We travelled to St Lucia to play the University of Queensland on Saturday.
The Under 18's once again got the day off to a great start with an impressive victory, the team is really starting to come together and are force to be reckoned with.
The reserves started the day with the loss of Charmo and Jye to the seniors as replacements and AJ to sickness, even with these important losses we had a solid team with Greeny, Bully and Russ Ollington into the side. This was a very important game as University were undefeated in Reserve grade for the year. The atmosphere in the rooms was the best I had felt for the year as the boys knew that they had to step up to have a victory. The 1st Quarter was a high quality quick moving game with the Pumas winning most contested ball and Uni moving the ball with good structure around the flanks. It was clear that the Pumas would have to maintain good pressure all day to get the better of their younger quick moving opponents. The clearance work in the centre was great with Kassulke, Raudino and Murrihy winning the contest and getting the ball forward, the backline led by Lewie was shutting down a lot of the attack from Uni.
Quarter time scores Pumas 2 - 2 - 14 Uni 1 - 4 -10
The second quarter was more of the same with the Pumas maintaning the pressure despite the heat of the day. Natcam came off injured which was a real loss because he was just coming back to his best form. The midfield again was doing well with Darcy, Bully and Menz hitting the contest hard and winning plenty of ball. Laurrie and Richard were providing plenty of speed on the flanks when Uni tried to move it around that area, their defensive efforts made entries into their forward line difficult. Uni were becoming frustrated with the pressure from the Pumas. The loss of Chris with a sore knee restricted interchange to only 2 players which would make it difficult to maintain the pressure into the second half, the atmosphere at half time was very positive and despite the injuries we were looking good.
Half Time score Pumas 6 - 5- 41 Uni 4 - 8 - 32
The third quarter was difficult to watch with a combination of interesting umpiring decisions and poor discipline from the Pumas handing many easy goals to their opponents. The hard work of the 1st half was erased by many 50 M penalties, for the Pumas to be a real force in the competition this is a part of their game that has to be fixed and quickly.
Third time scores: Pumas 8 - 5- 53 Uni 8 - 10 - 58
The final quarter settled down but it was too late as Uni proved to be good front runners and pulled away as the Puma injuries and third quarter performance caught up with them. The real positive from the game is that we know Uni can be defeated if we can maintain pressure and discipline for 4 quarters.
Final scores: Pumas 9 - 5 - 59 Uni 12 - 12 - 84
Best Players Kassulke, Lewis, Raudino, Murrihy, Bullock, Menz.
The seniors were down a few players due to injury and unavailability but with the inclusions were still a very strong unit. It was clear the game plan of Uni was to put numbers behind the ball and then spread with their young legs to move the ball quickly into their forward line. The first quarter was red hot with pressure on all players as soon as they got possession. It was a great game to watch with our defensive group under pressure, some outstanding efforts from Brownie saved the day on more than one occassion. Proudy, Big Mitch, Tiger and Iles were giving us plenty of pill out of the centre but Uni was hard to break with their continued pressure making it difficult for our forwards. The quarter time score was an accurate description of the quarter with the Pumas just shading Uni.
Quarter Time scores: Pumas 4 - 4- 28 Uni 3 - 5- 23
The second quarter saw Uni come out even harder and were putting the Pumas under terrific pressure. The Pumas maintained discipline and although getting beaten for the quarter big efforts from Nash, Furfaro, BJ, Magilla and Proud limited the damage. The ball was getting down to our forward line but Uni were able to get a lot of crumbs and move it quickly to their end which was catching our backline out. Hoppy was starting to get on top at full back and would continue on to win this battle. Isles and Wallis continued on with their great form, Isles now being tagged was playing an outstanding game.
Half Time scores: Pumas 6 - `10 -46 Uni 8 - 6 -54
The long break saw the challenge given to the Pumas, could they come back. The Uni crowd was getting excited and their team was responding.
The third quarter saw the Pumas claw their way back into the contest with hard work and some real guts. The contest was fierce with heavy body contact and some great individual one on one contests. The crowd was really into the game with both sides putting everything on the paddock. The pumas lost Proud halfway through the quarter, it would be interesting to see how the Pumas reacted. To their absolute credit the Pumas kept the peddle down and were starting to get mentally and physically on top of a very capable opponent. All players deserve a pat on the back as there was no pulling out and the will to win was clear for all to see. We lost Tiger Monk with which looks like a serious injury, I hope this is not the case. Big Mitch lifted and supported by Magilla were still on top.
Three Time scores: Pumas 10 - 15 -75 Uni 10 - 10 -70
The final quarter although maintaining a lot of the passion moved towards the Pumas. The third quarter had broken Uni and they were just trying to hold on. With some more accurate kicking the Pumas would have smashed their opponents. The Puma crowd lifted with every score as the the Uni crowd started to realise their fate. The Pumas run away with the game with some fantastic efforts from big Mitch playing a kick behind the play snuffing out any opportunities.
This is a side the club can be proud of, their determination not to lose even though they are not playing at their best is impressive.
Final scores: Pumas 14- 22 - 106 Uni 12 - 11 - 83
Best Players: Iles, Nash, Vasternick, McGill, Proud, Brown, Hopkins, Bridge ( 3 goals)
This week we return to our home ground and will play one of the real heavy weights of the competition in Wilston Grange. Wilston Grange have been one of the real enemies of the Pumas, we have never beaten the Gorillas. Lets get down to the ground and give this team plenty of support and get our first victory over Wilston Grange.
