RWO Game Day Thread - Round 2 - April 9-10

[Coastal Boy]

But seriously, 2 u19s merge and you still can only get 13 to a game? good on wynny for allowing 1 of our boys to play for wests/moorebank so the game could get started. What would have happened if he didnt and the 1 bloke to make 14 turned up half hour late? Forfeit after 15 mins?

My understanding of the laws relating to this is are as follows:

Each team must have a minimum of 14 players. The game cannot commence if there are less than 14 players. Transferring of players from one team to the other is not permitted.
The game must commence at the scheduled time. If one team is unable to start the match at the scheduled time due to insufficient numbers then the starting time of the game is recorded and the league decides afterwards if it's a forfeit or not, even if the game is eventually commenced and completed.
The umpires are required to wait 20 minutes for the 14th player to arrive. After this they have no obligation to commence the game and a forfeit is automatic.

So there's really no room for common sense to prevail or interpretation. The rules cover it all. Even if the game is played with the umpires consent the league can disregard the outcome and announce a forfeit.

[Norris Lurker]

Great review unconfuseme. Great day for St George.

- - - Updated - - -

This week's RWO Wrap of the weekend's action is now online.

[unconfuseme]

The St George Dragons enjoyed a great start to the season with wins in 4 of 5 grades last week, and were looking to consolidate with all 5 teams playing at home at Olds today (u/19 Div1 christening the new lights).

As mentioned earlier, common sense prevailed, and the u/19 div 2 game went ahead, and whilst the Dragons would eventually prevail by 3 goals, the Magpies never went away, and actually "won" the last quarter. Good luck tara, if they continue to show that resolve, they will win their share of games.

Div 4 - as previously mentioned, the only disappointment of the day for the Dragons faithful, but on the whole an entertaining game, with a well drilled Bats showing the difference a bit of fitness can make at this level. They simply ran the game out better, and turned a 4 goal halftime deficit into a 2 goal victory. The Sunday game enabled a couple of Dragons to come out of retirement and enjoy the balmy weather (NOT!), and a couple of the newbies showed good promise. Some of the end to end play from both sides would have done a Premier Division team justice, and equally, some of the clangers were epic. Played in the right spirit, and the right team won ... the Dragons coach and "brains trust" have some more work to do, likely over a couple of beers!

Div 1 and Premier Divison both faced their nemesis team, Penno. No one could tell me exactly when either side had sung the song after an encounter with the Demons, but they would not be denied today.

Div 1 were coming off a disappointing round one loss, but with a couple of handy "ins" a youthful Dragons with a mix of experience thrown in were always in control against last years unlucky grand finalists. Accuracy in front of goal kept them in front from the outset, and a 6 goal final quarter put an exclamation mark on the victory. Highlight of the day was a bag of 7 which allowed BOG "Special K" to show his full compliment of post goal celebration moves, much to the enjoyment of the growing crowd. Plenty of these players will be pressing for Prem Division spots based on the form they showed.

In the main game, having accounted for the 2014 Premiers, Manly Wolves last week, the Dragons Premier Div were looking to do the same to 2015 Premier, Pennant Hills Demons. Coach Mudge didn't need to mention the fact that since he had taken over the reins at St George, he had not had a victory over the Demons. A couple of "outs" were a concern, but the performance of a notable "in", D Addison, was highly anticipated. The Premiers came out blazing and clearly had the better of the Dragons in the first quarter, but where as in previous seasons they might have converted that onto the scoreboard, this Dragons defence worked together resolutely to minimise the damage, and their midfielders and forwards managed to match the Demons on the scoreboard with 3 majors, and a manageable 3 point deficit at the first break. The second quarter was keenly contested, and with a loose man often deployed in defence, this was not going to turn into a shootout, and the Dragons managed to grind to a 5 point lead at the major break. The "Premiership Quarter" belonged to the home side, and other than for a 2 goal 7 to 2 goal 1 return, they could easily have opened up a winning lead. The Demons sensed that they still had a sniff, but could do no better than match the Dragons in the final stanza, giving the home side the honours at the final siren by 11 points. The Dragons had strong contributors all over the field, and it was hard to find a poor player on either side. As a lot of low scoring games are highly entertaining, this was one, and there were no easy kicks to be had. The new maturity of what were previously the "Baby" Dragons was evident when they "iced" the game in the dying minutes, maintaining possession and running down the clock effectively. There was very little between these teams in last years Prelim Final (3 points in fact!), when the Demons were able to will themselves to victory, and ultimately snatch the flag a week later - they are still well matched, but fair to say the Dragons are the improvers at this early stage of 2016.
As for D Addison? ... played mainly on a flank, hard at it, in and under, makes great decisions, excellent skills, but didn't really relish the "Indian Summer" conditions. Solid contribution and will benefit from the run ... interestingly, according to the Dragons runner, he is overrated and not even the best player in his family!

U/19's Div1 - a relief for the players and fans alike when the sun finally set, and a great spectacle of high quality football from both the young Dragons and the Camden Cats under the new Olds Park lights. The Dragons have benefited greatly from their Academy in recent years, and the Div 1 side are expected to be contenders again in 2016. Camden being new to this division were the underdogs, and whilst the final scoreboard may suggest otherwise, this was a strongly contested game. The Dragons have class across every position, and when they "clicked" they were irresistible, and their coach would have been pleased by the performance. However there were periods of play where the Cats maintained strong pressure, and play was confined to their attacking end, but they were simply unable to convert that pressure to points. On the other hand, the Dragons were able to kick consecutive goals on a number of occasions, and take the game away from the Cats fairly early. Based on that performance, the Dragons will prove very hard to beat this year, but the Cats certainly have their share of skilful players, they were all hard at the ball, and will be winning games too.

[Norris Lurker]

Is it my imagination, or has Pennant Hills been deleted from the ladders of every competition they're in on FoxSportsPulse?
To the Penno readers of my weekly column, I won't let you down. You'll be included in the ladders on this page - breaking out the calculators to manually work it out.....

[unconfuseme]

Also good to hear that tara has unearthed another budding superstar in Div 5 ... he has a good pedigree, and reckon he might just be the best player in his family!!! ... is there a GWS Super Masters Academy? ... he could be their poster boy!!!

[unconfuseme]

Don't get ahead of yourself saviour ... not to understate all of the work that you and others have put in to get good numbers for your side for rounds 1 & 2, but you do have quite a large pool of guys who have actually played in recent years, and we still need to see how that pans out over the season when the inevitable injuries, holidays and hangovers take their toll.

However, it is a completely different challenge to pull a team together from where tara has had to come - not to mention trying to consolidate and integrate two competing clubs to get on board.

Fact is, the majority of their u/19's from previous seasons have graduated through Bankstown Juniors - since the AFL GSJ forced the the Bankstown club out of existence 3 seasons or so ago, there is now a stark void of players. The pain is now being felt across the Sydney AFL, since Bankstown Juniors actually used to feed to St George, Wests, Moorebank and Southern Power!

Both clubs should be congratulated for enabling the game to go ahead ... wish there was more common sense co-operation across all clubs like this, and decision made for the game, ahead of any vested interest ... though they would never get the lead from the AFL to do so!!!

[Luke Shannon]

You'd love to have UTS's goal-kicking radar working for you. They got 20.3 against Wests on Saturday, after kicking 16.5 against UNSW-ES in the first round.

Great to see the UTS Bats win four out of the five games they contested over the weekenk. The Premier Division and 1st Division Bats teams remain undefeated.

Wonderful round of football coming up at Trumper Park and Waverley Oval. These are two of the most beautiful grounds in the Sydney AFL scene. Sydney Uni is the opponent for a couple of those Bats games which should lead to very close and competitive games.

[Norris Lurker]

You'd love to have UTS's goal-kicking radar working for you. They got 20.3 against Wests on Saturday, after kicking 16.5 against UNSW-ES in the first round.

[saviour01]

I was hoping for 15 mins quarters! def got run over after being up by 4 goals at ht then even in the last quarter. 4/5 teams won at home today, we let everyone down!

But seriously, 2 u19s merge and you still can only get 13 to a game? good on wynny for allowing 1 of our boys to play for wests/moorebank so the game could get started. What would have happened if he didnt and the 1 bloke to make 14 turned up half hour late? Forfeit after 15 mins?

[ShortHalfHead]

Actually it was your offer and was in the interest of not delaying the game. By your offer i mean brendan and the umpires wanted it knowing a kid was ruuning late.

Saviour is probably just a bit upset because it threw his match plan off completely for the following game. I'm sure that if it was his team running late, he would hand out arvo detentions and get the players to write 100 lines "I must not be late to football games"

Penrith had three games. We got flogged in Div 5 by a very experienced bunch of old heads, including Tara. Div 3 went down to Wollondilly and Div 2 got up against Moorebank with a dozen players stepping up from last years two's and 19's. Ambulance called and last two quarters shortened to 15 mins each with an injury to a young Moorebank player, Jarrod Dowton, who was formerly with the Rams until moving out of the area. He was released from hospital today after scans. Came out the worst after a three way collision. Girls had a trial against Wollondilly after this week's first rounds were cancelled

[saviour01]

Yeh. Well done on getting 14 there half hour after start.

[tara]

Moorebank wests merger in 19s 2 off to a good start. Need to borrow players to get a game started.

Actually it was your offer and was in the interest of not delaying the game. By your offer i mean brendan and the umpires wanted it knowing a kid was ruuning late.

[saviour01]

Moorebank wests merger in 19s 2 off to a good start. Need to borrow players to get a game started.

[Pmcc2911]

The norths vs unsw game was pretty tight early on but the bombers really pulled away in the third term

[felix]

Did anyone get out to any games this weekend? What were your thoughts? Who's hot & who's not?

On the form they showed today Norths are sizzling hot as their start to the season ended in a comprehensive victory.