The Yass Roos have continued their perfect start to the season, thrashing the Eastlake Demons 20.21.141 to 3.3.21 at Joe O’Connor Park on Saturday in Round 6 of the 2023 AFL Canberra Community Men’s Division Three competition. 

 

The Roos had an impressive 41 scoring shots on their way to a convincing 120 win in tough cold and windy conditions, cementing themselves to first position on the ladder, one win above Murrumbateman. 

 

Yass kicked 4.6.30 to 2.1.13 in the first quarter but kicked away from then onwards, only allowing Eastlake to kick one more goal for the day while the hosts piled on 16 more majors. 

 

Fraser Cloney, Maxwell Shadbolt, Rex Stacey, Ryan Ulrich, Lachlan Gillam and Jarrad Forlonge were all among the best players for Yass on Saturday. 

Cloney was impressive up forward booting eight goals, while Lachlan Gillam (3), captain Samuel Williams and Geordan Whitton (2) all kicked multiple goals. Darcy Paine, Joven May, Ben O’Connor, Toby Serafin and Rex Stacey all registered a single each. 

 

Yass Roos Indigenous Guernsey

Playing President Jarrad Forlonge praised his side for their complete performance. 

“It was probably one of our better, more complete games for the year. We played pretty well for the duration of the game, which was good considering for a half last week, we weren’t really that good. It was nice to just put a nice four quarter performance together,” Forlonge said. 

“Similar to the team last week, Fraser [Cloney] probably didn’t have his best game last week and I think he took it a little bit personal. He definitely came out with a bit of a point to prove on Saturday, and it really showed. It was definitely one of his better performances not just this year, but probably since he’s been at the Club.”

The Roos celebrated Indigenous Round on the weekend with a Welcome to Country, and a traditional Smoking Ceremony before the first bounce, as well as donning a specially designed indigenous guernsey for the game. 

“We love playing at home and it was nice to start the year with so many home games. It’s been a few weeks since we’ve been back, so it was good to be back at O’Connor Park on the weekend,” Forlonge continued. 

 

“To have our Indigenous Round, Welcome to Country, a Smoking Ceremony, and also wear our indigenous guernseys made for a really special day all round.

“It was nice to celebrate Indigenous Round in the way that it was all done too. There were a lot of comments about how well the ceremony was done and it just made for a really good day around the Club. 

“We had a local artist from Canberra design the original concept behind the jumper and then our guernsey manufacturer did the rest. It was inspired locally.”

Yass Roos Smoking Ceremony

This weekend, Yass will take on the fifth-placed Cootamundra Blues at Clarke Oval in Cootamundra, an assignment that won’t be a walk in the park for the ladder leaders. 

“We were talking about the Coota game after our game on Saturday. It’s a bit of a funny comp, I think us and Murrumbateman are out ahead, but everyone below us seems to be beating each other.

“It’s kind of hard to get a real gauge on where everyone’s at. We’ve beaten Goulburn and Cooma, but then they’ve been the two best teams in the comp other than us and Murrumbateman. 

“Cootamundra who we thought were going to be a strong team are probably not performing at the level that they’d expect. Playing them at home will be a tough challenge no matter what, we’ve been good rivals with them in past years when we’ve been in the same competition. 

“We’re expecting a pretty hard and physical game, especially at their home. I guess everything really is a bit of an unknown at the moment, just with the way the competition is sort of starting to settle. We’re not really sure about what team we’re going to get each week from these other teams in the comp.”

The Yass Roos have their Old Boy’s Day and Mid-Season Ball coming up on Saturday 24th June at the Yass Golf Club and are starting to gather interest. 

“The footy that day against Tuggeranong will be our Old Boy’s Day before it rolls into the Ball later in the day. We want to make sure that we can get as many Old Boys to the day as we can. 

The Mid-Season Ball is open to everyone in Yass, it’s not just a Club-based event. It’s a chance to get dressed up and have a good night.”

Ladder: 

  • Yass – 24 points – 447%
  • Murrumbateman – 20 points – 296%
  • Southern Cats – 16 points – 155%
  • Goulburn – 16 points – 80%
  • Cootamundra – 8 points – 93%
  • Eastlake – 4 points – 41%
  • Belconnen – 4 points – 36%
  • Tuggeranong – 4 points – 31%

Tim Warren