In Zac Wells’ last game for the club, the Nomads won relatively easily in blustery conditions – although the Eagles to their credit did not make it easy for the visitors from the New England. Coach Ellis-Cluff kicked 4 goals (nearly 5 except for an unfortunate incident – more of which later) and Velani Chakalisa and Hamish Pearce provided the forwards with plenty of opportunities with their strong midfield work. Final scores were 14.16.100 to 4.4.31.

The Nomads made the long trip out to Narribri in reasonable time (helped no doubt by some of the team traveling with Mr Sub4 Velani Chakalisa). It was relatively cold out there (though not as cold as Armidale which was enjoying a day of sleet and subzero temperatures). And the wind was a factor. The wind made kicking to position difficult all day. The Nomads were also missing a number of key players including Zac-the-Elder Economou, Clarrie Barker and Cammy ‘the Bullet’ Graham.

In the first quarter the Nomads kicked to the Western end and were basically kicking against the wind (coming from the south west). Harry Freund, James Treweeke and Hamish Pearce were doing a great job in the middle. Tom Hunt marked strongly overhead when the Eagles kicked the ball forward with the wind behind them. Scores at the first change were 2.3.15 to 0.4.4.

The second quarter saw the Nomads start to get their kicking boots on. The Eagles flooded their backline and made movement for the forwards difficult but nonetheless the boys managed 6 for the term. This quarter saw Rambo Raymond, everyone’s favourite albino, mark just about everything that came his way. His overhead work was very impressive especially for someone who must nearly be the smallest man on the ground. Big Jim, Hammer, Modra and Harry F continued the strong work in the middle. Frosty was also doing well in the last line of defence. At half time the scores were 8.6.54 to 2.6.18.

At the half-time break Coach Ellis-Cluff gave everyone a spray and the ball movement into the forward line was good resulting in some early goals. As the quarter progressed however the movement slowed down and poor choices were often made in terms of kicking to 50-50’s in dangerous places. Still these were not easy conditions with a small ground where precision kicking is required and a remarkably chaotic wind patter disrupting even the best of kicks.

The final quarter saw the Nomads kicking to the eastern end, with the wind and with Zac Wells at full forward. After a bit of mucking around for a while he managed to kick truly and was subsequently beset upon by a smiling pack of wild animals congratulating Wellsy in the loosest sense of that word. (Wellsy we will miss you – hard to believe you really are going.) Velani Chakalisa was everywhere all game and in this last quarter must have garnered twenty kicks – appearing out of nowhere most of the time – as his name suggests. The Nomads kicked 4 for the quarter.

It was not the boys’ best effort but in windy conditions with a number of key players out it was understandable.

Oh and the ‘unfortunate’ incident. I thought you would never ask. When I was a lad I was always told when kicking for goal to go back a bit, a fair way back even, say more than 2 or 3 metres behind the mark, just to make sure, even when you are only 5 metres out, you don’t kick into the man on the mark. But perhaps that is just jilbi-talk?

Round 8 2016

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 1st, 2016 at 11:35 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.