2009 R9 - Club XVIII v Old Trinity (Away)

23 June 2009

Blacks had the white shorts on venturing out to tackle the cellar dwelling Ye Old Trinity, the home team provided a great deck and conditions were favourable for quick, clean football.

Just minutes into the match with a quick break Trinity got the jump and hit the lead early with their first and last major of the day. While Trinity had limited scoring opportunities in the first half the Blacks failed to capitalise on this with many goal scoring chances going begging, the Blacks came into the main break with 4.10 on the board. Coach Merls shared a few pearls of wisdom at half time stating that ‘if we want to play like ladder leaders we have to look like ladder leaders’, so after the boys groomed themselves to appear like ladder leaders it was time to assume positions for the second half.

The 3rd quarter saw the Blacks come into their own, dominating the play through the middle, however we still had trouble finding the big sticks as Trinity loaded their backline with 3 blokes sitting on The Dunny at any given time. The stroke of genius for the day was pushing the String Bean forward in the third where he proceeded to bust packs and provide a strong marking option thus finally igniting the blacks up forward, from here on in the goals came freely and was a joy to watch.

Schaeffer was back to sitting on blokes heads after a five week hiatus, while Merls was amongst everything and getting belted from pillar to post for his efforts until he was mercifully rested. Benny Beagley and Clint Hare got plenty of the ball and continued their good form. Aggs got plenty of the Aggot while Timmy Willo managed to have a bit of dream time late in the final quarter with the sight of his rather largish opponent charging towards him was enough to put him on the deck and thankfully avoid contact. Play of the day went to Richard ‘slick hands’ Drummond who turned 3 opponents inside out though no fault of his own and slipped off a sharp handball to the hard running Scooter to set up yet another sausage roll. Bruiser looked the likely type down back with his reinvigorated golden locks coming out of full back to pinch hit in the ruck giving Brooksy a well earned chop out. Ash was solid down back with numerous rebounds to his name. Damo churned up the turf running wild on the wings while Coops and Griggy worked the rolling forward zone well. The Lane brothers occupied every position on the ground at some stage during the match, while Busta and Matty Aitkin continued to own the half back line. Special mention to Cal Hart who possibly covered more country on foot on Saturday than the preceding 3 years as he took on boundary ump duties in between being an impact player coming out of the back pocket. Murph, Bomber, Swifty and CW worked the middle beautifully being on high rotation to keep the opposition guessing.

With infamous ex senior coach Rizio spied looking on from the grandstands in awe of the coaching display that was put on (apparently he did not take heed with his mob going down on the adjacent oval just hours later) the Blacks ran out the second half in fine form. The Clubbies posting another cracking win thanks to a solid second half to keep the 2009 scorecard untarnished.

Blacks: 16.16.112
Trinity: 1.2.8

For this scribe Scooter was best on field for the day with his hard running and execution second to none.

Best: Scooter, Dunny, Aggs, Damo, Drummo, Swifty.