07/10/2017
WA Masters Men’s 040's Match Report
Semi Final – 30 Sep 2017
WA 1 Vs QLD 4
The earlier than usual start deprived the team of their ritual pool and spa recovery session ( really it was an excuse to get semi naked together and splash )
The weather was exceptionally cold with snow down to 300m overnight which made way for a brassy cold morning. The view of Kunanyi/Mt Wellington from the fields confirmed the snowy prediction. The Antarctic wind had the bureau saying 10.5C but feels like 1.5C - still think it was colder. Even a number of the locals were complaining about how cold it was.
Safe to say the warm up was less enjoyable than usual with a few jarred hands during sticks.
Queensland started with the ball and the game immediately took on a speedy pace - both teams showing no signs of this being the 6th game in eight days, or maybe we were all just trying to outrun the cold. A number of pe*******ons in both circles had defences scrambling, Stricko, Goat and Jonesy denying the Qld strikers and Jesse “House of Pain” Newman organising his boys well and making some solid saves. A dubious yellow card to Dover in the middle of the quarter placed extra pressure on the tired, old, alcohol filtering systems better known as Team Awesome. Searching runs from Rich, Axel and Ray were unsuccessful but it only seemed a matter of time until at least one team opened their account. The score at quarter time 0-0.
The second quarter started much like the first, both teams trying to dominate the midfield to no avail until the 24th minute when Qld worked the ball through their left and a bouncing cross found a striker at the top of the circle. A well placed tomma put them 1-0 up. This inspired the WA boys to push harder still and 3 minutes later were rewarded with a PC. Axel put the rebound away to make it one-a-piece. The Qld team responded by pressing hard against our 16’s and an intercept led to a melee in front of goal requiring a number of huge saves from Jesse but his bravery came at a cost. An opposition striker fell on his outstretched leg - for those that don’t know Jesse, he is hard, (so hard that he played for the rest of the quarter and had it strapped during half time to continue to play the 3rd quarter - turns out it it was his mcl). Five minutes from the half the maroon bananas mirrored their first goal but from the right side and at the half it was 2-1 Qld.
Physio Phil spent the half strapping Jesse’s knee while AK and Flash kept the calm, positive comments flowing emphasising the need to keep up the work rate, find the midfield more often and mix it up with some overheads.
The third quarter opened with a storm of overheads with Sweet Chilli, Stewie, Ho***rs and Muscles pulling everything down within sticks reach while doing a great job at keeping their strikers wide. Flash, AK and Nath maintained their huge workload and were stretching the Qld defence with some brilliant linking with our other lines. A quick turnover in midfield gave Queensland another shot on goal unfortunately beating Jesses outstretched leg. Sadly this spelled the end for Jesse, his knee was blown despite his Bruce Reid like strapping effort. Mad dog Jonesy stepped up as kicking fullback ( or King Fullback as I prefer to call them), and the rest of the team stepped up with even more running and doing our best to clog up the middle of the field. End of the quarter the scores were 3-1 in Qld’s favour.
The final quarter saw everyone on the field laying it all on the line. Gut busting running, diving and sliding, clutch tackles around the circle, intercepts, we tried it all but we were running on empty. Qld made only a couple of entries into our D and without a keeper all they needed was a good shot on goal which they did only once with 6 minutes left on the clock. It was an almighty effort from all but alas in wasn’t to be. Final score a 4-1 loss. Tomorrow was another day and another chance for a medal, this time against our first round opponents, Tasmania.
