The Nomads gave club stalwart and crowd favourite Omphile Temoso a 50th game to remember with a strong 53 point victory over long-standing rivals, the Inverell Saints.

The Nomads started strongly with Riley Connor, Frosty and Hoani Morrell dominating in the middle. Frosty, in particular, threw himself into contests in his own inimitable fashion, going where few else would dare to tread (though this year he has a number of fellow-fearless-travellers). The backline were being particularly miserly, with Dan Davies, Tom Walsh (home on permit from Melbourne) and Tom Granleese making life extremely difficult for the tall Inverell forwards. The Nomads forwards were also providing plenty of leads. However, poor kicking let the Nomads down in the first quarter, with a number of easy set shots being ‘shanked’. Nonetheless at the end of the quarter the local Monads had 4.8 on the board to the Saints’ 2.1.

The second quarter saw the Nomads kicking to the grandstand end and again the kicking was poor. The Nomads scored 3.7 for the quarter. However, the defensive works of the forwards to keep the ball in the Nomads’ front 50 was very impressive. The Saints were having real trouble getting the ball out of their defensive zone thanks to the work of players like Jed Ellis-Cluff, the D-Mod (David Richards) and Weston Whitby. In the back half Dan Davies was having a blinder, marking everything that came his way, while coach Granleese and Zac Economou continued their excellent defensive work in the air and Zac Wells and Rowdy Ballagh were mopping up the crumbs.

The third quarter saw a resurgence on the part of the Saints as they kicked towards the grandstand end (which often seems to be the scoring end). The Saints kicked three goals for the quarter and, at one point, looked like getting within striking distance of the Nomads. However, the Nomads had more run in their legs and at the final change the Nomads were 37 points ahead.

In the final quarter, the Nomads continued to run the ball too quickly for the Saints and they scored four majors, one of which was kicked by the man-of-the-moment, Omphile “The Future” Temoso. Weston Whitby also asserted his dominance. Jed Ellis-Cluff finished with 5 goals, Weston Whitby 4, Modra and Boaty 2 and Luke Raymond, Starry and Ompsy one apiece.

The 2013 Nomads have an excellent balance of tall key position men and tough small running players in both the back and the forward lines. The discipline of the backline when involved in marking contests is particularly impressive as is the hardness at the ball of smaller players such as Luke “Rambo” Raymond, Zac Wells, Riley Connor, Benji Julien, Hoani Morrell and, of course, captain Rowdy Ballagh.

There were winners all over the ground but the best for the day were Riley Connor, Dan Davies, Charlie Bender, Weston Whitby, Jed Ellis-Cluff and Zac Economou. It was a very pleasing victory over tough opponents. Let us hope that this form continues as we head towards the finals (some goal kicking practice might be useful as well!).

Round 12 2013

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 16th, 2013 at 11:32 am 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.