The New England Nomads are the 2013 TAFL premiers after a crushing 140 point win over the Inverell Saints.

In an impressive and powerful display of running football, the Nomads scored 27 goals to the Saints’ 5. Highlights included David ‘Modra’ Richards 8 goals, and the 7 goals that Simon Stubbs and Jed Ellis-Cluff scored between them, the hardness at the ball of the midfielders and the downright miserliness of the back line.

Ultimately it was the discipline and fearlessness across the paddock which won the Nomads the cup for the second year in a row.

The omens were excellent right from the outset with the Green Reaper (aka David ‘Bizarro’ Bioletti) completing 27 laps of the oval in order to ensure that the Bellevue had a sufficient quantity of Nomad juju. That task completed (with the benevolent spirit injected into the ground), and an under 15’s game played, the grand final began in earnest.

The Saints came out hard and scored the first goal of the day (this was, unsurprisingly, the only time that they held the lead). The midfield then got to work with Jon ‘Katmandu’ Freund, Tim Snelling and Hoani ‘Rotate Boys’ Morrell strong at every contest. On the half -forward line Weston Whitby, with his bruising tackling and clever footwork, was creating plenty of opportunities for Jed Ellis-Cluff, Boaty, the D-Mod (who kicked 3 quickly in succession) and Stubbsy. The backs made amends for their early lapse (such as it was), with strong work from Benji Julien, Coach Granleese and Zac-the Zed-Economou. By the end of the first quarter the Nomads were ahead by 30 points. One notable highlight in this quarter was the pack-crashing mark and running goal of Adam “how-was-that-kick?’ Parish.

The second quarter saw the Nomads really put the foot down with the team kicking to the grandstand end. The ball hardly made it into Saints forward 45, and whenever it did, the back-line immediately sent it back where it seemed it naturally belonged, namely in the Nomads forward zone. The run of the likes of Swaggy Machart, Rambo Raymond, Charlie Bender and Wellsy was creating headaches for the Inverell midfield and backs. During this quarter Johnno Frost imposed himself across the ground with his ‘mad’ tackling, strong marking and accurate switches. At half time the Monads lead by 67 points.

The Nomads were well aware that the Saints would come out hard in the third quarter, having kicked 9 goals the week before in the penultimate term against the Roos. This spurred the team on and they did not take the foot off the accelerator kicking another 8. The back-line was working wonderfully together with Big Zed, Tommy G and Grant Elson controlling the air and the smalls feeding off them. Grunter, in particular, took a number of strong telling marks in the last line of the Nomads’ defence. In the rucks Ompsy Temoso was dominating, hitting a number of 40 yard ‘taps’ into the Nomads’ forward line. By the end of that quarter the Nomads were over 100 points ahead.

Clearly the game was over at the start of the final term. The Nomads kicked 4 for the last term, one of these being Rambo’s fifth goal for the year after being awarded a 100 metre penalty (for the record he also kicked his first goal for the year which was not from a free!). At the far end of the ground, from the ten minute mark, Sku and his crew were singing rousing choruses of “Oh when the Nomads go marching in” and the grandstand was cheering every kick and mark taken. Freundy and The Haitch were clearly enjoying themselves in the middle, while in the backline Dan-the-Man Davies and Tommy G held firm.

When the final siren sounded, the vuvuzelas rang out raucously and the Green Army invaded the pitch. The Man of the Match award (the Graham Nuttall medal) was awarded to David Richards and after premiership medals were handed out to the players, all that was left was for Rowdy and Tom to hold the cup aloft.

All credit to Tom Granleese for all of the hard work he has put into the club. After two years at the helm, he has announced that he is standing down as coach (presumably to take up doctoral work and baby duties) and the club is very grateful for all that he has done. Tom can be very pleased with everything he has achieved and he leaves the coaching role with the club in rude health.

We would also like to thank all of those whose work made the season possible, including the indefatigable President Ben Page, Amy Cosby in her role as Secretary, Adam ‘Swingman’ Parish in his role as Treasurer, Dale Logan (medico and the Prince of Runners) and Brendan Meehan for all of his work behind the scenes and general wisdom. We are also grateful for the work of the goal umpires Gus Barker and Brian Simpson as well as Milton Curkpatrick our ever-reliable time-keeper. We should thank all of those who helped out during the day including Hugh Cook (MC Extraordinaire), Alice Hudson, Marni Walsh, Jacqui L’hostis, Mitchell Evans, Sean Dickson and Genevieve Walsh. (Our apologies to anyone who has been inadvertently left out).

Finally, we should note that with this fifth Nomads flag, the locals have now jumped ahead of the Roos and have won the most amount of TAFL premierships. Well done to everyone at the club.

Go the Green!

Grand Final Result

Nomads def. Saints
	G	B	P		G	B	P
Q1	7	2	44		2	2	14
HT	15	3	93		4	2	26
Q3	23	9	147		5	3	33
FT	27	14	176		5	6	36

This entry was posted on Monday, September 2nd, 2013 at 10:39 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.