2003 Round 10

The Wildcats and Raiders continued their surge towards the finals on Saturday, with both teams comfortably accounting for undermanned opponents at Trailfinders. Unfortunately on Sunday though, we were the undermanned when a string of unavailability’s throughout the club left the Emus somewhat on the short side and a much better opponent in Clapham easily beat us.

A cloudless blue sky with temperatures scorching the high 20’s was on hand to greet the Raiders as they took on the second placed City Swans. Unfortunately for the Swans a spate of injuries and travellers meant they were very much on the undermanned side for the top of the table encounter. Take nothing away from the merit of our win though, as we too will see many faces returning to the fold this week and for the impending finals series.

The Raiders opened up in style, only inaccurate shooting for goals prevented us from being further ahead at the first break with 6.10 being all we could manage to the Swans nothing. After last week, when we failed to capitalise on our early blitz, we were determined for the same not to happen this week and the boys responded to SOS’s call by piling on majors at every opportunity and extending our lead further and further. By the time the siren sounded to bring the curtain down on the game, I’m sure it was one the Swans boys would rather forget and they’ll use it as motivation should they come back up against in the finals series. In the end the Raiders ran away with a 28.16 to 2.4 victory. The Bunker boys showed a welcome return to form at the business end of the year with Jimi kicking 8 goals and myself 7, while Jase Cameron should have had many more than the 6 he finished with had he been wearing his kicking boots! As you would expect there were winners all over the ground with Bobby and Gerry providing great drive out of the centre, Andy Wood doing well in his first game for the Raiders and Geoffo continuing his recent good form in the back half.

The Wildcats then came out determined to start off where the Raiders had finished. Bakes was in everything in the middle and helped himself to 4 first half goals, Jenko was gathering plenty of touches as usual and Slates continued on his great form from last week by dominating across half back. Up forward Jungle was giving us a target, as was Mick Bolger, the Irish recruit of the year, who held down centre half forward and booted a lazy 4 goals in the process. JB was playing one of his best games for the year in defence and when a couple of players had to leave early to make other commitments, there were blokes like Mick Condon, Shovel and Patty Evans all ready to step up and assume control of the reigns.

Like the Raiders the boys managed to extend their lead at each break. Bakes flexed his strength literally by putting a huge dint in the fencing surrounding the oval, whilst Ty made his second £10 contribution to this year’s footy trip by again getting sent off. He’ll need to face the club disciplinary committee this week for a please explain before getting the OK from Rosco to play against North London. The Wildcats ending up running out winners by a tick over 100 points and with a combined winning margin of 216 points for the last 3 weeks, hope we have sent an ominous warning to anyone hoping to upset our apple cart in 2003!

On Sunday, and with thanks to Barney and the Clapham guys for lending the Emus a few much-needed players, the Emus were unfortunately humbled by a far better side. Despite battling hard all day in the sun Clapham ended up thumping our boys by 25 goals plus. They look likely to be the toughest opposition for the Raiders so it was good to see SOS there in fine form taking notes! For the Emus Paul Prothero did a great job rucking all day, Fuller was good until he got injured and James Barker also did well along with Big Daddy who worked hard all day at full back for little reward. A special thanks to the 11 of our boys who did decide to play, your efforts were much appreciated. It was a bit disappointing though that a number of players made themselves unavailable simply as they couldn’t be bothered on a Sunday. Footy is a team game and these blokes weren’t really abiding to the team rules. This obviously isn’t a dig at the guys who couldn’t play for valid reasons, but I’m sure a few guys know exactly who I’m directing this at! Let’s bounce back next week and finish the season on a high!

To complete the home and away season for the year, this week the Wildcats and Raiders venture out to West Ham to play North, while the Emus are off to Motspur Park to take on Fulham in their season finale. Let’s try and make it 3 wins for the second time this year and really have the club on fire heading into the 2nd semi final.

Go Cats,

Dogga.