THE BEAR FACTS
The Bear's beloved Swans travelled to Cairns Sat 26th March for their first hit out for the year 2011 against South Cairns on Nth Cairns Oval under new coach Youngy, to be confronted by rain that smashed down for the entire trip and all day whilst the game was on.
On a ground that would have been better suited for an Oxford v Avon sculls race our under 18-s and some less experienced players mixed with a few old heads took to the water for the first three quarters.
Some footy was played along with some water polo, swimming and skiing.
"Young Foxy" Aiden Johnson, "Sticks" Shane Lindgren and Mick Hall played some good footy along with the three Shalom boys who were a part of the six that ventured up for the day.
Big D looked good at centre half back and whilst not knowing some of the new players so well and finding it hard to see through the incessant rain there were others who played well.
Although beaten on the scoreboard the Bear as he tried to watch through the wall of falling rain thought that the old adage "They had a go" suited.
The next three quarters was the rest of the senior's turn and to the Bear's surprised in a ten minute burst in the second quarter they took the Cane Cutters to the cleaners.
With Doc Tim giving us a good bite of the cherry at the centre bounces and Mazz although wearing more bandage than Phar Lap playing a good game along with "Tales" who looked like he had never stopped playing
we were getting first touch at the ball and a lot of our blokes were playing like they were not worrying about the
water at all which is more than could be said about the three hearty supporters in the grand stand who looked like wet shags on a rock and who refused to move for any one.
Once again three more Shalom boys took the field and showed they weren't afraid to mix it in the water.
Young David Noonan took a nice grab lined up and in shocking conditions missed the shot at goals with a ball that weighed about 6 kilos and how hard is the new coach. Dragged David immediately. Bloody hell!
Poomba at full forward gave us a couple of nice high lights with a real good grab and a nice pick up off the ground a little earlier to score a nice running goal.
Highlight of the day must go to the bravery of South's water girls who not only braved the conditions but run around looking like they had been in a wet t shirt contest, but who was looking?
And then to spoil it all Youngy came out with his wet T shirt impersonation and with cries of get back in the coaches box it wasn't hard to see where most of the votes were going and not to Youngy!
And what about those little blokes who stood behind the goals all day and almost had to swim to recover the balls. How good were they?
The wet and ragged Bear though tthe umpiring of the Cairns lads given the conditions was pretty good.
Meanwhile the South boys decided they weren't going much chop so they decided to rough a couple of our boys up and whilst there was a bitof push and shove on our part we did what a good side should do and continued to play footy.
The Bear was impressed with our leg speed and hopes this is the start of better things not forgetting we started well in the pre season last year and we all know what happened after that but the Bear as always at this time of the year dares to dream.
Last Modified on 28/02/2011 22:43