The Roosters headed up to Wangaratta to take on the Magpies last Saturday. Keys organised the bus and Mendos was in charge of driving. 8am was departure time and those that weren't there were left behind. Mendos took the first exit and didn't put a foot wrong for the next 36 hours.
We arrived in Tarrawingee ready to play.
A combined Under 19s/reserves took to the field with some father sons hitting the field for the roosters for the first time. Sons Jack Snow & James Obrien and father Tony MacDonald. The Georges were nervous but Johnno held firm the temperature was soaring well above 30 and as the game went on the standard stayed high. Both The magpies and roosters claimed victory but football was the winner with heat taking its toll reducing numbers to 16 a side on the big ground. Hiho told me he was clearly best. Dooga tried to sneak off to the golf course that surrounds the oval but was dragged back by Doggie who was showing great strength and pace for an injured runner must have been all that salami. Harp was caught studying the form whilst moving the magnets but it turned out to be a train timetable.
The main game kicked off with both teams lining up with the coverted prize the 2 Kegs. The Carmody/Gannon cup was still at the engravers. The Roosters scored early several times with some new bloke up forward kicking most of the score and at 1/4 time led 4/3 to 1/1. The magpies regrouped and came back solidly but the roosters steadied and with another goal to that forward and nugget chipping in with 2 goals the roosters held firm. We saw some extra pace from Rama (who lacked that pace later on) youngsters Cirriani & Sibie not looking out of place. The year of Boony started well ticking of water boy of his list to do. Condo was doing well in the ruck but should've left his moves there and not for the pole later. After half time the game see-sawed but I felt our coaching staff lacked a vital move as they stayed in the sun whilst the maggies brains trust slipped into the shade. Rhett Jordan showed promise after going down early rolling his ankle, he thought about taking the arvo off for pig shooting but persisted. About this time Head was posting on Facebook. The 3rd term saw the roosters slip away with 2 goals to Matty V, I missed a goal but I'm pretty sure Baarir kicked or was responsible for it, Kane was still going well at this stage to the dismay of everyone even after his long chase to catch the bus at Maccad. Stinger broke free on his left dodged 2 tackles and kicked deep on his left again Khodor was playing well and impressed the boys equally after the game. As the last term opened Bona declared that the kegs were ours, with which sparked the magpies and they started to close rapidly. Ali claimed that the wind (the windsock was flaxid ) was upsetting his kick ins so ganno took the next one and drilled one of his best mates (unfortunately he was still playing for wang )who went back and goaled to reduce the margin. Some misses from Wang cost them and made the roosters faithful nervous. I questioned them about how we had played today and they both said they were impressed especially with the consistent 4 qtr effort where we scored evenly across the 4 qtrs. However the Roosters held firm and ran out 10 point winners.
After the game Mendos took all the boys back to there accomodation the only way he knows even if you weren't staying there. He then went and collected them all and We headed back to the magnificent home of the Wangaratta Magpies for some great hospitality, and we weren't disappointed. It was like déjà vu Their version of junior, Icey and Cac behind the bar, Bev on the roast dinner although they had 3 of Bev and Mongrel and Tex running the draw with Cooly and Sando on the wheel. We certainly learnt a few things here and will be inflicting that on our members shortly. It was a great 3 hours before we called on Mendos to take both the Roosters and Magpies out in the city. The boys started the journey with a salute to George Latouff which quite impressed the young wang boys. True to form Mendos made the 5 minute journey in just under half an hour, which took its toll on Matty Cent, The cockroach was very elusive and was last seen on a stakeout outside the scout hall.The game and night were all played in good spirits and a credit to both clubs. As the young folk headed deeper into wang it was time to step aside so nothing else to report after that except that Rama found out that not everyone knows ganno in town so get your hands off my car and some locals found out you can spell your surname with more vowels than consonants.
Day 2 was the trip home and for those that took the bus home was very informative stopping at some interesting historical sites.
For those that attended it was a great weekend and next year we will be hosting Wang at home hopefully a bit later in March
This week the Roosters take on GFL team Leopold at Parts Unknown TBA
Last Modified on 01/03/2016 21:42