Round 9 Summary

Sixty-eight - a very nice number, and yes, it is one short of 69, but it is also in actual fact the number of goals that the Wildcats and Raiders kicked between them on the weekend. As you can imagine, there were plenty of people kicking bags and plenty of others waking up with leather poisoning as the two sides ran riot. The Wildcats travelled up to St Helens for a sleep over, and got the trip off on the right foot when they piled on 36.7 to the home sides 3.3, while the Raiders stayed back in London to take on Clapham at Clapham Common, and whilst not being quite as accurate kicked 32.17 to Clapham's 3.4. Unfortunately the Emus were unable to complete a West London demolition weekend when they were easily toppled by bottom side Fulham in a fairly ordinary performance on Saturday.

The Wildcats travelled up to St Helens expecting a reasonable contest, given that they had pushed Wandsworth to less than 5 goals a couple of weeks ago, but from the first bounce this was not to be as the Wildcats turned the game into nothing short of a training drill as they piled on the goals. Fuller might be putting the retirement plans on Ice (pardon the pun as I'm sure he loves putting things on/up Ice) after a BOG performance on the ball. At one stage in the second half the forward line was stacked with Aussies, while all of the EU's were playing solo in defence. As you can imagine, there was not a single bad player on the ground, with everyone easily accounting for their direct opponent. There were plenty of goals to go around too, but the majority of them were had by Richo with another bag of 11, Aubs who started to find form around the big sticks and chimed in with 8, Ako who continued his fine form and kicked another 6, and Ice who kicked 4. It was also good to see Slates back in the blue and white, and by all reports the boys had a great night at the Wigan Walkabout, but I'll leave it up to the Crack to update you with all of that.

The Raiders fielded debatably their strongest team for the year so far and it showed, belting an undermanned Clapham in magnificent 25-degree sunshine. The boys got the jump on them early and piled on 7,7,11,and 7 goals in each quarter respectively. As with the Wildcats there were winners all over the ground, and we also experimented with EU's, at one point having the Irish quartet of Jase, Padraic, Leigh and Mango all out there at once and doing well. It's hard to single out players in such a massive win, but the on-ballers in Gerry, DB and Dan Morrison were great, while Jase Hughey was in fine touch up forward along with Big Jimi and Jack in the second half. Welchy and Mark Harmer were both finding plenty of the ball, whilst the entire back line was "mean" as Jack put it. As with the Wildcats the goals were shared, with the majority of them going to Jimi with 7, Jack Jess with 6 including 5 in the third quarter, and myself managing to chip in with 5.

The Emus unfortunately failed to fire in a game they desperately needed to win to stay in finals contention and after being on top in the first quarter, went missing for the next three and were easily accounted for by 12 goals. The boys have worked hard all year to give themselves a chance at September action, so it was disappointing to let a very winnable game slip away and now will have to do it the tough way, by beating Clapham twice and Fulham again in the return bout. Good players on the day were few and far between, but Big daddy battled hard all day, constantly putting his body on the line and Karl Culshaw worked hard in defence. Kittsy also battled away and will be better for the hit out, Stu Shuttleworth picked up plenty of touches around the ground while James Smith finished with 3 goals in a good performance from him up forward.

This weekend sees a bye in the competition as the BARFL exhibition game is on at Clapham Common on Saturday afternoon, then things are back on in earnest the next weekend when Trailfinders hosts a huge triple header. First up the Raiders take on Regents Park who are undefeated and beat us by 4 points in the last game in what is a replay of last years grand final and is shaping as the same for this year. Next up the Emus take on Clapham and must win to keep in the finals hunt and then in the big one, the Wildcats take on the arch enemy in Wandsworth. The first game kicks off at midday and it'd be great to see as many people down there as possible supporting the boys on this big day, especially some of the older guys that are still in London but haven't been around much this year. If there's one weekend you can get to other than finals, then make this the one.