
to lift to another (expletive) level we took to the pitch with great
anticipation. Bombers lined up
with spare blokes in the backline or the on-ballers were deployed there after centre
stoppages. Seemed defensive to us but early on they were able to repel our
forward forays and penetrate our backline to put two on the board. Our forwards
might have appreciated some well structured support from direct opponents of
spare bombers rather than them playing lone hands in defence or following the
ball. At this point we were worried.
Cookie was sent into the ruck and Tinka was asked to rev ‘em up. Tom Nicholls
took a catch in the last line, got it to Squiz who was fired up, on to JD who
looked for Fults. Fults went up, Tinka stayed down and we got one back. Shortly
after that Ryan snapped accurately and scores were 13 6 a piece.
A tug of war followed. We had our
chances but gifted Redlands a goal with a 50m penalty. Not certain what for but
the adjudicator admonished Tinka after he responded to some pretty rough
treatment, clearly he was seen as the danger man. He was taking it and dishing
it out. Provocation is no defence but in the absence of appropriate protection
one is entitled to question the call.
The Pants brothers and Tinka continued to bombard but we were short one
tall. We went to 13 points down
and needed three. Rusty picked up a point, JD and Cookie gave it all but to no
avail. Jacko stood his ground and took one for the team and the resultant 50m
penalty allowed us to goal but all too late. Bugger.
Final score:
Broadbeach 14 7 91 def by
Redlands 15 7 97
Goals: Fulton
3, Zorko 3, Cooke 2, Ryan 2, Palmer, Emblem, Walters and Pantic R 1 each.
Best: Russell,
Walters, Searl, Dienjes, Palmer, Clough.
Magoos
Got picked off after an 8 goal final quarter by the Bombers. Looked good for
their first win against all odds. Started the game with just the 20, (including
a few under 18s), and injuries took their toll to the point where we didn’t
have a bench. To make matters worse Lachy Treacher went down with what appeared
to be a nasty ankle early in the last. He was sorely missed in the ruck and
around the ground as he has improved out of sight over the season. His injury
denied us first use of the ball and despite kicking to the “scoring end” our tired and sore players were unable
to combat the fast finishing bombers.
Final score:
Broadbeach 8 10 58 def by Redlands 12 14 86
Goals: Robertson 2, Clough T 2,
Balcombe 2, Webster 1 and Edwards 1
Best: Webster, Squire, Balcombe,
Oehlman, Green and Scale
No QAFL games next week. Hopefully we can come back
fresh and fit and over the injuries to get back on track. Self belief is a
wonderful thing and we believe in ourselves! Next game is Saturday 19 June at the Cattery versus the
Western Magpies. Four and Twenty Blackbirds baked in a pie!
Last Modified on 08/06/2010 13:41
