By Taite Radley
With a rusty start on Tuesday night the week ahead was going to tough. With the tempo down and the talk very quite everyone had to step it up a notch. Thursday saw a change venue and the boys where forced to train on St Patricks Main Oval to keep AUSTAR Arena in perfect condition for the Rooster’s Home final.
With imperative eyes watching in the shadows the boys soon changed from Tuesday and the training intensity was a high.
When the boys arrived at Sheply Oval eyes where stuck on a dry and confined space to which they soon would be playing on. With the sun out and shining the team was eager to play.
The Dandenong Stingrays flew out of the blocks with a quick couple of goals and their hard running was doing some damage. Oliver (Sylvester) Tate was cutting off their drive into the forward half, marking anything in sight. Bryn (boss) Weadon was blitzing the stingers zones with his long kicks and hard running. Ryan (Roo) McKenzie was an early injury after rolling his ankle in the first quarter after playing great football.
Keeping the fluids up was important throughout the game as the heat was fatiguing many players, giving the trainers plenty of running around to do.
Half time the boys kept their heads up feeling confident to push the game out, reminiscing on the pre season heat scorching days.
Skipper Nick Suban led the way with the hard tackling and 2nd and 3rd efforts. Josh Free was everywhere, and Jordan Roughead was a jumping jack, launching his body into packs. It was good to see Benny Peters out and about from his injury and racking up a few kicks.
It was disappointing not to come home with the bacon but the boys are going to move forward, thinking about the first final this coming weekend.
Last Modified on 08/02/2009 16:59