Photo: Yass Roos (Andrew Henell)
Yass Roos defeated ANU Griffins 10.10 (70) to 2.1 (13) on Saturday, July 2 in Round 12 of the Canberra Fourth Grade competition.
Roos Mark Maguire and Nic Thomas scored two goals, Cian Ebert and Jacob Negri scored one goal, Samuel Williams scored three goals, and Jake Collins were all named as the best players on the day.
Yass was in the lead from the get-go and at 4.3 (27) to 2.0 (12) by the end of the second quarter. Their defence was strong as they increased their lead in the third quarter to 6.5 (41) to 2.0 (12).
ANU managed to score a behind in the final quarter but couldn’t keep up with Yass’ lead as they scored another four goals and five behinds securing the win.
Assistant Coach Jarrad Forlonge said the team was happy with a second win over ANU after defeating them in Round 2 by 7.14 (56) to 1.7 (13).
“It’s not too often we really get to beat ANU, let alone beat them twice in the one year so we’re pretty happy with that.”
It’s a strong win for Yass looking towards finals and will aid in setting the Roos up to secure a finals spot.
Although the score went their way it was a cold and wet round for all teams.
“It wasn’t the most fun game to play but other than that, it was all pretty good.”
“We played pretty well, considering the conditions, which is pretty pleasing but in the end I think we just handled the conditions a bit better than [ANU] did.”
“We were probably a bit cleaner with our hands in terms of handling the football, we probably tackled a bit better and just had better pressure all around,” Jarrad said. “I think the way that we played really made it hard for them to get anything going in conditions like that.”
“We just afforded ourselves a bit more time with the ball to use it a bit better in the wet.”
This week Yass is taking on the Goulburn Swans at 2pm on Saturday, July 9 at Joe O’Connor Park.
It could be a tough game for the home team after the Swans defeated Yass 9.7 (61) to 7.5 (47) in Round 1 earlier this year.
“[Goulburn] beat us in Round 1 this year, which we didn’t really expect so I think Goulburn are a lot better this year than they have been in the past couple of years.”
Jarrad said the team was looking forward to this week to try and get a win over the Swans now that they are back in contention for a finals spot.
“We know full well that Goulburn is going to be up for the game,” he said. “But similar to the last round, these are games that if we want to finish in the top two on a ladder, we need to win.”
“So we’re going in there pretty keen, pretty excited and really focused on trying to get a win this week to solidify our spot in the top two.”
The following round Yass are out on a bye and then battle it out against the top team – the Murrumbateman Eagles – in Round 15 on July 23 at Joe O’Connor Park.
By Brianna O’Rourke
