Round 8 saw the boys travel down to, for many, unchartered waters at the Carrara Saints ground down on the Gold Coast. I had only ever been there once before a few years back and remember vividly getting beaten by a couple of points due in large part to our boys just not coming to terms with the dimensions of the ground. That game we lost by 2 points despite having 5 more scoring shots, we just kept getting ourselves into the wrong places on the ground to kick goals. Hopefully we wouldn’t fall into that trap again. Nielsens Road Circle, I mean Oval, is not a bad ground it’s just hard to get your bearings on. It’s a cricket ground basically and so is more circular than ovular (that word doesn’t sound right but you get the idea) and the 50 metre arcs are actually about 35 as it is a really small ground. That can be off-putting enough, but the pockets too, especially on the side closest to the clubhouse, are quite deep and scoring from there is quite tricky. As for the Saints themselves, we didn’t know too much about many of their players but we knew they had been competitive in enough games to give us some concerns. They were a bit up and down, a couple of biggish losses but a couple of very good wins against Coorparoo (who I rate) and 4th placed Burleigh (who we haven’t played yet). We definitely could not take them lightly. Oh, and we welcomed Robert Pryor into the Puma fold for his game, looks like he’s going to be a ripper.
The game was really a game of 2 distinct halves. The first was notable for the amount of contested footy and this was due to a number of factors. Firstly, the ground size, as mentioned previously, as the smaller ground tends to make it a bit harder for running players to find the space that they would normally enjoy on bigger grounds, like ours at home. Secondly, Carrara really turned up to play, as Damian correctly pointed out before the game these lower ranked sides have nothing to lose against us so will really have a crack against us. Thirdly the ground was quite heavy from the overnight/morning dew and the ball was pretty slippery for most of the first half, leading to more turned over footy, and hence more contests. The signs were starting to show that we were getting on top towards the end of the second quarter but unfortunately we missed a few chances and could only go into the break 12 points up, despite having 7 more scoring shots. It definitely felt like a game of footy, it was no picnic out there and the boys had to work extremely hard for that small half time advantage.
By the time the start of the second half came around the ground had dried off completely as had the footy. It was now possible to lift the skill level and put some more scoreboard pressure on our opponents. The half time chat from coach Eddy was excellent, as always. A few points as to areas to improve, a couple of positional changes and out they went. That 3rd quarter was probably our best for the year, in my opinion. We kicked 7 goals to none and totally dominated the quarter all over the ground. In fact they only got inside 50 four times for just the one behind. Our use of the ball by hand and foot was all of a sudden deadly accurate and our runners somehow seemed to find what little space there was to feed our leading forwards. The decision too by Damian and Dave to not have so many rotations for the quarter, and so a more settled team structure, possibly helped as well. It was a treat to watch actually and of course everyone was pretty pleased with it at the final break. Except for the opposition coach, he didn’t find too much to get excited about and in fact gave his players a good old fashioned spray at the break. They did appear to drop off a bit as we kicked a few early but not sure that they were that bad, I just thought we played some hard to stop footy. Anyway, the spray must have had some effect as they did come out and stop the flow of scoring in the last quarter and never gave up at all. The game was over at ¾ time and we could have really blown it right out but to Cararra’s credit they didn’t allow that to happen and it stayed a tight contest right until the final siren.
Overall a very pleasing win in trying circumstances. A tough game physically, exactly what you want in a game of footy, and there were certainly a few sore boys from both teams. In unfamiliar surroundings too, and I won’t mention a free kick count of 16 to 5 against, D’oh! just did, too late. So it was great to come away with the solid win to keep us right in the mix for that top 2 spot. Although I still don’t know if it’s a top 4 or top 5, I guess I should try to find that out, if it is a top 5 then we are right in the mix for that top 3 spot.
Final scores Springwood 13-13-91 defeated Carrara 4-6-30
Best players: As has been the norm very hard to pick a few out of 22 but Dan Willaton had a great 4 quarters anywhere on the ground, Nate Murcutt was freed up into attack and made the most of it, Jack Darby is now really starting to play some good footy, Jared Denny, especially early, seemed to one of very few who could consistently handle the slippery ball well, John Duncan, as always, Callum Eddy was very good up forward particularly, Matty Leadbeater was strong all day in a number of roles and Ben O’Sullivan worked really hard all day as well. Ryan Ford and Ethan Hackett were solid down back and new lad Rob Pryor showed that he is going to be a more than handy player for us. As has been the case over the last few games there were plenty of others that chipped in throughout the game as well as it was another very good team effort. I would have included Ben Menz in the best too but he has to learn that he has to stop hitting opposition players on the fist with the back of his head. It’s all about discipline Rocket.
Goalkickers : Cal 4, Nate 3, Balmy 2 (btw welcome back Balmy too!), Linc 1, Jack Darby 1, Jared Isbel 1, Willo 1
And now for a well-earned week off! It’s the halfway point, we are in a good spot on the table and we have worked hard and deserve to be where we are. Time to enjoy a spell and rest some tired and sore bodies. Northern Rivers when we get back, down at Byron Bay, and time to set sail towards the business end of the season. In round 1 we beat these guys by plenty but it seems that they have regrouped and improved immensely since then. They beat Carrara, drew with Coorparoo yesterday and haven’t been totally blown out of the water against Redlands, Burleigh and Southport, all top 3 sides. So they are on the improve and will be out to make some amends for the last time we played. Looking forward to it!!
Last Modified on 02/06/2014 14:56