The Nomads continued their winning form in a closely-contested and hard-fought match against the Tamworth Kangaroos on Saturday. Despite being short of a bench in the final quarter due to injuries, the Nomads were able to come back from three goals down with ten minutes left on the clock, to win by one point.

The match with the Roos had been expected to be a hard contest and this is exactly what eventuated. The Roos came out firing, kicking the first three goals (lapses in the backline being mainly to blame). The Roos were playing fast open football. However, the Nomads adjusted and the midfield players such as David Graan, Matt Woodward and Cameron Griggs started to dominate. By the end of the quarter the Roos were only one goal up, thanks in particular to some clever play by The D-Mod, David Richards, which resulted in three goals.

With the wind behind them in the second quarter, the Nomads started to play good football. Simon Stubbs was unstoppable in the forward line, and Kaine Rowlings was causing headaches for the Roos backmen with his clever position play. At half time the nomads were ahead by 14 points after an impressive six goal quarter.

The Roos of course were not going to lie down and came out the better team at half time. If it had not been for their wayward kicking the Roos might have been well ahead. As it was, scores were dead level at three quarter time. Unfortunately, by this stage the Nomads had a number of players injured and no bench, so the team had its back to the wall, as it were. Things soon took a turn for the worse with the Roos quickly scoring three goals and with ten minutes to go, found themselves 20 points behind. Many thought the game was over. However, losing hadn’t occurred to the dynamic Western Australian duo of Johnathon Frost and Weston Whitby, who turned on some of the most energetic football seen with the Nomads for quite a while. With both firing in the midfield, the team lifted and pegged back the lead. With just one minute to go, Simon Stubbs marked just outside the goal square and kicked truly to give the Nomads a thrilling victory. It was a very brave win against the reigning premiers, particularly given the injuries that occurred during the game.

The best players included King Bongo (Matt Woodward), Benji Julien, David Graan, Cameron Griggs, Frosty, Simon Stubbs, Weston Whitby and Tom Granleese.

It was a very pleasing win, but there is still room for a lot of improvement. The backline, which in previous weeks had played like the Sydney Swans in 2005, suddenly looked like Geelong circa 1989. A return to its former miserly ways would be very welcome. The side also needs to work on its communication when the ball is in the air. That said, this is a side which is still getting to know each other and, as such, can only improve as the players become familiar with each other’s games.

Round 9 2012

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