The New England Nomads received a wake-up call from the Saints, with the Saints coming within ten points of beating the reigning premiers on Saturday. In the final quarter, with the game up for grabs, Tom Hunt dominated at centre half back assisted by his back-line colleagues, Mitch Darton, Brett Grant and Snowy Snowden who also stood up when it mattered. It was a good hard game of football and a good test for the Nomads who have been cruising in recent weeks. The final scores were 10.11.71 to 7.11.53.

The ground at Inverell was unusually heavy underfoot and the centre pitch very muddy – but the weather was warm so the thought was it would dry out as the day went on. The Nomads won the toss and kicked to the Armidale end. In the middle Hamish Pearce was winning the hard balls and Mr Sub 4, Chaks was his usual damaging self on the wings. Harry Wakefield was on fire in this first quarter, kicking three goals. The Hazard was not closely marked and took full advantage of the freedom he was being afforded. Ash Cruikshank was also causing a lot of headaches for the Inverell backs with his hard in-and-under work. Up back not he last line of defence, the Frostman, making good use of his natural ball-reading abilities, intercepted the ball a number of times and redirected play to the Fat-side. At the end of the first quarter the scores were 4.1.25 to 2.1.13

The second quarter saw the Nomads kicking away to bit of a lead. Hamish Pearce continued his dominance working well with James Treweeke and up back Mitch Darton kept running the ball forward at speed, making it hard for the Saints to zone-off. During this quarter, Ash Cruikshank slotted a goal with a remarkable inside-out banana kick – which was a highlight of the term. At the half time break the scores were 7.7.49 to 3.1.19.

With a 30 point break at half time it felt like the Nomads were about to break away, however it was not to be. The Saints to their credit game back in the third quarter, holding the Nomads to one goal and kicking two of their own and gaining some initiative with control of the ball for much of the quarter. At the three quarter break the scores were 8.10.58 to 5.3.33 and although the Nomads were ahead by 25 points it was clear that the Saints would be coming back. Matters were not helped by the Nomads having three injuries with players out for the game and so midfield rotations were restricted.

In the final quarter the Saints wanted the ball more and for much of the final term the ball was in their half. The Nomads’ backs stood up to tremendous pressure. The Saints set up across the midfield and prevented the ball going out of their half. Mitch Darton and Snowy were brilliant as was Tom Hunt who was easily best on ground. Big Tom marked everything that came his way and then ran off and pushed the ball forward. The Saints came within ten points before the Nomads inevitably broke through the wall twice. In the play of the day, Tom Hunt on a break kicked to Dave ‘Bizarro’ Bioletti, who was one of only two Nomads in the Nomads’ half and Dave side-stepped Sam Kimmince with balletic grace and passed to Zac who goaled. Then the ball came forward again, and lo and behold Johnathan Frost was in the goal square on his own (more of which below) and he kicked truly to put the result beyond doubt.

It was a good hard game of football and the Nomads were tested under pressure. The most pleasing feature of the game was the resilience of the backline who saw more of the ball on Saturday than they have for much of the year. Tom Hunt was in outstanding form. He was clearly determined to do everything in his power to ensure the Nomads went home winners. Hamish Pearce was hard in the middle all day as was the Jeddacutta Man.

We have another hard game in a fortnight against the Roos, so it is important everyone gets out on the track.

This week there is a break for the Rep Game against North Coast. If you are at a loose end, get down to Coffs for the rep game. 11 of the Nomads are in the team and there should be some high-quality football. Well worth a visit.

Nomads Rascal of the Week

The award for Rascal of the Week must go to one Mr Johnathon Frost who was playing in the back pocket and for some reason found himself in the goal square and marked truly on his own to kick the goal which put the game beyond dispute. Frostman what were you doing there? Frostman, what would we do without you?

Pictures by kind permission of Lynverell Photography.

Round 13 2016

Saints def. by Nomads
	G	B	P		G	B	P
Q1	2	1	13		4	1	25
HT	3	1	19		7	7	49
Q3	5	3	33		8	10	58
FT	7	11	53		10	11	71

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 13th, 2016 at 12:19 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.