.Joe O’Connor Park played host to an exhilarating Saturday night triple-header, with the Murrumbateman Eagles making the trip down the Barton to join the two Yass Roos sides in their home openers of the season.
The Eagles kicked the day off with their clash against the ANU Griffins. The game was highly anticipated with both sides coming off impressive wins in round one and a bumper crowd helped play up the intensity of the game. The first quarter supplied the high-intensity football those in attendance came expecting, with the Eagles edging out the Griffins narrowly to take a slender lead into the second.
The second quarter provided much of the same with a tug-of-war taking place in the centre of the oval, the Eagles eventually got a leg up towards the end of the quarter and went into the second half with a two-goal lead over the visitors.
Murrumbateman managed to win the third quarter by a small margin as well but the small leads they were getting at the end of each period began to add up and seemingly out of nothing they had opened up a 22-point lead heading into the fourth. From that point on they weren’t for catching and completed a clean sweep of the Griffins, winning the fourth quarter and ultimately the game 9.17.71 – 7.3.45.
Coach of the Eagles Andy Ingold was very impressed with his side and hopes to see more of the same in the future. “We had a pretty comfortable win on the weekend. Hilly (Adam Hill) and I put a massive emphasis on this new group to just go out and have fun and if we get a win that’s a bonus,” Ingold said.
“The last two weeks we have come away with the win, which is nice.
“On the weekend the boys came out pretty well. Their pressure throughout was quite good throughout the whole ground. The new guys had a bit of a game plan in our forward line that we picked up on and spoke about at quarter time. We sort of counteracted that a bit and they stopped doing it. I don’t think that works too well on a small ground.
“The side’s brilliant form has been a pleasure to watch, especially given how close they came to not having a team at all. They are just playing really well as a team and I’m really impressed with how they are going as a group considering seven weeks ago we were at a critical point as to whether we were going to field a side or not,” Andy continued.
“We had a meeting and sat with everyone and said that Adam and I can only do a certain amount and the committee can only do a certain amount. We had to put it on them to reach out to friends to play footy just to get a side together.
“That has worked well and getting some guys in positions. Jonathon Leayr and Cam Hourn; it was two full quarters until half time until they got a break. Stuff like that was pretty impressive.
“We are playing against new teams this year. Yass has gone up into Division One and Cootamundra and Goulburn have gone up and when you throw in the likes of ADFA and ANU we just played in the last two weeks, they have always been a tough side to beat.
“We have the Easter break and then have Bateman’s Bay. Their lower division is last year’s premiers. We will see how we go. We have got a lot of guys out.
“We will get something together and we will get down there. There won’t be any need to not play. We will go down there with what we have got and do the best we can.
“Looking at a few things over the last couple of weeks they may not have the same side that they had last year but we are just taking each week as it comes and I just keep saying to the boys to just go out and have fun.
“Some of our best players were David Gutler, Harry Wilson, Tim Horn, Kevin Mangan and John Leayr.
“Dave Gutler especially, he had a really good captain’s performance. He gets his head over the footy and goes well.
“Matthew Bell was good up forward.
“It was also great to see Yass Roos get their first win in the first division.
Following the Eagles was the Yass Roos ladies’ team coming off the back of their first-ever game as a team the girls showed plenty of improvement against last year’s premier-ship winners, losing 10.6.66 – 4.5.29. Coach of the ladies’ side Kaitlin Dobing thought her side was better this week and anticipates more growth in the near future.
“We unfortunately went down. I was stoked that we had 19 girls rock up for the day and it was a home game so we had a crowd which was an atmosphere we haven’t experienced before,” Kaitlin said.
“It was terrific, we had seven debutants out of the 19 girls, it was still a very new side and they also didn’t know each other. The girls worked and connected like they’d been playing games with each other for weeks on end, our defensive pressure was outstanding and we held up pretty strongly against ANU, we definitely shocked them that’s for sure.
“We’ve been on the scoreboard a lot more than we anticipated this season, plus being a real roar side and that is really exciting because we went up against last year’s premiership side and for us, it was quite exciting to see we were quite competitive on that scoreboard. “It was definitely a great way to start the season and we didn’t drop our heads in that last quarter and got back-to-back scoring opportunities and kept going to that final siren. It was really positive.”
Kaitlin says her side is enjoying the competitiveness their tough draw has offered them.
“It’s a competitive way for our girls to start the season, but it’s also a really positive way to do so,” She continued. “It was such a great atmosphere. We had a full day of country footy with the cars parked all around the field and tooting their horns with celebrations through the game.
“The boys were able to come early and support the women. They did it the week before but they didn’t have to come so early and the girls were able to sit back and watch the boys and they didn’t have to stick around too late to have a game in between for both of us. It definitely helped that Club connectivity having us back to back and having the boys take the win as well. It was a great way to get behind them having the home ground advantage in the process.
“I thought Kiesha (McMahon) really stepped up and you could see she was more comfortable out on the wing with her transition running and her drive to get that ball into our forward line was really impressive. She is our youngest on the side at 18.”
The tough going continues for the lady Roos with the runners-up of last year’s competition Batemans Bay Seahawks next up on the ledger after the Easter break.
Finally, the main event of the evening was with the first-grade Yass Roos getting their first win in the grade with a 6.12.48 – 2.9.21 win over the ANU Griffins. A stout defensive performance by the Roos meant by the fourth quarter ANU had only registered one goal which they scored in the second quarter. Coach Jarrad Forlonge says that his side keeping ANU scoreless in the first and third was integral to his teams’ success.
“It was a good win and a good team performance with a lot of positives that we took from the second half of last week’s game that flowed into the whole game this week.
“The back six were unreal all game, they just kept showing up. It looks good for them because they didn’t kick any goals, but realistically our midfielders worked all game as well and did not let any spare men in the backline.
“We took a lot of positives from the week before, particularly that second half and with a couple of players back this week that slotted into that back six as well.
“We’ve had a pretty hard start to the season, playing a preliminary finalist from last year, the team that came fifth and then in a couple of weeks we play Bateman’s Bay, the team that came second last year.
Forlonge anticipates a challenging game against the Seahawks. “It was a bit of a baptism of fire coming up into the higher grade playing three top teams straight up, but I think getting the results without having a full side available is positive and that sets us up for the year ahead as well. For years Bateman’s Bay has been the benchmark across the competition in men’s teams and women’s as well. They won Division 2 men’s last year and came second in Division 1,” he continued.
“They are going to be really strong opposition. They are a well-drilled team. We are expecting a hard game but also are excited to play them and see where we stack up in this level of competition. The last two weeks have given us a lot of confidence but one more game against one of the top teams will give us a good idea about where we are at.
“ADFA finished third and made a prelim and we stacked up well against them. We have us sitting around fourth or thereabouts. Fourth is a goal and with the early start to the year, there is no reason why we can’t aim higher.
“To make the finals in our first year in Division 1 would be an outstanding achievement, having 15 blokes under the age of 22 on the side, if we can get there at this stage it sets us up for years to come.
“The night was an awesome atmosphere right from 2:00pm when Murrumbateman started carrying right through to 8:00pm at full-time for our game.
“Just consistently seeing that hill down at the oval packed out with cars and families sitting on the hill was cool to see from a club perspective and it was really good to play in front of a crowd like that and it’s always fun playing somewhere different like a night game as well. It was good.
“From a club perspective, it is good to see the community get around a club as much as that as well. The idea behind a night game is to get a bit of free time on the calendar and not compete with the other codes. It was positive in all aspects and we all enjoyed it.
“We got through the week with no injuries at all and just to try and get through the first few weeks as we have got this week off as well it gives us a chance to reset a little bit early in the season and the body will start to get used to the load as we go through the year.”
-Tully Potts
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