WBFL - Seniors

WE CERTAINLY know how to put on a game of footy at Island Park, catering was top-notch and the weather was perfect.

Leading into the Senior game, every grade had won their match against West Gambier and it was hoped that would continue.

Hamish McCrae got the ball rolling for the Cats winning the first ruck contest, our midfielders handballed in a game of 'keepys-off' with their West opponents, before launching the ball long into the forward line where returning Cat, Matt Killey sent the ball through the behinds.

West Gambier moved the ball quickly to the forward 50, where the Cats defenders held it up for a while before a lucky West goal.

The next bounce saw Diarmid Cleary get away with the Sherrin and clear it forward, but the Cats were held up by the Roos for several minutes, until Jack Thompson gathered and passed to Dylan Ryan - Ryan kicking truly for the Cats’ first goal.

The Cats continued to dominate in the middle, McCrae giving his men first use and the next centre clearance was again won by the Cats when Dylan Ayton handballed over the top to Justin Carlin, who sent the ball long into attack.

West Gambier swarmed the Cats’ forward line and rushed the behind.

West went up the wing towards the forward line, but the Cats repelled the attack and sent the ball back into the ever-reliable Rick Killey, who marked and kicked the Cats’ second goal.

West Gambier pushed the Cats sideways at the next bounce, the ball heading towards the Roos’ half from the wing.

McCrae laid a strong tackle, the ball coming loose and Damian Wombwell gathered and did a big run up the barbecue shed wing to Zac Nash, who sent the ball forward, but West was again able to repel.

The Cats found the ball easy but getting it past the forward flanks difficult; Ed Pritchard had a crack, Ethan Currie had a go and got it to Matt Killey, but a point was the reward.

Rick Killey had been desperate in his attempts to shake his opponents and get the Cats on the board, but he got tangled up in a couple of Roos and took no further part in the game.

Last week Rick kicked four goals and his leadership was sorely missed from this point.

Tom Foster got the intercept in defence and sought out Billy Galpin, who took the ball quickly up the line to Adam McKinnon who out-marked the two Roos following him; McKinnon slotted the Cats’ third goal.

Matt Killey did his best to shake his tag and from the wing, pushed forward with the ball, a short kick forward and then followed it up to gather and push the ball deep.

But again it was the Roos on the last line sending it back; West was able to move the ball quickly and was rewarded with a second goal.

The Cats finished the quarter with a nice passage of play as Currie gathered on the wing and kicked to Thompson on the flank, who spotted Cleary and executed a perfect shortpass.

Cleary looked up and saw Matt Killey on the lead and quickly got the ball by foot to him.

Matt Killey marked and kicked the Cats’ fourth goal, allowing the Cats a 15-point lead at quarter time.

Quarter-time: Casterton Sandford 4.3.27, West Gambier 2.0.12.

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; West again jumped on the loose ball and made it pay dividends for them with their third goal.

West were pushed wide by Casterton-Sandford at the next clearance, able to carry it along the Scoreboard wing though and kicked their first behind.

Gabe Parsons and Mason Hunter were shepherding well and making life harder on their opponents, restricting their movements while Damian Wombwell was tackling Roos two at a time.

The scoring had dried up for a time, Chas Jarrad decided to get the Cats moving forward but a West player tried to intervene, taking Chas high in the process.

Jarrad shook off the high tackle and took the free rewarded, he picked out McCrae who goaled from 50 metres out.

West dominated the rest of the quarter though, kicking a couple of goals and a couple of points to get just in front until Cleary and McCrae combined to get the ball to Dylan Ryan who kicked a behind, to have the scores level at half-time.

Half-time:  Casterton Sandford 5.4.34, West Gambier 5.4.34.

Things didn’t start well for the Cats in the third quarter, Hamish McCrae came down hard on his back in the first ruck contest, badly winding himself.

West took advantage of the big man’s absence and kicked a couple of goals in short time.

West continued their dominance of the quarter, kicking away to a 34-point lead at three-quarter-time, Adam McKinnon the only Cats goal kicker for the quarter.

Three-quarter-time: Casterton Sandford 6.4.40, West Gambier 11.8.74.

The last quarter saw Casterton Sandford go forward several times without luck, but thanks to some tenacious defence, West was also finding it difficult.

West was first to break through with a goal, but also first to break their discipline as livewire Cat, Zac Nash, was on the end of a couple of 50 metre penalties, kicking the Cats’ seventh goal for the game.

Casterton Sandford lost by 37 points in the end and we are still to win a home game.

Coach Forbes and his team will be working hard over the next couple of weeks to try and find a remedy for this home sickness that the Senior Cats have.

Let’s get behind them Cat fans and return Island Park to the Fortress it once was. This week we head over the border to Millicent - the Saints have just come off a good win against South and will be over-confident so let’s get behind our Cats, eat all their Super Snags and come home with the win.

WBFL - Reserves

“WEST have only dropped the one game, today may be their second.”

I wish I had written this in the Western with more conviction.

In my defence, I didn’t know how jam-packed with class our Reserve team was going to be.

Coach McArlein and the legend, Michael Jarrad, were among several Cats unavailable to play due to injury, but their team-mates rose to the occasion, rolling over a very strong Roos Reserve team.

The first quarter was an even affair, after an early goal to Hayden Smith, who was relishing having his brother, Jarrad, back from injury.

The Bright brothers, Alister and Fletcher, were giving the Roos merry hell with their bruising attacks on the ball and along with Thomas Searle and Bevan Wombwell, negated any forward thrusts by West Gambier.

The Cats finished the first quarter with a goal to former Reserves and current Under 14 coach, Matt Kurzman, allowing the Reserves a two-goal lead at the early break.

Coach McArlein encouraged his team-mates to keep doing what they were doing; he was very happy with the pressure being applied and how they were forcing the turnovers of the ball.

Quarter time: Casterton Sandford 2.2.14, West Gambier 0.2.2.

The second quarter began as the first with a Smith kicking the opening goal; this time it was Jarrad who finished off the good work of his team-mates.

Jackson Fitzgerald and Corey Wombwell were doing a tonne of work, stopping the flow of play by West Gambier and getting the ball moving forward.

Cale Zippel and Ben Holmes were immovable forces, keeping their feet against several opponents, allowing the likes of Matthew Kerr and Rhys Jolly to gather from the packs and run away with the Sherrin.

Another pair of brothers to be playing in the Reserves was Dillan and Hamish Carlin; they are harder than Cats heads these two and broke packs open regularly.

Dillan was rewarded for his hard work with a goal from around 40 metres out - the Cats’ forth.

Thomas Searle continued to stand out with strength in the air and at ground level, his intercept on the back flank saw the Cats move forward where Al Bright was able to gather and spot Kurzman on the lead.

Kurzman was unfairly whacked by his opponent and received a free kick, which he slotted through after the siren to give the Cats a lead of three goals.

Half time:  Casterton Sandford 5.3.33, West 2.3.15.

The Reserves again got off to a flying start, with new recruit, Joshua Cottier, kicking the goal.

Josh had probably racked up about 20 possessions at this point, getting in and under packs at every opportunity and I can't see him playing many more Reserve games, such is his talent.

Jarvis Parsons and Shaun Gill stood strong in the third quarter and were at the fall of the ball when needed, in a tightly-contested third quarter with very little scoring opportunities.

Casterton-Sandford and West Gambier got another goal and a point each, the Cats leading into the last quarter by four goals.

Three quarter time: Casterton Sandford 7.4.46, West Gambier 3.4.22.

West Gambier was able to get the early breakthrough and last year that would have been enough for the Cats’ Ressies to drop their heads.

This year’s team is a different beast - Searle, Wombwell and Co kept running the ball out of the backline, the Carlins kept hitting packs hard, Fitzgerald is a tackling machine and the Smiths and Cottier just kept running the ball forward.

The Cats’ eighth goal came from the boot of Kurzman and then a solid run by Parsons to get the ball long forward was taken strongly by Kurzman again and the ninth goal was added.

The 10th goal took a while to come, but the Cats had denied West during this time also, through determined tackling, punching clearances and pure hard grind, which the umpires were more than happy to reward, as Cottier’s tackle was rewarded and he kicked through the uprights.

The Cats final goal summed-up the Cats’ teamwork for the day as Kurzman handballed to a running Tom Brody who sealed the game; Casterton-Sandford winning by 42 points.

The Reserves take on the third-placed Millicent this week. Keep doing what you are doing Cats - great mates, great work.

WBFL – Under 14

WE HAVE have now reached Round 6 of the 2022 WBFL season, which means we start playing all teams for the second time.

The first time we met West, our Under 14s managed a 15-point win.

The improvements in our group were on display at Island Park with the Cats not conceding a single goal to West Gambier, with a 68-point thumping.

After a slow start last week, coach Kurzman was keen to get the boys fired up for the first bounce with a more intense warm up, which certainly worked and our team hit the ground running, dominating possession from the get-go.

The only hiccup at the start of the match was our volunteer timer mum blowing the siren twice, which reminded the crowd of Terry Baugh-style timing at the basketball stadium over the years!

But the umpire screamed “play on” and the Cats moved on swiftly, getting the ball straight into the forward line and Jedd Rhook secured our first goal within the first two minutes.

Next up, Alex Hill took a strong mark on the wing in front of change rooms.

With the play congested around him he looked wide to switch play to the open side on the oval, where he found Reghan Parsons running hard from his backline position, as he regularly does for this switch play move.

Rehgan received a perfect kick from Hill and drilled the ball long from 50 to the square, where a pack had formed and Jaggar Geary managed to toe poke the ball through for the Cats’ second goal of the day.

With about three minutes to spare in a shortened quarter, Sam Patton from 60 out, passed the ball nicely to leading forward, Jaggar, who marked 30-out, with his kick not quite making the distance.

Another goal was scored by Jedd roving the pack, assisted by some great shepherding of his forward line team mates, Rupert Dorahy and Lachie Auld.

 Just moments before quarter time, West finally got the ball into their attacking 50 for the first time, but it didn’t last long with our defenders, Blake Kurzman assisted by Kirby Vise, getting the ball straight back into attack for the Cats before the siren sounded. 

Coach Kurzman said in the huddle that our protection on the ball-carrier had been excellent, he made mention of Nate Longhurst’s excellent first quarter doing exactly what he had been asked to do in the forward line.

He reminded the boys of what Max Rooke had talked about at training, utmost importance to keep your feet and not go to ground.

The only thing to be improved at this stage was to lift the talk a little out there between each other.

The second quarter saw West lift a little and actually get the ball into their forward line to score the first two points.

These turned out to be the only two points West kicked for the match.

Then with a nice passage of play, Archie Lane took a great mark in the centre, kicked onto Jack Rhook who had his mark spoiled, but recovered quickly to pick up the ball and use quick hands to get it to Jedd running past.

Jedd side-stepped a player to get space and delivered to leading forward, Geary, who marked truly and scored the Cats’ fourth goal.

After this, the Cats’ straight-kicking was thwarted by three points, although having all of the play dominating the quarter’s possessions.

In the last 20 seconds, finally the Cats broke through with Billy Rhook and Jett Lykke combining to push the ball forward quickly, where Ayden Nolte got himself in great position scoop up the Sherrin and run into and open goal to score Cats’ fifth goal.

The third quarter continued much the same, every time West tried to get the ball into their forward line the dominance of our backline killed every opportunity, with Blake Kurzman in amazing form reading the play so much better than his opponents.

Hill is developing as a player every week and attacking the footy and Takudzwa Makore is always backing up and supporting his teammates.

Our first goal of the third came through a long kick from Jedd, which dribbled its way the last five metres into an open goal square, Geary unselfishly trotting behind the ball and letting it roll through the big sticks, when he could have easily added another goal to his own tally.

Our engine room in the centre did not take its foot off the pedal and continued to dominate the clearances, Sam Patton in the ruck feeding the ball down the throats of Connor Stephens, Archie Lane, Jedd, then Jack Rhook, who scored the next goal after a strong mark overhead and a nice set shot, taking us to 44 points up with six minutes to go till three-quarter-time.

Cats managed another point, then the score on the siren.

In the last, Krystal Collier off the backline running straight lines gathered the footy, took a bounce and got the ball to Longhurst, who had been leading well all day in the forward line.

Longhurst fired a pass off to Jedd who marked 40 out and went back to slot through a big long goal.

Riley Hutchins was playing a great game on the wing, helping teammates with link-up play all day, Kelem Blenkiron found himself in the forward line for a change and attacking the ball strongly, he out-marked his West opponent, a point resulted.

In the last minute of the match, the ball was once again in a pack in the Cats’ forward line.

Jedd somehow managed to snatch the ball out and sneak through a snap, scoring his fifth goal for the day and before the siren sounded.

Final scores: Cats 10.10.70, West Gambier 0.2.2.

In what was a great team effort, again coach Kurzman reiterated that he could have given a voucher to everyone after the day’s team performance.

He was pleased with the hardness at ground level, determination of our half back line to deny opposition scoring opportunities, and the work rate of our midfield was awesome all day. Well done Cats’ kids, onto the next challenge of Millicent over there next Saturday, who were Covid-depleted in round two and will not be such an easy game as when we last met.