Round 8, Swan Athletic V’s Kalamunda
The Cougars had been training hard in the lead-up to this match against the Swans who were sitting in 2nd position on the C1 ladder.
Coach Bolton was keen to knock the Swans off their perch despite the fact they had only lost one game against top side Cockburn Lakes and had won their other six games by an average margin of 55 points.
Unfortunately the Cougars were forced to make five changes to their team structure in the lead-up to this game, through sickness and injury.
Rucks Cormac White and Jack Amos became unavailable with key utility players Mitch Massam, Tiger Woods and Zac Meloncelli out, to create more selection problems.
Ruckman Declan Cowin was promoted from the reserves side and faced the daunting task of battling Swans tall physical opponents who had a profound effect on the outcome of this game.
The Cougars got off to a good start in the first quarter booting 2 quick goals through Jackson Bowen and Christiano Paduano before the Swans steadied and with a strong wind and kicked 5.
The tone for the match was set in this term as both sides playing with speed and fierce tackling forcing many stoppages and congested play.
The start of the second quarter saw the Cougars lower their eye’s and find targets in their forward line with Leo Lambert and Trent Pottinger scoring goals. The Swans responded by working the ball with short passing into their forward zone where valuable time was soaked up with congested play.
Fortunately, the efforts of backs Bret van Groningen, Ethan Faulds and Ben Dupont limited them to 4 points for the quarter. A heavy rain squall in this quarter also contributed to slippery difficult conditions making scoring difficult.
At half time coach Bolton would have been concerned the Cougars were falling into the trap of long kicking allowing the Swans taller players to start dominating proceedings. This became apparent in the third term when Swans big ruckmen Cameron Symon and Cameron Yukich started to take marks around the ground and direct their hit-outs to open space to avoid congestion.
To their credit the Cougars fought desperately in this term with Jackson Bowen, Joel Peters and Tyler Mouritz booting goals to keep them in the game, while the Swans added another 3 with the wind to finish 7 points in front at the break.
The old saying ‘Size does Matter’ came true in the final quarter as Declan Cowan who had been battling all game in the ruck against overwhelming odds began to tire. His team-mates who were also feeling the effects of a hard physical encounter, saw the Swans start to draw away to kick 3.4 to the Cougars 1.2 to run-out winners by 20 points.
This was a courageous effort in view of the last- minute disruption to team selection and balance and will allow the Cougars to think of their coach’s final comment, ‘We played Swans footy, not Cougars footy’ during the forthcoming Western Australia Day long weekend break.
Final Score: Swan Athletic 11.9 – 75, Kalamunda 8.7 – 55
Best players: Declan Cowin, Max Vasolo, Mitch Della-Franca, Tyler Mouritz
Coaches award: Ben Holman
Goals: Jackson Bowen 2, Tyler Mouritz 2, Leo Lambert, Max Fasolo, Joel Peters, Trent Pottinger 1 each.
Other results from round 8
C1 Reserves: Kalamunda; 8.4 – 52, Swan Athletic; 6.4 – 40
IDC Colts: Swan Athletic; 9.8 – 62, Kalamunda; 6.8 – 44
C1 Ladies: Kalamunda; 0.1 – 1, Trinity Aquinas; 6.9 – 45
E2 Allstars: Wembley; 9.4 – 58, Kalamunda; 7.7 – 49
See this Weeks Topic: Three more milestones in Round 8 and Ben Harffey's report on the Hawks V's Mundaring Roos action.
Next C1 game: Round 9, Kalamunda V’s Cockburn Lakes Saturday 8 June, 3.05 PM at Ray Owen Oval
This post is dedicated to, MACA Mining & Orica Mining Services, proud sponsors of the Kalamunda ‘Cougars’ Football Club.
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