Nomads book a home final
The New England Nomads booked themselves a home game for the Second Semi-Final this coming Saturday, after a convincing win 21 point over the reigning premiers, the Tamworth Roos.
The game was played in bitterly cold conditions which presumably favoured the locals who have trained all winter in even less hospitable circumstances. The Nomads once again got off to a strong start with drive coming from midfielders such as David Graan, Grant Elson and Jon Freund. The forwards were moving well and the backline held firm against numerous Kangaroo forward fifty forays and by the end of the quarter the Nomads were 11 points ahead.
The second quarter was pivotal. In this quarter the Nomads kicked four majors while the Roos were held scoreless. The backline was particularly impressive with Tom Granleese punching everything that came his way and roving backmen such as Jumping Jack Frost, Riley Connor Beni Julien and Rowdy Ballagh cleaning up every tine the ball hit the deck. The D-Mod, David Richards, was causing the Roos headaches in the forward line with his quick and mercurial movement and both Ash Cruickshank and Shawn Cusack were providing the midfield with good strong targets at which to aim. Noteworthy in this quarter was a banana-goal from David Graan from the pocket that he seemed to thread between a ‘thicket’ of Roos defenders. The score at half time was 47 to 13.
The third quarter was, as everyone expected, a very hard fought period of play and both teams only scored two goals. Weston Whitby was pivotal during this quarter in maintaining the Nomads’ momentum with his rugged tackling and hard-ball-gets in the centre.
At the final change the Nomads were 6 goals up and looking like they were ready to grind the Roos into the dust. However, that was not be. The Roos outscored the Nomads four goals to two. Admittedly, the sting had gone out of the game by this stage, but coming into the finals, the backline cannot afford to allow their intensity to drop.
Overall it was a very pleasing effort, with the work of Weston Whitby, Grant Elson, Riley Connor, Benji Julien, and David Graab being particularly admirable.
Finally, we should note that this was Dave Dunlop’s 50th game. Congratulations to MJ –who has been a very fine servant of the Nomads and we were pleased we could reward him with a win.
Round 17 2012
| Nomads def. Roos | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | B | P | G | B | P | ||
| Q1 | 3 | 2 | 20 | 1 | 3 | 9 | |
| HT | 7 | 5 | 47 | 1 | 7 | 13 | |
| Q3 | 9 | 9 | 63 | 3 | 9 | 27 | |
| FT | 11 | 10 | 76 | 7 | 13 | 55 | |
Team:
- C. Ballagh,
- V. Chakalisa,
- R. Connor,
- H. Cook,
- A. Cruickshank,
- S. Cusack,
- C. Dobos,
- D. Dunlop,
- Z. Economou,
- G. Elson,
- J. Freund,
- J. Frost,
- D. Graan,
- T. Granleese,
- B. Julien,
- N. Lambie,
- L. McLeod,
- D. Richards,
- P. Tobias,
- A. Walsh,
- W. Whitby,
- M. Woodward.
Goalscorers:
- S. Cusack (3),
- W. Whitby (3),
- V. Chakalisa (2),
- D. Graan,
- R. Connor,
- Z. Economou.
Award winners:
- D.Graan (Players' Player),
- W. Whitby (Coach's),
- R. Connor (President's),
- B. Julien (Captain's),
- G. Elson (VC's),
- D. Dunlop (Red Rooster).
