From the Armidale Express, 30/06/2008
The University holidays have again hurt the New England Nomads in the Tamworth Australian Football League competition.

The Nomads went down 12-11-83 to 6-10-46 against strong Gunnedah Bulldogs outfit at Bellevue Oval on Saturday, with eight of their regular first graders out of the side due to university holidays and other commitments.

The Nomads were behind for the aentire encounter, but coach Brendan Meehan said their under-strength side showed a lot of fight throughout the match.

“They never gave up, and you can’t knock that,” he said.

“The Bulldogs were just too good, they led by four goals at halftime, but we didn’t give up the fight.”

Meehan said ‘three or four’ of the side were playing their first game in the competition on Saturday.

“We had a lot of blokes out, so we had to drag some local fellas in to fill in for us,” he said.

Best on park for the Nomads were the usual suspects of Clinton Ballagh, Glenn Northway and Anthony Reid, while newcomers also impressed Meehan.

“Sam Trotman was playing his first game with us, and he had a great game,” Meehan said.

The Nomads head into their next match, another home game against the Tamworth Kangaroos, with no injury worries, but the holidays will still have an impact on their numbers.

“It will help a bit playing at home, that will make it a bit easier to get some numbers together,” he said.

“I will look at them on Tuesday night to see how they pulled up.”

Meehan is encouraging anyone interested in having a run with the Nomads to get down to training on Tuesday and Thursday nights at Bellevue Oval.

“There are only five games left in the season now, and to play in the finals you have to have played at least four games in the season, so we’re getting towards the end now,” he said.

“The more people we have at training the better, because blokes would know they have to get to training, otherwise they might not get a game on the weekend.”

Not for reproduction except by permission of the Armidale Express

This entry was posted on Monday, June 30th, 2008 at 4:12 pm and is filed under In the press, Match report. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.