The Roos cheer squad assembled before the game with their huge run through banner to honour the 50th club gamefor Colin Mark only too find out that he too had fallen victim to the Canadian governments new distance limiter on his car and did not make the trip to Ottawa.
The Roos, missing several big name players, played the game with only 16 players on the ground against a full strength Swans. As has been their strength this year, the Roos started the game well and were led by Captain Adam Paterson and relative new comer “Boof” Kranz. Both Paterson and Kranz set the example winning many contested possessions and providing the Roos forwards with plenty of scoring opportunities.
The Roos dominated possession around the stoppages. Travis McKenzie continued his stellar season up forward and is clearly enjoying having a strong forward partner in Justin Rigney. Rigney has been very good since coming back into the Roos line up and coupled with McKenzie makes the Roos forward structure very potent. The defensive group led by Ben Watts and Adam Jacobs have the Roos back six playing disciplined football and combined they make scoring for the opposition very difficult.
By ¼ time the Roos had opened up a 8 goal lead.
The Swans came out hard in the second ¼ and applied enormous pressure to the ball carrier. Having two additional players on the ground started to pay dividends as they continued to drop loose players back in to space restricting to Roos ball movement. Through hard work and hard running the Roos still managed to score goals but without interchange rotations were starting to slow against superior numbers. Kranz continued to dominate around the ground providing second and third efforts at every opportunity. The Roos by 60 points at the half
The second half continued much the same as the second quarter. The Roos supported by Kyle Bridson in the ruck and Mike Langer in an unfamiliar role as a midfielder provided great contests at the stoppages and around the ground. Ben Watts continued to direct play across half back while the Kranz, older brother Michael, provided fantastic leadership and direction to those around him. His ability to read the game and release players into space is a real positive for the Etobicoke team and I suspect will become more damaging as they group become more familiar with him. Etobicoke by 12 goals with 20 minutes to play.
To the Swans credit they never give up and they continued to push the Roos at every contest. They play with great spirit and camaraderie and made the Roos players earn every possession they had on Saturday.
In the end the Roos won by a comfortable 68 points, when considering the players they had missing and the fact that they played 16 against 18 is a very strong performance.
A big thanks to the guys who stepped up on Saturday to fill the gaps, all of you acquitted yourself very well and are welcome additions to the Roos family.
Next week the Division 1 boys head down the 401 to Guelph to Hamilton at 10am in the 1st game of the Gargoyles double header, while the Division 2 lads will stay in Toronto to play the Central Blues at 2.30pm at Humber North.
Quarter By Quarter Scores
Etobicoke Ottawa
1st: 7.6.48 0.0.0
2nd: 10.9.69 1.3.9
3rd: 12.11.83 1.5.11
Final: 15.15.105 5.6.36
Best Players: Chris Kranz, Michael Kranz, Mike Langner, Kyle Bridson, Travis McKenzie, Chris Haesler.
Goalkickers: Travis McKenzie 6, Justin Rigney 3, Adam Paterson 2, Chris Haesler 1, Chris Kranz 1,
Kyle Bridson 1, Robert Sears 1,
Weekly Award Winners Wolf Blass - Gift Pack: Michael Kranz
Maple Leaf House - $20 Gift Voucher: Mike Langner
Coach's Award - Beer Mug: Chris Kranz
Pizza Pizza - 1 %er Free Large Pizza: Kyle Bridson
Next Game Round 13:
Saturday August 21st
Div 1 Vs Hamilton Wildcats 10am @ Guelph
Div 2 Vs Central Blues 2.30pm @ Humber North
Last Modified on 05/01/2011 08:11
