By Nick Schultz
We lost to the Tamworth Swans in Round 1, and on a filthy day in Armidale on Saturday we got our revenge. It was undoubtedly our best game of the year so far.

The first quarter was wet and scrappy, and we showed our intent for the ball early. Most of the game was played in a dogged stalemate on our half forward line, but the Swans struck first on one of their few forays forward for the term. We needed something for our efforts, and got it just before quarter time when Joe Harland took a big pack mark from a Swans kick out. A little confused by the excitement of his feat, it took 7 or 8 Nomads to convince big Joe not to do anything rash, and to go back and take his kick. Bellevue erupted as he put it through, and we took a slight lead into the first break.

The swans were down a couple of players in the second, as the umpires continued their merciless crusade against society’s designated bad words. The Swans dealt with the player deficit wisely by flooding back and making it difficult for anyone to score. We managed though, and got a couple of goals through a mark on the line from Anthony Reid and yet another Hamish Pearce 60 metre special.

We’d played well to half time, but knew that we hadn’t strung 4 quarters of good footy together all year. It was back to 18 a side for the second half, our attack on the ball didn’t cease. The Swans got the first one, but we took over from there. We started to play the kind of possession football that Coach Brendan Meehan has been striving for all year, and all reports from the grandstand were that it looked good. We took a 19 point lead into the last quarter, and we kept up the intensity until the final siren. It was our first real four quarter effort for the year, winning every quarter and earning our 25 point victory.

Paddy Tobias was B.O.G., winning plenty of ball around the stoppages and playing a strong defensive role on the Swan’s midfield guns. Hamish Pearce was great as usual. Ben Page flipped a coin to decide whether or not to chance his dicky knee in the game, and we’re glad he did, as he was busy leading at full forward all day, creating space and getting a fair bit of it for himself. It was great to see guys like Mark Dowdle, Dave Dunlop and Jay Wright having a big impact on the game, but best of all, there was a shift in the psyche of the whole team – a new willingness to dive on any loose ball, put on a sheppard and latch onto tackles.

The weekend showed that we can match the league’s top teams, but with Gunnedah also upsetting the previously undefeated Tamworth Roos on the weekend, the competition for the four finals spots will be fierce. We have a bye this week, and the league breaks for the interleague match the following week. We need to take advantage of the break with some fitness and skills training.

Round 8 2010

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