Round 4 Cougars V’s Bassendean at Ray Owen Oval
In last weeks round 3 summary we mentioned Coach Bolton would have warned his team against complacency having been successful in their last three games by large margins.
Bassendean who are currently sitting at the bottom of the C1 ladder after being relegated from B grade last season, would have appeared to be another easy victory for the Cougars. However, I have always been wary of the Swans from previous experience in the Amateur League, where they have bounced back after poor starts in the season and become highly competitive.
In the first quarter of this game, the Swans were determined not to repeat the performance of their reserves side who failed to score during their match earlier in the afternoon and were trounced by 157 points!
The Cougars despite having 10 entries into their forward line to the Swans 4, took the best part of the first quarter to settle and were surprised when the Swans kicked the first goal of the match.
When the Cougars began pinpointing their forwards, Jackson Bowen kicked 2 goals with Lachlan Ballantine, Dustin Brown and Ash McGowan kicking 1 each. They finished the quarter 24 points in front and realised the game was going to be a tough one owing to the Swans determination and close checking.
Against the wind in the second quarter the Cougars struggled to shake off the Swans close checking, reducing their scoring to 2.4 while the Swans managed 1.2. Tiger Morris and Reg Jones were busy in this term continually forcing the ball back into attack, as the Swans backs were desperate in their efforts to keep the Cougars out.
Coach Bolton may have been concerned at half time regarding the level of composure the Cougars were displaying becoming unsettled by the Swans physical checking. He would have urged them back to their game plan in view of using the wind effectively in the third quarter.
This did not happen, as the Cougars decided to blaze away at the carpark goals with ‘pot-shots’ from outside the 50m arc, This allowed the wind to carry the ball out of bounds or to score points. Their forward line became crowded suiting the Swans defenders, with many stoppages and some very ugly football resulting in the Cougars booting 1.6 for the term.
Whatever Coach Bolton said at three quarter time must have encouraged the Cougars, as they rallied and won 4 consecutive centre bounces through Jack Amos and with skipper Trent Pottinger and Reg Jones running riot, they charged up against the wind and booted 6.7 to the Swans 1.1 to win easily by 80 points.
Final scores: Kalamunda: 14.20 – 104, Bassendean: 3.6 – 24
Best players: Jackson Bowen, Reg Jones, Ben Holman, Trent Pottinger.
Coaches award: Dustin Brown, Ash McGown, Regan Hill.
Observers award: Tiger Morris.
Goals: Jackson Bowen 5, Ashton McGowan 4, 1 each to Kade McKeown, Lachlan Ballantine, Dustin Brown, Judd Cheshire & Reg Jones.
Special Mention: Ethan Faulds Mark of the day!
Other final round games:
C1 Reserves: Kalamunda: 24.13 – 157, Bassendean 0.0 – nill.
C5 League: Kalamunda: 4.8 – 32, Colbellup: 12. 9 – 81
C5 Reserves: Kalamunda Colbellup 12.9 – 81
Colts: Kalamunda: 16.9 – 105, Rollestone: 3.3 – 21
Ladies: Kalamunda: 5.1 – 31, Roleystone: 1.1 – 7.
This week’s Topic: Another milestone in the Alex Haight Report, Lauren Marshall 50 games.
Next weeks game: Melville V’s Kalamunda, 03:05 PM, Sat, 10 May 25
Melville Reserve (Stock Rd Oval)
This post is dedicated to, GROUNDFORCE WA
proud sponsors of the Kalamunda ‘Cougars’ Football Club.
GROUNDFORCE WA proudly servicing the mining, civil, fire suppression and power generation industries throughout WA.
Final