WBFL - Seniors

AUSTRALIAN Rules Football is a very physical game - the fitter you are, the more chance you have of being able to run out games, that is why we train.

Australian Rules Football is also a psychological game and the same rules apply - if you have trained yourself to have the right mind set you will have the ability to win games.

Going into the weekend’s game against South Gambier, I heard a fair bit of talk about how well South had been going and that they were the premiership favourites, etc, etc.

This kind of talk then sits in the back of a player’s head and – subconsciously - the player believes they will need luck to beat this ‘favourite’.

For the first half of the Senior game, the Cats tried hard but didn't look to be able to match the Demons, but this was a game of two halves.

The Cats in the half time break listened to their coach, Kane Forbes and found the belief in themselves, mentally, that was required.

They matched South in every position and won a few and they should carry that mental toughness with them into every game from now on; they lost this battle but there are plenty more to come and the lesson has been learned.

The first quarter saw the Cats win the first centre clearance through leader Dylan Ayton, the Demons quickly jumped on the Cat forwards and sent the ball back to their advantage and kicking the first goal.

The next bounce was again won by the Cats’ big man Hamish McCrae, the ball finding its way to Justin Carlin who burst through a couple of opponents and delivered the ball to the leading Dylan Ryan, who marked and goaled.

Despite the best defensive efforts of Jack Thompson, Cody Ireland and the Bright brothers, Fletcher and Alister, South kicked away to a five-goal lead.

The Cats were able to get some ground back late in the quarter when Billy Galpin left the Demons in his wake and sent the ball long forward where Zac Nash pounced quickly on the ball and received a free kick and wasted no time getting the ball through the goals, in the hope that there would be time to get the ball forward again, but the Cats best efforts were unrewarded and went to the quarter time huddle trailing by 27 points

Quarter-time: Casterton-Sandford 2.0.12 to South Gambier 6.3.39

The second quarter saw the Cats’ ruckman again dominant, McCrae following up his tap to gather and kick the ball long into the Casterton-Sandford forward line.

South again jumped on the loose ball and made it pay dividends for them with another goal.

Casterton Sandford’s Diarmid Cleary threw himself into every contest he could in the attempt to slow the Demon attack down, while Ethan Currie, Ed Pritchard and Nick Schembri tried to make space for their teammates with smart kicks to space, but the South Gambier players seemed to swarm around any Cats forward advance and turn the ball back in their favour; at the half-time break the Demons had a handy 51-point lead.

Half-time:  Casterton-Sandford 2.3.15 to South 10.6.66

After the long break the Cats came out first from the rooms, looking and sounding pumped up and ready to go.

The Cats weren't going to let the Demons dictate any more of the game - this is Island Park, Home of the Cats!

Casterton-Sandford again won the first centre clearance but this time it didn't go straight back the other way, the Cats held it up and every time they lost some ground brought the Sherrin back again.

Thomas Searle and Mason Hunter, in his first senior game for the Cats, came to the fore with sure hands and quick ball movement, while Tom Foster was a General in defence, directing his team-mates and forcing turnovers with his tackling and attack on the loose ball.

Big Cat McCrae continued to dominate the ruck contest and his follow-up to assist his mids resulted in the Cats’ next goal when he kicked long to Adam McKinnon, who kicked truly.

McKinnon soon followed up with another goal, this time gathering the contested ball from a pack of players and snapping through the big sticks after another strong run by Billy Galpin to get the ball to the top of the square.

The Cats continued to rally; McCrae went forward and Nathan Faroe took on the ruck duties, relishing his time in the middle, giving first use of the ball to his mids and taking strong marks and kicking the ball long and lace out to his forwards.

 The Cats found the goals dried up as the Demons locked up their backline and then took advantage of a minute of inattention by the Cats to kick two goals of their own, late in the quarter and the difference at three-quarter time was still 51 points.

Three-quarter-time: Casterton-Sandford 4.7.31 to South Gambier 12.10.82

The last quarter saw Casterton-Sandford fly straight out of the blocks as Adam McKinnon gathered the ball at the 13 second mark and kicked his third.

Both teams’ backlines were miserly and the scoring dried up; I tell you Cat fans if a bank opened up in Casterton and you saw Thompson, Ireland or Foster working there, you wouldn't bother to ask for a loan - these blokes were giving nothing easy.

South Gambier did break into the bank though, opening up another minute gap to kick two goals.

 Rick Killey is one of the hardest working blokes I know and this work ethic was rewarded when he kicked the Cats sixth goal late in the quarter.

The Cats weren't finished as McKinnon handballed to Carlin who saw Ryan on the lead who marked and goaled, the Cats last goal coming about in the same manner as the first.

 The final result saw the Demons up by 52 points, but when you consider the margin of 51 points at half time you have to see the merit in how the Cats were able to turn themselves around and it will make for some interesting games in the future.

A lesson learnt now for a lesson given in the future.

Final scores: Casterton-Sandford 7.7.49 defeated by South Gambier 14.17.101

This week we head over the border to the so-called Mecca of Western Border footy - Vansittart Park - to play North Gambier.

The Tigers are a hard team to beat on their home soil, but so are the Roos and the Dogs and we've taken the chocolates from both of them already this season, so get along if you can and cheer on our Mighty Cats.

WBFL – Under 16

ON SATURDAY the Under 16s came up against a well-drilled South Gambier team.

With a few key players out from the win against East Gambier, some of the boys really stepped up and showed what they could do.

South Gambier started off strong in the first quarter, kicking seven unanswered goals, but the Cats showed near the end of the quarter what they could do if they played to their strengths.

After the quarter time break, some changes were made to the team to hopefully slow down South’s scoring and it did, with South only converting three times out of 11 shots, showing that the boys’ pressure was there and that they could believe that they could match their opponents’ best.

At the main break, the score didn’t reflect on how the boys were playing with majority of the game being played in their back half.

The third quarter was much the same with the Cats getting a single point on the board, while South kicked another four goals to open the game right up and finish it off, going into the final term.

In the final quarter the coaches threw the magnets around and got some players playing in positions they don’t normally play in, to see how they would go and not one player gave up.

The scoreboard did not reflect on how the boys played.

The best players were Riley Hornibrook, who put his head over the ball all day and gave 100 per cent every time he went near the ball.

Ricky Kaliebe he was thrown around the ground to see if he could make an impact and he did with his determination every time he went near the ball and he never gave up all day.

Rufaro Makore always uses his speed to his advantage and explodes from packs to advance the ball forward.

Jack Wombwell was thrown into the mid field to run straight lines and give his teammates first use of the ball and he did this majority of the time when he got the ball and Kaeden Talay made his opponent accountable with him being reliable in defence. This week the boys go up against North Gambier and hopefully they can come away with a win to make their season three wins and two losses after the first five rounds.

WBFL – Under 14

OUR Under 14 kids knew this was the challenge they had been waiting for, South Gambier touted as the team to beat for season 2022 in the Under 14 WBFL competition.

South have long had extreme depth and quality in their juniors, actually enough players for two Under 14 teams is the word on the street.

So our team knew they would be up against it from the get-go.

After the first bounce in the middle South got the ball out of the centre and over the top to a player running into open goal when a great chase down from Alex Hill stopped a sure goal.

The ball popped around the 50-metre line back and forth in South’s attacking end, until Archie Lane started a great bit of team play with a solid smother of a kick, he then picked up the ball in front of the grandstand and kicked down the side line to Brody Pratt, then onto Sam Patton in front of the opposition bench.

Sam then booted long to Jack Rhook marking strongly in our forward line, this bit of play lifted the boys but unfortunately no score resulted.

The footy rebounded back down into South’s forward line again and with Cats struggling to push back and chase down opposition, South ran into score the opening goal of the quarter.

Cats kept threatening to score willing the ball forward, but South’s defence continued to turn the ball over deep in our attacking end, often marking on the goal line in the last line of defence.

Sam Patton intercepted one of these kick-outs on a big angle didn’t quite convert, but put our first point on the board.

Billy Rhook was laying some fierce tackles, which resulted in a turnover sending the ball down to Jack Rhook who marked strongly overhead again, Jack got the footy down into the safe hands of Connor Stephens who had a set shot 45 metres out, South’s mistake of running over the mark gave away a 50-metre penalty, which sent Connor into the goal square to easily slot through our first goal.

Cats 1.1.7 South 1.0.6

The play was spent in South’s attacking 50 for the last two minutes but the Cats defence desperately stopped any score, so we went into the quarter time huddle up by one solitary point.

Coach Billy Galpin was excited with the team’s endeavour and asked them to reset and start again, telling the kids they needed to push back harder and faster off the mark, as we had been smothered twice on the mark.

In the first two minutes of the second quarter, South scored a point to even the score and after that all the scoring went South Gambier’s way and with the Cats looking a little flat, South gained momentum and scored two goals and six points with Cats not troubling the scoreboard at all.

Half-time score:  Cats 1.1.7 South 3.6.24.

The start of the second half continued that way with South scoring the first point thanks to a great bit of pressure on the man with the ball from Blake Kurzman and Riley Hutchins, to stop a certain goal.

We weren’t so lucky the next time, with South running into an open goal scoring easily, putting them in front by 24 points.

A great tackle in the middle from Nate Longhurst resulted in a holding the ball decision; he booted the ball long to TK Makore who handballed to Jedd Rhook, managing to only snap a point after being shepherded well by young Ayden Nolte protecting his teammate.

The next bit of play that set up our second goal come from some tough in and under work by Connor Stephens and Rupert Dorahy, getting the ball forward again to Jedd who kicked truly from a set shot 25 metres out in front.

Cats 2.2.14 South 4.7.31

Roo Parsons running hard off the backline creating play and rebounding into attack, got the ball to Kelem Blenkiron in the forward line, but no score resulted for the Cats.

With five minutes to go there was a slippery surface that somehow made our legendary umpire, Kais Fitzgerald, fall gracefully to the ground, but it didn’t seem to affect South as they ran in and slotted another goal, then another and also a point putting, the score South 6.8.44 Cats 2.2.14.

Some strong marking into the forward line from Patton and again Jack Rhook, who was having a day out, got the ball to cousin Jedd who slotted through the cats third goal to settle the three quarter time score at South 6.8.44 Cats 3.2.20.

The coach pleaded with the team to lift for the last quarter.

Roo Parsons did just that and laid a massive bump straight away, also Krystal Collier tackled hard to create the held ball.

She got the ball to Kirby Vise and a great bit of teamwork from Lachie Auld advanced the ball forward again but alas, another great bit of play was thwarted at the last line of defence by South.

Archie Lane’s work rate was outstanding all day, running and tackling hard, creating opportunities for his teammates.

A South boy got yellow carded and headed to the bench.

With a man down for the opposition, the Cats lifted in intensity, both Jedd and Alex sinking long kicks towards goal but not quite making the distance resulting in touched points.

Cats 3.4.22 South 6.8.44

Despite the best efforts of our defenders, South scored another two easy goals in last five minutes blowing the score out to Cats 3.4.22 South 8.8.56.

So, our Under 14 team took their first loss for the season, but definitely matched South throughout the game, especially the first and last quarters.

They are definitely not out of reach in the future and the boys know they need to get to training, listen to their coaches and the improvement will come by the next time we meet them this season.

Vouchers: Entwined - Jack Rhook; Casterton Central - Archie Lane; Herberts Bakery - Billy Rhook; Main on Henty - Lachie Auld.