It was a long day at the office for the Nomads out at Wolseley Oval in Gunnedah. The reigning premiers showed why they are hot flat favourites for 2020 with their precision kicking, pace strong marking and hunger for the hard-ball. It was Frosty’s 150th game but unfortunately the Dogs’ 10 goal first quarter meant there was little to celebrate once the game got underway. The usual brigade of Clarrie, Rambo, Modra Richards, Phill Mitchell and Conor Nest battled valiantly all day but in the end to little no avail. Up forward Clarrie Barker kicked 3 goals and Luke “Rambo” Raymond and John “Joof” McKay kicked 2 apiece. The final scores were Gunnedah 26.15.171 to the Nomads 8.4.52.

The Nomads arrived in good time at Gunnedah and were greeted by warm conditions. A few big outs – both Tom Hunt and Jesse Petrascu had work commitments and our premier wingman Taidgh O’Loughlin had been injured. But the Nomads had two debutantes – local lad Benji Dutaillis and Dwayne Graham. Benji, a sports conditioning trainer had been a big help around the club and now was keen to spend some time out in the paddock. Dwayne, a cousin of Moddy and Frosty, came to us from Kambalda in WA and is the 8th member of the Graham clan to don the Nomads colours.

A banner had been made by James (perhaps with a “little” help from Kristen?) and Frosty ran out for his 150th game to generous applause from both sides.

However, things turned rather grim rather quickly with the Dogs kicking to the eastern end and running completely amok. They had obviously been drilled to keep the ball away from the Talls and the quick delivery into the forward line made it nigh on impossible for the defenders to stop the deluge. Conor Nest and Phill Mitchell did a great job under an enormous amount of pressure. At the end of the first quarter the scores were 10.2. 62 for the Dogs (yes that is correct) to the Nomads paltry 2 goals straight.

It was always going to be an uphill battle from here on in but in the second quarter the Nomads turned it around (somewhat). In the second quarter—thanks to some very solid and spectacular defensive work on the part of Phill, Frosty, Modra and Ira (who presumably was still enjoying himself even in these difficult circumstances)—the Nomads managed to restrict the Dogs to only scoring two majors while the Nomads kicked 3. The scores at half-time were the Nomads 5.0.30 to Gunnedah’s 12.6.78.

In the third quarter, new boy Dwayne Graham went into the middle and almost immediately had an effect (we look forward to seeing more of Dwayne in the Nomads colours). He worked well with Andy Gray who was playing in the ruck and Morgan Dunn. However, the Dogs had come out red-hot and kicked 9 goals in this quarter. (Interestingly 19 of their 26 goals were scored at the Eastern end). At the final change the scores were Nomads 6.2.38 to the Dogs 21.9.135.

It could have been a real blow-out in the final quarter but the Nomads restricted them to 5 goals while kicking 2 themselves. The Nomads were helped by Clarrie and Modra moving to defence and intercepting a lot of the Dogs forward movement.

It’s hard to know what to say generally other than that the Nomads were out-classed by a better side.

Next week is the final game of this rather strange season. It’s against Inverell at Inverell and will be a chance for the Monads to end their season on a high.

Round 9 2020

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