Against Narrabri on the weekend the Nomads won by 109 points, playing the kind of team football that they have shown in glimpses they are capable of but have not been able to sustain for four quarters until now. It was a real team effort, with winners all over the ground and a fitting way to celebrate Weston Whitby’s 50th game. The win puts the Nomads on the top of the table.

For the first time in quite a while the Nomads came out of the blocks firing, kicking seven goals in the first quarter to the Eagles’ two. Dave ‘Modra/Marny’ Richards was everywhere in the forward line kicking 5 goals for the quarter. The forwards in general had plenty of opportunities thanks to the hard work of the mid-fielders who strangled the run of the Eagles playmakers. The second quarter saw much the same story though in the last 5 minutes the Nomads took the foot off the pedal and let Narribri score three late goals. Nonetheless, the Nomads still outscored them for the quarter. The third quarter saw the boys kick eight goals with Modra, Weston and Hamish Ross running amok. By the time the fourth quarter came around the game was basically over.

Much of the interest in the dying minutes of the game concerned how many goals Modra would eventually kick. His 13 goals stands as the fourth highest individual tally for the club in its short history, after Weston Whitby’s 19, Mark Handley’s 17 and Stephen Fisher’s 17. (Mr Whitby also kicked 13 against Narribri in 2006.) It must also be noted that of those 13, only one or two would have been kicked with Dave’s feet pointing at the goals!

The size of the victory was a surprise but it should not be thought that it was ever easy. The Eagles fought hard all day, but with their mid-field nullified thanks to the work of Gavin Nelson, Calla Teseling, Hamish Pearce and Jonathan Frost (who gave himself a bit more pre-match preparation time this week!) the Eagles’ forwards were given less opportunities than would have been used to this year. When it did venture into their half, backs like Muzza Reece (who managed to avoid a yellow card this week), Tom Walsh, Matt ‘Woody’ Woodward and Nick Schultz quickly sent the ball back into the forward line. One noticeable feature is that the forwards are starting to play like a team in themselves and this can only improve as the season progresses and players get to know one another.

Congratulations are due to Nigel Holman who played his first game with the Nomads on Saturday. Nigel came down originally simply to get fit and has hardly missed a training since the beginning of the year. He thoroughly deserved the opportunity he had on Saturday.

The Nomads have a bye this week, which is in many ways a shame since it would have been good to have had the opportunity to keep the momentum going. On the other hand, there were lots of sore bodies on Saturday night, so the week’s rest won’t hurt from that perspective.

Round 8 2011

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 5th, 2011 at 7:42 pm and is filed under Match report. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.