Match Report Monday - UPDATED

Round 5 U13s, Div 2
Date: 25 May 2008, 9:00 am kickoff
Where: South Pine Sports Complex, Brendale
Who: Albany Creek Crushers v Wests Panthers
Score: 22-20, Albany Creek. UPDATED - The official score is listed thus, so I've changed it from my original 24-20 and made changes below. We were THAT close, people!!!!

It was another nail biter of a game with each team scoring 4 tries. The difference was in the kicking... and our boys not being in the game for the first 20 minutes. I'm going to revert to the Good, Bad, Ugly method of last week - but in reverse - as I'm short on time and Her Majesty and Clive are refusing to play nicely with each other. Even with this method I suspect it'll take me ages to write it. I really have to stop being so nice to Miss Thing and Sparky on the weekends and boot them off the computer so I can write a proper report.

The Ugly: To be honest there wasn't really any ugly. No injuries and the only thing I can really classify as ugly was watching Albany Creek players turn on each other in the same way our boys can do when it's not going well. It's a team, remember?

The Bad: Well we lost again - 3 in a row - so again that gets the 'bad' classification. The first twenty minutes of the first half could be labelled bad as Wests just weren't in the game and allowed Albany Creek to take a whopping 16-0 lead that they just couldn't get back. Bad passing, poor tackling - or no tackling for that first try - it was all there. Or not there, depending on your point of view. Also bad - having 4 asthmatics on the team and not ONE of them has an inhaler! This necessitated a quick run to the nearest chemist by Tania before the start of the game.

The Good: Despite losing the match, after the first 20 minutes the boys came roaring back as if someone flicked a switch and dominated the rest of the game. Charlie came close with a great run but was brought down just 10 metres out before Jack the Taller scored our first try right under the goal posts and converted to bring the score to 16-6. With only a few minutes left in the half Sean scored the second try - I missed this as I was taking Her Majesty to the loo - but the conversion was missed and so at halftime the score was a more respectable 16-10. (UPDATE - I will presume it was in this first half that Albany Creek missed one of their conversions as I know for certain they made the final one. Score lines have been adjusted since the original post.)

Albany Creek drew first blood in the second half to bring the score to 22-10, but from then it was the Wests Panthers show. They tackled, they passed, they ran and they kept at it all half. DJ scored in the left corner and somehow Jack the Taller made the conversion to make it 22-16. Albany Creek, sensing the game was getting away from them, threw everything they had at the Wests line but desperation defence and chasing kept them out. Great never-say-die chases by Josh, Scott and DJ especially. Our boys kept their heads - except that one incident with Josh who continued to argue with the ref about the double movement of the Albany Creek player, which the ref had correctly called, until DJ loudly (so loudly I heard him on the other side of the field) yelled at Josh "He said that already Josh!" to snap him out of it - and gave Wests lots of opportunity to score. Jack the Taller got over for his second try just to the right of the posts but missed the kick to bring the score to 22-20.

And there it would stay. Wests pressured and pressured and pressured the Albany Creek line so many times we thought for sure it would break. Chris, Simon, Eli, Josh, Zack, Broden... all tried to get over the line but AC was desperate and determined not to let it slip away and in the end time just wasn't on our side. It was a lesson that you can't not be in the game for the full 60 minutes and expect to win.

There were other good points as well. It was nice to see Jarrod come and cheer the boys on, albeit with one arm. And the player I mentioned last week who was causing a lot of friction finally crossed the line once and for all at training and has been summarily dismissed from the team. He's somebody else's problem now. (UPDATE - no, he's still our problem in other ways. F*ck!) There was a lighthearted moment in the early minutes of the game when DJ was being tackled; he goes to school with the boy making the tackle and halfway through it they both started laughing at each other. It was nice to see they don't take the game so seriously that they can't share a laugh, even when adversaries.

All in all, as you can see the good far outweighed the bad and ugly this week. It's just a shame you can win the battle but not the war, or game in this case. But it's great to see them so competitive week after week and to see the improvement in their game and their belief in themselves. The win is so close - Redcliffe, you don't know what you're in for!