Final Round One, Melville V’s Kwinana at Melville Reserve
The Melville Rams and Kwinana Knights have finished the season in 2nd and 3rd position on the PFL ladder having won 14 and 13 games respectively behind the Cougars 15 wins for the season.
The Knights would be well pleased with their season. Having been promoted to the C1 grade and after a slow start. They were worthy opponents to the Cougars in round 10 going down by 5 points in a titanic struggle at Medina Oval.
The Melville Rams and the Cougars have had a fierce rivalry over past seasons with 16 points separating them for a Cougars win in round 14. Whatever the outcome of this match is, the Cougars will face a tough opponent in Final round 2.
This round was played in perfect conditions despite the forecast of inclement weather for the day. The Rams were first out of the blocks courtesy of some great ruck play from veteran Alex Stewart who dominated the contests throughout the match.
Corey Olczyk kicked 2 for the Rams, with Tyler Sorrell and Harry Creasy with one each in this term, as the Rams tried to gain the advantage with pace over the Royals. The Royals answered with big full forward Brodie De Abreu kicking 2 and Ty Headland and Harry Elphick booting one each to see the Rams lead by 2 points at the break.
Both sides defended well, with John Chegwidden outstanding for the Rams. Unfortunately for Chegwidden, he injured a hamstring later in the game and will be in doubt for the game against the Cougars next week,
In the second quarter the Rams struggled to score a goal, kicking 5 points for the term as the Royals backs turned back their efforts to score from beyond the 50- meter mark. The Rams went on to score 3 goals in this term from efforts by Harry Elphick, Alex Petkovic and Brodie De Abreu to lead by 16 points at half time.
In the third Melville recovered their mojo and began to run the ball using accurate long passing to kick 6.1 to the Rams 1.1 Wes Fewson and Harry Creasey kicked 2 each with Corey Olczyk and Dylan Sellick one each.
In the final term the Royals recovered and through accurate passing by Eli Haynes and Jack Allum enabled Harry Elphick to mark and goal. The quarter turned into an arm-wrestle with both sides involved in some heavy clashes and frayed tempers.
Corey Olczyk, Tyler Sorrell and Isaac Temby scored for the Rams before the umpires lost control of the game when a fight started. A long stoppage then robbed the Royals of any chance they had to win as they had matched the Royals to that point with 3 goals, to finally lose by 15 points.
Final scores: Melville: 13.10 – 88, Kwinana: 11.7 – 73
Other final round games:
C5 Reserves: Kalamunda: 15.6 – 96, Coobellup: 3.3 – 21
Ladies: Ocean Ridge: 5.9 – 39, Kalamunda: 0.0 – 0
This Weeks Topic: upcoming
Next week’s C1 game: Final round 2 Kalamunda V’s winner of Final round 1.
This post is dedicated to Cellarbrations Liquor, proud sponsors of the Kalamunda Cougars Football Club
