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23rd June 2007
Under ideal circumstances, the Roos relish challenges such as this, the chance to test themselves against the best, the opportunity to put some Aussies on the floor, but these were far from ideal. Several injuries, compounded by half the club’s Aussie contingent working, travelling or kidnapped by giant squirrels, meant that a bare bones, relatively inexperienced Roos squad lined up against the league’s elite.
Going into the half, the lads were praised for their efforts, but warned to focus on the marking, as the speedy Raiders middle was beginning to rumble. Watching them in action is a good lesson for the rookies and veterans alike, as they do go about the game in a very professional manner.
So at the end, with about a 50 point gap, another disappointment, but again encouraging in the amount of effort that the guys put into it, especially considering that we were playing ironman for three quarters of the game. The rookies are developing well, which is very encouraging from the Brit point of view, and the new Aussies have gelled well with the team, so good for the Roo’s future as well. Roll on the Magpies!
Squad: Ads, Andy, Whits, Brent, Dan, Ian, Mark, Chris, Mick, Mike, Oli, Paul, Sam, Ted, Timmy, Tim, Tristan, Will |
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It was a great day for footy – the sun was shining, the wind was gentle and we were up against the big guns – the undefeated champions who, in a fit of selfishness, haven’t let anyone else win the Conference since it’s inception 7 years ago.
The first half went reasonably well, with hard work across the middle of the park restricting the Raiders to few clean scoring chances, and their forwards were obviously not on song, with a good number of behinds from kickable positions. Andy, Brent and Tim were cutting out a lot of the play and providing good service forward, where Whits and Ted were putting in the hard yards to shut down and hassle the Raiders back line. Mick was again pulling some ferocious faces, but even these were not always enough to terrify a very experienced opposition defence.
The second half proceeded pretty much as the first – the Roos taking good advantage of the few scoring opportunities, and the Raiders seeing a lot more, but fluffing a lot of their shots. As the half went on though, the gaps started appearing, and the lack of reserves and the building number of players with knocks meant that the legs just weren’t there to keep up, and the raiders front line started to get more into their stride. Will battled valiantly for most of the game, rucking well against his opposite.
Reading Kangaroos - 6:5 - 41