The New England Nomads have gone to the top of the table with a 25 point win over the Kangaroos in Tamworth in what was one of the best games to be seen in the TAFL for a long time. For the Nomads Zac Economou kicked 7 straight and Modra Richards kicked 5 and best players included ‘new’ boys Paddy Tobias and Tommy Hunt (both playing their first games for the season) as well as Gleeso Granleese, Matt ‘the-Ball-Magnet’ Foley, Mark Spencer, Luke “Rambo’ Raymond, Shane Snowden and Tim Keys. Final scores were 14.10.94 to 9.15.69.

It was clear from the outset that the Nomads were going to have to be a their best if they were to avenge the first round loss. The Roos kicked the first goal with their midfielders flooding into the forward line and hitting the ball front and centre and a the ten minute mark they had kicked 3 goals to the Nomads solitary major (this from a wonderful overhead mark from coach Economou). The pressure at the contests was strong and much more than many of the Nomads had encountered in recent games and no easy kicks were to be had. In this quarter Rambo and Mark E. Spencer were at their best providing plenty of run on the wings and hitting contests with a manic intensity. Paddy Tobias also added some hardness in the middle and demonstrated that despite not having played since 2012 he still has the foot skills and marking ability to match it with the best. Tim Keys, playing at centre half forward, took some telling marks. Matt Foley although not having the latitude he had enjoyed in the previous game, was providing plenty of drive around the packs. At the first change the Nomads were behind by 5 points, the Roos having scored 3.2 to the Nomads’ 2.3.

The second quarter saw the Nomads kicking to the eastern end and starting to find their feet. Rampaging Dave Richards was able to weave some magic finding space in the congested forward flanks. Andre Garraud – the irrepressible Frenchman – found also found a lot of space on the half forward line and provided Zac Economou with a number of opportunities with his long raking kicks. The Nomads started to adjust to the increased intensity of the game and were starting to look more in control. Zac the Economical marked strongly and kicked truly. Gleeso was doing an excellent job up back on their big full forward and shutting down the Roos’ forward forays and Tom Hunt was showing just why he was best and fairest winner last year – couple of the grabs he took were astounding with him climbing on the shoulders of his opponents. By the end of the quarter the Nomads were just ahead having scored 6.6.42 to the Roos 5.7.37.

The third quarter was going to be crucial for both sides and for the Nomads it was make not break. The wingers and back flankers drove the ball forward time and time again and Modra and Zac-the-Economical (unusually the only Zac playing on Saturday for the Nomads) took full advantage of their opportunities. Up back Shane Snowden, tagger extraordinaire, was doing a brilliant job restricting one of the Roos key forwards (indeed for a person in his first year of Australian Rules he demonstrated a remarkable sense of where to be at what time). Gleeso, playing loose across the half back line, took a number of important intercepts when the Roos went forward. By the end of this quarter the Nomads were ahead by 25 points. It was not clear how the last quarter would run and whether the Roos might be able to lift another notch.

As it turned out the Nomads maintained the 25 point lead at the final siren, but not without a lot of struggle. The boys maintained their effort right until the final siren. Clarrie Barker showed why he is widely regarded as one of the Nomads’ future stars with some strong leading and wonderful defensive work holding up play when outnumbered.

The win was well-deserved by the Nomads and on the day they were the better side. But the Roos will come back the next time the teams meet with a desire to avenge this defeat and presumably a new set of tactics. It is clear that there are going to be more epic battles before the season is out and unlike recent seasons the flag is clearly up for grabs.

Round 8 2015

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 16th, 2015 at 4:09 pm 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.