Nomads All-Sorts Overwhelm the Saints at the Bellevue
With a remarkably different line-up than had played against the Roos the week before, the Nomads were able to continue on their winning ways with a 79 point win over last year’s finalist, the Inverell Saints. Rampaging Dave Richards starred up forward with five mercurial goals, while Riley Connor and Tom Hunt vied for honours as best on ground. It was a credit to the side that even with a large change of personnel, the Nomads were able to play a very similar open, fast running style of football on the wide open spaces of the Bellevue to what they have played in previous weeks.
While a full team of Nomads ran onto the hallowed (but lumpy) surface of the Bellevue at 2.00 on Saturday afternoon, this had seemed a rather implausible scenario on Tuesday when it looked like only 12 would be available. Living up to their peripatetic moniker, ten of the Nomads from the previous weeks were away. Things improved as the week went on with the return of premiership players Weston Whitby, Riley Connor Dr. Flexo Freund and Ash Cruickshank and the recruitment of a number of locals such as Paddy Hunt (Sticks’ younger brother who played one memorable game in 2006 and loved it so much that he had decided to come back for a second), David Willis and the Midnight Runner, Declan Humpreys. The pre-game warm-up involved a lot of introductions and a large amount of confusion with the two look-alike Hunts. However, when they finally ran onto the field, the jocularity subsided and there was glassy determination in all of their eyes.
The first quarter began in dull overcast conditions. Riley Connor was killing it in the middle with his hard tackling and second efforts and continually speared the ball forward. Ompsy was carving up in the ruck and around the ground while the towering Toms (Hunt and Gleeso) were stopping the forward movements of the Saints. Paddy Tobias was also gaining a lot of hard ball around the ground. By the end of the first quarter the Nomads led 3.4.22 to 0.3.22. It was a real credit to the Nomads’ defence that the Saints were kept scoreless as their midfield had also been working hard and did put the Nomads’ back line under some pressure. (Perhaps all of the long sleeve jumpers made a difference).
The second quarter saw the Nomads put their collective feet on the accelerator. Andre ‘the-Pool-Shark’ Garraud was providing plenty of movement up forward and taking some great grabs. Modra was doing what Modra does best, finding that extra bit of speed when you would least expect it, and he kicked a number of remarkable goals from half chances. Wulu Hall found a lot of the football in this quarter, pushing through packs at contests in a manner that is reminiscent of Wellsy or Frostman at their best. The Nomads played an aggressive style of football in this quarter and at times there was perhaps not enough defensive pressure being placed on the Saints midfielders as they streamed forwards, and it was lucky that Gleeso, Hugo Cook, Pat Hunt, John Stanley and Tom Hunt were as resolute as they were – but by the same token, the front half managed to kick 6 goals for the quarter. In this quarter Tom Hunt took a number of astonishing marks on the last line of defence. At half time the Nomads led 9.5.59 to 2.7.19.
The third quarter saw a similar pattern to the second with the Nomads dominating possession. However, there was less than optimal kicking for goal and we saw not as much pressure on the scoreboard as one would have expected from the amount of time the ball was in green-and-black hands. The Saints were held scoreless in this quarter. The Nomads kicked 2.6 for the quarter and led by 61 points at the final change.
The final quarter saw the team go through the motions to some extent. A number of players were either exhausted or injured and the bench was rather depleted. Ompsy starred in this quarter and completed an excellent days work at the office right until the final siren. The score at the end was 15.14.104 to 3.7.25.
The club is extremely grateful to all of those who went out of their way to ensure that the Nomads had a full team on Saturday. What could have been a disaster turned into a good day’s outing for the club. Some of the new Nomads had never played the game before and spent Friday night watching the Adelaide-Hawthorn game (shame about the result) trying to work out the rules. Others ventured back from far away, including Weston who caught the red-eye flight on Wednesday evening from Perth to make it for the game. Good to have him back in the region.
There is some room for improvement nonetheless. Some of the spread was not as wide as we have come to expect. And the boys dropped a lot of contested marks that could have been held. But given the nature of the game, perhaps such criticisms are churlish.
Overall it was a very pleasing effort. Well done to all of those who played.
Round 9 2015
Nomads def. Saints | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
G | B | P | G | B | P | ||
Q1 | 3 | 4 | 22 | 0 | 3 | 3 | |
HT | 9 | 5 | 59 | 2 | 7 | 19 | |
Q3 | 11 | 11 | 77 | 2 | 7 | 19 | |
FT | 15 | 14 | 104 | 3 | 7 | 25 |
Team:
- R. Connor,
- H. Cook,
- A. Cruickshank,
- Z. Economou,
- J. Ellis-Cluff,
- J. Freund,
- A. Garraud,
- T. Granleese,
- W. Hall,
- D. Humphreys,
- P. Hunt,
- T. Hunt,
- D. Kearney,
- P. O'Connell,
- D. Richards,
- N. Sanders,
- J. Shirley,
- O. Temoso,
- J. Tilto,
- P. Tobias,
- W. Whitby,
- D. Willis.
Goalscorers:
- D. Richards (5),
- J. Freund (3),
- W. Whitby (2),
- Z. Economou (2),
- H. Cook,
- J. Ellis-Cluff,
- W. Hall.
Award winners:
- R. Connor (Players' Player),
- O. Temoso (Coach's),
- W. Hall (President's),
- T. Hunt (Captain's),
- P. Tobias (Meehan's Plumbing Services').