Nomads miss chance to secure finals spot
by Nick Schultz
The Nomads went down to Tamworth on the weekend with the intention of securing a spot in the finals and improving our chances of a home final. Our effort, however, didn’t match the stakes, and we were beaten by a more determined Tamworth Swans.
The Swans got the jump on us with the first few goals. The match ups in the centre seemed even, but the Swans forced the ball forward purposefully, and their forwards scrapped for possession and took their chances, whereas we let ourselves down with poor delivery, hesitant movement forward and the lack of a big target. We pulled one back late in the quarter when Mark Dowdle earned himself a free kick and put it through.
The second quarter was a scrap. The ball spent a good deal of time rebounding in and out of our attacking 50, but the Swans flooded back in much the same way as their AFL namesakes, and our delivery to our forwards wasn’t up to the challenge. Ben Page, who had been leading hard all day, got onto the end of one just before half time and kicked our only goal for the quarter. We tried a different forward setup in the second half to try and combat the flood. The change up certainly saw some more positive forward movement, but we couldn’t translate it into goals, kicking 1.6 for the quarter to the Swans 2.1. In the last we finally got things working up forward, and mounted a small comeback, but it was too little, too late, and a couple of Swans goals was enough to snuff out our chances.
For us, there could be no knocking of the efforts from Hamish Pearce, Clinton Ballagh and Gavin Nelson, who all put in top games. Anthony Reid stepped into the ruck role really well with a great performance around the field. Mark Clayton and Dave Maclellan battled hard in the backline, while Tom Walsh is clearly getting better every week on the wing.
This was a pretty hard defeat to face up to. We may have been missing a swag of our top players, but it was the absence of the hardness and determination that we’ve shown in earlier games that cost us on the weekend. The best thing we can take from this loss is a lesson, and we really need to prepare ourselves physically and mentally for a must-win road trip to Narrabri in two weeks. Gunnedah also beat the second placed Roos on the weekend, to put themselves within two games of us in fourth place. The Dogs also have two extra games than us up their sleeve, as the league plays catch up for cancelled rounds earlier in the year. The Dogs are playing really good football, and we need a couple of good wins before the end of the home and away season to both secure our finals spot, and to prove we deserve to be keeping the Dogs out of the finals. On our day, we know we can challenge any team in the comp, so come on Nomads, get to training and let’s get some momentum going again for a tilt at the finals series.
Award winners: Player’s player – Hamish Pearce; Coach’s Award – Gavin Nelson; Captain’s Award – Tom Walsh; Red Rooster – Anthony Reid; President’s Award – Jay Wright; Vice Chancellor’s award – Dave Maclellan; Swan’s Best – Joey Atkinson
Round 15 2010
| Swans def. Nomads | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | B | P | G | B | P | ||
| Q1 | 5 | 2 | 32 | 1 | 1 | 7 | |
| HT | 7 | 5 | 47 | 2 | 4 | 16 | |
| Q3 | 9 | 6 | 60 | 3 | 10 | 28 | |
| FT | 12 | 11 | 83 | 6 | 11 | 47 | |
Team:
- C. Ballagh,
- D. Bioletti,
- M. Bourke,
- M. Clayton,
- C. Dobos,
- M. Dowdle,
- D. Dunlop,
- L. Holmes,
- D. MacLellan,
- L. McLeod,
- C. Murray,
- G. Nelson,
- B. Page,
- H. Pearce,
- A. Reid,
- N. Schultz,
- J. Vesey,
- G. Wagstaff,
- A. Walsh,
- T. Walsh,
- J. Wright.
Goalscorers:
- B. Page (2),
- D. Dunlop,
- J. Vesey,
- J. Wright,
- M. Dowdle.
Award winners:
- H. Pearce (Players' Player),
- G. Nelson (Coach's),
- J. Wright (President's),
- T. Walsh (Captain's),
- D. MacLellan (VC's),
- A. Reid (Red Rooster).
