By James Polson (Armidale Express, 26/05/2008)
It was a disappointing trip back up the hill for the Nomads after going down by 44 points to the Kangaroos in their round 6 Tamworth Australian Football League clash on Saturday.

Nomads coach Brendan Meehan had been confident of continuing their recent run of form but a lack of enthusiasm and execution cost the Armidale side the win.

The final score was 17-12-114 to 9-13-67.

The Kangaroos set the victory up in the opening half, with 16 scoring shots against the Nomads’ six on their way to a 45-point lead at the break.

The Nomads fought back in the third quarter and were well and truly in the match, going in to three-quarter time down by just three majors.

It was as close as New England would get, with Tamworth looking more like the side they were in the first half as they kicked six goals to two in the final term.

Dan Overeem starred for the Kangaroos, booting six majors, while Tim Cotter and Andrew Hawkins nailed five and four respectively.

For the Nomads, James Downie kicked three, while Matt Maxwell and Weston Whitby each bagged a double.

Meehan was understandably disappointed with his side’s performance.

“We were very flat,” he said.

“We just didn’t have the enthusiasm the Kangaroos did.

“We were down by seven goals at halftime and then only three at three-quarter time, we had a good third quarter but that was it.

“The rest of the game was all the Roos, they just played better football and played a more aggressive game than what we did.

“Poor conversion didn’t help us but our skills were down all over the field, it was just a bad day right through.

“Hopefully we’ll get them all to training this week and start putting some yards in,” he said.

“We need to work as a team a bit more.”

The Nomads take on Inverell at Bellevue Oval this weekend, with a full-strength side likely to take the field.

“That’s probably the only positive we can take out of the game – no new injuries,” Meehan said.

Inverell were too good for the Nomads in their encounter earlier in the season.

In other TAFL action on Saturday Gunnedah and Inverell both had convincing wins over the Tamworth Swans and Muswellbrook respectively.

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