Preliminary Final Summary

Well the Old Wildcat was grinning from ear to ear at the Walkabout on Saturday night after sending Wandsworth packing from the finals series in straight sets! In a gritty and determined display, on a ground more resembling a cow paddock (and a small cow paddock at that), the Wildcats proved too strong for the arch enemy and were two goals clear when the final siren blew to send us into a Grand Final showdown with North London this Saturday at Regents Park. This Saturday now shapes as a huge one in the history of the club, and hopefully it will also be a successful one!

A pumped up Wildcats came out firing on the weekend, and in a similar display to the week before, managed to outscore Wandsworth despite kicking into a very strong breeze in the first term. In actual fact if it wasn't for one of very many dubious umpiring decisions going against us, Wandsworth would have failed to kick a goal with the aid of the wind. The back line was at its brilliant best with Ty and Slates impenetrable in the last line of defence, along with Gools destroying his opponent at centre half back. And along with the help of Paddy, JB and Mango, the defence was rock solid all day. Widdo was dominating the centre square, and therefore allowing Sniffa, Stu and Aubs to get first use out of the centre.

Once again the second quarter was the determining factor in setting up the win. Unlike Wandsworth in the first quarter, we made much better use of the tricky wind and Double D, Leigh and Derek all bagged goals to help take us out to a 25-point lead at the main break. This left us in a very similar situation to last week, but unlike then, we were determined to hold strong and not let the lead we had worked so hard for slip.

Once again in the third quarter it was the back line that had been so good all day that again proved the difference between the two sides. Despite the constant pressure from Wandsworth, Ty and co were brilliant constantly beating their opponents in the contests, and with the controlled aggression from Fighting Irish Angry Aiden working wonders on the wing, we managed to still hold a slender 2 goal lead at 3/4 time.

Wandsworth were not done with though, and kicked the first goal of the last to claw within 5 points. Ako was switched from centre half forward into defence and took some telling marks late in the game, before Aubs long bomb was marked uncontested by Richo in the goal square and he banged home the winning goal. As eluded to, any player that was in the back line on the weekend was sensational, while Widdo set the game up for us out of the middle, Kanga and Leigh were great in attack giving us plenty of options and Gerry & Sniffa were both giving us plenty of drive in the engine room.

North London this weekend are going to be hard to beat though, they've been the form side all year and aren't undefeated for a reason. However, no one can knock the fighting spirit of the Wildcat boys, and we've definitely done our best work with our backs to the wall! And as Leigh Matthews famously said last year before the Lions beat Essendon in last years AFL Grand Final, "If it bleeds we can kill it." I dare say there are more than a couple of worried people up North.

For the Raiders, it's a great opportunity to go back to back, but again, it's not going to be easy. However, if we all work hard together as we have done all year, I've no doubt we'll be bringing the first of those two cups back home with us. To everyone involved this weekend I wish you all the best of luck on behalf of the club. Let's just all give it 110%, no one can ask for more than that.

2002 - The year of the Cat!

Come on boys.

Dogga.