Round 2, Kalamunda V’s Collegians 03:05 PM, Sat, 22 Apr 23 Ray Owen Reserve.
This game was played in difficult conditions with the temperature around 30c for the duration of the game. The football was played in the same tempo with both sides by throwing everything into the contest, with fierce tackling and hard body contests to win possession of the ball.
During the first quarter the Cougars managed to gain ascendency in the mid field and drove the ball into their forward line to score 4 goals.
This was helped through the desperate efforts by our backline who steadied play and helped to set up goals by Tiger Morris and Josh Harris. Trent Pottinger and Kyle Murray also kicked truly to finish the quarter 3 goals in the lead.
The Cougars would have been well pleased with this lead, however Coach Trenberth would have reminded our players that Collegians had won their first game last week and had played in a semi-final last season and were not to be discounted!
He second quarter started as the first, with Collegians taking complete control of the ruck and mid-field to put our backline under enormous pressure. This was achieved using long attacking handball to running players and sharp low trajectory foot-passing to leading forwards.
The Cougars could have lost all their first quarter initiative at this stage however Jarrod Brockbernd, Mitch Massam and Lachlan Harty stood firm and reduced their efforts to 4 goals.
The Cougar backline had some respite during the quarter as Collegians lapsed in concentration on occasions, allowing Joel peters and Dustin Brown to take advantage and kick 2 goals to lead by 12 points at half time.
Coach Trenberth would have been reasonably pleased with his team’s performance at the break. However, he would have urged them to maintain their level of concentration and commitment to the task ahead, in view of their costly fade-out against Ocean Ridge the previous week.
The third term followed a similar pattern to the first with both teams committing everything. Once again Collegians threw everything at our backline who reduced their efforts to 2.4 and several kicks out of bounds through desperate defending.
The Cougars could have won this quarter as they kicked 2.1 however some very sloppy handball resulted in turnovers spoiling their opportunity to score.
The last term saw the Cougars in front by 4 points and all of us on the edge of our seats, knowing that the team that made the least number of mistakes in this quarter would win.
To their credit our young Cougars maintained their composure and continue their fierce tackling (exemplified by Ben Dupont) to have Kyle Murray further afield kick another goal to put the team 2 kicks in front!
Those of us on the far boundary thought this would be enough to win the game however Collegians rallied and kicked another goal leaving us biting our nails with only 5 minutes to go!
We should not have worried as the Cougars steadied and won the game by 3 points!
Final scores: Kalamunda 9.5 – 59 Collegians 8.8 – 56
Best players: Team effort!
Goals: Kyle Murray 2, Tiger Morris, Jackson Bowen, Joel Peters, Josh Harris, Dustin Brown, Scott Foley and Trent Pottinger 1 each.
Other results from round 2
B Reserves – Kalamunda 7.12 – 54, Collegians 7.6 – 48
E1 All Stars – Collegians 8.14 – 62, Kalamunda 6.9 – 45
Cougar Ladies – Kalamunda 3.3 – 21, Roleystone 2.1 – 13
BJC Colts – Kalamunda 12.4 – 76, Collegians 11.9 – 75
DBC Colts – Kalamunda 10.13 – 73, Collegians 3.6 – 24
See also: The Alex Haight Report in This Weeks Topic – ‘Club Milestones’
Next week’s game: Round 3, Bassendean V’s Kalamunda 02:20 PM, Sat 29 Apr 23, Jubilee Reserve
This post is dedicated to: Washingtons Earthmoving and the Vault Restaurant proud sponsors of the Kalamunda ‘Cougars’ Football Club
