Nomads steal final quarter win
New England storm home against Roos
by Michael Morrisey (Armidale Express, 29/05/2006)
The New England Nomads sealed the deal against old foes the Tamworth Kangaroos with a six-goal haul in the final quarter.
The Nomads were trailing by two points coming out of three-quarter time against the Roos at Bellevue on Saturday but found the mark to push ahead and eventually won 13-10-88 to 8-10-58.
Coach Adrian Walsh put the win down to a good team dynamic.
The club’s ability to band together to get the win is proving to be a quality that is setting the Nomads apart from the rest of the competition.
“It’s the first time this year that we’ve really pushed on,” Walsh said.
“A lot of the time we’ve got ahead and just cruised – this is the first time we’ve come from behind and put the side to the sword.
“It was really good and it was the last quarter where we just kept pushing.”
New England lead for the first half before suffering a third quarter slump.
“In a way we played a really bad third quarter,” Walsh said.
“We just went out to lunch for some reason.
“We’ve still got a lot of improvement to come but we’re starting to gel together as a team.
“Being the Nomads, there is a lot of people coming from different places but we’re starting to come together.
“The Roos are our traditional rivals – they’ve beaten us in grand finals before so it was good to beat them.
“It could have been a bit more, we had a ball that landed in the goal square and bounced sideways and a couple that hit the post.”
There were stand out performances from Nomad players across the paddock but none were better than the squad’s old salt – Walsh.
Walsh was named best player on the park for the day, but when asked about it, he remained modest.
“That was just them being charitable and looking after the old bloke,” Walsh joked.
Ruckman Tom Hunt gave a solid performance while Dan Drum managed to shut down the dangerous Dan Overeem.
Richard Malone starred as full back and John Mahy was devastating from the same position, while Weston Whitby was creating opportunities.
“He’s a very clever and explosive player,” Walsh said.
“There’s a lot of stalemate situations and he’ll suddenly burst through the pack and open it out.”
But the surprise performance came from Jack Sartor who has hit form.
“Jack’s playing at centre-half forward and he’s really starting to develop and starting to find his feet,” Walsh said.
“He’s learning the position and he’s really starting to take control and direct things in the forward line.
“We’ve worked on developing certain aspects of our play and it’s starting to come together a bit.
“It was a hard game and a pretty high standard.
“The back line really stood up and it was the back line that saved it for us.
“We can’t praise them enough.
“It’s got a real team feeling and it’s a great group of guys.
“That’s what I’m really happy about – it’s a good group of blokes and they’re happy playing together and look after each other.”
In other matches, the Muswellbrook Cats beat the Narrabri Eagles 14-24-108 to 6-8-44 and the Inverell Saints put 20-13-133 on the board compared to the Gunnedah Bulldogs’ 11-12-78.
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