For the first time in six years, the Nomads have lost two games in a row. In one of the highest quality matches ever seen in the league—at least by your correspondent who has genuine jilbi credentials—the lead changed a number of times before the Dogs ran away with it in the last quarter. All credit to the Bulldogs who were able to maintain the furious pace right until the end of the game. For the Nomads Luke “Rambo” Raymond, Clarrie Barker and Steve Wilson were standouts while Modra was his usual elusive self up forward kicking four goals and keeping the Nomads in the hunt. Tim Keyes also was very impressive in the ruck. Final scores were Gunnedah 19.10.124 to the Nomads 14.8.92.

The match at the Bellevue was keenly awaited. The Nomads and the Gunnedah had played each twice this year for one victory apiece. The weather was pefect for football with a slight westerly blowing. The Nomads won the toss and kicked to the Uralla end. Missing from this week’s team were The Bullet, Phill Mitchell, James Treweeke, the German Bear-hunter Alex Shem, Harry Wakefield and Tex Walker, however the start fo the game saw the welcome return of coach and star centre half back, the Nomads very own bon vivant as well as the man for whom Speed is not just a town in the Mallee, Velani Chakalisa and Steve Wilson. The Dogs scored the first goal within the first 30 seconds with their captain kicking the ball forward from the centre bounce and then following it all the way to the goal square. The Dogs then quickly scored a second. The Nomads regrouped with Steve Wilson leading the way on the half back line. The Nomads started applying some scoreboard pressure. Sam Bioletti and Clarrie Barker both kicked exceptional 50 metre goals after marking truly. Modra was also causing the Dogs plenty of headaches. The standout performer in this quarter though was everyone’s favourite albino, Luke Rambo Raymond, who was everywhere. At the first change the Nomads were up 5.2.32 to 3.2.20.

The second quarter saw the Nomads kicking to the grandstand end. The battle in the mdifield was fierce with the Med-fielders competing strongly against quality opposition. Tim Keyes was doing brilliantly in the ruck and Jesse Petrascu and Jezza Ratcliffe were at the bottom of every pack fighting for the ball. However, the Dogs started to move the ball quickly across their lines and by the time Mr MPA, Brendo, sounded the half-time hooter, the Dogs were 9 points up. The Nomads were 7.6.48 to the Dogs 9.3.57.

The Nomads went into the third quarter confident they could best the Dogs and so it seemed for a while. Modra was in brilliant form up forward and Paddy Tobias kicked an inspirational left foot goal on the run after crashing through 2 or 3 successive packs. Clarrie Barker took a number of strong marks,This quarter was very even with both sides scoring freely. At the final break the Dogs were 6 points up.

The final quarter saw the Dogs run away with it kicking 5 goals to the Nomads solitary major. It was their run through the midfield that did it. Rambo continued his brilliant form as did the usual suspects such as Clarrie, Modra and Keysie. However, it was not enough.

The result showed that the Nomads have plenty of work to do but the game was closer than the final scorecard might seem to indicate. With some fine tuning and hard running the Nomads are certainly in the race for the 2017 premiership. But ti will require work. Watch this space.

Round 17 2017

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 16th, 2017 at 8:29 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.