The Nomads demonstrated their skills in the wet with the return of old-school wet weather football at Muswellbrook’s Werriman Oval on Saturday. In Tom Walsh’s 50th game for the club the Nomads defeated the Cats 11.23. 89 to 3.6. 24.

It was obvious from the moment that the team arrived at the Cats’ oval that this was going to be a different game from the previous few weeks. Although the sun was shining, Muswellbrook had obviously received a lot of rain that morning and the ground was water logged with some areas looking rather like irrigated pastures. Thankfully the local government officials recognise that football is a winter sport and there was no move to cancel the game.

The first quarter saw the Nomads come out strongly and they made good use of the ball. Tim Snelling, Velani Chakalisa and Hoani “The Haitch” Morrell dominated in the middle. Some excellent directed kicking from Tom Granleese and Charlie Bender in the backline lead to goals for James Boatfield who was providing excellent movement up forward and causing headaches for the Cats backmen. The Nomads kicked 5 for the quarter, almost half of the goals that were kicked by the team for the match.

In the second quarter the Nomads continued to dominate in the middle. In the backline Zac Wells, Rowdy Ballagh and Benji Julien were defending strongly and providing plenty of run into the forward line. Again Boatie was causing trouble for the Cats up forward. Luke Raymond was throwing himself into the play and onto the bottom of packs in his usual fearless fashion and again giving the forwards lots of opportunities with which to work. James Falvey was also showing a lot of speed and determination in the wet.

At times the Nomads tended to overuse the ball—which by this time had become as easy to hold on to as a greasy pig—which lead to some turnovers. But given the lack of time spent playing in the wet this is hardly surprising.

At half time the Nomads were 40 points up.

In the second half, the match turned into a game of rugby as the ground became more slippery and the ball became even more difficult to control. Much of the game-time involved packs, ball-ups and throw-ins with not a lot of delicate football skill on display. Nonetheless at a couple of points the D-Mod, David Richards, was able to break away from the inevitable packs with his speed and kick well-directed darts into the goal square. The Nomads scored 3 goals in the second half but that perhaps makes it sound as if the team dropped off in terms of intensity. To the contrary, the Monads played hard contested football in what were, by the end of the game, difficult conditions. In one unfortunate incident towards the end of the game, Toby Machart, who had played well all day, was slung to the ground, well after the tackle was completed and was briefly knocked out. If this incident had occurred in any of the major leagues (especially those with video recordings) it would have lead to a serious charge being laid. Other than this, the game was played in the right spirit.

Although the scoreline might be thought to indicate poor kicking, a great many of those behinds were rushed or came off the hands of packs. Overall it was an excellent effort from the New Englanders.

For the Nomads Boatie kicked four and Modra two, while Toby Machart, Tim Snelling, Tom Granleese and James Falvey scored one each. Tim Snelling did a magnificent job in the ruck and in the packs; Benji Julien, Rowdy Ballagh and Tom Graneleese defended well, while Luke Raymond and David Graan dominated in the midfield.

Round 13 2013

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