In a tense and tightly contested match against the previously unbeaten Tamworth Kangaroos, the Nomads eventually triumphed, winning by 18 points. It was a well-deserved victory for the Nomads, who ran all day and whose teamwork and hardness at the ball was the best it has been all year.

The Roos are a strong side and came out firing with three unanswered goals in the first five minutes of the day. The Nomads collected themselves and by half time were ahead by eight points. It was the third quarter that was going to be vital and the Nomads were able to push hard in this quarter scoring four goals and setting themselves up for victory. The Roos came back in the final term but not enough to get them over the line.

There were many pleasing aspects to the win. In the past few weeks it has been the back-line that have held the team together and again back-line players such as Rowdy Ballagh, Tom Walsh, Nick Schultz and Mitch ‘Muzza’ Reece had an important role in the victory. (It should also be noted in passing that Muzza seems to be setting a new Nomads record for yellow cards!). However, this week the whole team contributed. The mid-fielders worked hard in the stoppages and denied the Roos’ free-running players the opportunities to move the ball in the way to which they are accustomed. The communication between Omphile Temoso in the ruck and the Pearce boys (Hamish and Darby) was exceptional and Gav Nelson was his usual tenacious self. The forwards worked assiduously to keep the ball in the forward 50 and were hard at the disputed ball. Players like David Richards, Weston Whitby and Hamish Ross presented well — making the most of the opportunities they were given — and former Roo Adam Parish had a day to remember against his old club kicking a long range goal from outside the 50 as well as generally making trouble for the Roos on the flanks with his run. Another noteworthy feature was the spread of goal-kickers with a range of forwards bothering the scorekeepers. But perhaps the two most pleasing features of the effort were the tackling and the willingness to push to contests to help out team mates. The latter has been noticeably lacking in the past few games.

The Nomads are finally starting to play the kind of football that coach Brendan Meehan has been directing the boys towards. It is important that the team build on this win. It should also be remembered that the Roos had a number of key players down on form and captain-coach Tim Cottter was injured in the first term and played no real part in the match. Next week’s game against Narrabri will also be a tough struggle, so hard work will be required again out on the track during the week.

Round 8 2011

This entry was posted on Monday, June 27th, 2011 at 4:07 pm and is filed under Match report. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.