The Yass Roos have secured another important victory in the AFL Canberra 2023 Community Men’s Division Three competition, knocking off Cootamundra 11.22.88 to 4.6.30 at Joe O’Connor Park on Saturday.
The Roos eleventh win of the season means they stay top of the ladder heading into the crucial clash with Murrumbateman this weekend, with the winner almost certain to finish on top of the ladder with a home game in the first week of finals as the reward.
With the fifth-placed Cootamundra needing a win to stay in touch with the competition’s top four, they started off the game against Yass the better, taking a three-point lead into quarter-time.
Yass regained the ascendancy in the second quarter kicking 2.6.18 to 1.1.7 and were able to take an
8-point lead into the main break.
An inaccurate Yass side peppered the goals in the premiership quarter but only had 2.7 at the return, as Cootamundra could only manage just two behinds themselves.
Yass kicked away in the last quarter, adding five goals to zip to run away with an impressive and important 58-point win.
Lachlan Cossins, Darcy Paine, Ryan Ulrich, Jarrad Forlonge, Samuel Williams, Jack Mader were all among the best on ground for the Roos on Saturday.
Captain Sam Williams was exceptional with the boot leading the way with five goals, Darcy Paine kicked two, while Max Shadbolt, Dom Johns, Jarrad Forlonge and Jake Collins all added one each.
Yass playing President Jarrad Forlonge said his side held up well against a Cootamundra side who were playing for their future this season.
“They had everything to play for this weekend. They need results to go their way now to make finals. With a win over us, it would have put them in a pretty good position to make finals,” Forlonge said.
“They came out hard and had a few troops down, but the team that they did have was still pretty good. I think they ran out of legs here towards the end, but Coota are a quality team.
“It was a hard and physical game right from the get-go, which is what we expected and what we wanted to get ready for the finals.
“They led at quarter-time, so it was just about getting back to basics after that. They came out and played really physically and probably bullied us a little bit in the first quarter, so we just had to settle down and get back into the swing of things to get the game back on our terms.
“We kicked five behinds in that first quarter as well so we kind of inflicted that scoreboard pressure on ourselves by not converting. It was about settling down, getting in the swing of the game and going from there.”
The Roos will take on Murrumbateman in Round 12 this Saturday at Joe O’Connor Park, in the top of the table clash from 2pm.
“Murrumbateman have been the best team in the comp for the past two years. Last year, they only lost two games all year on their way to the premiership, and this year only losing once, so they’re a really good team.
“They’ve got some really great players and are coached really well, so we’re expecting a really hard game to be honest.
“A win on the weekend will likely give us the minor premiership, but at the end of the day, we’re probably going to have to play them one or two more times after this weekend.
“We’re expecting a hard game and that’s what we’re looking forward to.
“We’ve got a couple of injuries at the moment, but we’re just managing our way through them. They’re not major ones, but there’s no need to try and push things too much at this point. We’ve got pretty good depth so that allows us to not take too many risks on players if we don’t have to.
“In saying that, we’re close to full strength and the players that will come in, we trust them, and they’ve played plenty of games this year, so we know what we’re going to get from them. We feel pretty confident with whoever takes the field on Saturday.”
Forlonge said this weekend’s Battle of the Barton clash will be a good indicator of how the two sides will set up for finals football.
“We want to win, and we want to finish first. We want the home final that first week of finals and don’t want to play in Murrumbateman, so there’s a bit on the line.
“We want to keep winning. It will be a good test, I think it really will show where we’re at. They’re the benchmark and obviously they have been the benchmark for the past couple of years now.
“A win, whilst it’ll give us the minor premiership, it doesn’t mean a great deal more than that, because we’re still going to have to beat them in week one of the finals, and the grand final should we make it.
“We will have to take the result this weekend, whichever way it goes, with a grain of salt and realise that the job isn’t done after this weekend.”
Each year the Yass Roos celebrate their Pink Day where they wear special jumpers and come together to raise much needed funds for the local CanAssist branch, which provides support to those going through their cancer journey.
This year, in an added event, star backman, Kyle Mckenzie, has decided to chop off his beard and hair in an effort to raise additional funds for this wonderful charity.
“This weekend we’ll have our Pink Day to raise money for CanAssist. There will be people at the gates collecting money, so the more people we get down there the better in terms of raising money.
“We’ll try and aim to raise over $2,500, which we achieved last year. Kyle has been growing his beard and hair out all year, so he’ll shave that off at the pub after the game. He’s doing a little bit extra to try and raise some money.
“It’s a massive day for our Club, we’ve been doing it for five or six years now, paired with our Ladies Day, so it’s going to be a great day for the Club on the weekend.”
Ladder:
- Yass – 44 points – 316%
- Mururmbateman – 44 points – 280%
- Goulburn Swans – 32 points – 152%
- Southern Cats – 24 points – 127%
- Cootamundra – 20 points – 126%
- Belconnen – 16 points – 57%
- Eastlake – 8 points – 33%
- Tuggeranong – 4 points – 24%
Tim Warren
