By Jake Garvey
Rivalry Round - It has been a big week for the Rebels this week. Our St Pats travellers returned from their Darwin experience and they made an immediate impact on the enthusiasm and morale of the rest of the team.
A typical windy North Ballarat night at training on Tuesday required the boys to check their skills and adjust to the conditions in which we will be playing many home games in, and we did it well.
Thursday night the leadership group was announced with Ryan McKenzie, Jordan Roughead, Jake Garvey, Ryan Hobbs, Jason Linke and Bryn Weadon forming the group that will support Nick Suban who was named captain of the side. Unfortunately Nick has been in South Africa on AIS duties but will be returning to training this week and making his presence felt against Gippsland this weekend no doubt.
On to the weekend, it was rivalry round in the AFL but that wasn’t the only rivalry games going on this weekend. AUSTAR Arena played host to a triple header of fierce matches between North Ballarat and Bendigo. The VFL reserves and seniors played the first 2 games of the day and they set the stage well for the main event at 3:20.
We were keen make amends for last week’s loss. With the return of St Pats Boys such as Ben Peters, and Ben Hayes and Tom Frawley stepping up for their first game we were confident we would have what it took to knock of the Pioneers.
We started poorly with the boys from Bendigo kicking 2 quick goals. But it wasn’t long before our midfield started working and players like Jordan Roughead, Ryan McKenzie got on top of their opponents and started getting the ball forward and by quarter time we went in with a handy 5 goal lead.
Second Quarter we continued to build as forwards Will Young and Lachie Delahunty kept kicking goals as we piled on another 4 to Bendigo’s 3. We lost key defender Jason Linke too a shoulder injury but first gamer Tom “Charger” Frawley and Alex Gubbins stepped up to the mark and shut down Bendigo’s key forwards. Chris Giampaolo was unstoppable and it seemed like the Rebels were heading for a big win.
Second Half and it seemed a different Bendigo had come out to play. The tall forward of the Pioneers began to get on top of their Rebels defenders. The Pioneers kicked 4 goals into the wind and brought the margin back to just 2 goals.
Final Term and the Pioneers continued to come. The pressure was on when Bendigo kicked the first goal of the term and then continued to push forward with the wind. Defenders Bryn Weadon and Andrew Hooper were instrumental down back and gave the rebels the drive we needed. Hooper took what many have pencilled in as the mark of the year and the boys were uplifted. Will Young went from strength to strength despite a dismal out on the full from point blank range, the centre half forward kicked 2 final term goals, taking his haul to 4. Giampaolo was outstanding all day also kicking 4 and when first gamer Ben ”Schwaaa” Hayes stepped up with a long goal from outside 50 the game was put out of Bendigo’s reach.
We finished the game 4 goals ahead which resulted in the first of many for the Rebels of 2008!
Last Modified on 08/02/2009 16:39