Round 8, Kalamunda V’s Thornlie at Ray Owen Reserve
The Thornlie ‘Lions’ who were sitting in 6th position on the PFL ladder would have been keen to repeat their Round 2 effort against the Cougars last season when they won by 2 points at Ray Owen Reserve.
In the return game at Thornlie Oval in Round 11 they were soundly thrashed by 74 points indicating the Cougars under new coach Chris Bolton had adopted a new playing strategy that saw them to go on and play in the Preliminary Final in 2024.
The Lions came out in the first quarter of this game with a steely determination to take the game right up to the Cougars with hard tackling and hard running, resulting in the Cougars being forced into pack play, with stoppages throughout the term, with both sides struggling to gain any advantage. This led to the Cougar 1 point advantage at quarter time!
Supporters were surprised at this result as they expected the Cougars to make ‘short work’ of the Lions who were sitting in 6th spot on the PFL ladder. This did not happen in the second quarter, as both sides played ‘Paddock Football’ for the first 20 minutes of the term, until Utah John-Furnace marked under pressure and goaled.
Trent Pottinger and Mitch Massam then took advantage of some unruly play by the Lions to kick goals from 15m penalties late in the quarter, enabling the Cougars to gain an advantage of 14 points at half time.
In the third quarter, the supporters expected the Cougars would have received some ‘encouragement’ from their coach and start to kick away from the Lions.
However, the game resumed and became a ‘Scrap-Fest’ with the Cougars ‘Old Brigade’ Pottinger, Jones and Bowen having to work overtime to get the ball into the forward line, while backs Touchell, Adriano, Cheshire, Della-Franca, Terima and Massam worked their ‘butts’ off to keep the lions out!. The quarter finished with the Cougars leading again by 14 points!
Coach Bolton decided something had to be done quickly to consolidate a win, by encouraging his charges to become more aggressive and improve the speed and accuracy of their disposal.
Kaiden Pisani answered this request by kicking 2 goals in the last term after taking great marks, the game then started to open out, to see the Cougars play some skillful football to win by 28 points.
This was a tough physical game from start to finish and demonstrates the amount of commitment and concentration teams must adopt in home and away games they play, to remain in the top positions on the C1 ladder this season.
Final scores: Kalamunda: 8.11- 59, Thornlie: 4.7 – 31
Best players: Trent Pottinger, Kaiden Pisani, Reg Jones, Josh Touchell
Coaches award: Jackson Bowen
Observers award: Kaiden Pisani
Goals: Kaiden Pisani 2, Jackson Bowen, Mitch Massam, Utah John-Furnace, Ben Holman, Trent Pottinger and Ethan Abraham 1 each.
Special Mention: Tyler Mouritz – great disposal.
Thanks to Ian Eldred for the great photos …
Other final round games:
C1 Reserves: Kalamunda: 12.19 – 121, Thornlie: 1.3 – 9.
C5 League: Bye
C5 Reserves: Bye
Colts: Kalamunda: 14.10 – 94, Thornlie: 3.3 – 21.
Ladies: Kalamunda: 2.6 – 18, Kelmscott: 3,2 – 20.
This week’s Topic: Tyler Mouritz 50 Games for the Cougars.
Next week’s game: Round 9, Kalamunda V’s Jandakot 03:05 PM, Sat, 14 June at Ray Owen Reserve.
This post is dedicated to, Westbuild, proud sponsors of the Kalamunda ‘Cougars’ Football Club.
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