The Nomads lifted their game in the second half against the Tamworth Kangaroos to earn a hard-fought victory by 10.19 (79) to 6.11 (47).

Following their defeat at Inverell, the Nomads could have done without having a bye which resulted in some poorly attended, relatively low key training sessions. As a result of this and the windy conditions, the Nomads started slowly against the Kangaroos, with poor skills and movement, and little structure.

Both teams were struggling to produce any quality in the first half and there was a lot of scrapping for the ball and numerous turnovers. The wayward kicking from the Nomads exacerbated their problems of retaining the ball and prevented them from building any momentum. The Nomads best attacks in the first half came when they were direct, with Anthony Alderuccio, winner of the Coaches award, leading the way by bursting out of the centre and kicking strongly.

At half time the Roos held a slender 4.6 (30) to 3.9 (27) lead, but that was to change in the third quarter. The Nomads took control of the game as the wind dropped allowing them to play some better football. Kicks started to find their targets and runners were available to allow play to be moved on quickly.

Rich Malone playing at full forward picked up 5 goals for the afternoon, the fifth set up by an unselfish handball by Rooch when he had a straightforward shot himself. The other goalscorers were Alderuccio (3), Ben Page and Caleb Dobos.

Matt Maxwell picked up the Player’s Player award for his great efforts in the centre, where the conditions made for a heavy workload all afternoon.

Defensively New England looked strong again, with Andrew Harvey slotting in seamlessly alongside the usual suspects and earning himself the Captain’s award. The Captain himself, Glen Northway, picked up the President’s award putting in another good show at centre half back.

Next week the team travel to Muswellbrook to take on the Cats, and will need to play four good quarters of football against one of the in-form sides in the TAFL competition.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 21st, 2007 at 8:46 am 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.