The Melton Toyota Riddell District Football Netball League played host to AFL Cairns for an Under 17 match at RAMS Arena in Craigieburn yesterday.
With the team from AFL Cairns having defeated the Ballarat FNC Under 17 team by well over 100 points earlier in the week, RDFNL Coach Rob Beatson knew he had his hands full. Before the game Rob urged the boys to attack every contest, and take pride in wearing the RDFNL Guernsey, whilst also asking them to not drop their heads if the skilful team from Cairns happened to get a bit of a run-on.
After an opening 5 or 10 minutes which was fairly even, AFL Cairns gradually started to assert their authority on the game. With a team containing several players in the AFL Queensland Academy, it was no surprise to see them kick out to a solid lead during the first half, and by half time the RDFL team had failed to score a major, despite some excellent efforts from the team. With the urging of Rob and assistant coach Eddie Tunn, the boys came out with renewed exuberance and scored two goals during the third quarter, and another during the last. Whilst the eventual score-line of 16-13-109 to 3-7-25 appears lop-sided, it fails to reflect the excellent efforts of the RDFNL team.
On behalf of the RDFNL & AFL Cairns, I would like to convey my appreciation to Ian Kyte and the team at Calder Cannons for kindly agreeing to make their venue available for the match, and in turn providing AFL Cairns players with a post-match tour of the facility.
Best players: Bryce Caldone (Rupertswood), Corey Wright (Diggers Rest), Jacob Sinclair (Melton Centrals), Braydon Cicero (Rupertswood), Josh Vilinskis (Broadford) & Dylan Tunn (Woodend Hesket).
Goal Kickers: Jai Whitehand (Melton), Connar Barratt (Rupertswood) & Mackenzie Casson (Riddells Creek).
AFL Cairns will host a return event against a combined Under 16.5 team from AFL Goldfields in the last week of June.
Steve Williams
RDFNL Operations Manager.
Last Modified on 03/04/2016 12:59