Saints show heavenly form to roll Nomads
By Ruby Roberts (Armidale Express, 29/06/2009)
A pared down team with three stand-ins made the job tough for the Nomads in their loss to the Inverell Saints by 54 points at Bellevue on Saturday.
The Saints kicked 16.20 116 to the Nomads 9.8 62.
“The Saints attacked the ball hard in the first quarter, and they got ahead by seven goals and maintained the lead for the rest of the game,” Nomads coach Brendan Meehan said.
“Our three fill-in players have played with us in the past, but all of them have left town and are not playing at the moment, so they were a bit ‘rusty’ and not at their peak, fitness-wise.
“They played well, but it’s tricky to jump into a game and play your best.
“They haven’t been playing with us, so it was harder to work as a team.”
The three stand-in players were Joel Webber, from Adelaide, and Brad Willcocks and Dave McLellan, from Moree.
McLellan played with the Nomads last year.
Meehan is hoping for a full complement over the coming weeks, which might give them a fighting chance to win their matches and wedge their way into the top four of the Tamworth Australian Football League (TAFL) competition.
The Nomads need to win a minimum of five games to make it into the top four.
“With a full team on the field, we have good chance to make it into the top four,” Meehan said.
At this stage, one player, Paul Harris, needs to take some time off after a knee injury.
“Some of the blokes are quite battered and bruised, and may not be fit to play in our next match,” Meehan said.
“I expect to find out on Tuesday if there are any others on the team who need some time off.”
In other TAFL games on Saturday, the Roos 35.24 234 defeated the Cats 2.1 13 and the Bulldogs 15.10 100 beat the Swans 10.5 65.
Not for reproduction except by permission of the Armidale Express
Round 8 2009
| Nomads def. by Saints | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | B | P | G | B | P | ||
| Q1 | 2 | 1 | 13 | 8 | 4 | 52 | |
| HT | 5 | 4 | 34 | 10 | 8 | 68 | |
| Q3 | 6 | 7 | 43 | 15 | 17 | 107 | |
| FT | 9 | 8 | 62 | 16 | 20 | 116 | |
Team:
- C. Ballagh,
- M. Bourke,
- R. Crump,
- C. Dobos,
- D. Dunlop,
- J. Frost,
- W. Hamilton,
- S. Hanks,
- P. Harris,
- D. MacLellan,
- M. Maxwell,
- B. Page,
- M. Pett,
- W. Redhead,
- J. Reid,
- O. Temoso,
- J. Webber,
- B. Weightman,
- W. Whitby,
- B. Willcocks,
- A. Wright,
- J. Wright.
Goalscorers:
- W. Whitby (4),
- A. Wright,
- B. Page,
- J. Reid,
- W. Hamilton,
- W. Redhead.
Award winners:
- W. Whitby (Players'Player),
- W. Redhead (Coach's),
- B. Willcocks (President's),
- P. Harris (Captain's).
June 29th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
Congrats on the 50 games Steel Hands.