2003 Round 9

It was a history making weekend at Trailfinders on Saturday when for the first time ever all three sides won on the same day. The Emus set the scene for the day when they scored their first win for the year in overpowering last years grand finalists Regents Park. The Raiders then followed that up by disposing of Clapham, while the Wildcats completed the clean sweep by demoralising a very ordinary Wandsworth outfit.

The Emus were fairly confident heading in to the bottom of the table clash, even more so after selection on Thursday night when quite a few players put their hands up for the encounter. Early on in the piece it looked as though it could be a replay of last week though with the boys trying their best to kick themselves out of the contest. But this was not the case in the end. Macca was controlling the ruck, Aubs, Fuller and Greggy were doing well in the middle and Douggy and Andy were giving us targets to look for up forward.

By half time the boys had opened up a 5-goal break and were determined not to let it slip. And they didn’t. The Emus ended up running out winners by 7 goals and got their first 4 points of the year on the board. It was also fitting that the last goal of the game was kicked by none other than the King himself, despite what can only be termed an "unorthodox" match preparation!

The Raiders then came out all guns blazing against Clapham and kicked 5 goals to nothing in the first quarter. We followed that up by booting the first two of the second quarter and looked like really opening the game right up, before Clapham started to rally, and had it not been for some inaccurate kicking they may have been closer than 5 goals at half time. Jase Cameron was doing well at CHF in his first game, Jase Hughey and Gerry were both doing well on the ball, Paddles and Walksy were getting plenty of the ball and providing valuable run and Ty and Geoffo were both standing firm in defence.

The second half was a much closer affair. As soon as we looked like running away with the game, Clapham would come back hard but they couldn’t break that 5 goals barrier and eventually the Raiders were able to extend their winning run and came out on top by 6 goals.

With the day set up for our first ever clean sweep, the rain started to fall across Trailfinders. Thankfully it wasn’t at Clapham Common or I’m pretty sure we all would have gotten rather wet…. instead the supporters were all able to watch the game from the magnificent comfort of the grandstand. And maybe the opposition were suffering the effects of jetlag from the 8 hour round trip out to Ealing Broadway, or potentially reeling from a state of shock after seeing rooms and showers. Whatever it was though, they certainly weren’t prepared for the onslaught that was to come from the Wildcats. Their only 2 goals for the day came courtesy of the men in white whilst we adapted far better to the tricky conditions.

Nozza was patrolling the backline and not letting anything get past his huge pumpkin, Ruggy needed a scrubbing brush to remove the Burley imprint from his foot, Shovel and Pat Evans were also racking up plenty of touches and Slates was brilliant rebounding across half back. Every player on the ground had by far the better of their opponent, and all of our EU players consistently outpointed their opponents continuing the dominant display from the Brit Cup.

I think the day was summed up in the last quarter when Pat Evans grabbed the ball from the centre, had two bounces of the greasy ball before easily slotting home the goal on the run from 40m. In the end we ran out comfortable winners by 11 goals and in the process sewed up the minor premiership for 2003.

This weekend the Wildcats play Sussex and the Raiders play City Swans at home on Saturday, while the Emus will be looking to chalk up another win when they play Clapham away on Sunday. Also, don’t forget to get your tickets in for the Last Man Standing on August 10 to Grappa ASAP as this promises to be a great day.

Go Cats,

Dogga.